Lowongan Kerja Policy Advisor, Gender & Environment, New York

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has a longstanding commitment to mainstreaming gender equality and promoting women's empowerment in its work. As the UN's lead development agency, with extensive field presence, UNDP has facilitated the integration of gender equality in the work of Country Offices through core and non-core fund investments and has initiated and implemented numerous innovative initiatives, some in partnership with UNIFEM, that support both government and civil society work on gender issues. Work on gender mainstreaming in UNDP is led and coordinated by the Gender Team, housed in the Bureau Development Policy (BDP), comprised of human resources located at HQ and Regional Centers.

In 2007, UNDP's Gender Team has finalized a new corporate Gender Equality Strategy (GES) for the time period 2008-2011, which builds on the results achieved thus far. The new strategy coincided with the elaboration of the UNDP's Strategic Plan and should ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment are fully anchored within the organization's strategic vision and planning for the next years.

To successful implement the GES the UNDP needs to sustain the momentum created and keep on building on the results achieved. One area where a particular effort is needed is in the area of Gender, Environment and Sustainable Development. The annual review of UNDP's programming over the past years has shown that environment and energy (now sustainable development) is one of the focus areas where gender is insufficiently mainstreamed, and where the gender dimensions are not well understood by both staff and counterparts.

Over the past years, the Gender Team has been intensifying its work on mainstreaming gender into UNDP's work on environment and Energy. Currently, the team is closely involved in the Africa Adaptation Programme, UN-REDD, Community Based Adaptation Programme, and is currently a key practice area in the newly launched cross practice approach in developing capacity development programmes for supporting climate-resilient development in vulnerable countries, and access to energy for the poor among others. The demand for technical advice and support services has grown, particularly from country offices.