UNDP Jobs

Following Samoa’s national elections in March 2011, the Government was returned to parliament with a substantial
majority, but for the first time an official Opposition was also formed within Parliament. Both the Government and
the Opposition have indicated a strong commitment to utilising Parliament as a place for debate, discussion and oversight.
In this context, the time appears ripe for a parliamentary support project to be implemented which will work with all MPs
to strengthen their capacity to use parliamentary processes to more effectively engage with national development issues.
Accordingly, the Samoa Parliamentary Strengthening Project aims to work with (i) MPs directly (Outputs 1 and 2) and (ii)
the Parliamentary Secretariat (Outputs 2-4) to strengthen the capacity of Samoa’s MPs to more effectively and
accountability promote and progress Samoa’s national development priorities and the achievement of the MDGs.

The Project includes a strong partnership framework, noting in particular the existing twinned Parliament relationship
between the Parliaments of Samoa and the Australian State of Tasmania and Australian Parliament, as well as the
commitment of a range of UN agencies to work with the Samoan Parliament. At the end of this Project, it is envisaged
that Members will have a stronger sense of the importance of their role “as parliamentarians” and are capacitated, and
sustainably provided with support from the Parliamentary Secretariat, to more effectively use parliamentary processes
to progress a national vision for development and achievement of the MDGs. The Samoa Parliamentary Strengthening
Project will be implemented, under the umbrella of the MDGs Acceleration Programme, with financial support of the
Government of Samoa and AUSAID, thus underpinning the importance of increasing the awareness of and ownership of
the Samoan legislators of the process of MDG achievement. 

The Chief Technical Advisor / Project Manager (CTA-PM) will have primary responsibility for managing and supporting
implementation of the Project and achievement of its outputs. The CTA-PM will form two roles, namely: (1) providing
technical advice to key local parliamentary stakeholders (MPs, Clerk, Parliamentary staff) in support of their capacity
development; and (2) managing the implementation of the Project, including developing and implementing annual work
plans and budgets, managing procurements and recruitments and ensuring proper financial and narrative reporting.
The CTA-PM will be supported by the UNDP Samoa Multi-Country Office, based in Apia and the UNDP Pacific Centre based
in Suva. The current budget for the Project is approximately $860,000 over three years. 

Policy advice, capacity development and technical assistance:

• Implement the Project based on UNDP procedures, rules and regulations as well as the strategies outlined in the project document.
• Work closely with the Parliamentary Secretariat, Samoa Government counterparts and UNDP on technical aspects of the project, in particular, to progress capacity development of parliamentary staff and upskilling of MPs.
• Provide substantive technical guidance and support on this parliamentary development project, including undertaking all activities identified in the project work-plans to be completed by the CTA him/herself and for which external support has not been identified through national/international consultants.

Partnership building and relationship management:

• Adopt a service based approach to managing relationships with key clients, in particular, the Speaker, MPs and Clerk of Parliament.
• Develop strong relationships with key parliamentary partners locally, including the Attorney General’s Office, Auditor General, media, civil society.
• Develop and manage strong cooperative relationships with other regional parliamentary service provides, in particular the Australian Parliament, Tasmanian twinned Parliament and New Zealand Parliament, as well as other UN agencies and the UNDP Pacific Centre.
• Assist in furthering ideals and values of volunteerism through linking up with local volunteer groups.

Project and budget Management:

• Coordinate and plan for the delivery of project inputs; including international experts, national experts,
  training and equipment, and sub-contracts.
• Draft TORs for project activities and assist with recruitment of any project staff through close liaison with the
  Parliamentary Secretariat and UNDP.
• Produce project progress reports as identified in the Project Documents in relation to Monitoring & Evaluation,
  including quarterly financial reporting and maintaining the project budget in liaison with the Parliamentary Secretariat and UNDP.
• Manage all project staff including identifying training needs and providing such training or where necessary
  helping to identify courses or providers of training.
• Support the Project Board and Project Oversight Committee, including drafting the Agenda and Minutes and
  ensuring all other documentation is in order.

Quality control and assurance:

• Assist in documenting outstanding project experiences for dissemination to all stakeholders, including national policymakers, planners and donors.
• Monitor and assist the delivery of inputs to achieve outputs according to UNDP procedures and produce quarterly-costed work plans for approval by UNDP.
  

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’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.

Functional:

• Demonstrated practical knowledge and experience in parliamentary development and working with members of parliaments, parliamentary secretariats, and committees in a developing country context.
• Knowledge and working experience on advocacy and mainstreaming gender in parliamentary work and/or development projects.
• Strong ability to identify opportunities to integrate development issues such as public accountability, climate change, conflict prevention etc into parliamentary development activities linked to other poverty/MDGs work.
• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products.
• Capacity to interact with senior officials and credibly influence senior decision makers.

Leadership:

• Very strong managerial/leadership experience and decision-making skills.
• Proven ability to lead and manage an activity/project for results with a strong knowledge of results-based management and budgeting.
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of global development experience.
• Knowledge and expertise in UNDP’s programming processes.

Managing Relationships:

• Demonstrated well developed people management and organizational skills.
• Strong ability to manage teams; creating an enabling environment, mentoring and developing staff.
• Excellent negotiating and networking skills.
• Strong resource mobilization and partnering skills.

Judgment/Decision-Making:

• Mature judgment and initiative.
• Proven ability to provide strategic direction in practice area.
• Independent judgment and discretion in advising on handling major policy issues and challenges.

Managing Complexity: 

•  Substantive knowledge and understanding of development cooperation with the ability to support the practice architecture of UNDP and inter-disciplinary issues.
• Demonstrated substantive leadership and ability to integrate global knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives.
• A sound network of institutional and individual contacts.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Education: 

• Masters degree in law, public policy, politics, economics, social sciences or another relevant field.

Experience:
 
Minimum requirements:

• 5 years’ experience in providing support on legislative development programmes, including working with Parliaments/Parliamentary Secretariats or their equivalent.
• Demonstrated experience in administration and management of development projects.
• Proven capacity in management of training programmes in governance matters.
• Ability to work independently to implement a project, without day-to-day access to supervision.
• Strong understanding of gender concepts and capacity to promote and mainstream gender issues.

Advantageous:

• Experience working in the Pacific and/or a small-islands context.
• Experience implementing a UNDP Project.

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.