UNDP Jobs - 13570- Policy Specialist, HIV/AIDS, Latin America & Carri

Policy Specialist, HIV/AIDS, Latin America & Carribean - Panama City, PANAMA

Location :

Panama City, PANAMA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

25-Jan-2010

Application Deadline :

01-Dec-09 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English Spanish

Expected Duration of Assignment :

1 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

UNDP Practice architecture

UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2008-2011 and the 2008 regionalization plan articulate the corporate requirement to bring timely, effective, substantive and technical services to country offices through strengthened practice architecture at the global, regional and country level.

The UNDP Practice Architecture serves as a framework for better organizing UNDP to provide consistent policy advisory services, more relevant and substantive policy knowledge, better linking of policy and programming and capacity development. The value of the practice architecture lies in its comprehensive structure to solidify UNDP and its staff into a global team that ensures coherence, consistency, alignment and quality assurance in the way UNDP delivers service internally and to development partners and program countries.

The Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) is responsible for articulating UNDP’s development policy, using evidence gathered through country applications, regional experiences and global interactions. BDP has a key role to play in helping country offices to accelerate human development by supporting the country offices in the design and implementation of programs and projects that effectively contribute to the national-level policies and results. Driven by demand, and working through the Regional Bureaux and the RSC, BDP provides the tools, analysis and capacities that country offices need to make a real difference in UNDP’s practice areas.

BDP’s support of UNDP’s strategic plan 2008-2011 is focused on 4 practices (Poverty Reduction, Governance, Environment and Energy, HIV/AIDS) and 2 thematic areas (Capacity Development and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment). The III RCF for 2008-2011 for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are aligned with the same practices and thematic theories including the strengthening of the South-South Cooperation.

HIV/AIDS Practice Approach:

UNDP is a founding co-sponsor of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The UNAIDS division of labour provides the framework for UNDP’s response to the AIDS epidemic. UNDP is responsible for leading the UNAIDS response in addressing the following:

Development Planning and Mainstreaming
AIDS responses are integrated into poverty reduction strategies, MDG-based national development plans and macro-economic processes.

Governance of the HIV responses
Strengthened national capacity for inclusive governance, coordination of HIV responses, increased participation of civil society organizations and people living with HIV in the design, implementation and evaluation of HIV programs.

Human Rights and Gender
Policies and programs implemented through multi-stakeholder approaches to protect the human rights of people affected by AIDS, mitigate gender related vulnerability and address the impact of AIDS on women and girls.

Country Implementation Capacity
Accelerated implementation of AIDS funds and programs financed through multilateral funding initiatives, including the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Driven by demand, the HIV/AIDS Policy Adviser provides the tools, analysis and support that country offices need to make a real difference in responding to the epidemic at the local, national, regional and global level.

Regional Context

In the past 20 years, around 600,000 people in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region have died from AIDS. As of today, 1.7 million people live with HIV in the region. As in other regions, HIV disproportionately affects LAC countries’ most productive people, affecting about one in 20 adults between the ages of 15 and 49 years.

While the HIV prevalence varies from 0.1 % to 3.8 % in the general population, the HIV prevalence is much higher and concentrated in sexual minorities and prisoners. For example in South America and Central America the HIV prevalence among MSM ranges from 14 % (Argentina), 18% (Colombia) to Nicaragua where the HIV prevalence among MSM is 39 times higher than the one in the general population. In the Caribbean, the HIV prevalence among MSM ranges from 10 % to 20 % and in other countries, such as Guyana it is 31 %.

