Partnership Specialist

Mission and objectives

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. UN Women supports United Nations Member States in setting international standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to formulate and enforce the laws, policies, programs and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and that they truly benefit women and girls around the world.

Context

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, UN Women works to eliminate discrimination against women and girls, empower women, and achieve equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security. The UN Women Liaison Office to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (AULO), based in Addis Ababa, serves as the primary interface between UN Women and continental institutions, supporting regional policy development, coordination, advocacy, and partnerships to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across Africa.

This UN Volunteer assignment is part of the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme (SIARP) 2.0, a flagship regional programme implemented in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations agencies, the European Union (EU), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), civil society organizations, and other strategic partners. The programme seeks to accelerate efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls (EVAWG), including harmful practices, while advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across Africa through strengthened policy frameworks, accountability mechanisms, social norms transformation, and strategic partnerships. A key pillar of SIARP 2.0 is strengthening the meaningful participation and leadership of civil society in programme governance, advocacy, accountability, and implementation.

To support this objective, the programme is establishing the Civil Society Regional Reference Group (CSRRG), a platform of eminent regional experts and representatives of women’s rights organizations, feminist movements, youth-led organizations, and civil society networks working on EVAWG, harmful practices, SRHR, and gender equality across Africa. The CSRRG will provide strategic advice, technical expertise, advocacy support, and accountability oversight to SIARP 2.0 while serving as an important bridge between the programme and broader civil society constituencies across the continent. The group will contribute to programme learning, policy influence, stakeholder engagement, and the amplification of women’s and girls’ voices in regional and continental decision-making processes.

The UN Volunteer will play a central role in supporting the establishment, coordination, and operationalization of the CSRRG, facilitating engagement with civil society stakeholders, strengthening partnerships, supporting programme coordination and knowledge management processes, and ensuring effective collaboration between UN Women, the AUC, RECs, women’s rights organizations, feminist movements, youth groups, and other key stakeholders involved in SIARP 2.0.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the SIARP 2.0 Programme Coordinator and the overall guidance of the UN Women Liaison Office to the African Union and UNECA (AULO), the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Support the coordination and operationalization of the SIARP 2.0 Civil Society Regional Reference Group (CSRRG), including organizing meetings, consultations, and stake-holder engagement processes.

• Coordinate engagement with civil society organizations, women-led organizations, feminist movements, youth networks, and other strategic partners across Africa.

• Support the implementation and follow-up of SIARP 2.0 civil society engagement, advo-cacy, accountability, and partnership activities.

• Facilitate coordination and communication among UN agencies, the African Union Com-mission (AUC), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), civil society partners, and other programme stakeholders.

• Support the planning and organization of programme meetings, workshops, dialogues, missions, and regional consultations.

• Monitor progress of civil society engagement activities and support the tracking of pro-gramme commitments, results, and partnership deliverables.

• Prepare reports, briefing notes, presentations, meeting summaries, and other programme documentation.

• Support knowledge management, communication, advocacy, and visibility efforts, includ-ing the documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, good practices, and pro-gramme achievements.

• Maintain stakeholder databases, partnership tracking tools, and records related to pro-gramme implementation and coordination.

• Support compliance with UN Women policies and procedures, including safeguarding, Pre-vention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), anti-fraud requirements, and partner-ship accountability standards.

• Contribute to monitoring, reporting, and learning processes, including the preparation of progress updates and donor reporting inputs.

• Support the development and strengthening of strategic partnerships and sustainability efforts related to ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG), harmful practices, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across Africa.

Results/Expected Outputs

• Civil Society Regional Reference Group (CSRRG) established, operationalized, and supported through the implementation of an annual workplan, with regular meetings, consultations, and documented recommendations.

• Strengthened engagement and collaboration between SIARP 2.0 stakeholders, including civil society organizations, women-led organizations, feminist movements, youth networks, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and the African Union Commission (AUC).

• Civil society engagement activities, consultations, advocacy initiatives, and stakeholder di-alogues coordinated and implemented in accordance with approved SIARP 2.0 workplans.

• Comprehensive stakeholder mapping and partnership tracking systems established and regularly updated to support programme coordination and strategic engagement.

• High-quality reports, briefing notes, presentations, meeting summaries, and other pro-gramme documents prepared and submitted in a timely manner.

• Monitoring and reporting data on civil society engagement activities compiled and analyzed to support programme performance tracking, learning, and decision-making.

• Knowledge products, lessons learned, good practices, and success stories documented and disseminated through SIARP 2.0 knowledge management and learning platforms.

• Compliance with UN Women partnership standards, safeguarding requirements, Preven-tion of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) commitments, and donor reporting require-ments supported and monitored.

• Increased visibility of SIARP 2.0 achievements through coordinated communication, advo-cacy, and stakeholder engagement initiatives.

• Strategic partnerships and collaboration mechanisms strengthened to support the sustain-ability of regional efforts to end violence against women and girls (EVAWG), address harm-ful practices, and advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across Africa.

• The development of capacity through coaching, mentoring and formal on-the-job training, when working with (including supervising) national staff or (non-) governmental counter-parts, including Implementing Partners (IPs);

• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment

• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities partic-ipated in and capacities developed.

Assignment requirements