Antecedentes

United Nations Volunteers Programme.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

UNV engaged 7,303 UN volunteers in 2011, on a total of 7,708 assignments. With an average age of 38 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UN volunteers served in 132 countries in 2011 and came themselves from 162. The majority – 81 per cent – come from developing countries themselves. One third of UN volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The financial equivalent of programme activities exceeds US$235 million annually.  

UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and has approximately 150 staff positions – with the majority in Bonn and some positions with different UN peacekeeping and political missions, and in other Headquarters locations (e.g. New York and Tokyo). The major organizational groups within UNV are:

• the Office of the Executive Coordinator (OEC) comprising the Evaluation Unit (EU) and the Corporate Planning and Performance Unit (CPPU);
• the Volunteer Programming and Management Group (VPMG) comprising the Peace Division (PD) and the Development Division (DD), Volunteer Recruitment Resources Section (VRRS), Quality Assurance Unit (QAU), Volunteer Knowledge and Innovation Section (VKIS);
• the Partnerships and Communications Division (PCD) comprising the Partnerships Section (PS) and the Communications Section (CS);
• the Management Services Division (MSD) comprising the Information and Communication Technology Section (ICTS), Finance Section (FS), Human Resources Section (HRS), and the Administration Unit (AU). Additionally the Common Services Unit (CSU) provides support to the UN presence in Bonn.

The UNV Peace and Development Divisions oversee and implement UNV’s programme strategy. They advocate for the integration of volunteerism in peace and development at global, regional and national levels, targeting specific focus areas in which the role of volunteerism adds significant value.

They mobilize volunteers to support the peace and development agenda of UNV partners, including national volunteerism interventions as well as proactive mobilization of UNV and other volunteers. They ensure quality volunteer management of UN Volunteers.

They work to promote advocacy for volunteerism, and support the documentation of the contribution of volunteerism to peace and development and target national development fora, governments and parliaments with a view to influencing national policies, legislation, statutory frameworks and budget in order to promote volunteerism for peace and development.

Both Divisions focus on both “Development” and “Peace” issues and areas. However, the Development Division oversees the “predominantly development” countries, and the Peace Division oversees the “predominantly peace countries.

The Peace  Division works in the following focus areas:

• One or more UN Missions (peacekeeping or political/peace building) with a UNV component
• Emergency and long-term humanitarian operations
• Post-conflict electoral processes carried out under the auspices of EAD (regardless of the actual implementing framework, which could be UNDP, DPKO or UNOPS)
• Early recovery activities (e.g. restoration of basic services, community services) as well as peace building and conflict prevention activities in the immediate aftermath of conflict (i.e. not long-term peace building/conflict prevention)
• Short/medium term thematic activities that are typically associated with a post-conflict/post-crises setting, such as:
• Reintegration (of both IDPs/refugees/returnees and ex-combatants/persons associated with armed groups, for instance in a DDR/RR framework)
• Protection (including a range of human rights functions, refugee eligibility, assistance to vulnerable groups affected by conflict, etc)
• Institution/state-building and rule of law (e.g. security sector reform, civil affairs, transitional justice, natural resources management, etc).

The Portfolio Team within the Peace Division is responsible for the implementation of the UNV programme strategy, including volunteer management, at global, regional and local levels.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Reporting to the Deputy Chief, Peace Division, the Portfolio Manager is responsible for effective strategic planning and programming in the portfolio of countries based on the UNV programme strategy, building and maintaining relationships with main partners, effective coordination between HQ and COTs, monitoring of the programme implementation and providing substantive inputs to corporate initiatives related to programming and volunteer management. The Portfolio Manager (PM) supervises the overall Portfolio Team, consisting of Portfolio Associate(s) and field–based Field Unit teams who represent UNV at the country level. In addition, the PM acts as a focal point for one of the thematic focus area for UNV providing substantive programme and policy advice on all matters related to that focus area. He/She is expected to have and/or develop the knowledge, competencies, skills and networks necessary to support UNV HQ and Field Units on substantive issues and queries related to that focus area.

Perform strategic planning and programming based on the UNV programme strategy, focusing on achieving the following results:

• Keep abreast of development challenges and priorities in countries under portfolio to identify relevant entry points for UNV programming and mobilization of volunteers;
• Keep abreast of and provide substantive guidance or strategic direction on volunteerism in specific focused areas and appropriate programming approaches;
• Initiate, formulate and manage  projects and programmes contributing to the programme strategy in priority countries;
• Forecast demand for UN Volunteer assignment in countries and programme within the portfolio;
• Provide guidance and support to resource mobilization at the local level in close collaboration with and under guidance of the relevant HQ units;
• Maintain substantive documentation regarding country portfolio, including country profiles and statistics sheets.

