UNCDF Jobs - 54207- Re-advertisement - Programme Management Associate

Re-advertisement - Programme Management Associate

Advertised on behalf of

UNCDF

Location :

Brussels, BELGIUM

Type of Contract :

FTA Local

Starting Date :

16-Nov-2015

Application Deadline :

19-Oct-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

GS-6

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English French

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

Applicants who previously applied need not re-apply.

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance and investment capital. UNCDF focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia and the Pacific, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis. It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges.

UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

Despite the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in the past ten years, it is estimated that between two and three billion people still lack access to a broad range of financial products and services on a sustainable basis. The situation is particularly dire in the LDCs, where often more than 90 per cent of the population is denied access to financial services from the formal financial system. UNCDF focuses its strategy on Financial inclusion, which is universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances.

UNCDF manages a number of initiatives related to digital financial (DF):

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P)

With support from Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (“DFAT” formerly AusAid), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the MasterCard Foundation (MCF), UNCDF manages Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P), a global thematic initiative that addresses the opportunities and challenges of implementing branchless banking and mobile money in challenging markets in Africa and Asia.

MM4P’s long-term mission is to help low income and rural households in LDCs increase their financial security through appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money through these “digital finance” (DF). To do so, its intermediate goal is to help build inclusive digital financial sectors such that a wide range of digital financial services are provided responsibly, and at reasonable cost, by sustainable institutions in a well-regulated environment. UNCDF’s starts by defining the different stages of a market’s development and the range of interventions needed at different levels (i.e. macro, meso, micro, client) to move it across the stages. This combines a making markets work for the poor approach with UNCDF’s traditional operational model of directly supporting the most crucial level – retail service providers.

MM4P is currently implementing this programme in eight countries (Benin, Laos, Nepal, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia).

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Operations Manager (Analyst) the Programme Management Associate is responsible for the effective delivery of management support services to the programme:

Ensuring that quality control of Digital Finance outputs and projects is conducted;
Supporting the team in progress planning, tracking and reporting of milestones and Key performance indicators (KPIs);
Assisting the RRM Associate in the development and implementation of Results Measurement System for the country and global Programme indicators;
Supporting the Operations Analyst in managing the work flow of DF contractors;
Assist the Programme Manager in outreach activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Maintain Quality Control of DF Projects:

Manages the overall quality of the project cycle with UNCDF partners;
Advises team members on the DF technical assistance policies and procedures;
Reviews submissions from current and potential partners, including business plans, pilot plans, etc.;
Creates project files and checklists for new projects, ensuring steps are completed;
Drafts project endorsement requests and project appraisal documents with inputs from the technical teams;
Sets up project tracking schedule for key benchmarks, milestones and reports and Monitors tracking schedule to ensure timely receipt;
Monitors project indicators and monthly health check of the supported projects, reporting back to Management Team;
Assists the MM4P team in the revision of the lessons learned and updating policies, procedures, planning and reporting tools.

Updates the programme´s systems, tools and processes to support the new implementation trend, including:

Agreement templates with partners and suppliers;
Assistance Instruments (technical assistance, grants, other) with partners and suppliers;
Performance tracking tools (KPIs, dashboards);
Reporting templates for donors;
Reporting templates for partners.

Assist in Planning, Tracking and Reporting for MM4P:

Supports program formulation including:

Business cases;
Country strategies;
Country work plans;
Works with technical team to develop and update annual work plans;
Consolidates country and global work plans;
Sees synergies in work plans (including travel, technical assistance) to ensure most efficient use of resources;
Monitors global work plan implementation, reporting to Management Team;
Manages information flows and overseeing change controls, risk registers and issue management;
Consolidates Monthly Updates from the team for Programme Manager.

Compiles country and global information to draft:

short quarterly reports for investment committees;
Draft semi-annual reports for investment committees;
Country dashboards;
Manages and contribute to the drafting of annual country monitors.

Assist in development and implementation of Results Measurement System:

Assists Research and Results Management (RRM) associate and Management Team in the development of the Results Measurement System (RMS) for DF;
With Management Team, helps set up regular data collection methods, processes and procedures;
Helps implement the baseline study of markets;
Manages the inflow of reports and data for results measurement system;
Helps develop a quality control system for data and reports;
Assists in the synthesis of results for reporting purposes

Manage workflow of DF contractors:

Supports the assessment of the programme´s needs for contracted services (e.g. technical consultants);
Based on project descriptions, prepares Terms of Reference (ToR) for required inputs in the projects (staff, individual and institutional consultancy services, procurement of professional services for of training, seminars, etc.) with Technical Team support;
Helps in evaluation, ranking and selection of technical proposals from consultants;
Manages negotiations of technical contracts, with support of Management Team and the Operations Analyst;
Drafts agreements and contracts based on technical inputs from team;
Develops and update contractor work plans and budgets;
Tracks contractor deliverables, expiry dates and limits;
Reviews outputs from consultants and partners, providing feedback, edits and suggestions for improvements;
Provides monthly consolidated update on contractor;

Assist in Outreach Activities:

Prepares documents for Investment Committee Meetings;
Assists in preparation of reports to funders;
Manages proposal writing efforts, bringing in consultants and UNCDF Technical staff as needed;
Helps develop and give presentations on UNCDF DF efforts, including MM4P and BTCA;
Provides general assistance to both teams on global activities;
Contributes to the planning process of workshops and trainings, providing input on agendas and materials.

Competencies

Functional Competecies:

Excellent speaking and writing skills in English are necessary;
Spoken, comprehension, reading proficiency in French strongly preferred, ability to communicate basic request and read reports;
Excellent analytical skills;
Strong IT skills, including ability to work regularly with MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint and preferably familiar with planning software;
Proven cross-cultural communication. The candidate(s) should be able to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment and manage a team consisting of multiple nationalities;
Project or programme implementation experience, preferable managing specific project implementation;
Managing implementation of relevant organizational policies and procedures;
Working knowledge of concepts in to financial inclusion and preferably knowledge and exposure to branchless banking, mobile phone banking, or other efforts using technology to reach rural and poor populations.

Management/Client Orientation:

Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
Focus on impact and results for clients and stakeholders;
Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships;
Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback;
Committed to team work, working with other stakeholders

Professional:

Takes on innovation and new approaches and fosters innovation in others;
Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources.

Core Competencies:

Promotes ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
Builds staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
Builds and promoting effective teams;
Creates environment for open communication and fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
Takes fair and transparent decisions; calculated risk-taking;
Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards;
Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all persons fairly without favoritism;
Shows strong corporate commitment;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF and UNDP.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Secondary Education, preferably with specialized certification in Project Management, Accounting or Finance;
A University degree in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related discipline would be desirable but not a requirement.

Experience:

A minimum of six years’ work experience in progressively more responsible positions in the development, consulting, an and ideally in the financial services and/or telecommunications field;
Experience in creating detailed work plans or implementation plans;
Experience managing work flow of large projects;
Experience drafting technical terms of reference;
Experience in designing and overseeing direct technical or financial (grant) assistance;
Experience in donor projects, developing proposals, corresponding budgets, and monitoring and evaluation plans;
Experience in working with the implementation of projects related to financial services, preferably branchless banking and mobile financial services projects;
Experience in project management.

Language:

Fluency in English;
Strong knowledge of spoken and written French.