• Added Date: Monday, 04 August 2025
5 Steps to get a job in the United Nations

Background:

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 Womenโ€™s East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) covers 25 countries, including 13 Country Offices, 1 Programme Presence, and 14 Non-Resident Agencies where engagement is carried out through the UN System. The Womenโ€™s Economic Empowerment (WEE) section at ESARO focuses on key priority areas such as transforming care systems, advancing women in the world of work, and promoting gender-responsive climate action, alongside cross-cutting issues including social norms, financing for gender equality, and gender-responsive macroeconomic policies. The regional office plays a dual role of providing technical assistance and capacity development to country offices, while also fulfilling a regional coordination mandate, engaging with the African Union, Regional Economic Communities, and other regional and sub-regional bodies. A core part of ESAROโ€™s work involves thought leadership and evidence generation, including conducting and supporting research on womenโ€™s economic empowerment, with a focus on both structural and grassroots-level interventions that advance gender equality and economic justice across the region.

Reporting to Regional Policy Specialist on WEE, the Programme Assistant works with and provides support to the members of the WEE Team in the development and implementation of effective programmes consistent with UN Women rules and regulations.ย  The Programme Assistant provides programme, administrative, and logistical assistance to the team for the smooth programme implementation to strengthen the effective delivery of UN Women ESAROโ€™s Womenโ€™s Economic Empowerment portfolio.

Key Functions and Accountabilities

Provide administrative and logistical support to the formulation and management of programmesย 

Provide administrative support in the preparation of programme work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements, including tracking the delivery of funds;ย  Support to review and coordinate the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports; Identify sources, and gather and compile data and information for the preparation of documents, guidelines, speeches and position papers, in collaboration with the Programme team; Provide support in review of workplan quarterly reports, procurement plans for tracking implementation.

Provide administrative support to the financial management of the Programme Unit:

Create projects in Quantum system, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds and the operational and financial close of a project;ย ย  Provide administrative support in monitoring and preparation of budget and the finances of programmes/projects, and in the preparation of FACE forms;ย  Prepare non-PO vouchers for development projects;ย  Process payment for consultants, as delegated;ย  Create requisitions in Quantum system for development projects; register good receipts in Quantum system; Assist with administrative support in monitoring and preparation of budget and the finances of programmes/projects.ย 

Provide administrative support to the WEE Unit:

Undertake all logistical, administrative and financial arrangements for organization for meetings, workshops, events, and missions;ย  Make all logistical arrangements for organization of meetings, workshops, events, and missions;ย  Draft minutes in meetings, as delegated;ย ย  Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations, in collaboration with the Programme team;ย  Organize and coordinate filing of documents; maintain mailing lists.ย 

Provide support to resource mobilization:

Organize, compile, and process documentation on WEE Unitโ€™s resource mobilization efforts and provide inputs to various documents.ย  Maintain donor information and databases. Provide inputs to relevant documentation such as project summaries, conference papers, briefing notes, speeches, and donor profiles

Provide inputs to advocacy, knowledge building/sharing and communication efforts

Support the organization of advocacy activities and WEE days commemoration events, trainings, workshops and knowledge products. Assist with drafting communications assets, including web articles, social media content and input for newslettersย 

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies :

Core Values:

Integrity; Professionalism; Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

๐Ÿ“š ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฏ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ! ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿค ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ช ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—š๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—จ๐—ก๐—›๐—–๐—ฅ, ๐—ช๐—™๐—ฃ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—œ๐—–๐—˜๐—™, ๐—จ๐—ก๐——๐—ฆ๐—ฆ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—™๐—ฃ๐—”, ๐—œ๐—ข๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€! ๐ŸŒ

โš ๏ธ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐“๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฃ๐จ๐› ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐Ž๐–!

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues; Accountability; Creative Problem Solving; Effective Communication; Inclusive Collaboration; Stakeholder Engagement; Leading by Example.

Please visitย this linkย for more information on UN Womenโ€™s Values and Competencies Framework:ย 

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge of programme management;ย  Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats;ย  Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow;ย  Ability to administer and execute administrative processes and transactions; Good financial and budgeting skills;ย  Excellent IT skills.ย 

Recruitment Qualifications

Education and Certification:

Completion of secondary education is required.ย ย  Bachelorโ€™s degree inย economics, sustainable development, international cooperation, gender studies, climate change, environmental policy, administration, public policy or a related field is an asset.ย 

Experience

At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in administrative or programme management/support is required;ย ย  Knowledge and experience in the womenโ€™s economic empowerment is an added advantage; Experience in working in a computer environment using multiple Microsoft office software packages is required; Experience in the use of ERP systems, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable;ย  Experience in supporting a team is desirable.

Languages

Fluency in English is required.ย  Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).ย 

Statements :

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates,ย and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age,ย ability, national origin,ย or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere toย UN Womenโ€™sย policiesย and proceduresย andย theย standardsย of conduct expected of UN Women personnelย and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.

ย 

Recommended for you