UNCDF Jobs

The Gender-Equitable Local Development (GELD) Programme is a joint initiative that forges a partnership between UNCDF, UNDP and UN Women to support local governments in five African countries to pilot approaches to gender-equitable development and improvement of women's access to resources and services at the local level through gender-responsive planning, programming and budgeting. UNCDF, UNDP and UN Women have consolidated strengths and experience in supporting performance-based gender-responsive planning and budgeting for local development, which can be drawn from various countries all over the world. These complimentary perspectives are being brought together to generate empirical experience on gender-equitable local development that could be replicated and up-scaled. The central objective of the Programme is to construct a model that establishes linkages between planning intentions and policy outcomes in relation to achieving gender equality through equitable allocations.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Adviser (CTA), GELD; overall technical guidance from the Local Development Finance Team Leader for Africa; and the overall direction of the Regional Head, UNCDF Regional Office for Africa, the Programme Specialist, GELD is responsible for monitoring, documenting and analyzing GELD Programme implementation and for supporting the CTA, GELD in specific areas, as specified in this Job Description.

On technical and policy matters pertaining to the GELD Programme, the Programme Specialist GELD, under the direct technical guidance of the CTA, GELD and overall technical guidance from the Local Development Finance Team Leader for Africa, works closely with UN Women’s Regional Technical Advisers and UNCDF’s Regional Advisers. (S)he also works closely with, and is supported by, UNCDF’s Regional Portfolio Specialists on relevant portfolio management matters pertaining to the GELD Programme. S/he receives services and support on operational issues from the UNCDF Regional Office for Africa and occasionally from UNCDF Headquarters. S/he actively supports the CTA, GELD in ensuring that the comparative advantages of all GELD partner agencies are understood by the UNDP country offices, other UN agencies and development partners.

The selected candidate will be deployed as soon as possible and will be expected to serve for up to 364 consecutive days.

This is a Development Project funded position.

Summary of key functions:

• Provides support to the knowledge management and advocacy work to be carried out by the Programme, including gathering, synthesizing, packaging and disseminating knowledge on gender-equitable local development within and outside UNCDF;
• Supports the CTA in the follow-up, monitoring and reporting of project activities, progress achieved and issues/challenges affecting project implementation;
• Provides support to GELD’s CTA on other relevant programme initiatives and activities.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: Provides support to the knowledge management and advocacy work to be carried out by the Programme, including gathering synthesizing,  packaging and disseminating knowledge on gender-equitable local development within and outside UNCDF, focusing on achieving the following results:

• Under the guidance of UNCDF Head of Knowledge Management, Policy and Advocacy, and in coordination with the CTA, GELD, identification, documentation and incorporation of lessons learned from global, regional and country-level pilot experiences in GELD for improved public financing systems’ reform, and policy and regulatory reform, and as input into corporate learning for UNCDF and UNDP’s policy and programme support to gender-equitable local development;
• Effective support provided to the CTA, GELD in setting up a knowledge management mechanism and advocacy programme; 
• Effective support provided to the CTA in ensuring that information gathered through regular monitoring /reporting processes, feeds into GELD’s knowledge management process (e.g. in the documentation of lessons learned from local pilots);
• Organization and conducting of relevant (internal and external) knowledge-sharing activities/events, and conducting of field visits of relevance for evidence-gathering and knowledge management purposes, adequately supported; 
• Effective support to the CTA in the preparation of GELD publications, policy notes and other relevant documentation for external audiences or for wider dissemination;
• Effective support provided to the CTA in the identification and development of strategic knowledge partnerships, in line with programmatic objectives and expected outcomes;
• Relevant GELD documentation is regularly uploaded, in a timely manner, in dedicated websites/portals (e.g. Teamworks);
• Knowledge-sharing and learning activities among national project staff adequately supported.

MONITORING AND REPORTING. Supports the CTA in the follow-up, monitoring and reporting of project activities, progress achieved and issues/challenges affecting implementation, focusing on achieving the following results:

