UNDP in partnership with the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) of the Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives and UN-Habitat is implementing the Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP) in Bangladesh with funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and UNDP. The project is being implemented over the 7 years (2008-2014) and will be supported by a grant of GBP 60 million (approximately US$110 million).

The Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPR) is one of the largest urban poverty reduction initiatives in the world. The project aims to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of three million urban poor and extremely poor people, especially women and girls, living in 30 towns and cities in Bangladesh. It will achieve this aim through providing support for participatory community upgrading through community contracting, supporting viable and sustainable livelihoods and social and economic development activities, addressing issues of security of tenure and the needs of the extreme poor, and working with others to create a more pro-poor urban policy environment. The project will support the development of town-wide poverty reduction and economic development strategies through partnerships with urban poor communities, civil society and local government.

   - Urban poor communities mobilized and supported to form representative, inclusive   and well-managed groups.

   - Poor urban communities supported to create healthy and secure living environments.

   - Urban poor and extremely poor people supported to acquire the resources, knowledge and skills needed to increase their incomes and assets.

   - Development and implementation of pro-poor policies and practices supported in partnership with others.

The project includes and integrates interventions in physical infrastructure improvement (or slum-upgrading); livelihoods support such as apprenticeships, business start-up grants, vocational training, urban food production activities, child educational stipends; savings-and-credit operations; improvement of security of tenure; and social interventions to address early marriage, dowry, domestic violence and drug abuse. UPPR focuses on reducing urban extreme poverty by giving priority to the homeless and the poorest settlements, poorest households within settlements, and poorest members within families. 

The Socio- Economic Coordinator will work under the direct supervision of International Poverty Reduction Specialist and under overall guidance of International Project Manager and the National Project Director.

The Socio- Economic Coordinator will be directly responsible to coordinate planning and delivery of all activities supported by SEF. In addition, s/he will analyze the input and output data of SEF for analyzing lessons to inform the management decisions and annual planning. S/he will also contribute to high quality social analysis of the complex nature of vulnerability and exclusion in poor urban areas. The Coordinator will work with others to translate this analysis into robust and innovate strategies for working with extremely poor, excluded and vulnerable urban populations to improve their development outcomes. The Socio-Economic Coordinator will contribute to the achievements of Outputs one, three and four and the Purpose of the Programme as measured by the Indicators. S/he will manage and implement SEF supporting activities, specifically to ensure inclusion of the extremely poor and vulnerable population in the project processes and project delivery.

The Socio-Economic Coordinator will be a specialist in the areas of urban poverty reduction with specific experience of extreme poverty reduction.

Summary of Roles and Responsibilities:

1. Coordinates the planning process of all UPPR towns for annual SEF delivery and ensures high quality of the implementation of community contracts and other related activities;
2. Manages SEF team and provide technical inputs to assist town teams, Local Government Institutions and the government counterpart for ensuring quality SEF delivery;
3. Works closely with M&E to provide inputs in designing outcome survey, analyzing outcomes data and generating lessons and knowledge products to inform project’s strategic directions and policy outcomes;
4. Develops and manage partnerships with on-going and proposed urban projects that directly or indirectly benefit urban poor communities and specifically the extremely poor;
5. Networks with key stakeholders to promote urban poverty reduction policies for the urban poor and extreme poor.

1. Coordinates the planning process of all UPPR towns for annual SEF delivery and ensures high quality implementation of community contracts and other related activities;

• Provides inputs into the preparation and implementation of the annual results based work plans and result frameworks as endorsed by the management;
• Ensures inclusion of the extreme poor and the most vulnerable populations in SEF delivery;
• Coordinate planning of all UPPR towns for annual SEF delivery in line with the annual plan formulated by the project management team;
• Ensures annual delivery of SEF activities against the annual plan;
• Supervises staff processing community contracts to ensure relevance, viability and sustainability of the project activities proposed in community contracts;
• Assists town team to ensure equitable distribution of resources across Community Development Committees and towns; ;
• Ensures quality of SEF delivery in terms of targeting, delivery processes and results;
• Provide support to the preparation of progress reports, briefings etc.

