Since Pakistan’s accession to CEDAW in 1996, the National Machinery for Women including Ministry of Women Development (MoWD) and Women Development Departments (WDDs) have been spearheading the process of CEDAW implementation as the designated focal machinery. The Women Development Department has been a strategic stakeholder in this process. In order to support the ongoing work in AJK around CEDAW implementation and strengthening of gender equality commitments at state and district level specifically in humanitarian settings, UNWOMEN is seeking services of a mid level professional as gender advisor to advice the department around CEDAW implementation and support the mainstreaming gender in AJK especially in the current humanitarian settings. The Gender Advisor will have the primary mandate to extend support to SW&WDD on collaborating with other line departments and civil society actors on: including and implementing the national/international Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Commitments in their work. The advisor also has the responsibility to extend support to the SW&WDD for timely delivery of reports like CEDAW along with providing inputs in to CEDAW implementation plans and the broader women empowerment agenda like, violence against women, women peace & security and economic rights of women.

The foundational norms for the viability of Provincial Gender Equality Advisor’s position are:

• He/she will be based at WDD office, and work in close consultations and direction of Secretary WDD or a person nominated by the secretary. However, the final mechanism will be agreed upon with WDD and clearly notified within two months of joining.
• The positions are paid by UN Women, which is committed to extend its technical support to the Advisor and WDD.
• The Advisor will provide regular updates on their work or emerging opportunities/challenges to the Secretary and WDD staff fortnightly, while a monthly report will be sent to UN Women.
• UN Women will work as a technical resource to the Advisor, who can seek any technical or resource support as well as guidance from UN Women formally as well as informally; depending up on the nature of task
• The Advisor will send in monthly reports to UN Women focussing on activities delivered but also how and what change (result) has been brought about through their placement and efforts
• The Advisor will keep the immediate supervisor and UN Women abreast of the provincial situation on GE and identify key entry points/opportunities for gender mainstreaming in the province
• The Advisors will coordinate with UN WOMEN team and other actors such as ADB, UN and other agencies in the interest of collaboration and coordination of efforts towards integration of GE in the provinces/areas with reference to Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

Gender Equality Advisor

Responsibilities and duties

Gender Equality Advisor is a technical support to WDD for:

• Enabling them to develop and adopt implementation plans and operational strategies around CEDAW and other national and international commitments of the GOP on Gender Equality (GE), Women Empowerment (WE), Women Human Rights (WHR) and Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security like 1325Supporting WDDs in establishing linkages with other line departments for the implementation of CEDAW action plan as well as providing inputs in to the foundational documents like WE and GE policies, strategies and legal frameworks at the provincial level.
• Ensuring involvement of civil society and NGOs in CEDAW implementation, monitoring and reporting process.
• Ensuring the strengthening of inter departmental process for CEDAW and other national and international commitments around gender equality and women empowerment.
• Supporting WDDs in establishing linkages with other National Women Machineries like MoWD, NCSW, National and Provincial GRAP, to enhance the positioning and decision making of these instrumental institutions, along with stimulating the process to develop common understanding on the issues related to WE, GE and on other normative national/international commitments.

While performing the above mentioned responsibilities Advisor will be taking the following areas in to account:

Communication

· All the correspondence to other key line departments regarding CEDAW or any other women empowerment and gender equality commitments will be done from the signatures of the Secretary.

· In case if there is any situation where the writing to stakeholders is imperative to be rolled out from the Advisor with his/her own name then the prior approval of the draft is required from the UN Women and the respective WDD Secretary.

The Advisor will maintain the communication database that includes: all attended meeting minutes, letters to partners (Government & Civil society), all attended event reports (in briefs). Furthermore, it is mandatory that a copy of these communications is shared with UN Women.

Representation at Fora

· The Advisor is part of UN Women team and will represent UN Women in meetings at the provincial level. However prior information to the supervisor will be required.

Work plans

· The Advisor will prepare their quarterly work plans (clearly indicating the outputs and verifiable indicators) in consultation with WDD and UN Women.

· Monthly updates of the work plans along with output and verifiable indicators will be shared with UN Women.

-S/he should not be more than 60 years of age.
-Advanced university Degree in Development Studies, gender studies, anthropology, and legal studies with special focus on women issues or any other related field.
-Minimum five years experience in working with the Government, NGOs and international organizations on development issues, with strong experience in Gender and Development (GAD) issues and programmes;
-Experience in report writing, editing, communications and coordination skills in English, Punjabi and Urdu.
-Good time management and interpersonal skills.
-Extensive work experience in Social Sector focusing on promotion of women's human rights and gender equality.
-Experience in working in public sector.
-Knowledge of CEDAW, and other related international Conventions & instruments. Also, knowledge of Pakistan's all national and international commitments related to women.
-Knowledge of legislative framework in Pakistan.