Background

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.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response.  BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

The Development Impact Group focuses on assisting UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  It will enable UNDP and others to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven by identifying, testing, learning, sharing and institutionalizing what works, including through effective development cooperation, South-South and Triangular Cooperation and higher quality UNDP programming.  It acts as a hub on all aspects of results-based management and development performance monitoring and analysis as well as a hub that identifies, collects, and share ideas on new and better ways of working across the UNDP network, social innovators, and the development community. The Development Impact Group is composed of two sub-areas: Programme Effectiveness and Development Effectiveness. The two teams work closely to understand and deepen UNDP’s and the international community’s understanding of what works and what does not work in effecting development change at country level in UNDP’s SP programme priority areas, and how this understanding can drive knowledge creation and dissemination, innovation and scaling up, and more productive partnerships.

The demand for innovative approaches to development has accelerated and UNDP country offices require up-to-the-minute access to the latest evidence-backed solutions from within and outside the region.

Within the Development Impact Team in the Regional Hub the Regional Specialist Innovation & Knowledge is responsible for bringing solid substantive advice and technical expertise, advocacy and knowledge about innovative practices.  Working to ensure quality policy services to country offices within the region, the Regional Specialist works towards advancing UNDP’s credibility in the thematic area, ensuring coherence and quality technical advice in this area. The main initiatives will focus on strengthening the exchange of knowledge and experience through transparency of development projects, Communities of Practice, supporting their work with the necessary tools. The approach in the region thrives to be innovative and following trends and developments globally (outside UNDP), and apply good practices for the regional context creating space and encouragement for individuals to collaborate creatively, adopt an outside-in perspective that is driven by the clients’ perspectives and needs, and take measured risks.

S/he is responsible for:

• Policy research and development;
• Technical guidance and support;
• Policy positioning and representation;
• Partnership and resource mobilization; and
• Knowledge management and management oversight.

S/he will report to the Senior Advisor, Development Effectiveness with additional reporting line to the manager in RH where matrix management is determined and supervise the Programme Specialist Knowledge Management and Innovation, based in the same duty station.

Reports to: Senior Advisor, Development Effectiveness.

Reports: Programme Specialist Knowledge Management and Innovation (P3).

Duties and Responsibilities

 Serve as a regional policy and programme advisor in relation to innovation & knowledge providing technical guidance and support (including in post conflict settings)

• Lead the provision of policy advisory services in the region, that respond to country office needs, including through the provision of capacity building and backstopping to COs and UNCTs;
• Lead the provision of technical advisory services to innovate the programme and policy portfolios of COs and national partners and spearhead the scaling up off successful prototypes throughout the region, and providing input to global scale up efforts of innovative policy and programme approaches;
• Lead the incubation, proto-typing and scaling up of innovative citizen engagement approaches that inform inclusive national strategies, policies and activities, through local, sectoral, whole-of-governance, whole-of-society and regional dialogues;
• Serve, in collaboration with the counterpart at the regional bureau, as the portfolio manager of the Innovation Facility, sourcing innovation proposals, selecting eligible projects for support, coordinating or backstopping technical support, oversee implementation and the work-out-loud component, manage financial resources allocated and provide regular updates to the Innovation Board;
• Provide intellectual leadership to the employment of next generation knowledge sharing and networking techniques such as big data, data mining, participatory M&E techniques, etc.
• Collaborate substantively with COs and Regional Programmes to achieve regional/CO strategic goals and  plans by supporting relevant regional initiatives and promoting synergies with the regional programmes;
• Support CO/ regional programme and project design, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and results reporting in line with RBM guidelines, and support quality assurance, risk management and due diligence processes;
• Design and deliver training including by developing training packs for COs to facilitate innovation learning, foster and encourage policy innovation and continuous improvement to enhance programme delivery;
• Provide sector specific and technical policy advice for crisis situations, by conducting and engaging in assessments related to all forms of crisis response, such as post-crisis, capacity and crisis-related/fragility assessments;
• Contribute to developing the capacity of national counterparts in support of achieving the Strategic Plan as well as the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals as it relates to the work of the practice area;
• Facilitate the building and exchange of knowledge with an Expert Exchange scheme and by managing the Expert Roster of the region; and
• Support Regional Hubs and country offices to innovate and pilot initiatives in post-conflict settings.

Lead on regional UNDP policy positioning and representation for innovation & knowledge

• Represent UNDP (and UN partner organizations) to advocate messages in the regional development arena for a discussion;
• Advocate the importance of the specific thematic area in various regional and country fora with a view to deepen related political commitment and related reforms; and
• Engage in interagency coordination in relevant policy areas.

Regional contribution towards policy research and development for innovation & knowledge

• Working closely with portfolio management teams in HQ; support the research, testing and roll-out of newly commissioned policy / business development initiatives, by providing the regional perspective/specificities;
• Contribute to content development for regional/CO knowledge products through the analysis of data, case evidence, and research findings in accordance with corporate standards;
• Participate in the implementation of policy and strategy initiatives at the regional level to support the key strategic results, outcomes and outputs of the Strategic Plan;
• Conduct analysis of regional data, case evidence and research findings to distill relevant lessons; and
• Provide detailed support to advocacy (‘working out loud’) and reporting on regional outcomes and impact.

Support regional partnerships and resource mobilization for innovation & knowledge

• Facilitate the engagement of governments, country offices and regional programmes through substantive policy dialogue;
• Contribute to the relationship management of regional partners and resource mobilization in line with corporate guidelines and oversight; and
• Contribute towards the mobilization and fostering of external partnerships behind regional initiatives.

Coordinate knowledge management for innovation at the regional level

• Support the implementation of the corporate Knowledge Management Framework,
• Apply and advocate for corporate Knowledge & Innovation  approaches and strategies in the region
• Collaborate with HQ and regional teams to research, develop and share knowledge-based tools, such as policy positions/practice notes/concept papers and other research papers to help influence/advance policy dialogue in the practice service area and present such material at regional forums;
• Assist with the analysis, documentation, codification of regional results/lessons learned; and
• Advise the process of producing knowledge products and publication by innovative approaches on format (e.g. online, interactive tools) and presentation to the right audiences (working closely with the communication team).

Competencies

Core

Innovation

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work.

Leadership

• Ability to persuade others to follow.

People Management

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.

Communication

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.

Delivery

• Ability to get things done.

Technical/Functional:

Primary:

Trends and emerging areas analytics

• Ability to scan the horizon and identify approaches and initiatives to bring into policy and programme design.

Global/Regional Conversations and Outreach

• Ability to manage global/regional conversations and knowledge campaigns.

Strategic Planning

• Ability to make decisions that align with strategy, vision, and mission.

Innovator support

• Ability to manage organisational resources and deployment in pursuit of innovative approaches and initiatives adopted by country office staff.

Partnerships

• Ability to engage with other agencies and forge productive working relationships.

Secondary:

Representation

• Ability to productively share UNDP knowledge and activities (at UN and other venues);
• Resource Mobilization;
• Ability to identify and organize programmes  and projects to implement solutions and generate resources.

Advocacy

• Ability to advocate a point of view and influence others.

Report Writing

• Ability to prepare quality reports.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in development economics, business administration, social sciences or related disciplines.

Experience:

• 7 years of professional work experience in policy advice and programme support including on knowledge management, with at least 2 years  work experience on innovative solutions for development;
• Experience working in developing country settings is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English, both written and oral;
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an asset.