Private Sector & Value Chain Officer

In Afghanistan, UN Women works in four thematic areas i.e., Governance and Participation, Ending Violence Against Women, Women Economic Empowerment, and Women Peace and Security (WPS). On Women Peace and Security, UN Women is catalysing the UN system and supporting Afghanistan to deliver on the women, peace and security agenda and enhanced capacities and opportunities for gender equality advocates to participate in peace processes at all levels. UN Women ACO assists the Government of Afghanistan to implement their commitments on women, peace and security and more women and civil society organizations and those actors with gender equality agendas, influence peace, and security processes. UN Women’s priority outcomes for WPS in Afghanistan are the following: (i) supporting an enabling environment for the implementation of WPS commitments; (ii) ensuring that women are represented and meaningfully participate in all peace and security, peacebuilding and recovery processes, including formal and informal peace negotiations processes; and (iii) supporting gender-responsive security sector and justice reforms. Under the overall guidance from the Country Representative and Deputy Representative, the WPS Analyst will report directly to the Head of WPS Thematic Area and will support engagement with civil society, as well as with government counterparts and support coordinating, and monitoring of UN Women interventions implemented through civil society organizations and selected government institutions.

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors Afghanistan is one of the world’s most complex emergencies, and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Afghan people are grappling with the multi-fold impact of conflict, poverty, economic decline, and natural disasters. In this context, Afghan women and girls face unique vulnerabilities and require urgent support as gender inequality is interwoven with conflict dynamics and humanitarian needs. It is essential that Afghan women and girls can continue to shape the development of their country, and that their gains are protected. UN Women remains fully committed to supporting Afghan women and girls and to putting them at the center of the global response to the crisis in Afghanistan.

Despite the restrictions in many areas of work and public spaces, Afghan women continue to support their families and contribute to local economy through their micro and small businesses. Economic Empowerment and engagement of women in meaningful economic activities is one of the pillars of work of UN Women Afghanistan. UN Women supports Afghan women Entrepreneurs through various skills building, training, access to finance, grants or asset support initiatives while advocating for them to ease the barriers they face. UN Women engages with Private Sector to create employment and gender responsive work environment for women. UN Women is now looking forward to expanding its engagement with Private Sector as well as supporting women’s businesses along identified value chains and promote access to finance through various financial institutions.

UN Women is seeking for a qualified International UN Volunteer who will provide specific technical support in the areas as outlined in the Task Description with special focus on monitoring and reporting.

Under the overall guidance of the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Programme Manager, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

Private Sector Engagement and Partnerships
• Map and identify private sector partners across key sectors such as (agriculture, handicraft, Services, Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
• Develop Private Sector Engagement Strategy aligned with UN Women’s priorities
• Build and maintain partnerships with relevant stakeholders including business companies, financial institutions, chamber of commerce and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
• Organize networking events, business forums and Business to Business (B2B) meetings to promote collaboration
• Develop Concepts for collaboration, Support development of partnership agreements, MOUs
Capacity Building for Private Sector Actors
• Based on Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs), design training modules for private sector partners specially focusing on:
• Inclusive hiring, gender-sensitive workplace environment
• Gender Responsive Procurement
Strengthen women owned businesses in selected Value Chains
• Design and conduct assessments to identify gaps in supporting women entrepreneurs along the different stages of selected value chain with high potential for women’s participation
• Lead designing targeted training on value addition, quality standards and certification requirements
• Facilitate women entrepreneurs’ integration into value chain by creating linkages with buyers, suppliers and service providers
• Provide technical support for formation of women-led companies and business associations to enhance collective actions and bargaining power
Program/Project concept development
• Contribute to designing of joint initiatives with other UN Agencies and Development Partners focusing on Women’s Business Incubation and Acceleration and Private Sector Engagement
• Reviewing of joint projects and programs and cross-pillar initiatives to ensure WEE initiative integration and quality assurance
Knowledge Management
• Develop knowledge products and success stories from WEE programs
• Create and maintain national level relevant gender specific data on Afghanistan Economy through regularly updated factsheet
Monitoring and Reporting
• Develop Monitoring framework and tools to track progress in private sector engagement, value chain and training outcomes
• Guide field monitoring and reporting to track progress and lesson learnt
• Lead Annual and Quarterly reporting for programs responsible
• Document success stories, lesson learned and best practices on Private Sector Engagement and Support to women entrepreneurs through incubation and acceleration
• Provide recommendations for programing to cross-pillar initiatives and integrated programming
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers Programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UN Volunteer and external publications and take active part in UN Volunteer activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results, and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UN Volunteer publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UN Volunteer Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UN Volunteer Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible