Background

The presidential elections were successfully held on 9th October 2004 with over 8 million voters casting their ballots, resulting in the election of President Hamid Karzai. The Parliamentary and Provincial Council Elections took place on 18 September 2005 and resulted in establishment of the Afghan National Assembly and Provincial Councils in 34 provinces.  

The Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) which was established to manage the above mentioned elections, exercised all powers of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) during the Transitional Period. According to the Constitution, with the completion of parliamentary election, the JEMB was dissolved in December 2005. Thereupon, the IEC took over the full mandate of all electoral activities in the country supported by the international community through an extended transition phase from November 2005 to 20 October, 2006.  

During the transitional phase the institutionalization of the IEC was the main goal to ensure the sustainable nature of the institution with respect to the organizational structure as well as the financial resources. Even though capacity had been built during the election as well as the transitional period other activities are necessary to ensure that the IEC embarks on the right footing to carry out its mandate in a sustainable manner. To support the IEC in carrying out the activities needed and to scale up its ability to fulfill its mandate in a sustainable manner the project “Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow” (ELECT) was designed and launched on 14 November 2006. The ELECT project was initially designed to achieve the following outputs with a total budget of $4.9m:  

Output 1: Independent Electoral Commission’s institutional capacity further built to carry out its mandate as an independent constitutional body. 

Output 2: Effective legal and institutional environment in place to enable the IEC to execute its responsibilities.  

Output 3: Joint voter and civil registration pilot project designed and implemented leading to the design of a national project to establish a permanent civil and voter registry with a single national identity document.  

After completion of the pilot voter registration process in 3 selected provinces, in consultation with Independent Election Commission and other partner organizations, national Voter Registry was identified as the main area which needs to be addressed in order to reach the envisaged goals for 2009 election. The IEC and other partner organizations requested UNDP through ELECT project to take the lead in implementation of the national voter registration. With adding voter registration as a new output to ELECT project, the operational dimension of ELECT project will be considerably scaled up not only in terms of provision of technical support to IEC but also for conducting of the voter registration operations nationwide. The technical dimension concerns the integration of registration and polling activities, development of electoral resources and conduct of the national exercise. The amendment process is well underway and all stakeholders including donors have already indicated their commitment. The envisaged budget is around $80 million. The project ends by the end of year 2010.  

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and education requirements. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Security Advisor, the Security Specialist undertakes the following duties:  

·          Prepares, co-ordinates and manages ongoing security planning for the Afghan In dependent Election Commission (IEC) and ongoing operations in co-operation with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Coalition Force, and the Afghan Ministry for Interior and Ministry of Defense; 

·          Responsible for the planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of all crisis and emergency preparedness measures in support of IEC operations; 

·          Provides coordination and direction to both host country and international security actors ensuring a seamless integrated IEC security strategy; 

·          Briefs key leadership on security developments relating to IEC Operations; 

·          Coordinates the passage of relevant incident based security related information to UNDP Security, UNDSS, and other UN Agencies, Coalition Forces, and to the Afghan Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense; 

·          Provides the Strategy Security Group (SSG) with weekly briefings concerning the overall security environment and its effect on the security of the IEC; 

·          Provides risk Management solutions to key leadership as required; 

·          Conducts risk analysis and threat assessments concerning the security situations as it affects the National Assembly; 

·          Works with the ELECT Chief Electoral Advisor, her deputy and UNDP to further develop the project component for ongoing security advice and support within the ELECT Project; 

·          Advises on implementing the future phase of ELECT Project; 

·          Provides day to day supervision of the national security unit comprising the Security Associate, Security Assistant, Guard Supervisor and  20 Guards; 

·          Overall responsibility for the management of security of all UN Staff in the ELECT Project; 

·          Coordinates closely with UNDP Chief Field Security Advisor to ensure implementation of all UN/UNDP related security measures for ELECT UN Staff; 

·          Performs other duties, tasks and responsibilities required for the successful implementation of the project. 

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience