UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
Women, girls, men and boys are differently impacted by the crisis due to their different status and roles in the society. These differences exist before, but they are exacerbated in the times of crisis and limit their access to resources and services they need to be resilient and recover, therefore it is important to integrate gender equality in humanitarian actions, including programming to ensure inclusive and efficient responses.
According to the Government cyclones IDAI and Kenneth that stroke the provinces of Sofala, Manica, Tete, Zambézia and Cabo Delgado respectively have claimed the lives of 600 people and affected 1.5 million. The PDNA report estimated at 750,000, the total number of people in need of urgent assistance of which 54% women, 47% men, 254,000 under the age of 18 and 63,000 over 60 years old. Goal 4 of UN Women’s Strategic Plan states that ‘peace and security and humanitarian action are shaped by women leadership and participation’ – this vision is particularly urgent in a disaster-prone country such as Mozambique.
UN Women oriented by the Humanitarian Country Team have been actively involved since the emergence of the cyclones Idai and Kenneth, participating in the main clusters and discussions, with relevant government representatives, women’s organizations and CSOs as well as development partners, to coordinate and provide technical inputs for the adequate attention to gender issues in the humanitarian as well as recovery and reconstruction periods.
With the aim to inform the recovery and reconstruction processes, UN Women co-led with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action, MGCAS, the gender sector of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) providing technical and financial support in partnership with Canada. The assessment pointed out to a significant impact of the disaster on the livelihoods, housing and safety of women and girls including exclusion of women in the response related decision making and traditional gender roles.
The outcome of the assessment was crucial and informed the recognition of gender equality as key principle for the recovery and reconstruction clearly reflected in the Joint Declaration of the International Donor Conference of 1 July 2019. The UN Intervention Package on Recovery also emphasizes the need to focus on gender-responsive approach and ensure that vulnerable Women and Girls equitably participate and benefit resilient recovery, reconstruction and Disaster preparedness. UN Women have also been actively involved in the process of recovery programme design for post cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which started with the Conference in Beira advocating for the inclusion of gender approach in the programme including the prioritization of women and girls.
Following the cyclones Idai and Kenneth, the Government of Mozambique established the Gabinete de Reconstrução Pós-Idai and Kenneth (GREPOC) with the mandate to coordinate all investments related with the assessment, planning and implementation of the recovery programme in the affected areas. The entity will lead on both, infrastructure reconstruction and social and economic recovery efforts in an integrated manner. To further contribute to translate these principles into concrete results for women and girls and their rights in the recovery and reconstruction process, UN Women is committed to provide technical assistance to the government coordination bodies, to plan, implement, coordinate and monitor implementation of a Gender-Responsive Humanitarian Action, Resilience Recovery and Reconstruction.
In this context, UN Women is seeking to hire a Gender Specialist to support mainstream gender in the humanitarian action, recovery and reconstruction post-cyclones Idai and Kenneth. He/She will work closely with the recovery office team, central and provincial Government, UN Agencies involved in the recovery process, private sector and civil society to ensure the technical direction, coordination and best results. The dedicated Gender Specialist will be deployed to the GREPOC for a period of 12 months to provide day-to-day coaching and mentoring support and providing practical application of gender-responsive programming in the Humanitarian and the recovery and reconstruction process.
This assignment is aligned with the Mozambican Post Disaster Recovery Programme (PREPOC), the UN Women Global Strategy (2018-2021), Africa Strategy (2018 – 2021) that intends to ensure that «No Woman and Girl is left Behind» as Africa implements and strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly Goal 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. It further allows UN Women to coordinate its actions in achievement of the Africa’s Agenda 2063 Goals and Aspirations striving for «An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children» (Aspiration 6). UN Women strategy underscores not only the immense benefits of empowering women and girls, but the inherent value of women’s rights, and empowerment as a women’s human rights imperative.
Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Representative and close coordination with the GREPOC and direct supervision of the programme specialist in close col, the incumbent will provide technical advice and assistance to the Gabinete de Reconstrução Pós-Idai e Kenneth (GEPRO) to mainstream gender issues in the recovery and reconstruction process. S/He will work closed with the team of experts providing gender expertise in all stages of their work taking the lead towards the achievement of planned results of interventions specifically dedicated to address the needs and interests of women and girls.
Women and girls particularly the most vulnerable women and girls adequate equitably accessing to economic opportunities emerged in the context of the recovery and reconstruction process processes.
Experience with humanitarian programming, the Cluster system and working with parastatal and inter-governmental organizations is an asset.
Fluency in English and Portuguese (written and spoken) is required.
Knowledge of local languages is an asset.