UNDP Jobs - 32536- Programme Specialist, Access to Justice

PROGRAMME SPECIALIST, ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Location :	New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Application Deadline :	19-Sep-12
Additional Category	Management
Type of Contract :	FTA International
Post Level :	P-4
Languages Required :	English
Duration of Initial Contract :	1 year
Expected Duration of Assignment :	1 year
Background
UNDP's Democratic Governance Group (DGG) is focusing on enhancing the capacity of the state to make it more responsive, capable, and inclusive. Strengthening the rule of law and increasing access to justice is a critical element of responsive institutions and empowered lives. UNDP views law and justice as essential to assist societies to withstand and recover from crisis and conflict and to drive and further sustain growth that improves quality of life for all. Rule of law is accordingly a building block of UNDP’s Democratic Governance portfolio to realize UNDP’s strategic objective of “effective, responsive, accessible and fair justice systems promoting the rule of law, including both formal and informal processes, with due consideration to the rights of the poor, women and vulnerable groups”. In support of states and regions facing a range of development challenges, UNDP undertakes programming to strengthen the rule of law as well as justice and security and legal empowerment of the poor in over 100 different countries and in five regions. Programming covers a number of different areas, ranging from institution-building and improving justice and security service delivery through to community-based violence prevention and legal awareness and empowerment. UNDP provides strategic technical support to states which are engaged in the reform and development of their constitutional and/or legal frameworks, justice and security services, and accountability and oversight mechanisms, including transitional justice processes. It also acts on a smaller scale, through more targeted programming activities, but with the same ultimate objective: ensuring that poor and marginalized people are able to seek and obtain justice, in its widest understanding, through formal or informal processes and in conformity with international human rights standards. Taking a Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) approach, UNDP supports people’s socio-economic potential through legal recognition, strengthening housing, land and property rights, labour and employment rights, and economic empowerment. Grounded in a theory of change in which rule of law, access to justice and security gains are long term, and also reflected in day-to-day individual and legal empowerment, UNDP combines bottom-up demand with strategic national capacity development and reform planning at the institutional level. Based on social, historical and contextual realities, UNDP seeks to remove barriers to development and to accessing justice which may be of a normative, institutional, social, economic, educational, or even physical nature. Women, the poor, minorities, indigenous groups, internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, the sick and other groups that are more disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable will face such challenges more acutely than others. The aim is to increase the capacity of institutions to respond to people’s daily justice and security needs, and people’s legal protection and trust in the institutions of law, justice and security, as well as opportunities and options so that they are empowered to claim their rights and improve their lives. The rule of law remit is broad and comprehensive, and varies depending on country and regional challenges. UNDP acts at the global, regional and countries levels, drawing on a strong practice architecture including specialist advisors at the regional level and country programme coordinators. Regionally and globally, the organization has initiated “rule of law communities of practice”, with a view to gathering good practices and ensuring that what works at country level is used to influence policy and dialogue regionally and globally. Thematic areas of focus may differ from region to region, but in all cases UNDP is encouraging exchanges between practitioners, governments and civil society in the global south on all aspects of rule of law. As member of the UN family, UNDP actively supports a cohesive, UN-wide approach to rule of law working jointly and collaboratively with other UN entities and in support of Resident Coordinators and Special Representatives. Partnerships lie at the core of UNDP’s support and are integral to achieving its goals. The DGG Rule of Law, Access to Justice and LEP team provides policy advice and guidance to country offices, in support of the regional practice architecture, and to the regions and globally. A key focus of the HQ team is to support the development of global and regional police and guidance within the practice areas, sharing and exchange of lessons learned and good practices within and across countries/regions and globally linked to programming. This is undertaken through research and development, such as major studies on informal justice, women’s access to justice and legal empowerment, support for communities of practice and networks at the global and regional level, partnerships and events enhance learning and policy development, the development of strategies, policy, training and guidance products such as toolkits, guides, primers, guidance notes and strategy documents, in, to the extent possible, new, innovative and emerging areas both substantively and methodologically, the development of new and joint programming in innovative areas and undertaking impact assessments, case studies and production of other materials to highlight UNDP’s leadership policy and knowledge role in the A2J, LEP and overall rule of law field. Regular HQ reporting and representational requirements are also provided by the team. Among the vehicles that UNDP uses to its rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment activities is the Global Programme on Access to Justice for Human Development – a UNDP Rule of Law Initiative, managed by the team, which enables UNDP’s Democratic Governance Group to innovate in response to new rule of law challenges, to partner more effectively within UNDP, with other UN entities and with external actors, and to address the changing policy environment, through: (1) seed funding for innovative and catalytic programming in countries; (2) regional practice architecture and knowledge generation, including regional policy advisory services for Country offices, regional knowledge products developed to guide better rule of law assistance; (3) South-South exchange and knowledge sharing and civil society network; and (4)global policy and thought leadership through capacity development, strategic policy advice and the formulation of knowledge grounded in good practice and empirical research. Rule of law policy challenges being addressed include programming in informal justice and plural legal orders, fragile and transitional contexts, women’s access to justice, and legal empowerment and developing guidance and tools to improve UNDP’s and its partners’ ability to adequately assess needs and capacity, analyze institutional and political context and measure rule of law programming impact.
