Gender & Women, Peace & Security Advisor

The Joint Peace Fund (JPF) is a multi-donor fund, established by international donors in 2015 to support Myanmar on the path to sustainable peace. The purpose of the JPF was to support national efforts to achieve a final and lasting settlement of ethnic armed conflict in Myanmar. Activities were focused on making the peace process itself more effective, supporting a more inclusive process, and paving the way to long-term peace by supporting political solutions to resolve decades of conflict.  This holistic focus – supporting a broad range of actors in the peace process from the negotiation of the top level leadership to community leaders working in villages in remote parts of the country - made it a unique project in terms of global peace support. With eight donors – Canada, European Union, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK, it represents a strong commitment to a peaceful future for all the many peoples of Myanmar.

The Myanmar peace process has been severely affected by the military coup of February 2021 and its aftermath, which saw an ever-increasing spiral of violence descending upon the country, the appearance of numerous new armed actors, and a generalised civilian resistance to the military. 

The JPF is adapting to these evolving circumstances and will implement a revised strategy that will guide its work over the next few years.

Under the overall guidance of the JPF Fund Director, direct supervision of JPF Deputy Fund Director and in accordance with the UNOPS policies, procedures and practices, the Gender & Women, Peace & Conflict (WPS) Advisor will be carrying out the following duties: 

1. Strategic advice

• Support the development and full implementation of the JPF Gender Strategy and annual reporting of progress, and alignment to UNOPS Gender commitments.

• Provide analysis and advice to the Fund Board and Fund Management Office (FMO) on approaches and policies to strengthen gender equality, including the inclusive engagement and meaningful participation of women, sexual and gender minorities in conflict analyses, conflict management, coordination and dialogue processes supported by the JPF.

• Provide analysis and advice to the Fund Board and Fund Management Office (FMO) on opportunities and approaches to contribute to promoting the Women, Peace, and Security agenda in the context of the JPF.

• Identify and advise on entry points for new and existing initiatives funded by JPF  to strengthen national and local capabilities to advance gender equality and social inclusion.

• Provide technical supervision, guidance and support to the  gender specialists in the JPF team, and oversee the demand-led support of the gender team to FMO staff and JPF implementing partners .

• Advise on the implementation of the UNOPS Gender Parity Strategy/Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in the JPF.

2. Technical support & advice

• Provide technical support to JPF partners and FMO staff to ensure that gender sensitivity is consistently mainstreamed into all aspects of JPF programming. 

• Provide technical support to the FMO and JPF partner organisations in the development of WPS projects. 

• Ensure that JPF’s own context and conflict monitoring and analyses are gender sensitive and provide JPF senior management with a clear basis for ensuring gender mainstreaming  in strategic and programmatic decision making.   

• Support and advise the JPF M+E team on gender-sensitive approaches to data collection and analysis ensuring JPF and its partners ethically and safely collect gender, disability, and age disaggregated data across all JPF supported projects.

• Coordinate, as needed, with other UN agencies, Funds and Programmes and other relevant institutions that have complementary mandates on gender equality through participating in working level mechanisms and processes; 

• Represent UNOPS and JPF at inter-agency, international, regional and national conferences and meetings.

3. Reporting & Reviewing

• Analyse and report the gender data and the progress and results of JPF’s works on gender equality in the Fund Director’s report, and all relevant semi-annual and annual reports for JPF and UNOPS Myanmar.

• Support the M&E and the programme teams in the FMO in collecting, analysing and compiling data in a gender sensitive manner. 

4. Knowledge Sharing & Knowledge Building 

• Lead on the identification of capacity building needs related to gender and WPS within the FMO and among JPF partner organisations. Design and capacity development measures  for JPF FMO, partners and other stakeholders on gender and social inclusion mainstreaming, gender-sensitive analysis, the WPS agenda and their application in the context of Myanmar. .

• Support JPF’s communication and knowledge management work by collecting and documenting success and lessons learned on advancing gender equality in Myanmar and within gender mainstreaming in JPF.

• Actively participate in the relevant Communities of Practice, sharing case studies, lessons learned and best practices on the Knowledge Management System.

Education

• A Master’s Degree in Social Sciences, International Development, Gender, Human Rights, Political Science, Behavioral Science or other relevant discipline is required.

• A first university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in above-mentioned fields with two (2) additional years of relevant experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree or higher degrees.

Work Experience

• A minimum of 7 years work experience focusing on gender equality programming in development, humanitarian assistance or peacebuilding is required. 

• A minimum 2 years of relevant work experience in fragile and conflict-affected contexts is required.

• Demonstrable and increasingly senior experience in advising the design and implementation of gender-sensitive  programming in conflict affected contexts is required. 

• Demonstrable experience in providing strategic advice on gender mainstreaming to senior leadership in international organisations is required. 

• Experience in delivering gender-inclusive analysis and capacity development measures on gender and social inclusion, in inter-cultural contexts is highly desirable.

• Demonstrable advisory experience in programming that supports the implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda is highly desirable.

• Experience working in the context of a multi-donor trust fund is a strong asset. 

• Experience in Myanmar is highly desirable.

Language

• For this position, fluency in English (both oral and written) is required.

• Knowledge of other languages used in Myanmar is considered as an asset.

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement (I-ICA)
Contract level: I-ICA 3 
Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

Contract title: Please note that the working title for this position is Gender & WPS Advisor. The contract title will be Gender Equality Advisor in line with UNOPS internal position title taxonomy.
Contract fee scale: A location-specific fee scale is applied in determining the contractor's fee. In case the incumbent must temporarily be based in Bangkok, the Thailand fee scale will also apply for the duration of the temporary stay. 

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.