Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as  reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description

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 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.  Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan and provides cutting edge policy advisory to Government and other partners, including on innovation.

In line with the priorities expressed in the Strategic Plan, embracing innovative practices is a foundation for the next generation UNDP. Innovation refers both to UNDP’s capacity to renew its own programmatic approach to respond to fast changes in the external environment and to UNDP being able to bring transformational capability to government counterparts. The Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) leads the process of embedding innovation in UNDP’s work, working closely with the GPN, Regional Bureaus, Country Offices and other internal and external stakeholders.

An important role of the unit is generating intelligence from the innovation work that UNDP is undertaking across the globe to identify emerging trends, anticipate and shape demand from government counterparts, inform programming and ensure overall coherence of the innovation portfolio.

Institutional Arrangement:

• The Consultant will report to, and be directly supervised by the Global Advisor for innovation of the Strategic Innovation Unit;
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop, and mobile phone and service plan.  UNDP Istanbul will provide a working station, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.;
• The consultant shall submit to the Supervisor a monthly progress report on the status of the implementation of tasks;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

The Innovation and Design Specialist will perform the following functions:

Strategic innovation policy and program support to Country Offices (COs), other business units and clients that is focused on:

• Horizon scanning of the emerging trends with potential implications for development and around the specific issues that COs are exploring with or have a need for;
• Explore new methods and identify partners who are testing new ways of engaging with complex policy problems and dealing with uncertainty, with a particular focus on systems thinking, portfolio approaches, ways to understand power dynamics and involve marginalized groups
• Provide support to Country Offices as they embark on journeys to revisit their portfolios and design new ones

Design and visualization of various products and processes that the team is involved in either directly or in supporting clients (Country Offices, partners, etc):

• Develop compelling visual products (e.g. diagrams, system maps, data visualizations, animations) that can help senior management make sense of emerging trends from innovation work;
• Help develop a distinctive visual identity for the innovation unit artifacts: templates, training materials, visualizations, interactive sessions, timelines, etc;
• Generate new (digital, visual, analogue) forms in which to represent SIU’s work both internally and externally.
• Manage external engagement interfaces (eg. website, Medium channel)

Generating intelligence from the experiences in the field:

• Identify and summarise emerging patterns from COs work, looking for ways to foster connections and ensure greater coherence of the innovation portfolio over time;
• Generate intelligence that can help guide the work of senior management and embed innovation work in the broader GPN agenda;
• Identify opportunities for translating experiences from one CO to others and explore, and identify means of delivering learning at speed and scale; 
• Workshop design and facilitation, ensuring that intelligence informs decision making across different levels of the organization;
• Work out loud in an effort to share learnings to the broader strategic innovation community, create potential engagement opportunities.

Deliverables:

• Providing technical support to COs, regional bureaus and other business units
• Horizon scanning and identification of partners, organization of learning sessions to share the findings
• Design and production of templates, data visualizations, intelligence reports, visual identity
• Monthly summaries of innovation community activities – identification of patterns and intelligence reports for senior management
• Production of blogs, podcasts, social media content
• Monitoring contracts, webinars, calls and meetings.

Competencies

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical:

• Ability to work on different levels, from zooming out for strategic view to zooming in for context and emerging signals from the ground;
• Ability to translate complex, abstract ideas and concepts into practical exercises and accessible tools for learning and decision making;
• Ability to bring bridges and nurture networks of relationships- developing shared understanding, creating linkages between nonobvious partners, generating appreciation and understanding of the value of the new;
• Service oriented attitude;
• Empathy – being able to put oneself in shoes of decision makers and colleagues undergoing process of change, unlearning or learning a new way of doing work ;
• Curiosity- continued, persistent curiosity in order to identify new trends, make sense of emerging patterns;
• Persistence- persevering in face of barriers to change, cultural, organizational and other conditions that go counter to emerging trends.

Functional:

Communications

• Able to communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner;
• Ability to plan and deliver communication initiatives that make an impact, persuades intended audiences, shapes perceptions of the UNDP and creates positive demand for UNDP's value propositions.

Professionalism

• Capable of working in a high- pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills;
• Exercises the highest level of responsibility and be able to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.

Teamwork

• Works well in a team;
• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Academic Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial, graphic or service design, architecture or urban planning, environmental science, transition or complexity science, engineering, communications of related fields is required (master’s level university degree in the same fields will be an asset).

Minimum years of relevant Work experience:

• Minimum 7 years of experience with bachelor’s degree (or 5 years of experience with Master’s degree) in international development and/or public sector design and innovation work.

Required skills and competencies:

• Professional knowledge and experience in social and public innovation approaches such as design thinking/human centered design, co-creation, systems thinking, ethnography, future thinking and foresight, and data analysis;
• Ability to translate new trends, emerging ideas into actionable intelligence;
• Experience in design and visualization;
• Experience in providing innovation support to clients in public and private sector.

Required Language(s) (at working level):

• Fluency in written and spoken English;
• Fluency in written and spoken Spanish and/or French is an asset.