Policy Advisor, Gender in Fragility and Crisis

The Bureau for Programme and Policy Support (BPPS) plays a central role in developing relevant policies and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS designs and implements global projects and provides technical expertise and advisory services to countries and engage in global policy processes across a wide range of thematic and cross-cutting issues, including poverty and inequality, governance, climate change, environment, energy, sustainable finance while ensuring that human rights, gender equality, and social inclusion as central to its approach. 

The Crisis Bureau (CB) spearheads UNDP’s efforts to support countries on a key challenge: how to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from fragility and crisis. CB addresses the risks that precipitate crises, prevent early exit from them, and perpetuate long-term dependency on humanitarian assistance.  Guided by UNDP’s Crisis Offer (2022), CB works within the GPN and with Regional Bureaux (RBx) and Country Offices (COs) to implement solutions across prevention, response and recovery that help break the cycle of protracted fragility and crisis.

The Gender Team (BPPS) has the leading role in the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025, which includes to advance gender equality in crisis contexts and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS).  In line with this goal, the Gender Team aims to support the Crisis Bureau, Regional Bureaus and Country Offices to translate the WPS agenda in programmes and results and invest in interventions that tackle structural gender inequalities and directly challenging harmful gender norms and power imbalances that drive both gender inequalities and crises. UNDP’s Crisis Offer reinforces these commitments.

To advance gender equality in crisis contexts and to position UNDP assertively in the broader Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, BPPS and the Crisis Bureau collaborate to strengthen this work across the Global Policy Network (GPN) to enable and support Regional Bureaus and Country Offices to deliver transformative gender programming and invest in interventions that tackle structural gender inequalities.

Reporting to the Head of Gender, BPPS, and under the overall strategic guidance of the CB Director, the Gender in Fragility and Crisis Policy Advisor plays a pivotal role in integrating gender perspectives into UNDP’s crisis and fragility prevention and response, including recovery, and assert UNDP’s contribution to the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, ensuring that crisis-related programming addresses the unique challenges and needs of women, especially those experiencing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.  The Advisor will be responsible for strategic leadership, policy and advisory support; programme development and resource mobilization; representation and partnerships; and knowledge management and learning.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration 

• Lead the development of a gender-sensitive framework for crisis prevention, response and recovery, ensuring it aligns with UNDP’s strategic objectives and crisis response principles.
• Provide high-level advice to the Global Policy Network and UNDP country offices on incorporating gender perspectives into emergency preparedness, response, and recovery operations.
• Serve as a key focal point for gender in crisis and fragility within UNDP, representing the organization in global interagency coordination bodies and donor meetings.
• Ensure policy coherence within UNDP on gender in crisis and fragility contexts, working closely with Regional Bureaux, other GPN teams and relevant knowledge domains.
• Promote evidence-based policy formulation on gender issues in crisis/fragile contexts positioning UNDP as a thought leader in gender equality and crisis space.
• Lead and support policy dialogues on Gender Equality in Crisis and Fragility contexts. 
• Lead and support the preparation of high-quality inputs on gender in crisis and fragility contexts for strategic papers and guidance notes, background briefs, speeches, and talking points, in coordination with relevant teams.

• Provide expertise, strategic advice to Crisis Bureau thematic teams, CB gender champions network, Regional Bureaux and Country Offices to strengthen programming, including through joint pilots with UN Women.   
• Lead resource mobilization efforts for the Crisis Bureau’s engagements in the Gender and Crisis space in coordination with the other CB teams, including identifying funding opportunities, preparing funding proposals and donor briefings.
• Strengthen the portfolios on Governance, Rule of Law, and Peacebuilding; Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery for Resilience; and Crisis Readiness, Response, Recovery.
• Support UNDP’s work to meet the various commitments required by 1325 commitments.
• Oversee annual reporting to the Secretary General’s (SG’s) report on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), SG’s 7-point action plan, Compact on WPS and Humanitarian Action, and lead the contribution to the Annual Report on the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy, and to the UNDP Gender Steering Implementation Committee (GSIC) among others, documenting crisis-relevant best practice.
• Coordinate UNDP’s engagement to the Commission on the Status of Women, the Open Debate on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and other intergovernmental forums and events. Activities may include the organization of Side Events, outreach and advocacy in conjunction with other thematic teams and bureaus, as well as across the UN system. 
• Support proposal reviews, including but not limited to the Peacebuilding Fund and the UNDP Funding Windows.

• Represent and assertively position UNDP in various fora, including the Steering Committee for WPS, Group of Friends of WPS, Informal Experts Group on WPS, Action for Peacekeeping WPS Champions, Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and others. 
• Forge strategic partnerships with relevant bilateral, regional and multilateral partners, as well as non-New York based networks such as the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Reference Group (Geneva), in coordination with relevant teams. 
• Strengthen partnerships with UN entities (particularly UN Women but also other UN organizations with complementary skills and capacity) to improve interagency coordination and maximize the impact of gender transformative programming in crisis settings.

• Provide regular and substantive contributions to UNDP’s relevant Communities of Practice, including co-leading the monthly WPS Coordination Group, and contributing to external knowledge networks.
• Develop and oversee knowledge management and learning activities on gender and crisis issues in line with the UNDP Knowledge Management Strategy and Framework for Action (e.g., Participation in CoPs; Development and quality assurance of knowledge platforms and products; Development of advocacy campaigns, etc.).
• Contribute to capacity building and continued learning of Country Offices and Regional Bureaux. 
• Ensure application of gender-related practical guidance and toolkits in support of country level programming in fragility and crisis contexts.

• Lead and manage a multidisciplinary team, including a Policy Specialist (P4).
• Set the direction for the team, including roles and responsibilities, and performance assessment.
• Lead and manage staff in the formulation and implementation of the Team’s Annual Work Plan. 
• Establish and maintain an inclusive, diverse, and harmonious working environment. Create and maintain an inclusive, diverse and harmonious working environment, including by supporting the implementation of corporate policies (e.g., gender parity and zero tolerance of sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse), and promoting communication and coordination among staff.