By 
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.
Women in East and Southern Africa represent the most deprived group of the population in spite of their paramount social and economic role. They have limited access to, and control over critical resources, as a result of social, cultural and economic norms. UN Women’s programmatic work to support women’s economic empowerment in the region is centered around three pillars: (i) Improving women’s access to climate resilient agricultural value chains; (ii) Promoting and strengthening women entrepreneurship; and (ii) Enhancing women’s income security and social protection.
COVID 19 hit East and Southern Africa at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020. The pandemic has exacerbated existing gender inequalities in economic opportunities across Eat and Southern Africa where most people earn their livelihoods through the informal economy. The shock triggered by COVID-19 came at time when the region’s economy was already plagued by rising income inequality, financial fragility and mounting debt, and limited fiscal space by Governments. The socio-economic impact of the pandemic affected women disproportionally in the region as a result of their overrepresentation among very small businesses, and informal and vulnerable workers. The lockdown measures have also increased the unpaid care burden of the region or rates of Gender Based Violence against women’s and girls.
To respond to the crisis, Governments across the region are spending significant resources to provide immediate support measures and to boost economic recovery through ‘fiscal stimulus’ packages. It is important to ensure that adopted economic stimulus and recovery package are gender responsive and address equity gaps. UN Women has developed a range of policy tools to support Governments in identifying and addressing the gender impacts of the pandemic, including one on “How to Assess and Engender Fiscal Stimulus Packages to Respond to the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19”.
UN Women, with support from the Government of Korea, is launching the programme “Engendering Fiscal Stimulus Packages and Recovery Efforts Adopted in Response to the COVID-19 Health and Economic crises” to support Governments in East and Southern Africa in engendering fiscal stimulus packages through direct advice and technical assistance, as well as advocacy and policy dialogue. UN Women is seeking to engage the services of a feminist economist to serve as Programme Specialist to provide substantive leadership and coordination for the duration of this project (one year).
Reporting to the Policy Specialist, WEE and the Representative UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office, the Programme Specialist is responsible for coordinating the programme “Engendering Fiscal Stimulus Packages and Recovery Efforts” which includes coordinating relationships with national partners and stakeholders, monitoring and reporting, and managing the finances and personnel of the portfolio. The Programme Specialist will act as National Economist Specialist in South Africa Office and directly support Mozambique and Uganda and other countries in the region with gender-responsive macro-economic analysis as needed.
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