UNDP Jobs - 53624- Project Manager - Joint Party Support and Stren

Project Manager - Joint Party Support and Strengthening Project (J-PASS)

Location :

Accra, GHANA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2015

Application Deadline :

31-Mar-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year (with possibility of renewal)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Ghana, in the past two decades has made significant strides in deepening its democratic governance by the holding of six successful elections in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, with two peaceful transfers of power from one political party to another. The country has systematically rolled out a relatively resilient decentralization process since 1988 and in recent years developed national peace architecture to mainstream peace building within its democratic governance process. However, like every country, Ghana faces its unique challenges: enhancement of representation and participation, conflict of roles between and among the arms of government and governance institutions; low representation of women, youth and other marginalized groups in local governance; existence of critical conflict drivers such as chieftaincy, land and natural resources, ethnic, religious and socio-cultural disputes; lack of harmonization and coordination of the peace mechanism; and a perception of corruption in the public sector.

In Ghana, political parties have a long and proud history; are well-established, structurally coherent and relatively mature. However, political parties have become one of the most mistrusted institutions of democracy in Ghana. Barely 50% of Ghanaians trusted political parties “somewhat” or “a lot” (AfroBarometer 2012). Despite public mistrust, and Ghana is by no means unique in this regard, political parties rarely benefit from deliberate efforts to improve their performance. Ironically, much more assistance goes towards building civil society and state capacities – none of whom are elected to govern nations. Improved political governance was therefore identified in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF, 2012-16) for Ghana as one of 11 vital outcomes needed to increase and sustain the country’s development.

The Joint Party Support and Strengthening (J-PASS) project builds on previous UNDP initiatives to promote increased public confidence and participation in elections, promote increased trust in political parties and in election results, and promote increased participation of women and youth in decision making processes in political party democracy. J-PASS recognizes that internal democracy, gender equality and election results monitoring are key to improving public and political party confidence, with particular focus for the 2016 elections. J-PASS Project is situated under the ambit of the UNDP Governance Programme, and the team will be based in UNDP Ghana Office. The project will be implemented with the five parties (CPP, NDC, NPP, PNC, PPP) participating as equals. This is a 2.5 year Project.

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Country Director and programmatic guidance of the Head of Governance to ensure compliance, the Project Manager shall provide strategic and technical advice in the formulation, management and evaluation of project activities relating to J-PASS Project. The Project Manager can supervise and lead project support staff and works in close collaboration with the UNDP Governance team, five major political parties, Electoral Commission, CSOs and Development Partners.

Impact of Results:

The key results have an impact on the success of J-PASS Project, UNDP Elections Support Programme and application of democracy in Ghana through attention to governance themes. The key results directly support the implementation of UNDP’s CPD as well as targets for Outcome 10 within the UNDAF. In particular, the key results have an impact on the design, operation and programming of activities, creation of strategic partnerships as well as reaching resource mobilization targets.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Results:

Implementation of Project Strategies as relate to strengthening Political Parties and country’s democracy;
Management of J-PASS Project Management Unit and Staff;
Creation of strategic partnerships and development of a resource mobilization strategy;
Provision of top quality advisory services to Political Parties and key stakeholders and facilitation of knowledge building and management.

Key functions:

Ensures implementation of programme strategies according to J-PASS project document to strengthen Political Party internal democracy, and to include women in decision making:

Provide technical and policy advice in the J-PASS’s long term strategic planning for sustainable political party system development in line with international standards and best practices;
Conduct thorough analysis and research of the legal, political, social and economic situation in the country as relates to politics and elections, and preparation of substantive inputs to Programme Document, Resource Mobilisation Strategies, and other documents in support of the reform;
Lead on the lessons learned analysis and documentation after the 2016 elections which will contribute to the preparation of UNDP’s workplan for 2018-2020;
Lead capacity building effort of the political parties to promote improved communications within themselves, amongst the parties and with external stakeholders with respect to gender, youth, internal democracy and election results monitoring;
Lead on supporting the parties to develop accurate, complete, timely and gender-disaggregated data on their membership and supporters;
Advice and provide guidance on the most effective methods of enhancing capacities of the Electoral Commission to strengthen the Political Party Regulatory Framework;
Lead on developing gender equality policies for the parties, providing mentorships for aspiring women leaders, and support female candidates at elections;
Coordinate the creation of internal education campaign on gender equality and the promotion of youth empowerment amongst the political parties;
Lead on the analysis and best practices in election results monitoring and the creation of inter-party electoral dialogue platform;
Provide technical support on the implementing the second joint parties elections results monitoring sub-project (J-PERM II).

Ensures effective and efficient Management of J-PASS Project Unit and Staff, focusing on quality control from formulation to implementation in accordance with UNDP policies and procedures:

Lead the team to implement programme activities according to UNDP procedures and technical, financial and administrative guidelines prescribed in the programme document or by the Joint Steering Committee (JSC);
Lead analysis and synthesis of proposals, terms of reference on the areas for support and interventions under the Project;
Lead and guide project team and consultants on design, planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the project components to donor and key Project constituents;
Lead the team of staff and consultants contracted to monitor and evaluate project to assure attainment of development and targeted results under J-PASS;
Maintain close cooperation with and coordination of stakeholders that are/will be active in the area of project intervention, aiming at enhancing the joint results and avoiding overlapping of assistance through regular meetings of the Inter-Party and other Platforms;
Oversight of the recruitment of expertise required for project needs, advice on drafting of Terms of Reference, approve working targets, oversee performance and report on results accordingly.

Lead creation and maintenance of strategic partnerships and positioning of UNDP and development of a resource mobilization strategy for J-PASS Project:

Assure coordination with other UN Agencies, Civil society and national partners in providing support to J-PASS;
Advise on possible key interventions with a longer term perspective that will complement the process of democratisation;
Facilitate the development of new projects that UNDP may decide to undertake in political party support or related areas;
Deepen projects relationship with key national and international stakeholders interested in political party functioning providing substantive briefs of possible areas of cooperation;
Develop and implement a resource mobilisation strategy to assure sustainable non-core support for political party system in Ghana.

Provision of top quality advisory services to political parties and key stakeholders facilitation of knowledge building and management:

Identify sources of information related to policy driven, project management and thematic issues;
Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to project goals and political party functioning;
Provide sound contribution to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
Lead training for project staff on project and thematic issues;
Assure professional growth through active learning.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Building Strategic Partnerships

Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues;
Analyses and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;
Analyses information/databases on potential and actual donors.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Leadership and Self-Management

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure.

Core Competencies:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
Creating synergies through self-control;
Managing conflict;
Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
Informed and transparent decision making;
Prince2 training and certification, RMG.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree or equivalent in law, political, social sciences or related field.

Experience:

Minimum seven years post qualification international experience in the field of political affairs, political party strengthening and/or elections support;
Hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and gender programming;
Experience in the use of computers and office software package;
Able to handle web based management systems.

Language Requirement:

Fluency in English (written and spoken).