2. Manages SEF team and provides technical inputs to assist town teams, Local Government Institutions and the government counterpart for ensuring quality SEF delivery:

• Ensures inputs of SEF staff in planning SEF activities;
• Assists SEF staff in providing high quality technical inputs through guidelines, recommendations and well-designed steps for implementing sector development and cross cutting activities;
• Ensures SEF staffs’ adequate technical support to and coordination with town teams in their areas of works;
• Supervises and assists SEF staff in processing community contracts and implementation in their areas of works;
• Assists and ensures SEF staff’s constant monitoring of implementation processes and results in their areas of works;
• Undertakes day to day supervision and management of SEF staff such as socio-economic experts, socio-economic assistants etc;
• Coordinates SEF staff’s inputs in project briefings and progress report (six monthly and annual reports);

3. Works closely with M&E team for analyzing SEF delivery and outcomes data to generate lessons and knowledge products informing project’s strategic directions and policy outcomes;

• Analyzes gender, poverty status and vulnerability disaggregated SEF delivery data to examine the trends and lessons for informing management decisions on changes in project policies and project direction;
• Works closely with M&E for providing inputs in designing outcome survey and other monitoring tools to track results of SEF activities;
• Analyzes results of outcome surveys and generate lessons and knowledge products;
• Shares results of analysis with management to inform changes in project policies and strategic directions;
• Disseminates knowledge products to concerned stakeholders for policy outcomes;

4. Develops and manages partnerships with on-going and proposed urban projects that directly or indirectly benefit urban poor communities and specifically the extremely poor;

• Identifies potential projects and programs in UPPR towns for developing linkages to address socio-economic development issues;
• Assists UPPR towns and cities to identify local partners in towns for developing linkages and partnerships for service delivery and capacity development of cluster leaders for delivering community based services;
• Manages partnerships for effective service delivery though regular monitoring of intervention processes and results;

5. Network with key stakeholders to promote urban poverty reduction policies for the urban poor and extreme poor.

• Networks with government ministries, departments and agencies, donors and development agencies, national and international NGOs, academic institutions and civil society organizations to promote urban poverty reduction policies for the urban poor and extreme poor.
• Contributes to policy research and analysis for evidence based advocacy
• Contributes to mapping of development issues in the areas of urban extreme poverty reduction and strategic opportunities in the form of professional papers and reports.
• Provides support to and be directly involved in the project’s capacity building efforts aimed at government counterparts, civil society groups, media and other stakeholders.
• Contributes to the production reports and publications.
• Responds to the various government and non-governmental agencies requests for advisory and support services and lead the support from the project as required by the stakeholders.

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards (human rights, peace, understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, results orientation (UNDP core ethics) impartiality
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback, timely responses queries
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

• Ability to engage with high ranking UNDP Managers, Government Officials and international donor community and provide policy advisory support services.
• Ability to identify opportunities, conceptualize and develop project reports
• Capability to engage in team-based policy and programme dialogue, experience of leading workshops and being a resource person.
• Ability to oversee timely project implementation and to provide the necessary trouble shooting to keep project implementation on schedule

• Promotes knowledge management  and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example:
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral):
• Sensitivity to and responsiveness to all partners,
• Respectful and helpful relations with all UN / UNDP staff

• Masters’ Degree or equivalent in Social Sciences or a related discipline.

• A minimum of 3 years of experience in the field of poverty reduction, preferably in the area of urban poverty reduction projects/programs
• Preference for those with direct experience of working with the extremely poor and excluded;
• Knowledge of  best practices and policies in the fields of urban poverty reduction and social protection;
• Experience in working with UN and Government project is an asset
• Ability to use Microsoft Office

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bangla