Background

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain contacts with relevant authorities at both central and local levels, political parties, Members of Parliament, civil society organizations, women, youth and religious organizations, and other groups to identify and support activities that might strengthen efforts to resolve national and local issues of contention. Develop and maintain contact with international organizations, including the diplomatic community to coordination with the broader international presence in Lesotho;
• Work closely with political parties and civil society to identify and implement approaches for effective, peaceful and sustainable good governance in the country. Collaborative capacities, consensus building and conflict prevention/management will be key aspects to this approach;
• Assist in the development and strengthening of national institutions and processes, including through providing support to on-going mediation processes through the design and delivery of experience-sharing exercises, dialogue processes, and training activities aimed at enhancing capacities among senior officials and civil society counterparts on leadership development, strategic planning, and the building of collaborative capacities towards strengthening conflict resolution mechanisms;
• Devise and implement a workplan for a dedicated collaborative capacity skills development programme, where possible integrated with existing development projects and programmes;
• Design a long-term peace architecture for Lesotho to provide a framework and platform for peace and conflict management at all levels;
• Provide periodic strategic analyses and recommendations for the UN RC and the UNCT, in close consultation with DPA and BCPR and other relevant UN system actors as required, through an interagency working group;
• Support specific, targeted initiatives, as requested by national counterparts and under the direction of the RC, such as multi-stakeholder dialogue processes, local level skills and confidence-building activities, electoral violence prevention, conflict-sensitive reporting by the media programmes, etc;
• Support the UN Country Team staff and local counterparts to enhance their skills and knowledge in building collaborative capacity and social cohesion in order to ensure residual capacity will develop and remain within the UN Lesotho Country Office;
• Support local media with awareness and skills building for responsible, conflict-sensitive reporting;
• Develop knowledge products, including written studies, reports, social media outputs related to the collaborative work, its results and challenges in the country. Promote the use of information and communication technology and new media as relevant for the collaborative work.

Competencies

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

• Conflict analysis/assessment;
• Developing and delivering experiential conflict resolution/transformation skills-training to different levels of audiences, including training-of-trainers;
• Building national capacities to manage/prevent/reduce violent conflict.

• Ability to lead strategic planning and implementation for development interventions and projects;
• Solid knowledge in project management and results-based management;
• Excellent organizational skills and time management;
• Ability to work with minimum supervision under a decentralized environment, and to plan and prioritize and work under pressure;
• Excellent analytical skills;
• Able to work in complex and multi-cultural teams;
• Self-motivated and able to recommend options for resolution of issues;
• Communicates effectively, orally and in writing, with staff at all levels of the UN, government officials and civil society, the diplomatic corps, donors and civil society;
• Demonstrates sensitivity, tact and diplomacy.

Required Skills and Experience

Language Requirements:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English.