Build and strengthen relationships with main partners within the UN system and external partners on the operational and programmatic issues , focusing on achieving the following results:

• Build and strengthen relationships with the UN partners on programmatic matters relating to his/her portfolio and focus areas;
• Build and strengthen relationships with VSOs, CSOs, NGOs, universities, community organizations and other partners at the regional and national level in support of programme operation in close cooperation with PCD;
• Promote the work of the UNV programme and volunteer participation in public events, International Volunteer Day (IVD) and corporate events;
• Plan, negotiate  and monitor project budgets in line with agreements with partners;
• Provide advisory support on the UNV programme and mandate to different stakeholders;
• Identify potential sources of funding to support the programme approaches at the local and regional levels in close collaboration with PCD.

Ensure effective coordination between HQ and Field Units for quality programming and volunteer management , focusing on achieving the following results:

• Provide guidance to Field Units on all aspects of volunteer management;
• Coordinate the recruitment process of selected candidates up to date of arrival in the country of assignment;
• Implement different volunteer modalities as per prevailing provision under each scheme and modality;
• Implements volunteer management tools;
• Ensure timely and accurate processing of UNV contracts and entitlements;
• Reviews and approves Descriptions of Assignments (DoAs) in line with corporate policies and parameters guiding the recruitment of volunteers;
• Provides guidance to Field Units on programme design and integration, results based management;
• Based on programmatic and operational requirements and priorities, organize capacity building events (e.g. regional, local meetings, conference and workshops, etc.;
• Ensure strategic use of all UN Volunteers modalities in support of programme strategy;
• Ensure responses to critical incidents are processed in a timely and proper manner; support effective crisis management practice in the field; document lessons learned.

Monitor the implementation of programming and volunteer management at the field level, focusing on achieving  the following results:

• Monitor compliance with periodic volunteer reporting (VRS) with view to extracting data for analysis and use in making improvements of portfolio operations and use in corporate documents, advocacy and learning;
• Monitor the implementation of (joint) UNV implemented projects, extracts and analyses financial reports and conduct regular reporting on expenditure and budget balance as required;
• Assess project progress and ensure quality of project reporting;
• Perform project management in Atlas for UNV implemented projects, extracts and analyses financial reports and conduct regular reporting on expenditure and budget balance as required.

Provide substantive focus area inputs and support to cross-unit and corporate initiatives related to programming and volunteer management activities, focusing on achieving the following results:

• Support development and implementation of UNV’s corporate policy and programme in assigned focus area;
• Act as focal point on assigned focus area and provide inputs to project development in the assigned focus area;
• Coordinate and consolidate inputs from projects and programmes in the assigned focus area for corporate and other UN global reports;
• Represent UNV in global meetings and with main Agencies working on assigned focus areas;
• Build network and partnerships for substantive and operational cooperation on volunteerism in assigned focus area;
• Provide support to the manage the implementation of corporate (global) projects in assigned focus area;
• Support knowledge management and UNV staff capacity building in assigned focus area.

Ensure effective management of the Portfolio Team, including Field Units, with the following results:

• Establish annual workplan for the Portfolio Team to support group level and corporate planning targets;
• Manage portfolio staff including supervision and guidance of HQ based Portfolio Associates, as well as the Field Unit personnel (ie: field based Programme Managers, Programme Officers and Programme Assistants) in a matrix arrangement with UNDP Country Offices and UN missions, including performance assessment exercises and capacity development activities.
  

Competencias

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

• Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means
• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses

Results-Based Programme Development and Management

• Identifies country needs and strategies using a fact-based approach
• Sets performance standards, monitors progress and intervenes at an early stage to ensure results are in accordance with agreed-upon quality and timeframes and reports on it
• Ensures the programme implementation and Financial Resources to obtain results

Building Strategic Partnerships

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build alliances
• Takes responsibility for achieving agreed outputs within set deadlines and strives until successful outputs are achieved

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals
• Generates for regional and innovative ideas and effective solutions to problems
• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations

Resource Mobilization (HQ)

• Develops detailed knowledge and understanding of key donors, their priorities and areas of interest and adapts content and approach of resource mobilization activities to their requirements
• Uses knowledge of donors and successful programmes and projects to contribute to fund raising and resource mobilization strategies

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines (programme management)
• Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments

Client Orientation

• Anticipates client needs
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective
  

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents
• Building support and political acumen
• Building staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation
• Building and promoting effective teams
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning
• Fair and transparent  decision making; calculated risk-taking
  

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences,  political science, public or business administration, economics or related fields

Experience:

• 5 years of relevant professional experience and proven track record in managing and implementing development programmes at both HQ and field offices; 2-3 years of experience should be in an international organization, preferably UNDP/UNV.
• Experience in managing volunteer programmes and/or in a development context involving volunteers is highly desirable. .

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and working knowledge of French is required. Knowledge of additional UN languages is desirable