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UN WOMEN - DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS (FINANCE, BUDGET, IST, PROCUREMENT AND ADMINISTRATION)

UN Women (UNW), 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 centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Division of Management and Administration is responsible for the planning, allocation and management of financial, human and administrative resources including information communications and technology, the effective and efficient delivery of essential operations services in UN Women, continuous development and improvement in operations, policies, and methods to align with UN Women and stakeholders' evolving business needs and advisory support to the Executive Director in the formulation and implementation of the UN Women overall mission, strategy and plans of actions.

Under the direction and guidance of the Director, Division of Management and Administration, the Deputy Director of Operations (Finance, Budget, IST, Procurement and Administration), is responsible for:

  • Strategic planning and management UN Women financial resources planning, treasury operations and provision of financial services including payroll operations, internal control, financial processing, accounting and institutional reporting of the UN Women's Assessed, Regular and Non-core financial resources.
  • Oversight and performance assessment over resources planning and management.
  • Leading formulation of procurement policies and provision of operational direction to UN Women's procurement function; including provision of strategic procurement advice and guidance to managers in Country Offices, regional office and Headquarters.
  • Leading formulation of administrative policies and providing operational guidance on administrative management.
  • Represent UN Women on the UNDG subgroup for Common Premises.

The Deputy Director of Operations, oversees and guides all financial and administrative operations to ensure the timely, effective and efficient delivery of services according to plans, standards of performance, objectives and accountability framework for operations; and promotes the protection and safe custody of all UN Women financial and administrative resources.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:
Strategic leadership in financial, procurement and administrative management operations and services:
  • Determine the strategy and develop the implementation plan for financial operations and services. Lead establishment of annual work plans for administrative services and finance services in collaboration with the respective teams, set objectives, performance measurements, standards and results expected to ensure timely, correct and effective control and services. Monitor implementation and progress.
  • Direct the development of procurement strategy and policies and oversee provision of administrative (procurement, assets and facilities management) services in UN Women.
  • Keep the Director informed and advised on the strategic and operational aspects of financial operations of regular and non-core resources that will maximize efficiency and cost effectiveness and recommend courses of action to align financial management with evolving business and client needs.
  • Guide, monitor and evaluate administrative and financial management operations and services for efficiency/efficacy. Take timely decisions to ensure the appropriate, optimum and transparent management and use of resources in accordance with UN Women standards of performance, ethics and accountability frameworks.
  • Supervise staff members by providing them with clear objectives and goals as well as direction and guidance to enable them to perform their duties and responsibilities effectively and efficiently.
Finance and budget planning and monitoring
  • Support the Director in coordination of the budget preparation exercise for Regular and Voluntary Resources and their presentation to the governing bodies.
  • Ensure alignment of resources to overall corporate goals and promote results based resources allocation and management.
  • Keep track, control and oversee budget allocations to ensure compliance with plans and approved budget. Approve reallocations, in accordance with delegated authority, to ensure optimum and efficient use of resources.
  • Monitor compliance of field offices with UN and UN Women financial regulations, rules, policies and procedures. Take timely and appropriate action to ensure compliance.

Procurement planning and monitoring

  • Lead the procurement advisory function, and development and implementation of procurement policies and procedures.
  • Monitor & maintain oversight over procurement activities in UN Women including development of procurement plans, ensuring compliance with procurement guidelines, and evaluating the attainment of Value for Money for UN Women. Monitor, identify and report on any irregularities in the procurement process.

Administrative planning and monitoring

  • Lead the formulation of administrative policies and provide operational guidance to UN Women country, regional and headquarters offices on the management of premises, equipment, travel, and general services.
  • Oversee and monitor the effective and efficient use of UN Women's physical assets.
  • Provide advice and support to Country Office, regional and headquarters managers on administrative functions.

