Programme Specialist (Africa Regional Team) Home-based

Background

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Job Purpose And Organizational Context

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. Working in support of the Regional Bureaus, the GPN also aims to provide rapid and integrated support to UNDP country offices, combining policy advice, technical expertise, financial resources, agile tools and procedures, and partnerships. Within the GPN, the Crisis Bureau guides UNDP’s corporate crisis and fragility-related strategies and vision for crisis prevention, response and recovery and leads corporate support in response to crisis.

Support to country operations is coordinated by the Country Support Management Team (CSMT), working closely within the GPN, with the GPN Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement Team, the GPN SDG Integrator Team and GPN technical teams. The overall goal of the CSMT is to ensure strong, coherent and coordinated support to country offices (COs), as it relates to crisis, fragility and prevention, within the full spectrum of the GPN’s service offer. The CSMT steers the effective interaction of GPN Teams, Regional Bureau/Regional Hub and CO counterparts for integrated country support. It ensures that UNDP corporate support is provided before, during and after crises (in line with UNDP Standard Operating Procedures during the response phase). The CSMT aims to provide regular analytical updates in consultation with Regional Bureaus to support early warning and early action. It also supports and coordinates the GPN crisis response capacity and takes the lead in a UNDP-wide approach to strengthen UNDP capacity in preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from crisis.

Under the supervision of the Team Leader for Africa, the Programme Specialist coordinates the Crisis Bureau interventions in Africa in close collaboration with GPN Teams and the Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA). S/he allocates resources in line with the GPN vision and agreed priorities and to provide strong, coherent and coordinated advisory service to COs in the Africa Region.

Duties And Responsibilities

Implementation of agreed crisis response support to selected countries in the Africa region

• Strategic country support coordination and timely delivery of technicaladvices , programme and operational facilitation/coordination
• Ensure timely application of agreed business processes to guarantee predictable country support for COs on crisis prevention, response and recovery issues.
• Stay abreast of developing crisis in Africa and identify/understand the regional and country support needs as it relates to crisis and fragility.
• Facilitate prioritisation exercise with RBA to determine regional priorities, taking into account local needs, capacities and resources, as well as corporate and partnership crisis related commitments.
• Coordinate CB’s review of Country Programme Documents in priority countries in consultation with all GPN Teams, ensuring that programmes are crisis/conflict sensitive and reflect crisis-related priorities in fragile contexts.
• Facilitate the rollout of the new Standard Operating Procedures, that operationalize the Crisis Bureau offer, for the African region.
• Lead effective coordination across the GPN to ensure the provision of crisis and fragility-related synchronized, consistent, coherent and comprehensive support and advisory services. Participate in UNDP multidisciplinary teams to contribute to the formulation of national and regional strategies in post-conflict settings.
• Working with the GPN Teams, contribute to ensuring quality assurance and relevance of crisis prevention, response, stabilisation and recovery programmes and ensuring alignment with corporate strategies and policies, through the review of substantive inputs to established country programming processes (e.g. CCA, UNDAF, CPD, Integrated Strategic Framework and other joint analysis and programming tools).
• Ensure continuous liaison with RBA, Regional Hubs and GPN focal points at the technical level to ensure alignment with regional priorities integration of the Regional Bureaus’ inputs into GPN/CB country support and coherence with related development practices.
• Ensure that the country information databases are up to date on crisis and fragility related matters and informed by steady observation and monitoring of events, regular communications with RBA, internal analysis and outside specialized source.
• Facilitate initiatives to strengthen the capacity of COs for crisis preparedness, response and recovery through organizational learning activities in collaboration with GPN Teams (e.g. training packages and modules, workshops, web-based materials, webinars etc.).
• Coordinate the continuous collation of lessons learnt and best practices in crisis preparedness, response and recovery.
• Timely management and coordination of crisis response
• Advise on recovery programming in times of crisis, the implementation of timely, sequenced and appropriate UNDP response and recovery activities, safe and sustainable response actions and timely and commensurate funding allocations.
• Ensure the secretariat function of temporary support structures, timely organization of coordination meetings, information sharing and proper record of decisions.
• Facilitate the determination of Level Declaration, composition of the SURGE Planning Team, deployment of First Responders, selection of SURGE Advisors, etc.
• Coordinate the preparation of all background material submitted to the Crisis Board, including the Exigency Memo, the SURGE Plan, Business Cases and After-Action Reviews.
• Advise ont crisis response allocations and track timely delivery of the funds.
• Contribute to the establishment of the Crisis Management Support Team when L2 or L3 crisis have been declared.
• Follow UNDP rules and procedures and agreed internal business processes for the sourcing, selection, deployment, management and exit of advisor deployed in response to crisis.
• Advise on country level post-crisis assessment processes (e.g. recovery and peacebuilding assessments / post disaster needs assessments) from a process design and coordination perspective, working closely with GPN technical teams, RBA.
• Facilitate the development of recovery plans, recovery frameworks, strategic response plans, etc.
• Facilitate the selection, contracting and supervision of consultants to support programme development in the Africa Team.

