Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination and violence 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.

Having an explicit mandate to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN Women, including in Kosovo, has worked in Kosovo since 1999 to foster gender equality and women’s empowerment and promote gender equality as central to the work of other UN agencies. UN Women contributed to the existing legislation on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to the establishment of gender mechanisms at local and central levels, as well as on Women Peace and Security, Women Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence Against Women etc. As such, UN Women possesses the expertise to address and combat all forms of violence against women and girls. Also possesses the global and local expertise to address and combat GBV in Kosovo. In addition, as part of UN Women’s comprehensive approach, they work with local partners to enhance data collection and analysis to provide a better understanding of the nature, magnitude, and consequences of violence against women and girls: data collection and analysis helps UN Women and other stakeholders understand what works and doesn’t work to address this GBV.

The empowerment of women in rural areas is essential in Kosovo, where a significant portion of the population depends on agriculture. Despite women’s significant contributions to family farming, they face persistent gender inequalities, limited access to resources, and fewer opportunities for livelihood. Rural women contributing to smallholder farms as unpaid/informal workers are among the most left behind. Those risks are further exacerbated when rural women are single mothers, domestic violence survivors, have disabilities or belong to non – majority communities. To address these challenges and promote gender equality, it is crucial to prioritize the economic empowerment of rural women in agriculture, enabling equal access of diverse rural women to resources and opportunities.

The project aims to remove structural barriers and address harmful gender norms, limited ownership of resources in agricultural and related sectors, introduce time and labor-saving technologies and provide innovative financing sources. It builds upon the findings and recommendations of the Kosovo Gender Profile on Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods. By implementing gender-responsive approaches and community mobilization, the intervention seeks to create a positive trajectory towards gender equality, economic empowerment, and sustainable rural development in Kosovo.

In this regard, UN Women and FAO through the project “Promoting Rural Women’s Empowerment in Kosovo” Project funded by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) plans to join efforts toward sustainable rural development of Kosovo municipalities and will closely coordinate the implementation of these interventions that require gender expertise towards strengthening gender responsiveness of humanitarian actions, prevention, recovery, and resilience.

Over the next 30 months, a comprehensive set of activities will be implemented to empower rural women, address their specific needs and constraints, and promote sustainable development.

To ensure effective implementation and timely reporting on the above-mentioned results and their planned activities, the UN Women Office in Kosovo seeks to recruit a Project Coordinator. Under the overall supervision of the Head of Office, and in close collaboration with the project team and the Operations team

The Project Coordinator will oversee the work of the team, coordinate activities, and monitor and report on the implementation of project activities, while promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women under existing partnerships and in close collaboration with and in synergy with UN agencies, national actors, civil society, and strategic partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

The Project Coordinator will be under the direct supervision of UN Women’s Head of Office in Kosovo.

• Serve as Coordinator of the Project “Promoting Rural Women’s Empowerment in Kosovo”.
• Develop detailed implementation plan and for the project and be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of activities.
• Review programme annual work plans to assure compliance with the project goals and results-based indicators.
• Provide programmatic and technical support to UN Women including for the office annual workplan, strategy documents, briefs, policy dialogue and other documents related to gender equality, as deemed necessary.
• Ensure day-to-day Project and Operational work, including but not limited on planning, implementation, and coordination of project activities as well as resources (human, financial, budgeting, procurement, material assets etc.) so to meet expected project results.
• Management of the project, implementing and activity monitoring, ensuring compliance in accordance with UN Women Rules and Regulation / Standard Operating Procedures
• Undertake project visits as necessary Planning and organizing events / conferences, workshops, retreats, the organization of field visits, missions, workshops, trainings, roundtables, conferences, and similar, organized in the framework of the project.
• Oversee and control the supporting documents for payments of contractors and beneficiaries, including operational expenditures. Ensure spending of allocated amounts as planned.
• Managing budgets for all project activities and events and work closely with Finance team to find effective ways to arrange/reduce costs as per project needs.
• Managing the human and financial resources of the project
• Develop and implement partnership strategies to contribute to the overall goal and results of the project.
• Monitor inputs and reporting provided by consultants, beneficiaries, and contracted parties and communicate findings to the Head of office.
• Ensure that progress reports from responsible parties are properly monitored in line with project outputs and timeline before approving.
• Facilitate the communication sharing and information between UN Women project Office and UN agencies implementing the joint project.
• Coordinate with other UN agencies, government departments, donors, and CSOs to ensure the project’s capacity development component is harmonized and aligned with other in-country efforts.
• Performing other tasks as assigned by the UN Women Head of Office, Kosovo

Impact of Results

In reaching the impact, first, rural women will have better access to opportunities to increase their knowledge and skills and access resources for income-generation through sustainable agriculture. Secondly, the institutional environment and community engagement will be improved, enabling the implementation of gender-responsive actions.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, nationality, religion, and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Demonstrates substantial experience in gender equality.
• Actively promotes and ensures gender equality and women empowerment approach in all project activities in line with UN Women Mandate.
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Effective communication and Inclusive collaboration
• Actively promotes gender equality during Project Activities
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies –https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audience for advocating UN Women’s mandate.
• Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up to date on partnership related issues.
• Good knowledge of technical area Strong analytical, writing and communication skills
• Ability to lead monitoring of management projects.
• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results-Based Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the programme, managing data, reporting.
• Analytical and strategic thinking /results orientation.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment.
• Good analytical skills and results orientation. Ability to support a team and team building skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Reports to internal and external partners in a timely and appropriate manner.
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet partners’ and donors’ needs and deadlines.
• Responds to partners needs promptly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender/Women’s Studies, Management, Development Studies, Human Rights, Public Administration, Social Studies, or closely related fields.
• A first-level university degree (BA) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree (MA).

Experience:

• At least two (2) years’ experience with master’s degree or four (4) years of progressive experience with bachelor’s degree in programme management, including programme design, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, and donor reporting of internationally funded projects with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Proven expertise and experience in advocacy work on women’s human rights and peace and security is an asset.
• Proven working experience with projects on the field and focused on the rural area.
• Excellent computer skills, computer literacy: Microsoft Windows, proficient use of processing tools such as Microsoft Office package (Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
• Proven ability to deal with a dynamic group comprised of high-level officials and women advocates.
• Advanced expertise in the usage of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), spreadsheet and database packages, and web-based management systems and ERP financial systems.
• Proven experience in working in the UN system and its organizations, Public International Development Organizations is considered an advantage.
• Previous engagement in international projects related to gender equality, human rights and is considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Excellent proficiency in Albanian and English is required.
• Knowledge of Serbian both Is considered an asset.

Application Instructions:

All interested candidates must complete a PERSONAL HISTORY FORM (P-11). Failure to disclose prior employment or making false representations on this form will be grounds for withdrawal of further consideration of his/her application or termination, where the appointment or contract has been issued.

• P11 including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc
• Click on the “Apply now” button.
• Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. You can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box.
• Upon completion of the first page, please hit “submit application” tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload your Resume. Instead of uploading your Resume, please submit a fully completed and signed Personal History Form (P-11).
• System will only allow one attachment. All docs (P11, academic qualifications/diploma) should be included as one attachment.