The Position:
The Harmful Practices and Social Norms Specialist post is located at the UNFPA West Africa Regional Office (WCARO) and works under the overall direction and leadership of the Regional Director and direct supervision of Gender and Human Rights Adviser, WCARO.
The Harmful Practices and Social Norms Specialist at the regional level provides integrated policy, technical and programme advice on the elimination of harmful practices, particularly FGM and child marriage, to countries in the region. In close collaboration with the Regional thematic Advisers, s/he will play a leadership role in furthering the ICPD Programme of Action focusing on supporting holistic and integrated approaches and interventions at regional and country levels for establishing enabling policy and legal frameworks, galvanising partners including civil society organisations and communities to abandon harmful practices including FGM and child marriage. S/he works in an integrated manner with the technical and programme staff in WCARO, and as part of the team which provides technical and programme support to country offices.
How you can make a difference:
UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.
In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.
UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.
Job Purpose:
The Harmful Practices and Social Norms Specialist provides technical, policy and programmatic support to the region, to ensure the Regional (RO) and Country Offices (CO) remain abreast of UNFPA’s policies and programme strategies, as well as current thinking, innovation and academic advance in the substantive area of harmful practices, particularly FGM and child marriage.
S/he analyses regional/cluster trends, and contributes to strategic action in response to these, and ensures that elimination of FGM, child marriage and other prevalent harmful practices are adequately addressed within regional and national development frameworks and programmes, including the achievement of the SDGs, ICPD Programme of Action and the AU Agenda 2063.
In all activities, s/he works within an interdisciplinary team providing integrated policy, programme and technical support to the region and the respective country teams. S/he also liaises with other regional units, such as the Programme and Technical Units, ensuring the timeliness, adequacy, relevance and quality of technical support to UNFPA country offices. S/he also collaborates within the broader organisation across other regions and with the Headquarter teams working on harmful practices including FGM and child marriage, human rights, GBV and social norms and gender equality.
You would be responsible for:
Strategic Advice and Oversight Provide technical, policy and programme management advice and guidance for the elimination of harmful practices particularly FGM and child marriage, with a focus on strengthening regional and national protection systems for advancing gender equality and empowerment of women and girls using a human rights based, gender transformative and development, peace responsive and humanitarian nexus approach; Identify and provide analysis and advice on eliminating harmful practices particularly FGM and child marriage and UNFPA’s comparative advantage and specific contribution in the changing development agenda and participate in related policy dialogues and advocacy at the regional, sub-regional and country levels; Provide oversight of UNFPA WCARO Harmful Practices flagship programmes such as the Global Programme on Child Marriage and Joint Programme on FGM, and ensure effective integrated implementation across the RO and COs; Identify and analyze trends, threats and risks related to harmful practices including FGM and child marriage that may affect the ICPD PoA, 2030 Agenda, AU agenda 2063, and UNFPA’s work in the region, and ensure that they are appropriately addressed at the regional, sub-regional and country levels; Support the integration and implementation of strategic action to engage men and boys to advance progress toward eliminating harmful practices including FGM and child marriage for empowerment and protection of the rights of women and girls as well as positive masculinity and aspects of gender, diversity and inclusion; Contribute to the substantive elaboration and contextualization of UNFPA Strategic Plan and to its implementation in the region with focus on gender and social norm change for the elimination of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage as well as focusing on reaching the furthest behind; Identify requirements for and contribute to the development of new or updated policies, positioning, frameworks, guidance, standards, instruments and tools to ensure UNFPA is addressing the region-specific elimination of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage agenda; Participate in the UNFPA FGM and child marriage networks, maintaining communication and feedback loops on all substantive work; In collaboration with members of the FGM Joint Programme Coordination team at NY/HQ, provide substantive input in the development and utilization of programme results framework and indicators and ensure timely preparation and submission of periodic programme reporting by regional and country offices; Technical support and capacity development Advise COs on the adaptation, implementation and proper application of UNFPA policies, strategies, guidelines and tools on eliminating harmful practices particularly FGM and child marriage, including a focus on promoting positive gender and social norm change; Provide technical support in applying gender transformative approaches to programming, documenting practices and strengthening evidence on effective approaches to eliminating harmful practices including FGM and child marriage; Ensure that evidence-informed thinking and research on the elimination of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage is integrated within the work of the regional/country offices and partnership networks, including through strengthening intersectionality and interlinkages between gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, adolescents and youth and population and development sectors; Review products of technical support at key stages of UNFPA, UN, and national development planning exercises, including reviewing draft CCAs, UNSDCF, and CPDs for clearance; Analyze technical and programmatic and substantive reports from the field and recommend required follow-up actions; Organize and contribute toward regional and inter-country capacity development activities for the elimination of harmful practices particularly FGM and child marriage for COs, national/regional counterparts; Support the development of regional institutional capacities to eliminate harmful practices including FGM and child marriage and to deliver high-quality technical support in gender transformative approaches to programming as well as human rights-based programming; Coach and manage relevant professional/support staff and consultants, if any, on programming for the eliminating of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage and facilitate working groups and task teams; Evidence and knowledge management Play a key role in strengthening, coordinating and monitoring the regional knowledge platform through evidence-informed programming, impact evaluations and documentation of promising practices, including in other thematic knowledge platforms for the elimination of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage; Contribute to sharing technical skills and knowledge within and among programme countries and/or other regions for the elimination of harmful practices including FGM and child marriage; Facilitate and support the use of comprehensive databases that effectively capture best practices, partnerships and consultant rosters and help ensure their accessibility to all relevant colleagues at RO and CO levels; Collect, analyze and synthesize information/data and experience and prepare white papers, briefings and materials on elimination of FGM and child marriage and other harmful practices to be used in national, regional and global advocacy; Coordinate analysis and synthesis of substantive trends, emerging needs and research findings in the region in order to produce new, cutting-edge technical knowledge; Disseminate and promote the use of state-of-the-art technical knowledge, evidence, lessons learned, and success stories and ensure their use to improve the effectiveness of UNFPA programming; Technical representation, advocacy and partnership development Represent UNFPA to further enhance UNFPA’s regional and global role in the field of eliminating harmful practices including FGM and child marriage; Participate in policy advocacy, knowledge generation and high-quality programming;This vacancy is archived.