The following are, among others, some of the structural factors and pending issues that are contributing to the spread of HIV:

Lack of understanding for both the direct and indirect causes of the growing epidemic and how AIDS poses complex development challenges for countries. Thus mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into a national development process continues to remain a critical challenge;
Political and economic instability; There are high levels of poverty and unemployment which affects youth;
Considerable stigma and discrimination. PLWHAs, sexual minorities and affected HIV-AIDS populations are subjected to both social and institutional harassment, in particular in the Caribbean, English and Dutch speaking countries;
The need for support to initiatives for vulnerable and mobile populations in general;
Insufficient focus on the vulnerability of men, women and girls, and lack of programmes that mitigate the impact of HIV-AIDS on women, girls and youth in general;
Deficiency in coordination and implementation of governance-related strategies for effective related AIDS responses at national and local level;
Absence of country governance’s diagnostic analyses to explore challenges and opportunities for effective implementation of the NAC and Three Ones modality;
There is still room for further HIV related research among indigenous populations, MSM and prisoners;
There is a need for UNDP to further contribute in the effort to reverse the spread of HIV in the Latin America and Caribbean region, focusing on the governance challenge of planning and implementing a truly multi-sectoral and society-wide response to the epidemic.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Regional Practice Leader of the HIV-AIDS Cluster for LAC, the incumbent will ensure that the highest caliber policy advice and substantive support are provided on both a demand-driven basis as well as to create effective and innovative responses to the challenges of the epidemic to UNDP Country Offices (COs) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Specific duties include the following:

Provide policy advice at the regional level for programme support in the area of Human Rights and Gender including specific attention to sexual minorities;
Provide policy advice to Country Offices in LAC to create an enabling human rights environment, promote gender equality, and address the HIV-related vulnerabilities of women and girls. The Specialist will also respond to issues relating to men who have sex with men and transgender populations;
Provide technical support to ensure adequate coverage of specific interventions to address human rights, gender and sexual diversities in relevant programming document such as CCA, UNDAF, CPAP, CPD, AWP and others such as GFATM proposals;
Ensure application of guidelines to scale up the integration of, gender, human rights, MSM and transgender issues in programmes and policies;
Assist the Practice Leader in the management of the Regional Programme for 2009-2011 focusing on quality control of the full cycle of programming from formulation to implementation;
Assist COs in building and consolidating strong partnerships with UN agencies, governmental and inter-governmental civil society, private sector and other bodies and support them in contributing to Joint UN objectives on HIV-AIDS including participation in Joint Team and Joint Programs;
Ensures provision of top quality advisory services and facilitation of knowledge building and management;
Share information on country and regional program of UNDP and other development organizations and support the collection of best practices and comparative experiences;
Assist COs in accessing services offered by the Regional Service Centre of Panama and the Caribbean Sub-Regional Resource Facility in Trinidad and Tobago.

Competencies

Corporate:

Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional:

Proven professional credibility, as well as senior-level working experience in a governmental, multilateral or civil society organization, in both developed and developing countries in the field of HIV/AIDS especially Gender, Human Rights and sexual minorities;
Work experience in one or more countries of the LAC region highly desirable;
Extensive network of international, regional and individual contacts;

Managing Relationships:

Demonstrated well developed organizational skills;
Ability to work in teams; creating an enabling environment, mentoring and developing staff;
Excellent negotiating and networking skills;
Resource mobilization and partnering skills.

Managing Complexity:

Ability to address HIV/AIDS as a development issue;
Substantive knowledge and understanding of development cooperation with the ability to support the practice architecture of UNDP and inter-disciplinary issues.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Ability to promote and build knowledge products;
Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership in participation in KM network and development of community of practice;
Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from within and outside UNDP;
Provides constructive coaching and feedback.

Judgment/Decision-Making:

Mature judgment and initiative;
Proven ability to provide strategic direction in practice area;
Independent judgment and discretion in advising on handling policy issues and challenges.

Required Skills and Experience

A Masters degree in a development related area – Social Science, Legal-Political Science, Public Administration and/or Public Health;
Minimum 7 years of relevant professional experience in the field as well as proven professional record in the policy area, including substantive development policy experience at least in one of the substantive UNDP HIV/AIDS area of work;
A clear and comprehensive understanding and strategic vision of the challenges and opportunities in the Latin America and the Caribbean region and its application to programme activities within the UNDP niche;
Knowledge of UN system work in this area and UNDP experience would be an asset;
Fluency and proficiency in English and Spanish and working knowledge of another UN regional language desirable.