UNCDF Jobs - 60592- Programme Management Specialist (SHIFT Programme)

Programme Management Specialist (SHIFT Programme) UNCDF

Advertised on behalf of

UNCDF

Location :

Bangkok, THAILAND

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

01-Dec-2015

Application Deadline :

15-Oct-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year (renewable)

Languages Required :

English

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

UNCDF provides investment capital and technical support to both the public and the private sector. It provides capital financing -- in the forms of grants, soft loans and credit enhancement – and the technical expertise to unleash sustainable financing at the local level.

UNCDF’s work on inclusive finance seeks to develop inclusive financial systems and ensure that a range of financial products are available to all segments of society, including low income men and women, at a reasonable cost, and on a sustainable basis. UNCDF supports a wide range of providers (e.g. microfinance institutions, banks, cooperatives, money transfer companies) and a variety of financial products and services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance, payments, and remittances). UNCDF also supports newer delivery channels (e.g. mobile phone networks) that offer tremendous potential for scale.

SHIFT Programme

The ASEAN region is home to more than 600 million people spread across 10 countries. Despite the dynamism of the region, there are significant contrasts between and within the countries, with three LDCs coexisting with some of the world’s largest and most vibrant economies, resulting in 20 per cent of the world’s poorest people living alongside some of the world’s richest.

UNCDF has developed a regional programme called Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT), with initial funding from the Australian Government, FMO and UNCDFs own resources. SHIFT’s interventions particularly focus on ASEAN’s frontier economies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV).

Programme Outcome: At least 6 million low-income individuals, micro-entrepreneurs, and small and medium businesses, including women and young people transition from using informal financial mechanisms, to more formalized financial services by the year 2020.

Programme Outputs:

Fund Facility: Support financial service providers to develop new prototypes and bring to scale viable business models that serve low-income individuals, micro-entrepreneurs, and small and medium businesses, especially women within these markets, in the ASEAN frontier economies;

Learning and Skills Development Portal: Support business development service providers by leveraging ICT solutions to develop and bring to scale viable e-learning models for professionals in financial institutions to improve productivity and professionalism;

Data and Analysis Hub: Produce, consolidate and communicate data and information on supply, demand and regulation in financial markets to strengthen the evidence base and investment decisions of providers, regulators and policy makers, specifically targeted towards low-income individuals, micro-entrepreneurs, and small and medium business, especially women within these markets;

Policy and Advocacy: Influence policy makers, financial service providers and governments to enable financial markets to be more responsive to the wider development priorities of governments and its people.

SHIFT seeks to change the behavior of financial institutions and the broader ecosystem of financial services providers, in order to respond to excluded groups, especially women and SMEs led by or primarily employing or serving women. However, behavior change can be challenging, due to socioeconomic and cultural norms. Each programme output strategically contributes to understanding the constraints that prevent the delivery and use of financial services, and contribute to the broader transformation of the financial market to allow larger numbers of people and businesses to benefit from and contribute to the delivery and use of financial services.

Duties and Responsibilities

SHIFT is looking to hire a Deputy Programme Manager who will be primarily responsible for managing the implementation of programme activities. S/he will be based at UNCDF’s Regional Office in Bangkok and will report directly to the SHIFT Programme Manager.

Summary of key functions

Management and Implementation: Management support to annual planning and implementation of SHIFT activities;
Operations Management: Ensures effective management of operational support;
Systems and Standards Management: Contribute to the development and maintenance of programme systems and standards;
Act as a backstop to the SHIFT Programme Manager in the supervision of the SHIFT team.

Ensure management support to annual planning and implementation of SHIFT activities focusing on achievement of the following results:

Directly Responsible

Directly responsible for the management of staff under the Learning and Skills Development Portal, and Policy and Advocacy outputs, as well as the Programme Associate;
Set-up programme management and implementation systems and standards, to ensure programme efficiency, and the establishment of clear benchmarks and direction of the SHIFT team;
Prepare the programme annual work plans and ensure clear performance targets are established and consistently met;
Adjust work plans according to programme implementation lessons learned and revise budgets accordingly to ensure effectiveness and enhanced quality of programming;
Effective management support for all aspects of programme implementation according to the annual work plan of the programme, ensuring targeted achievement of expenditures, delivery of activities and outputs;
Ensure activities are gender equitable and met the strategic priorities of SHIFT and UNCDF;
Follow up on audit recommendations.

Coordination and Collaboration

Support the Programme Manager in the management of the Fund Facility and Data and Analysis Hub staff, as well as the M&E and Learning staff member;
Collaborate with the M&E and Learning staff member in the preparation of annual reports, by provide documentation and feedback for programme monitoring and evaluation, including specific information on challenges and achievements (this includes programme aspects related to gender, achievement of targets, etc.);
Support the work of the SHIFT team, ensuring staff outputs are on target and aligned with the objectives of the annual work plan and overall SHIFT programme;
Support the Programme Manager to strengthen the strategic direction of SHIFT’s implementation based on lessons learned from the SHIFT programme;
Support the Programme Manager in maintaining a network of donors and investors who support to the SHIFT program.

