UNDP Jobs - 58668- Project Manager (Political Dialogue)

Project Manager (Political Dialogue)

Location :

Tunis (Please refer to Background Section), TUNISIA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

12-Aug-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-5

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

More than a year

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

Organizational Context

In accordance with its mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2213 (2015), the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has been actively engaged in efforts to mediate a peaceful resolution to Libya's political and institutional crisis and bring an end to the armed conflict. Consultations with a wide range of Libyan stakeholders including parliamentarians, political leaders and various civil society personalities in Libya paved the way for convening the round of UNSMIL led Libyan political dialogue commencing in Geneva in January 2015. Since January 2015, UNSMIL has launched and facilitated the Libyan dialogue process to end the political and security crisis in Libya, and has so far convened several round of talks for the principal political track in Geneva, Ghedames (Libya), and more recently in Skhirat, Morocco.

UNDP is supporting UNSMIL to facilitate the Libyan political dialogue process. Additionally, UNDP and UNSMIL are planning for the provision of technical support to the Government of National Accord (GNA) that is expected to be formed as a result of the political dialogue process. These two efforts – the political dialogue and support to the GNA – are seen as one process and are supported under UNDP's Immediate Assistance to the Libyan Political Dialogue and Government of National Accord project.

The Project designed to provide a comprehensive range of governance support functions within the UN integrated framework through the project which is considered a complex and sensitive effort to support Libya during an unstable transitional period. Additionally, aspects of the Project's implementation, such as complexities arising out of remote management through third-party contractors in the sensitive Libyan context contains risk exposure which will need to carefully managed.

Under the overall guidance of UNDP Libya Country Director and direct supervision of UNDP Libya Deputy Country Director, as applicable, the Project Manager will provide overall strategic and operational leadership to the project, manage the relationship with UNSMIL on the project, liaise with stakeholders and manage third party contractors tasked with implementing project activities.

Important Duty Station Information:

Current duty station is Tunis, until security conditions in Libya improve sufficiently to allow working in Libya;
At which point the location of the post will become Tripoli, Libya.Tunisia with possible trips to Libya.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Advice and Leadership

Provide substantive and strategic leadership of the project to ensure that the same remains relevant and responsive to changes in the country context, through identification of key policy issues and formulation of best possible and alternative policy and programme options;
Provide strategic policy, managerial and operational contribution to UNDP / UNSMIL in their assistance to the Government of National Accord (GNA) regarding the legal framework, systems, governance mechanisms, and public outreach, especially to women and youth;
Ensure communication and sharing of knowledge with other regional initiatives;
Promote thematic and sectorial synergies and coordination of programme activities and execution;
Provide advice to senior management on future scaling up of the Project;
Identify opportunities to enhance team work within the Project and with other UNDP assisted projects to capitalize on specific advantages of multidisciplinary support;
Promote identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned from the project for organizational sharing and learning;
Create and maintain partnerships with the UN Agencies, International Finance Institutions (IFI’s), government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society etc.;
Conduct research and analysis with regards to strategic entry points for further UNDP Programming on political dialogue process policies;
Play a technical support role to other projects to fill the technical gap other projects face, if applicable and provide other support as requested by the country office.

Project Management and Oversight:

Ensure coherent and effective management of the project, using a results-oriented approach that incorporates creativity, innovation and responsiveness to emerging needs;
Measure performance and report on programme results and outcomes to the Project Board (PRB);
Manage the day-to-day functioning of the project team with oversight responsibility of management on human resources, budget and advancement, procurement and sub-contracting for achieving results in line with the outputs and activities outlined in the project document and work plan;
Provide overall supervision and leadership to project staff, experts and consultants working as part of the technical assistance team;
As per corporate UNDP requirements, establish participatory governance and decision-making system which involves all project staff ensuring enabling environment for high level performance of all project personnel;
Prepare project work plans, progress reports and terminal report;
Overall responsible for the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical outputs, briefs and required documents, ensuring timely production and submission of outputs and reports by all members of the project team, contractors and project partners;
Ensure the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the approved project and activities proposed by counterparts and implementing partners providing technical assistance to national, regional and local partners in implementing respective activities;
Organize PRB, donor coordination and project review meetings. Prepare background documents, briefs, issues papers, and progress reports for the PRB meetings and for donor reporting. Follow-up on the implementation of PRB decisions and recommendations;
Manage process for the selection of suppliers, contractors and partners. Supervise procurement of goods and
services including preparation of equipment specifications, Terms of Reference (TORs) and Request for Proposals (RFPs) according to approved UNDP procedures;
Conduct field visits to supervise, coordinate and monitor field-level activities of the project;
Establish a quantitative and qualitative monitoring and evaluation mechanism to measure outputs, outcomes, results and impact ensuring project reporting on a timely and accurate basis, for internal and external purposes;
Supervise outsourced research and dissemination of research findings.

Partnerships and Resource Mobilization:

Facilitate and strengthening of partnerships with project partners, UNDP country office, donors and all other partners on all matters concerning the implementation of the project;
Lead on relationship building with key government counterparts to ensure full partnership on the project;
Lead on the relationship with donors to ensure ongoing resources for the project;
Lead external and internal analysis for assessing opportunities for resource mobilization;
Analysis of key development and sectorial policies currently being discussed and implemented in the country and key donors willing to support policies;
Lead negotiation, drafting and revision of agreements with donors. Monitoring of overall implementation of agreements;
Identification of emerging sources of funding; assessment of their current usage and potential for the future;
Development of specific donor fund-raising strategies and approaches;
Prepare proposals for mobilization of human, technical or financial resources from international development organizations as well as non-government organizations;
Negotiation of mutually beneficial agreements, compliance with partner requirements, including donor reporting requirements.