• Effective support to the CTA, GELD in developing (programme-wide and country-specific) monitoring and reporting mechanisms and tools, when required, in coordination with regional M&E officer(s); advising on whether existing monitoring framework(s) require(s) to be revised / updated; and if so, ensuring, inter alia, the definition of clear programmatic indicators; as well as cost-effective and verifiable data-collection mechanisms (means of verification, data sources);
• Reviews and analysis of (programme-wide and country-specific) annual and quarterly work plans, under the guidance of the CTA, and in consultation with relevant partner agencies, ensuring that clear and appropriate performance targets are established;
• Effective support provided to the CTA in ensuring that planned project activities are carried out, to the extent possible, according to standards, on budget, and in a timely manner; and in monitoring overall implementation of country-level and programme-wide AWPs; 
• Provision of technical and backstopping support to  national coordinators and national and local partners for the conduction of monitoring and reporting activities, with a view to ensure that programme-wide and relevant country-specific monitoring frameworks / indicators / targets are adequately adhered to, and that programme-wide tools and templates for reporting are effectively adopted; 
• Provision of quality-control to progress reports submitted by national coordinators; ensuring that results reported on are well-documented, that information / data provided is verifiable and reliable; and that the overall quality of the content of submitted reports meets required standards; 
• Effective support provided to the CTA in consolidating, in a succinct manner, reports submitted by national coordinators into programme-wide progress report(s); in aggregating data / indicators when required; in providing analytical and write-up support for the drafting of the programme-wide progress report(s) for submission to the Steering Committee and external partners; including the narrative and financial sections of the report;
• Effective support provided to the CTA in the drafting of other relevant reports - including donor reports, other substantive reports that the CTA/Steering Committee might request;
• Regular information provided to GELD’s Steering Committee on project achievements, delivery and other areas of project accountability; through, inter alia, the submission of internal quarterly progress reports and oral debriefings in Steering Committee meetings by the Programme Specialist, when required;
• Timely responses to enquiries issued by Steering Committee members, or by other concerned staff members (UNCDF and UN Women) pertaining to GELD’s implementation and progress achieved;
• Under the guidance of the CTA, technical support to the organization and conduction of field visits of relevance for monitoring/oversight purposes.

SUPPORT TO THE CTA: Provides additional support to GELD’s CTA on other relevant programme initiatives and activities, focusing on achieving the following results:

• Building on monitoring results and lessons learned from project implementation, identification of programme-development opportunities for GELD, and support in the preparation of project amendments / project documents for approval;
• Building on monitoring results and lessons learned from project implementation, support provided to improve performance and operational aspects of the programme, including facilitating project implementation according to its annual work plan, ensuring  achievement of outputs, financial reporting and compliance with other reporting arrangements;
• Effective support provided for the management of reviews and evaluations (including external reviews and evaluations);
• Support provided to the CTA in the development of effective partnerships with UN Women, UNDP, regional and country offices, and other partners;
• Support provided to the CTA in maintaining effective and efficient relationships at the operational level with key strategic partners, including Least Developed Country (LDC) governments, research and academic institutions, civil society and the private sector;
• Support provided to the CTA in dialogue and outreach to key external constituencies and partners,  to increase visibility and awareness of partner agencies’ comparative advantages and strategic niches in local development finance and gender-equitable local development within LDCs;  
• Support provided to the CTA in documentation and sharing of partnership interactions as inputs into corporate business intelligence.

Impact of Results:

Results of the work of the Programme Specialist, GELD have a major impact on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the GELD Programme. They have a major impact on achieving organizational targets for data collection and analysis, monitoring, reporting, project implementation, and knowledge management for the global, regional and country-level GELD Programme activities. Results have an impact on implementing agencies’ reputation as reliable business partners in local development at large, and in gender-equitable local development in particular, leading to increases in LDC coverage and size of the GELD Programme in the region for which he/she is responsible. 

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all persons fairly without favoritism;
• Shows strong corporate commitment;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF and UNDP.

Functional:

• Demonstrated broad knowledge of development issues, especially in the areas of gender and development within the context of decentralization framework. Knowledge of development issues in the areas of local public finance / local governance will be considered an asset;
• Comprehensive understanding of the project management cycle and managing for results;
• Strong knowledge of project analysis tools, documentation and dissemination of project results;
• Strong communication skills, particularly written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and results.

Managerial/Behavioral:

• Builds trust in interactions with others;
• Takes initiative and calculated risk;
• Displays positive attitude;
• Takes decisions.

• Builds strong client relationships;
• Builds strong relationships with external actors;
• Communicates clearly and convincingly.

• Produces quality outputs in a timely manner;
• Analyzes problems carefully and logically, leading to fact-based and practical recommendations.

• Shares knowledge and experience with colleagues;
• Actively builds deep knowledge in gender-equitable local development area;
• Makes valuable contributions to substantive/process areas;
• Promotes knowledge management in the Unit/Office.

Education: 

• A Master’s degree in social sciences, development, public administration, business administration, gender, economics, or related discipline.

Experience: 

• A minimum of five (5) years experience in progressively more responsible positions in the development field (programme and operations), preferably in LDCs and preferably with the United Nations/UNCDF/UN Women/UNDP, in the areas of gender and development. Knowledge of development issues in the areas of local public finance / local governance will be considered an asset;
• Demonstrated experience in project monitoring, reporting and/or knowledge management.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in English and French is required;
• Fluency in Portuguese is considered an asset.

Note:
The applicants are strongly encouraged to upload (as a *pdf attachment) the completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.docx. Completion of all the fields is required.