PCAsia is seeking an active and motivated candidate for “Gender, Peace & Security” Manager Position to work with a high profile and dynamic organization.
PARLIAMENTARY CENTRE OF ASIA
The Parliamentary Centre of Asia (PCAsia), established in early 2021 in Phnom Penh, is the successor of the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC) founded in 2011, a transition that reflects an expansion of activities with Parliaments across Southeast Asia. The mandate of PCAsia is therefore to contribute to the strengthening of Southeast Asian Parliaments through capacity building of their staff, based on the demands or requests of each Parliament within a framework of south-south and north-south cooperation. It draws on the expertise of national, regional, and international partners (Parliaments and research centres).
Role of department
The training of Parliamentary staff is at the core of PCAsia’s mission, and the Capacity Development (CD) department is responsible for carrying out this work. CD handles curriculum and syllabus design for the training programs, and its staff provides practical training according to their respective expertise for most of the many training programs. With the transition to blended learning and learning by distance, CD staff is also called to increasingly play a facilitation role, working with external experts to design and deliver content suitable for digital platforms, then working with trainees to complete the related assignments.
Other responsibilities include researching, the mentoring and quality control of research products produced by the trained parliamentary researchers, and providing quality control technical advice with regards to newly-trained parliamentary staff members when back working in their institutions of provenance in applying their newly-acquired skills.
Position description
The Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda remains critically important in a world that struggles with complex conflict—be it violent state-based warfare, civil war, internal conflict, or violent extremism. National Action Plans (NAPs) on women, peace, and security have been created in about 80 countries to establish priorities for government agencies and other organizations to work toward. Sectoral strategies on gender, justice, or national security in other nations have taken gender-sensitive peace and security priorities into account. Parliamentary support for the women, peace, and security agenda has been uneven, with many not knowing about or not getting involved in national implementation initiatives.
As representative of the people, Parliamentarians have an obligation to guarantee that everyone, including women and girls, can live a life that is safe, secure, and peaceful and that they have equal opportunities to create societies that are safe and secure. To these ends, legislators can accomplish these goals by utilizing their authority in the legislature to promote laws, budgets, policies, and initiatives/programmes.
The Programme Manager for Gender, Peace and Security is thus responsible for conceptualizing activities, trainings and drafting of a curriculum on gender equality for parliamentary staff that play crucial role in supporting the Member of Parliaments (MPs) in performing their three functions. To some lesser extent the Programme Manager is also responsible for conceptualizing knowledge/ experience sharing mechanisms for MPs in the subject of gender equality and its mainstreaming in the parliament.
The Programme Manager is also expected to develop a plan to integrate gender into the other training activities of the organization and cover all components of the PCAsia capacity development programmes.
The Manager is expected to conduct training in these areas for both PCAsia staff and external trainees. In addition, the Programme Manager is expected to identify potential candidates from the trainees that are suitable for PCAsia’s Training of Trainers (ToT) programme so that knowledge on this subject can be delivered to parliamentary staff in their own language (i.e., Laos).
Main Responsibilities and Tasks
1/ Management
Manage annual work planning on conceptualizing and designing the PCAsia Gender Peace and Security training, and its implementation including its integration in PCAsia’s cross-cutting themes such as (parliamentary) budgeting, Parliamentary Research, Parliamentary Diplomacy and Environment and Climate Change (ECC) to ensure smooth team spirit for effective and productive delivery;
Prepare reports on activities, outputs and outcome of the Gender Peace Security programme in a timely manner with quality that meets the expectation of parliamentary clients;
Provide technical support to PCAsia’ efforts in capacity development of AIPA member parliaments and their effort to implement national development strategies on addressing gender inequality;
Use a gender equality and human rights-based approach (HRBA), including a focus on youth development, in the design, delivery and evaluation of all activities in order to effectively develop the capacity of parliaments in the region on these subjects;
Manage the application of a monitoring system to track progress on programme results and indicators;
Knowledge management, including developing guidance on aspects of women’s access to justice in post-conflict settings for dissemination and use in the Parliaments across Southeast Asia context; and
Provide overall supervision to the programme team and serve as expert on WPS.
2/ Training
Develop contextualised curriculum on Gender and the Human Rights Based Approach for “stand alone” training for parliamentary and PCAsia staff as well as being integrated into PCAsia’s various training programmes and research outputs. Provide training to PCAsia staff as well as trainees from AIPA Parliaments on GM/HRBA.
Develop the training curriculum for ToT on Gender Mainstreaming and conduct the ToT.
Develop and deliver training on issues relevant to WAIPA/AIPA
Ensure that programme staff are trained on gender equality issue to the most practicable standard possible.
Provide the necessary material and communicate, as necessary, with current and future stakeholders.
Organize periodic consultations with key stakeholders, women leaders, CSOs, human rights experts, UN agencies, to gather inputs on programme design, as necessary.
Collaborate with other sections within the Capacity Development Department in producing research products for clients including writing material to be published on PCAsia’s website.
Conduct research or prepare analytical reports, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, talking points and others as requested by the PCAsia senior management/ the Executive Director or parliamentary clients.
Liaise with parliamentary clients to assess their needs and obtain feedback on Gender Peace Security and other related topics.
4/ Others
Participate in PCAsia meetings as requested by the PCAsia senior management.
Provide expert input to the PCAsia training programmes, papers, and products as requested by PCAsia senior management.
Perform other tasks as requested by the PCAsia senior management and/or the Executive Director.
Comply with the PCAsia Manual of Procedures.
Provide technical support to AIPA member parliaments and knowledge building to raise the profile of gender mainstreaming and HRBA through PCAsia’s programme activities and report on these.
Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience
Essential
Master’s degree, or higher, in a relevant field such as gender studies, human rights, social or political science, international development, international relations, or other relevant fields, preferably from an overseas university.
A least five years of experience managing gender programme at the national and/or regional/international level where analysing and integrating the perspective of gender equality and human rights in the context of the parliamentary framework, and a strong background in research and analysis, preferably with Asia pacific region experience.
Strong people management and leadership skills, implementation, monitoring skills or curriculum development and ability to create a productive working environment.
Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them with knowledge of results-based management.
Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform senior management and strategic decision-making.
Teaching, including curriculum development, management and mentoring skills.
Experience in working in a multi – cultural environment.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.
General knowledge and computer skills sufficient to produce work products in the use of standard office software, such as MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point) in English and where appropriate.
Excellent oral communication and written skills in English
Able to communicate and write in Lao or any other AIPA member Parliaments’ language is a plus.
Willingness and capacity to travel to the provinces or undertake overseas assignment in AIPA member countries/abroad.
Desirable
Previous experience working in international organizations, government, parliament, or other political organizations in Southeast Asia region or beyond.
Have a basic understanding of parliament and the parliamentary working system at national and regional levels, including the work of the AIPA Secretariat is a plus.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
Interested applicants should send a cover letter and CV to [email protected] and indicates a with “Gender, Peace & Security” for the PCAsia in the subject line and salary expectation in the email. The application deadline is 30 September 2024. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
At PCAsia, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. PCAsia recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and national origin. People from minority groups, indigenous groups, and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.
PCAsia has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, including any kind of harassment and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, be treated and undergo confidence reference and background checks.