UN WOMEN : Head of Office, Freetown, SIERRA LEONE, P4, FTA

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. 

In Sierra Leone, UN Women contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) (2025–2030) and the Government of Sierra Leone Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2024-2030. UN Women Sierra Leone Strategic Note (SN) (2025–2030) sets out its contribution to all four outcomes, focusing on strengthened gender-responsive laws and policies, accountable and inclusive institutions, and empowered women and girls across four impact areas: women’s leadership and decision-making; women’s economic empowerment; women and girls free from violence; women, peace and security and coordination., and gender statistics.

Building on its normative and coordination mandates, UN Women supports national institutions to apply global gender equality standards and translate these commitments into laws, policies, and institutional practices. It strengthens the UN system’s performance on gender equality through UNCT-SWAP requirements, enhances gender analysis across joint planning processes, and ensures gender-responsive indicators, targets, and financial tracking are integrated throughout the UNSDCF. UN Women also works with national institutions and women’s rights organizations to reinforce gender coordination mechanisms, promote coherent action on GEWE, and improve monitoring of national and international normative commitments. Through this role, UN Women helps ensure that gender equality priorities are fully reflected in national planning, policy development, and UN joint programming, and that women’s rights organizations have stronger influence in decision-making spaces

The Head of Office operates in a matrix management model, primarily accountable and reporting to the relevant UN Women Regional Director on UN Women-specific mandates, activities and results. Additionally, as a UNCT member, under the Management and Accountability Framework (MAF) of the UN development and resident coordinator system, the Country Representative has mutual accountability with the Resident Coordinator for periodically reporting on contributions and support for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).The Regional Director conducts the performance review of the Country Representative whilst seeking inputs from the RC on the  Head of Office contributions as a UNCT member.

The Head of Office  is responsible for leading and managing the Sierra Leone  Country Office (CO) portfolio and for translating the UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP) in line with regional and national priorities, into development initiatives and results by developing, implementing and managing programmes and projects under the Sierra Leone CO; and developing effective partnerships with Government counterparts, UN system agencies and organizations, civil society organizations, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

• Assess national social development trends and identify emerging issues of relevance to the mandate of UN Women to identify opportunities for development planning to advance UN Women goals and objectives in the country;
• Identify strategic programme opportunities, approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence and relevance, in close consultation/collaboration with national development stakeholders and partners,
• Oversee the appraisal and approval of UN Women programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies.

• Establish the Country Office annual work plans in collaboration and discussion with the team and set objectives, performance measurements, standards and expected results. 
• Manage and ensure the completion of high quality, results-based and rights based country programmes and projects.
• Ensure regular programme monitoring and evaluate progress for timely action and intervention to achieve results; 
• Lead and manage the country budget preparation and submission processes to ensure budget proposals are correctly presented and submitted in a timely manner;
• Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women mandated country reports and submit timely quarterly, annual and other periodic progress reports ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation;
• Plan and manage monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects, and take appropriate action; manage the preparation of audits and implementation of its recommendations;
• Maintain and update country office security strategy, plan, and measures to ensure full compliance with UN 
  security policies, procedures and requirements.

• Monitor the utilization of allocated funds to ensure transparency and compliance with UN Women financial policies and accountability framework. Decide on the optimum and appropriate allocation and management of CO resources;
• Supervise and coach programme and operations staff in the country office and manage performance in line with applicable UN Women policies and guidelines
• Plan deployment of the internal human and financial resources including as necessary recruitment and procurement of additional resources
• Oversee security requirements for the team

• Participate actively as a member of the UN Country Team (UNCT) to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment issues are fully integrated into implementation of the UN One Strategic Plan; and into UN programming processes such as Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA)/ UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), Country Programs, etc.;
• Actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of ongoing debate and thinking on development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies to advance gender equality and women's human rights.

• Contribute substantively to governmental forums and participate in key meetings and events to speak on policy issues, participate in policy dialogue, discuss policy initiatives, report on progress achieved and/or present policy papers/ideas to influence setting of agenda and/or advocate UN Women competencies and mandate;
• Contribute in the UNCT to the mainstreaming of UN Women’s policies in joint programming and initiatives, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator;
• Participate in regional, country and other critical meetings and events to evaluate the impact and efficacy of UN Women policies and programmes and provide input in strategic discussions and provide technical advice on policies and programmes;
• Advocate on behalf of UN Women to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights; provide partners with relevant technical advice and capacity development related to gender equality and women’s empowerment to advance policy priorities;
• Oversee the development and implementation of relevant communications and advocacy strategies to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities are done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.

1. Manage Strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and knowledge management initiatives 

• Develop and maintain active relationship and partnerships with the Government, NGOs, the UN system and development partners, institutes, academia, the media, and private sector on women's issues to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and/or share ideas and to influence agenda and priority setting.
• Oversee the development of knowledge management strategies and methodologies; manage the process of identifying and synthesizing of best practices, innovations and lessons learned that are directly linked to the implementation of the programme and contribute to their global dissemination and supports further programmatic expansion.

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them 
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment
• Strong knowledge of country and/or region
• Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising 

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/ women’s studies, international development, or a related field is required
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
• Experience in establishing inter-relationships among international organization and national governments;
• Experience in the in the field of gender and human rights of women is an asset;
• Experience in administrative systems and UN system norms is an asset;
• Experience in country and/or region is an asset;
• Experience in leading a team is an asset.

• Fluency in English is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language French is an asset.

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.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, 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 to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.