Antecedentes

Ghana, in the past two decades has made significant strides in deepening its democratic governance by the holding of six successful elections in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, with two peaceful transfers of power from one political party to another.  The country has systematically rolled out a relatively resilient decentralization process since 1988 and in recent years rolled out a national peace architecture to cement peace building as part of its democratic governance process. However, like every country, Ghana faces its unique challenges: enhancement of representation and participation, conflict of roles between and among the arms of government and governance institutions; inadequate participation of non-state actors in governance processes; low representation of women, youth and other marginalized groups in local governance; existence of critical conflict drivers such as chieftaincy, land and natural resources, ethnic, religious and socio-cultural disputes;  lack of harmonization and coordination of the peace mechanism; and a high perception of corruption in the public sector.

In Ghana, political parties have a long and proud history and are well-established, structurally coherent and relatively mature.  However, political parties have become one of the most mistrusted institutions of democracy in Ghana.  Barely 50% of Ghanaians trusted political parties “somewhat” or “a lot” (AfroBarometer 2012).  Despite public mistrust, and Ghana is by no means unique in this regard, political parties rarely benefit from deliberate efforts to improve their performance.  Ironically, much more assistance goes towards building civil society and state capacities – none of whom are elected to govern nations. Improved political governance was therefore identified in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF, 2012-16) for Ghana as one of 11 vital outcomes needed to increase and sustain the country’s development. 

The Joint Party Support and Strengthening (J-PASS) project builds on previous UNDP initiatives to promote increased public confidence and participation in elections, promote increased trust in political parties and in election results, and promote increased participation of women and youth in decision making processes in political party democracy. J-PASS recognizes that internal democracy, gender equality and election results monitoring are key to improving public and political party confidence, with particular focus for the 2016 elections. J-PASS Project is situated under the ambit of the UNDP Governance Programme and the Project team will be based in UNDP Ghana Office. The project will be implemented with the five parties (CPP, NDC, NPP, PNC, PPP) participating as equals. This is a 2.5 year project. 

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Officer shall support formulation, management and evaluation of project activities relating to J-PASS Project. The Project Officer can supervise and lead project support staff. The Project Officer works in close collaboration with the UNDP Governance Team, CO, Programme and Operations teams and Development Partners.

Impact of Results:

The key results have an impact on the success of UNDP’s Governance Cluster through attention to governance themes, thereby supporting the implementation of UNDP’s CPD as well as Outcome 10 within the UNDAF. In particular, the key results have an impact on the design, operation and programming of activities, creation of strategic partnerships as well as reaching resource mobilization targets.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Summary of Key Results:

• Implementation of Project Strategies as relates to strengthening Political Parties and country’s democracy;
• Management of J-PASS Project Management Unit and Staff;
• Creation of strategic partnerships and development of a resource mobilization strategy;
• Provision of top quality advisory services to management, key stakeholders and development partners;
• Facilitation of knowledge building and management.

Supports implementation of  programme strategies according to J-PASS project document to strengthen Political Party internal democracy, and to include women in decision making:

• Provide technical and policy advice in the J-PASS’s long term strategic planning for sustainable political party system development in line with international standards and best practices;
• Prepare draft analysis and research of the legal, political, social and economic situation in the country as relates to politics and elections, and preparation of substantive inputs to Programme Document, Resource Mobilization Strategies, and other documents in support of the reform;
• Support lessons learned analysis and documentation, after the 2016 elections which will contribute to the preparation of UNDP’s workplan for 2018-2020;
• Contribute to capacity building effort of the political parties to promote improved communications within themselves, amongst the parties and with external stakeholders with respect to gender, youth, internal democracy and election results monitoring;
• Support Political Parties to develop accurate, complete, timely and gender-disaggregated data on their membership and supporters;
• Conduct research on the most effective methods of enhancing capacities of the Electoral Commission to strengthen the Political Party Regulatory Framework;
• Support development of gender equality policies for the parties, and support mentorship programme for aspiring women leaders, and support female candidates at elections;
• Support creation of internal education campaign on gender equality and the promotion of  youth empowerment amongst the political parties;
• Provide inputs into analysis and best practices in election results monitoring and the creation of inter-party electoral dialogue platform;
• Support implementation of the second joint parties elections results monitoring sub-project (J-PERM II).

Ensures effective and efficient Management of J-PASS Project Unit and Staff, focusing on quality control from formulation to implementation in accordance with UNDP policies and procedures:

• Actively support design, formulation and implementation of J-PASS Project within area of responsibility, according to the technical, financial and administrative guidelines prescribed in the programme document or by the Joint Steering Committee (JSC);
• Provide operational and technical support to all key stakeholders as assigned/needed, assuring application of conceptual models in support of programme design;
• Prepare analysis and synthesis of proposals, draft terms of reference on the areas for support and interventions relative to the practice area of specialization assigned;
• Support the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the project components to assure attainment of development and targeted results under Governance Cluster;
• Support coordination of stakeholders that are/will be active in the area of project intervention, aiming at enhancing the joint results and avoiding overlapping of assistance through regular meetings of the Inter-Party and other Platforms as required;
• Lead financial and substantive monitoring and evaluation of the projects, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions. Participation in audit of DIM projects;
• Preparation of inputs for reporting, including donor reporting:

Supports creation and maintenance of strategic partnerships, positioning of UNDP and implementation of the resource mobilization strategy for J-PASS Project:

• Conduct analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for initiation of new projects, active contribution to the overall office effort in resource mobilization;
• Develop and implement a resource mobilization strategy to assure sustainable non-core support for political party system in Ghana.

Support provision of quality advisory services to national development partners and  ensures facilitation of knowledge building and management focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Research on sources of information related to policy-driven issues, synthesize best practices and lessons learned in relation to Project goals;
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Support training of projects staff on programme issues;
• Contribute to professional growth through active learning.

Competencias

Corporate Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda:

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Results-Based Programme Development and Management;
• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Ability to perform a variety of standard tasks related to Results Management, including screening and collecting of programme/ projects documentation, projects data entering, preparation of revisions, filing, provision of information;

Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues;
• Analyses and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;
• Analyses information/databases on potential and actual donors.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
• Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity; 
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
• Informed and transparent decision making;
• Prince2 training and certification, RMG.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in political or social sciences or related field.

Experience:

• Up to 7 years post qualification experience at the national or international level in the area of governance, political affairs, elections, project management, gender programming;
• Hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and in elections required;
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages;
• Able to handle web based management systems.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English (written and spoken);
• Any national language of Ghana.