UNDP Jobs - 62451- Regional Programme Specialist

Regional Programme Specialist – Gender and Inclusion in Peacebuilding

Location :

Bangkok, THAILAND

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

29-Dec-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year with possible extension

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

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan. BPPS's staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages; represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues. South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data-driven including in its programme support efforts.

The Regional Programme Specialist is responsible for contributing solid substantive advice and technical expertise, advocacy and knowledge to the thematic area within the Bureau and UNDP as a whole working to provide quality policy services to Regional Bureaux, Country Offices and other UNDP teams. The Regional Programme Specialist works towards advancing UNDP's credibility in the thematic area, delivering coherence and quality technical advice in this area.

She/he is responsible for performing and contributing to the following:

Policy research and development;
Technical guidance and support;
Policy positioning and representation;
Partnership and resource mobilization; and
Knowledge management.

The Regional Programme Specialist, Gender and Inclusion in Peacebuilding, reporting to the Regional Team Leader, Governance and Peacebuilding, will focus on creating regional platforms and promoting women participation in peacebuilding, including resource mobilization. S/he will build strategic partnerships with national and regional women’s networks, think tanks and women-focused support organizations (including UN agencies) for creating a strong regional advocacy agenda on gender, equality, peace and development that can be translated to the national policy and programmatic contexts.

S/he supervises consultants and institutions, coordination with country office focal points as well as networking and building partnerships with women’s networks and peace organizations. The incumbent will be required to have strong technical expertise in the area of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and peacebuilding and create innovative approaches to advance this agenda in the region while enhancing the capacity and reputation of the Governance and Peacebuilding Team to deliver relevant services to clients.

The Regional Programme Specialist (RPS) will also lead the work on gender mainstreaming across the governance and peacebuilding portfolio. As part of the Bangkok Regional Hub Gender Focal Team under the guidance of the Regional Gender Team Leader, the RPS will support the implementation of the corporate Gender Equality Strategy in Asia and the Pacific. The RPS will also substantively support the role of UNDP in the regional interagency mechanisms addressing the WPS agenda.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Effective delivery and achievement of results;
Facilitation of regional mechanisms that address sensitive issues in women, peace and security;
Provision of technical and advisory services to the country offices;
Development of strategic partnerships, outreach and advocacy for development results;
Facilitation of knowledge building, sharing and promoting learning within the Bangkok Regional Hub and with partners and clients.
Mainstreaming gender across the governance and peacebuilding portfolio and support for work on gender and institutional development across the Bangkok Regional Hub and with country offices.

Overall development, management, coordination, reporting and M&E of the programme to ensure delivery and achievement of results:

Manage the WPS portfolio within the governance and peacebuilding team
Overall resource planning, resource mobilization and donor relations for WPS and peacebuilding in the region
Coordinate with other Regional Teams at the Bangkok Regional Hub to ensure coherence in delivery.

Provision of technical and advisory services to the countries:

Provide policy advisory services to countries on the WPS agenda and peacebuilding;
Participate and contribute to global, regional and country meetings, workshops and dialogues to contribute to policy development for the WPS and peacebuilding;
Contribute to the implementation and development of relevant government policies, plans and programmes related to WPS and peacebuilding.
Ensure coordination of policy and technical support across other UN Agencies dealing with WPS and broader conflict prevention and peacebuilding work.

Strategic partnerships, outreach and advocacy for development results:

Design and implement a communications and outreach strategy for UNDP's regional work on WPS and peacebuilding;
Strategic engagement with key stakeholders within and outside the UN, including representing UNDP at regional policy and programmatic discussions on WPS and peacebuilding, as well as gender;
Coordinate media partnerships, social media and web content for campaigns and communications work on WPS and peacebuilding;
Develop and maintain partnerships with key UN agencies and bureaux, regional institutions, think-tanks for creating a regional advocacy agenda on WPS and peacebuilding.

Facilitation of knowledge building and sharing and promote learning:

Provide guidance and leadership on new and innovative thinking for advancing WPS and peacebuilding work in the region;
Support and guide country offices and project partners in the production of knowledge products that can influence policy and programmes on WPS, peacebuilding and gender more broadly;
Lead and guide the development of lessons learned, evaluations, synthesis from projects that can serve as inputs in national and regional policy debate, as well as used for global advocacy on WPS.Provide the leadership to create a vibrant network and regional community of practice on WPS and peacebuilding.

Gender Mainstreaming and implementation of the corporate Gender Equality Strategy:

Provide substantive support to the work of the Regional Gender Focal Team in institutionalizing and implementing the corporate gender equality accountability and capacity development tools in the Bangkok Regional Hub with the objective of strengthening the delivery of the Hub’s gender equality results.

Competencies

Core:

Innovation

Ability to make new and useful ideas work.

Leadership

Ability to persuade others to follow.

People Management

Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.

Communication

Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.

Delivery

Ability to get things done.

Technical/Functional:

Primary:

Building Strategic Partnerships

Ability to effectively network with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
Ability to sensitize UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to the UNDP's strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts.

Results-based Programme Development and Management

Ability to research linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
Ability to monitor specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
Ability to analyze country situation to identify opportunities for project development.

Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda

Ability to contribute to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means.

Client Orientation

Ability to demonstrate understanding of client's perspective;
Ability to keep clients informed of problems or delays in the provision of services.

Resource mobilization

Ability to analyze information on potential bilateral donors and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach;
Ability to Identify country needs and develop proposals to be presented to donors and governments.

Conceptual Innovation in the provision of technical expertise

Ability to leverage multi-disciplinary, institutional knowledge and experience of other countries;
Ability to develop innovative and creative approaches to meet programme and capacity development objectives;
Ability to participate in dialogue about conceptual innovation at the country and regional levels.

Secondary:

Promoting organizational learning and knowledge sharing

Ability to make the case for innovative ideas documenting good practice and building them into the design of new approaches.

Job knowledge and technical expertise

Ability to serve as internal consultant in the area of expertise and shares knowledge with staff;
Ability to keep abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
Demonstrated capacity and ability to integrate gender equality in programming and communication strategies.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree or equivalent in a discipline relevant to gender in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and recovery.

Experience:

At least 7 years post-graduate experience of extensive field and programming experience within conflict prevention and recovery;
Experience in the area of capacity building for community of practitioners, gender equality and disaster risk management and institutional & legislative systems for conflict risk management;
Experience in programming gender responsive methods;
Working experience in Asia and the Pacific region;
Experience with UNDP and UN system policies and programming, including those related to women's empowerment and gender equality is an asset;
Track record in promoting women's human rights and gender equality in a professional capacity.

Language:

Fluency and excellent analytical writing skills in English.