Financial, procurement and administrative advisory support and technical guidance

  • Collaborate with UN Women internal and external partners, colleagues and stakeholders, to keep abreast of evolving trends and share ideas for improvements and alignment of services to needs.
  • Monitor and evaluate the overall financial operating environment in UN Women, assess risks and take action to respond to weaknesses and to operational needs.
  • Develop the plan and oversee implementation of decentralization of procurement and financial authority to Country Offices, ensuring effective and efficient transfer of responsibilities with accountability. Oversee sustainability of effective decentralization through systematic training and monitoring, evaluation and reporting of performance in Country Offices.
  • Provide advice to the Director and other senior UN Women managers on expansion of the funding base; and contribute to development of policies and standards of agreements to facilitate resource mobilization (including cost-sharing and trust fund agreements) and effective management and reporting on funds mobilized.

Financial reporting/audit

  • Coordinate, develop and/or review financial input to UN Women's Strategic Plan and related documents, including financial, procurement and administrative management targets, performance monitoring and reporting of results.
  • Oversee preparation and timely submission of required periodic financial, donor and budget reports.
  • Oversee development and updating of required operational reports, monitor unusual activities and exception reports, investigate anomalies and, in consultation with concerned senor managers and keeping the Director appraised, take appropriate action to address issues noted.
  • Oversee UN Women's relationship with the UN Board of Audit. Oversee responses to internal and external audit enquiries and findings; ensuring that timely corrective actions are taken to follow up on audit reports and observations.


Representation and networking

  • Represent UN Women in inter-agency and external meetings/bodies dealing with financial, procurement and administrative management policy setting and decision-making.
  • Collaborate with internal and external partners, colleagues and stakeholders to keep abreast of evolving trends, development and needs, share ideas for improvements and align services according to needs.


Information systems and telecommunications

  • Collaborate closely with stakeholders in UN Women to discuss opportunities and ways to enhance business processes and operations through innovation in information systems and telecommunications.
  • Identify and promote systems and applications to meet UN Women needs for content management, knowledge and information sharing and other program and operational needs.
  • Oversee the establishment and maintenance of a secure and reliable infrastructure environment for IST and ensure adequate planning to safeguard information and systems.
  • Collaborate and/or consult UNDP and other UN system partners to share knowledge, resources and/or systems to maximize cost effectiveness in IST.

Knowledge management and capacity building

  • Constantly monitor and evaluate operational policies, procedures, methods, tools and associated systems to ensure their utility, applicability and efficacy in operational management. Recommend, set and/or develop new policies and procedures and introduce innovation and best practices in business operations to enhance services.
  • Plan and implement a strategic capacity building plan for learning and development in financial, procurement and administrative management.
  • Lead/organize training events and design/set training agenda on financial management (finance and budget), procurement and administrative focus areas.

Competencies

Core Values and Principles:

  • Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

  • Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents
  • Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen.
  • Planning and organizing: Proven ability to plan strategic direction and ability to organize and service intergovernmental bodies and international technical meetings.
  • Developing and Empowering People / coaching and mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.
  • Working in Teams: Proven record of building and managing teams and creating an enabling and collaborative work environment, including the ability to effectively lead, supervise, mentor, develop and evaluate staff.
  • Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
  • Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
  • Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards. Ability to interact and negotiate with high-level government officials are required .
  • Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
  • Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking.
  • Commitment to continuous learning: Willingness to keep abreast of new developments in the field of gender equality thematic areas Leadership - Proven track record of excellent management and technical leadership skills and ability to delegate appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master's Degree (or equivalent) in Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics or related field.
Experience:
  • Minimum 15 years of extensive experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in financial planning/budgeting, financial management and operations in a large international and/or corporate organization preferably in the UN System and its organizations.
  • Ability to carry out complex negotiations on contractual terms and conditions affecting significant amounts of UN Women's resources.
  • Proven ability and experience in leading motivating and supervising, technically strong teams.
  • Demonstrated excellent communication skills, with tact and diplomacy.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in oral and written English is required. Proficiency in another UN working language is desirable.
Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.
All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.