Ensures effective management of the operational support focusing on achievement of the following results:

Directly Responsible

Effective oversight of Procurement and HR Processes in close coordination with MSU in HQ;
Oversee the effective and efficient management of financial resources, including annual budget preparation and financial planning;
Monitor closely the operational processes and ensure timely readjustment of the operations/activities to ensure smooth implementation and mitigation of risks;
Ensure smooth implementation of annual programme activities (i.e. identifying “bottle necks” and initiation of remedial actions) in close consultation with the Programme Management Specialist in Bangkok and PMSU in HQ.

Coordination and Collaboration

Support the Programme Manager to ensure transparency in the issuance of grant contracts and co-funding under SHIFT;
Provide information to the Programme Associate on financial programme reporting, budget disbursement delivery and other areas of accountability;
Work with the MSU in HQ to ensure and maintain a roster of vetted consultants or long-term contracts with relevant experience.

In collaboration with SHIFT team and particularly the Communication Specialist, contribute to ensuring the development and maintenance of systems and standards focusing on achievement of the following results:

Assist the Programme Manager in developing and rolling out tools or mechanisms to facilitate donor and external engagement;
Establish systems and tools to collect lessons learned and apply lessons to programme implementation; collaborate with the Communications Specialist in the dissemination of lessons learned and the M&E and Learning staff member in reporting on lessons learned and undertaken corrective measures;
Develop knowledge management products in close consultations with the SHIFT Communications Specialist, as well as FIPA colleagues in HQ.

Act as a backstop to the SHIFT Programme Manager in the supervision of the SHIFT team focusing on achievement of the following results:

Backstop the SHIFT Programme Manager as needed and as directed by the Programme Manager;
Provide day-to-day guidance, support and supervision of the SHIFT team’s implementation of programme activities (noting that the Programme Manager is directly responsible for the management of the Fund Facility Coordinator and the Data and Analytics Specialist);
Organize appropriate trainings for the SHIFT team in areas that enhance the professionalism, skills and expertise of the team in implementing the programme;
Undertake other duties and tasks as assigned.

Impact of Results

The key result expected is the successful implementation and attainment of targets of the SHFIT Programme. The results have a major impact on the overall effectiveness of UNCDF’s FIPA practice area, the SHIFT programme in ASEAN and on UNCDF's reputation as a preferred partner in Inclusive Finance. The staff member is ultimately accountable for achieving the key results summarized above. These results in turn provide senior management with critical inputs in making decisions on resource allocations, planning and programme implementation; confirming the alignment of resources with results; providing corporate monitoring; and assessing performance. These results also ensure that strategic priorities and targets groups, such as women and SMEs, are effectively reached through programme activities.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Results-Based Programme Development and Management

Ensures timely and efficient implementation of a complex project and the financial resources to obtain results using highly developed skills and aptitude in organizing complex activities and priorities into simpler implementable workflows and applying persistence in ensuring that workflows are completed on-time and to budget;
Conceptualizes and promotes more effective approaches to programme implementation, and mobilizing and using resources;
Proven ability to manage projects and project teams, preferably with UN experience.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter:

Understands financial inclusion as well as the fundamental concepts of related financial market development;
Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments, preferably with experience of PRINCE 2.

Core Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF and UNDP;
Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
Building support and political acumen;
Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
Building and promoting effective teams;
Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking;
Ability to address gender equality and empowerment of women considerations in strategic and operational activities of UNCDF.

Vision:

Identifies strategic issues, opportunities and risks;
Clearly communicates links between the Organization’s strategy and the work unit’s goals;
Generates and communicates broad and compelling organizational direction inspiring others to pursue the same direction;
Conveys enthusiasm about future possibilities.

Leadership:

Serves as a role model that other people want to follow;
Empowers others to translate vision into results;
Is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives;
Establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support;
Drives for change and improvement, does not accept the status quo;
Sows the courage to take unpopular stands.

Managing Performance:

Delegates the appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority;
Makes sure that roles, responsibilities and reporting lines are clear to each staff member;
Accurately judges the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish a task and matches task to skills;
Monitors progress against milestones and deadlines;
Regularly discusses performance and provides feedback and coaching to staff;
Appraises performance fairly.

Judgment/Decision Making:

Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly;
Gathers relevant information before making a decision;
Considers positive and negative impact on others and on the Organization;
Proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information;
Checks assumptions against facts;
Determines that the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision;
Makes tough decisions when necessary.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in economics, public/business administration, social sciences, or related fields.

Experience:

A minimum of seven (7) years progressively more responsible experience in in project management of complex projects in developing countries, preferably with UN;
Working knowledge of financial inclusion and financial systems approaches;
Experience and highly developed skills and interest in translating complex ideas and problems into practical work-streams and organizing, coordinating and implementing these on time and to budget;
Experience of stakeholder engagement, preferably related to financial inclusion applying market systems approaches;
Strong experience of large project financial management;
Experience with project planning, monitoring, reporting and presentations, preferably with PRINCE 2 and DCED standards
Demonstrated ability to maintain calmness under pressure in meeting multiple deadlines;
Demonstrated high detail orientation with a completer/finisher personality;
Highly skilled in Excel, project management software, and demonstrable expertise in use of ICT tools;
Personal commitment, efficiency and flexibility.

Language Requirements:

Excellent command of the English language, with outstanding written and oral communication skills.

Instructions for applicants to be included in the advertisement:

All applicants are required to submit a cover letter outlining point by point how they fit with the competencies and submit evidence to support their claims.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to upload (as a *pdf attachment) the completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded fromhttp://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.docx Completion of all the fields is required.

Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.