Duties and Responsibilities
Ensure coherence and effective implementation of all rule of law, access to justice and LEP development programmes implemented from NY DGG (Global Programme on Access to Justice), in close coordination with the lead Policy Advisor/Team Leader. Coordinate timely delivery of high quality programme and reporting to donors, and supervise the implementation of activities by country offices, regional advisors, the project staff, partners and consultants; Oversee budget management including tracking budget performance and monitoring to regularly update and inform programme delivery; Develop annual workplans, TORs, concept notes, requests for quotations to implement activities; Day-to-day management of the GP including approval of requisitions and expenditures; Disseminate to the wider UNDP Democratic Governance Practice and beyond lessons learned, tools and other material developed by the project at national, regional and global levels; Design and organize global conferences, side events, and seminars on rule of law, access to justice, legal empowerment and represent the programme in such events organized by other partners; Advise and undertake technical reviews and scoping missions to participating countries to formulate, review and monitor capacity development projects to be implemented under the programme; Prepare terms of reference, and oversee the recruitment and selection of subcontractors and project consultants. Provide guidance and advisory support to Country Office rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment programming, in coordination with regional advisors, regional bureau, and in relevant contexts BCPR, and assist in the formulation of new programmes and projects at the global level: Conduct scoping and technical support missions to Country Offices and attend regional events; Conceptualize and provide strategic guidance to develop programme and project documents; Formulate and design project components and their implementation strategy; Prepare project work plans and budgets; Prepare TOR for all project staff, consultants, sub-contractors; Prepare aide memoires, conference agenda’s and other strategic tools to guide project activities; and Liaise with appropriate partners in UNDP Country Offices, Regional and Central Bureaus and cooperating organizations to manage the political risk of strategic interventions and ensure smooth programme and project development and implementation Facilitate policy development, knowledge management and coordination in rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment. Functions also include actively supporting knowledge sharing through inputs to comparative experiences and lessons learnt on regional and global levels and participation in relevant fora. In addition, the specialist will also support the development of UNDP tool kits and guidance materials in areas related to his/her expertise. In doing so, he/she will be gathering and communicating lessons learned from experience; partnering with other specialists/advisors, consultants and institutions in the Regional Service Centers, the region, at headquarters and elsewhere. Including: Provide technical support to the Lead Policy Advisor/Team Leader in reporting to the Office of the Administrator, the Secretary General or other UN bodies on rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment trends and issues; Develop strategic partnerships with global and regional networks of judges, lawyers and other practitioners through the implementation of projects; Comment on and contribute to knowledge products developed by BDP on rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment; Draft talking points, speeches, briefing notes and other background material for senior representation in appropriate fora and meetings; Provide substantive support to non-project activities of UNDP as and when requested by the Lead Policy Advisor/Team Leader; Support the effective implementation of communications strategies and provide inputs for newsletter, community of practice, TEAMWORKS and work in coordination with UNDP communications teams; Ensure that best practices and lessons emerging from rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment projects are shared across regions, within the organization and with other relevant partners; Create and facilitate communities of practice for programmes in order to ensure cross-regional communication and learning; and Document lessons learned and case studies related to rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment. Play a strong advocacy role in fostering justice and rule of law for development with a view to deepening political commitment and reforms in this area, including partnership building and resource mobilization. Including: Represent the team and programme vis-à-vis UNDP Resident Representatives, Ministers of Justice, Chief Justices, academia, donor governments and other international development agencies; Present the programme and the team’s work and activities in rule of law conferences and other such international events; Liaise and work with donor agencies to mobilize additional resources for the project work; Support the Policy Advisor/Team Leader in backstopping and liaising on partnership building, including inter-agency related work; Represent the team in internal and external programme and policy development forum (meetings, donor consultation mechanisms, etc); Facilitate building/strengthening networks of institutions, practitioners and experts in the area of rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment; Coordinate global and regional workshops and other global events relevant to rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment. Other related duties, as required.
Competencies
Core Values/Guiding Principles: Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UNDP in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct; Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. Corporate Competencies: Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards; Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP and the UN; Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; Treats all people fairly without favoritism Functional Competencies: Technical/Functional: Substantive knowledge and understanding of access to justice and legal empowerment as well as more broadly, rule of law, with an emphasis on the provision of coordinated support and management of strategic programmes to advance law and justice; Substantive knowledge and experience in management of rights based programmes; Ability to carry out research, to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures and guidelines Management and Leadership: Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback; Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude; Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills; Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities; Leads teams effectively and shows mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills; Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills. Knowledge Management and Learning Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example; Ability to conduct advocacy, and to support the development of programme communications strategies for sharing good practices and successful strategies; Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills. Development and Operational Effectiveness Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting; Ability to lead the formulation and monitoring of management projects; Solid knowledge of financial and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration; Ability to lead business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems (business side), and positively affect staff behavioral/attitudinal change.
Required Skills and Experience
Education: Master's Degree in relevant law or closely related discipline. Experience: A minimum of seven years of relevant experience in development work and particularly on rule of law, access to justice and legal empowerment issues; Experience in programme development, management/coordination, monitoring and evaluation, as well as knowledge management with rule of law and access to justice development programmes; Knowledge of UNDP result-based management and UNDP procurement rules. Language Requirements: Excellent written and spoken English a must, excellent written and spoken French or Spanish highly desirable.
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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.