Advice the rollout of the CB integrated country support

• Coordinate Country Support Groups (CSG) as temporary teams leading the time-bound integrated support to a Country Office. CSG will are leading on planning and operationalization of Integrated Country Support, often reflected in integrated action plans which articulate policy, technical, and financial support.
• Facilitate the development and approval process of action plans as well as the implementation process.
• Ensure documentation of learning, through After-Action Review or Learning Loops, to strengthen and adjust process.

Knowledge Development and Management

• Ensure regular reporting of on ongoing support and post-response assessments
• Actively contribute to community of practices to ensure wide dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from the implementation of programmes related to crisis and fragility in Africa;
• Influence and promote the advance of policy dialogue in thematic relevant to the Africa regions such as resilience, conflict prevention and stabilisation through synthesis of knowledge emerging from the implementation of programmes in-country;
• Facilitate the knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned in the implementation of programming in priority countries, following L1, L2 and L3 crisis declaration and in line with guidelines and corporate tools, including After Action Reviews.
• Faciliatete the capacity development of UNDP staff in the Africa region in application of tools and practices related to crisis and fragility.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The incumbent reports to Team Leader for Africa, Country Support Management Team (CSMT), Crisis Bureau, UNDP.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

• Business Direction and Strategy – System Thinking:
• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
• Business Management – Partnerships Management:
• Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.

• Business Direction & Strategy – Strategic Thinking:
• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.
• Business Direction & Strategy – Effective Decision Making:
• Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources.
• Business Direction & Strategy – Negotiation and Influence:
• Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates “win-win” situations.
• Communication – Advocacy strategy and implementation:
• Ability to create and implement advocacy strategies which lead to impactful change.
• Business Development – Knowledge Generation:
• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need.

Education

Required Skills and Experience

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent), in International Development, Law, International Affairs, Business Administration, Development Economics, or other relevant field is required Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree)in the above mentioned fields of study, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years (with masters degree) or 7 years (with bachelors degree) of professional work experience coordinating policy and programming support to advance sustainable agenda at international level.

Required Skills

• Demonstrated ability of excellent writing, negotiating and communication skills and ability to mobilize support from a wide range of partners.
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc), database packages, and web-based management systems such as ERP.
• Demonstrated experience in crisis contexts.

Desired Skills

• Experience and knowledge of UNDP’s crisis response, prevention and recovery mandate, policy and tools is desirable.
• Knowledge and experience in crisis prevention, preparedness, response and recovery particularly in the field is an asset.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency and proficient in English is required;
• Working knowledge in French and other UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

Disclaimer

Important information for US Permanent Residents (‘Green Card’ holders)

Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.

UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

Applicant Information About UNDP Rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Non-discrimination

UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

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