UNDP Jobs - 20847- Consultant Codification Migration and Development

Consultant Codification Migration and Development

Location :

Brussels, BELGIUM

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Feb-2011

Application Deadline :

13-Jan-11 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English French

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months

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

The European Commission and the United Nations launched in 2009 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, run out of UNDP Brussels, also 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 Euro in funding to support concrete interventions in the four priority areas, now being implemented by 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 is used to gather 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.

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. Furthermore, the Consultant will work in close coordination with another Consultant already hired and working on the codification process under the programme. 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

Analysis of the existing JMDI database in view of identifying lessons learned ;
Conduction of structured interviews with JMDI grantees and JMDI Focal Points;
Based on the results of the codification process, participation to the writing of a handbook of good practices for practitioners, donors and governments alike, including concrete policy recommendations for governments.

Codification of findings and results:

Using the existing JMDI database, the consultant will undertake data analysis in view of consolidating 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)

Conduction of structured interviews with JMDI grantees:

The Consultant will design questionnaires to support the interview process of a sample of JMDI grantees and JMDI Focal Points in the 16 targeted countries;
The Consultant will conduct the structured interviews over the phone and will input the results within the JMDI database.

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 chapters of 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.
He/she 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.

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;
He/she 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.

Impact of results

The identification and codification of good practices coming from the civil society in the field of migration and development will constitute one of the main outputs of the EC-UN Joint Migration and Development Initiative and will contribute to advancing the international dialogue on migration and development. The concrete policy recommendations for governments which will be produced will ensure that lessons learned will be made available to key decision makers to impact their current policies and practices to link migration and development.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goal of the UN system;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensibility and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Experience in designing efficient methodologies to aggregate data coming from different data sources;
Experience in writing research documents for an international audience demonstrating excellent analytical and drafting skills;
Experience in working at international level with people from different cultural backgrounds;
Experience using knowledge networks and/or communities of practice;
Experience in the use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel,etc). Experience in handling of web-based management systems. Experience in using SPSS;
Prior experience in working with the UN system a strong asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters degree in political science or a development-related field. Research background a strong asset.

Experience:

At least 8 years of relevant experience in the areas of migration and development, including concrete experience in implementing migration and development initiatives.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English and French.