Strategic support to the Libyan Government of National Accord:

Lead and supervise capacity assessments of the supported institutions based on existing methodologies for capacity assessment of core government functions developed by the UN and the World Bank, which are to be adapted to the context by the project;
Lead the support provided to GNA to develop strategies and implementation plans for each project priority area;
Manage the team and stimulate strategic thinking in the subject area, taking into account the needs of governments, local authorities, non-government and development partners as well as opportunities to develop and build capacity to supported institutions;
Lead the analytical development work of the team and ensure high quality knowledge products. Promote the substantive quality of all knowledge products, reports and services, and ensure effective integration and compatibility with other practice areas;
Ensure a programme of capacity building to the GNA to enable its administrative structure and functioning, with specific training courses, is provided;
Provide technical advice and capacity building support to GNA on coordination mechanisms;
Advise and guide the GNA in building their capacity to effectively coordinate international technical assistance, in a manner that ensures that assistance corresponds with national priorities and has national ownership;
Substantive contributions to the GNA media strategy and external relations activities with variousstakeholders;
Manage the team, providing technical advice and capacity building support to GNA communications office regarding communications and public outreach;
Guide and advise GNA to develop strategic communications and outreach plan;
Lead the efforts on the strengthening of media, including the establishment of a media center;
Facilitate the development and implementation of an effective strategic communications plan;
Contribute to the production of reports and publications, and serve as peer reviewer.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Innovation:

Proven ability to create new and relevant business opportunities and leads others to implement them;
Uses substantive mastery to model excellence and motivate performance;
Integrates diverse contributions into a coherent service;
Aligns strategy to service delivery components.

Leadership:

Creates opportunities for the team to learn and take on new responsibilities;
Actively shares experience and knowledge and plans and acts transparently;
Empowers individuals and teams to act independently and holds them accountable;
Creates awareness of substantive opportunities and risks;
Enables individual growth and responsibility, and recognizes and rewards success.

People Management:

Guides substantive specialists and identifiesand nurtures collaborations between diverse professions;
Creates environment of excellence, collaboration and engagement;
Resolves complex conflicts, makes difficult people choices;
Optimizes individual and team abilities;
Recognizes members of the team for their efforts and successes;
Takes an active interest in coaching others.

Communication:

Builds professional networks with institutional partners;
Sought for advice by subordinates, peers and leaders;
Distills strategy into concise practical messages;
Influences decision makers;
Resolves managerial conflict;
Represents organization in formal settings.

Delivery:

Accepts responsibility for the outcomes of programme delivery;
Creates new and better services;
Creates an environment that fosters excitement for work;
Sets strategic goals and builds the means to achieve.

Functional and Technical Competencies:

Strategic & Technical Advisory:

Expert knowledge of the area with particular emphasis on the experience of working with democratic governance issues in the Arab countries;
Knowledge of the Libyan context and the current transition process;
Capacity to assess scope of request for advisory services, prepare detailed TORs, brief and manage a variety of technical; consultants; assess quality of services provided by technical consultants and take remedial measures as appropriate;
Capacity to guide design and implementation of conflict governance and rule of law interventions.

Project Management:

Proven ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals;
Ability to identify and prioritize risks, and organize action around mitigating them;
Ability to make decisions that align with strategy, vision, and mission.

Partnership and Stakeholder Management:

Ability to lead facilitation of multi-stakeholder consensus, preferably in post-crisis situations;
Ability to build political acumen in situations involving multiple - especially political - actors and stakeholders;
Ability to engage with other agencies, donors, and other development stakeholders and forge productive working relationships;
Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and balance often contradictory expectations, building and maintaining relationships.

Quality Assurance:

Ability to identify and prioritize risks, and organize action around mitigating them;
Knowledge of project management related procedures to ensure that quality requirements and goals are fulfilled.

Knowledge Management:

Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge;
Sets innovative strategies/best practices/new approaches promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing.

Client Orientation:

Anticipates client needs and mobilizes decision makers;
Creates enabling environment with institutional partners;
Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
Expands understanding of subject by clients and inspires action.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced University Degree (Masters or equivalent) in International Relations, Political Sciences, Law, Social Sciences, International Development, Economics or related fields.

Experience:

10 years relevant work experience, at least 7 of which involve implementation and management, at senior level, of strengthening government institution activities;
Experience of sustaining high level professional relations with leading government officials in sensitive political environments;
Substantive project management experience;
A sound track record of experience in an international setting with the UN or with international organisations;
Experience of resource mobilization, donor coordination, accountability and multi-donor trust funds;
Working experience of transitional and emerging democracies, including and post-conflict environments;
Experience of the Arab region is highly desirable;
Computer proficiency, including working knowledge of MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Front Page, Adobe In-Design; web-based management systems;
Knowledge of UNDP governance assistance procedures and best practice;.
Practical familiarity with UNDP project management principles and practises is highly desirable.

Language:

Fluency in English, including excellent writing skills, is required;
Working knowledge of Arabic is an asset.

Other:

Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages;
Experience of working with a United Nations field mission or experience of living and working in transitional societies is an asset.
Application:
Interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line through the UNDP Job site at http://www.ly.undp.org/content/libya/en/home/operations/jobs/ and please ensure to fill in and upload Personal History Form - P.11 which is available at http://www.ly.undp.org/content/libya/en/home/operations/jobs/ in the relevant field of the on-line application.
Incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date will not be given consideration. Please note that only applications that are short-listed will be contacted.
Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.