BACKGROUND:

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.
The Division of Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness (SPRED), under the direct supervision of the Assistant Secretary General (ASG)/Deputy Executive Director Resource Management, Partnerships, and Sustainability, drives the areas of corporate strategy, planning, monitoring and reporting; enterprise risk management; organizational performance management; and internal governance. These elements function to strengthen of the organization’s Second Line of Defense and Governance, Risk and Compliance efforts to support UN Women’s work towards achieving the goal of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in line with the 2030 Agenda and the UN Women Strategic Plan.
The UN Women Risk Management Framework was developed as part of a corporate wide initiative to proactively support the organization’s goals and protect its reputation through the identification, mitigation and management of risks at all levels. Risk Management provides a framework for identifying events or circumstances relevant to the organization’s objectives (risks and opportunities), assessing them in terms of their likelihood and impact, determining a response strategy, and monitoring progress. By identifying and proactively addressing risks and opportunities, the organization is able create and sustain value for its stakeholders.
Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Director of the Strategy Planning, Resources & Effectiveness Division, the Enterprise Risk Manager will lead corporate efforts to further embed risk management practices across the organization while providing technical and functional support to Risk Focal Points for risk management processes. The Risk Manager will also effectively represent and communicate UN Women’s strategy and position on risk management and assist Risk Owners and Risk Focal Points with aligning risk management efforts to planning and decision making, placing risk management at the center of goal setting and achievement.
The Risk Manager will independently support management in effective risk management and compliance, thereby improving the risk culture and integrity within UN Women. This will be carried out by reviewing the adequacy of the current risk management framework and capacities across the organization, making use of recommendations made for strengthening the institutionalization of risk management. The Risk Manager will work closely with Business Process Owners and with the Risk Management Committee to ensure that there is a coherent approach to identifying systematic and thematic risks and root causes that require a corporate-level response.

DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MECHANISMS TO STRENGTHEN RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY:

• Develop and roll out guidance and knowledge management products to Risk Owners, Risk Focal Points and other relevant personnel to support the risk management approach, in collaboration with risk management focal points.
• Identify and implement consistent and effective approaches to risk governance and control-based activities in collaboration with other teams.
• Build internal capabilities and competencies related to risk management and deliver risk awareness training and capacity building initiatives, including in collaboration with other Business Process Owners.
• Lead and co-ordinate UN Women’s efforts on risk management to ensure that the organization’s interests, internal functions, external entities and networks are adequately represented.

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Accounting, Finance, Economics or Business management or 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.

EXPERIENCE:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in organizational risk management, governance, compliance or related area required.
• Experience in the development, design and enhancement of Management Information Systems is required.
• Experience with working across functions in a multi-cultural environment in order to achieve common organizational objectives is required.
• Experience in leading and managing personnel in international settings is required.
• Experience in risk and organizational change management, particularly business process review, in a non-profitable international organization is desirable.

OVERSEE AND MANAGE INITIATIVES TO ENHANCE RISK GOVERNANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY:

• Work with Regional Risk Focal Points/ Regional Strategic Planning Specialists and HQ Divisional Risk Focal Points to ensure that Strategic Note risk assessments and risk registers are completed and validated on a 6-monthly basis.
• Facilitate and/or participate in risk assessments for key business processes, high risk initiatives and large projects as requested.
• Provide technical support required to adequately identify, evaluate, mitigate, and monitor the organization’s operational and strategic risks, including by supporting the escalation of significant risks to senior management.
• Contribute to UN Women’s corporate efforts towards issuing a Statement of Internal Control by ensuring alignment between the enterprise risk framework and the Statement of Internal Control, and providing feedback on the identification, assessment and mitigation of risks in connection with this area of work.

VALIDATE DATA QUALITY FOR REPORTING PURPOSES AND LESSONS LEARNED:

• Ensure that the Management Information System supports the identification, assessment, evaluation and reporting of risks, ensuring that this is effectively and seamlessly aligned with corporate planning, monitoring and reporting processes.
• Conduct data analysis and reporting to feed into the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) reporting on compliance with ERM framework requirements and identify and support the implementation of corrective actions, as needed, to address under-performance.
• Lead efforts to ensure that risk data and information clearly represent the risk profiles of risk entities, and that escalation protocols of key risks are triggered when necessary.
• Consolidate, disaggregate and report on risk data across all country and regional offices and HQ divisions by undertaking corporate qualitative and quantitative analysis of risks in order to review and determine a risk profile for the organization and to prepare risk management reports at various levels as required.