UNDP Jobs - 76260- National Project Manager (Open to Nepalese nationa

National Project Manager (Open to Nepalese nationals only)

Location :

Kathmandu, NEPAL

Type of Contract :

Other

Starting Date :

01-Mar-2018

Application Deadline :

27-Dec-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

Other

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year with possibility of 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

Contract Type: NIM Project Staff Contract Level: SB 5 / Peg 2

Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. Building on the achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals, the Agenda commits all stakeholders to work together to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development and environmental protection. The Goals are inter-linked, necessitating synergy and coordination of efforts. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are aimed at “leaving no one behind.”

Nepal became one of the first countries to take stock of its progress on the proposed SDGs in 2015, confirming its conscious commitment to advance the global development agenda in the country. The National Planning Commission, as the apex development policymaking body of the Government of Nepal, has taken the lead in incorporating the SDGs in the 14th Periodic Plan Development Plan. The Government has also initiated the SDG audit of annual budget since 2016/17, the first budget after the promulgation of SDGs. Efforts are underway to integrate SDGs into the national M&E system, and periodic plans and budget at sub-national levels of government.

To monitor the SDGs at all levels, significant collective effort from all partners is required. The existing major surveys in Nepal include the Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS), Nepal Labor Force Survey (NLFS) and the recently introduced Annual Household Survey, in addition to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the Census. But effective monitoring of the SDGs will require higher frequency (nearly real time) data to be collected in new and innovative ways.

After the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015, Nepal is shifting towards federal governance, marking a historic departure from a centralized and unitary structure. This will bring significant changes in the way development planning, policy making, budgeting and service delivery is executed. The achievement of the SDGs nationally, therefore, will require collaboration and coordination at all tiers of government, and all other relevant stakeholders outside the government

Facilitating the Pursuit of SDGs in Nepal (FPSN), a joint project of the National Planning Commission and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is designed to create an enabling environment and necessary institutional mechanisms for public outreach, mainstreaming in national and local level plans and budgets and setting up monitoring and report systems with enhanced data quality. The project expects to achieve this through three interlinked outputs – 1) aligning Nepal’s development vision, plans, policies and public expenditure frameworks at all tiers of government with SDGs, 2) strengthening national data and monitoring systems to track, monitor and evaluate the progress against SDGs, 3) operationalizing institutional set up for implementation and monitoring.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

Under the direct supervision of National Project Director (NPD) of FPSN project, the National Project Manager (NPM) will act as Technical Advisor of the project, in addition to the overall managerial function.

Day to day operational management and the delivery of outputs and activities in a timely and efficient manner in accordance with National Implementation (NIM) Guidelines;
Coordination and Partnership with relevant stakeholders;
Technical and Advisory support for the implementation of project outputs.

Day to day operational management and the delivery of outputs and activities in a timely and efficient manner in accordance with National Implementation (NIM) Guidelines

Ensure that all outputs and activities are implemented in a timely manner and adhere to project results, human resources and monitoring and evaluation plans, ensuring quality and relevance to the context of Nepal;
Lead the preparation of Annual Work Plans (AWP), Quarterly Work Plans (QWP), Human resource (HR), Procurement and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plans for approval from the Project Board;
Assist NPD in organising project board meetings as required. Prepare all necessary documents for the project board meetings including quarterly and annual progress reports;
Oversee implementation of activities outlined in the project document, with a focus on results and impact, liaising with the technical advisor for advice on technical details;
Manage and monitor project risks, identify and submit new risks to the Project Board for decisions and update the risk log periodically;
Update the NPD and UNDP Program Analyst on necessary adjustments during project implementation to ensure strategic flexibility;
Liaise with the UNDP Program Analyst to ensure full compliance of operations with UNDP rules, regulations and policies and monitoring of achievement of results as per the NIM Guidelines.

Coordination and Partnership with relevant stakeholders on SDGs

Familiarize with the relevant initiatives of other government department, UN agencies and development partners for greater synergy and partnership;
Coordinate with relevant divisions of National Planning Commission (NPC) and other ministries for the effective implementation of project activities;
Establish partnership with civil society, private sector, academia, media etc for awareness creation and campaigning for the achievement of SDGs.

Technical and Advisory Support for the implementation of project outputs

Work as a technical advisor for the implementation of project;
Prepare concept notes, terms of references, thematic papers related to SDGs as required by the National Planning Commission;
Provide substantive inputs to the reports/documents produced by the project;
Provide policy and advisory support to the NPC in mainstreaming SDGs in planning and monitoring system;

Gender and Social Inclusion:

Apply principles of gender and social inclusion as the cross-cutting issue in every aspect of the programme implementation and management.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Excellent analytical and organizational skills;
Demonstrates substantial experience in gender equality. Actively promotes gender equality and social inclusion in all Project activities.

Functional competencies:

Ability to conduct strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
Ability to lead monitoring of management projects;
Ability to lead business process;
Ability to affect staff behavioral/attitudinal change;
Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results-Based Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the programme, managing data, reporting;
Analytical and strategic thinking/results orientation;
Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing;
Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment;
Excellent supervisory, management and team-building skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Completion of Master Degree, preferably PhD, in economics, development studies or related field.

Experience:

At least ten years of relevant working experience in project/programme management;
Minimum five years’ working experience in development planning, policy making, monitoring system and statistics;
Proven ability in drafting policy notes, concept papers;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web based management systems;

Language Requirements:

Fluency in both oral and written English.