UNDP Jobs - 16451- Consultant: Migration and Development

Consultant: Migration and Development

Location :

Brussels, BELGIUM

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

17-May-2010

Application Deadline :

13-May-10 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

100 days (to be performed over a period of 12 months)

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

In 2009, the European Commission and the United Nations launched a three and a half year Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) that reflects the emerging acceptance of a strong nexus between migration and development. The programme, runs out of UNDP Brussels, and represents a major innovation as a first joint UN project of its kind not only with the European Commission, but also in its approach to inter-Agency working. Four agencies (UNHCR, UNFPA, ILO and IOM) are directly engaged in the management and direction of the programme and contribute their institutional knowledge, expertise and extensive networks to ensure its success.

A web-based knowledge management platform has been established to bring practitioners together in a community of practice, providing an open forum to share news and information, to collate information about existing migration and development initiatives, to develop individual skills and to provide mutual support (migration4development.org). Annual Stakeholder Fairs bring practitioners together, virtually or physically, to further develop networking and partnerships, and the sharing of lessons learnt.

One of the JMDI’s objectives is to map and assess current interventions to aid extension or replication of existing initiatives and development of new ones in four key priority areas:

Migrant remittances (their facilitation, reduction of transfer costs, possible articulation to development purposes, etc.);
Migrant communities (their links with countries of origin,links countries of destination etc.);
Migrants’ capacities/skills (use of migrant skills for development in countries of origin, support to their professional and socio-economic reintegration, mitigation of brain drain, etc.);
Migrants’ rights (their promotion, their application, the protection or the implementation of appropriate solutions for specific categories of persons such as unaccompanied minors, return migrants,etc.).

A Call for Proposals was launched at the end of 2008 to provide approximately 10 million Euros in funding to support concrete interventions in the four priority areas, now being implemented by a consortia of civil society and local authorities actors linking host and originating countries. Each consortium includes one or more EU based partners and one or more partners based in one of the sixteen target countries of the JMDI: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt; Cape Verde, Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia; Ecuador and Jamaica; Georgia and Moldova; Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Monitoring of project implementation will feed back into the codification of good practice in migration and development, and allow the preparation of specific knowledge products for different stakeholders: Practical capacity building tools for practitioners; Policy Advice to developing country governments wishing to establish an enabling environment to facilitate the links between migration & development; a Handbook on good practice for practitioners, donors and governments alike.

The JMDI M&D Community of Practice gathers the views, knowledge and experiences of civil society groups and local authorities to ensure that the final handbook and policy recommendations reflect their particular perspective and needs in the area of migration and development.

Duties and Responsibilities

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of the Head of the Programme Management Unit (PMU) and in close coordination with the Knowledge Management Expert, the JMDI Brussels-based Programme Management Unit contact persons for each target country and the focal points based in the 16 target countries. The consultant will be formally part of the so-called Migrant Advisory Board which has been set up to guide the substantive aspect of the JMDI. He/she will undertake the following tasks:

Participation in the generation of a methodological framework to support the codification process of practices from civil society organizations and local authorities in the field of migration and development;
Analysis of the findings coming out of the progress and monitoring reports of the projects funded by the JMDI;
Conceptualization and expert moderation of on-line discussions on the JMDI community of practice to support the production and test the findings of the codification process;
Based on the results of the codification process, writing of a handbook of good practices for practitioners, donors and governments alike, including concrete policy recommendations for governments.

1. Elaboration of a methodological framework:

The selected consultant will be required to support the elaboration of the methodological framework which will be used in order to extract the lessons learned arising from existing M&D practices of civil society organizations (diaspora groups, migrant associations, development NGOs, academia, private sector, social partners etc.) and local authorities. This will entail the review of the existing material generated by the JMDI (progress and monitoring reports of 54 funded projects, review of a database of approximately 200 projects implemented in the field of M&D).

2. Codification of findings and results:

Using the agreed upon methodology, the consultant will consolidate the findings and lessons learned arising from practices from civil society organizations and local authorities. These findings and lessons learned will be generated for each of the four thematic windows of the JMDI (remittances, migrant capacities, migrant rights, migrant communities).

3. Conceptualization and expert moderation of on-line discussions on the JMDI M&D Community of Practice:

In order to ensure broad ownership of the findings of the codification process by Civil Society Organizations and local authorities, the dedicated on-line Community of Practice (reaching out to 1,500 M&D practitioners around the world) will be used in order to gather inputs and feedback through the launch of specific ediscussions and a peer review process. In close partnership with the JMDI Knowledge Management Expert, the selected consultant will be requested to conceptualize and provide expert moderation for these on-line consultations, including summarizing the discussions, the results of which will be used to consolidate and refine the preliminary findings.

4. Production of a handbook on good practices arising from civil society organizations and local authorities to effectively link migration and development:

The selected consultant will be responsible for drafting a handbook on good practices in the field which will provide concrete evidence of workable and successful approaches to secure a development impact in migrants’ countries of origin. They will support the review and finalization process and include the comments from the five partner agencies to the JMDI and the EC. Refine the handbook until its final endorsement by the JMDI steering committee.

5. Elaboration of policy recommendations for governments:

The selected consultant will be responsible for drafting policy recommendations for governments to establish an enabling environment to better capitalize and link initiatives arising from civil society organizations and local authorities. They will support the review and finalization process and include the comments coming from the five partner agencies to the JMDI and the EC; refine the policy recommendations until their final endorsement by the JMDI steering committee.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
Displays cultural, gender and political sensitivity in the workplace.
Ability to manage multiple tasks, set priorities and deadlines, as well as plan work independently.
Abilty to work in a dynamic, multi-disciplinary, multi-national environment.
Ability to work quickly and accurately with information supplied.
Good inter-personal and communications skills.

Functional Competencies:

Experience in:

Designing efficient methodologies to aggregate data coming from different data sources.
Writing research documents for an international audience demonstrating excellent analytical and drafting skills.
Working at international level with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Using knowledge networks and/or communities of practice.
The use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel,etc).
Handling of web-based management systems, including using SPSS.

Required Skills and Experience

Masters Degree in Political Science or a development-related field.
Research background a strong asset.
At least 7 years of relevant experience in the areas of migration and development, including concrete experience in implementing migration and development initiatives.
Experience within the UN system a strong asset.