Back Peace & Development Advisor

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 joint UNDP-DPPA programme on building national capacities for conflict prevention has made a ground-breaking contribution in bridging the gap between political engagement and development assistance in pursuit of preventing conflict and sustaining peace. In its new phase (2019-2023), the Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme will further strengthen the analytical capacities of national stakeholders and the UN system in support of Member States’ efforts to advance policy and programmatic coherence on conflict prevention and support strategies for sustaining peace.

Peace and Development Specialists (hereafter PDA) work with national stakeholders to build, strengthen, and sustain nationally owned and driven efforts to prevent violent conflict and build just and peaceful societies. The range of countries to which PDAs are deployed varies considerably, with some deployed to countries emerging from conflict, others where violence is escalating, and others to countries where there is no violent conflict but underlying structural causes of conflict are present. PDAs are also deployed in countries where political and developmental challenges exist around transitions, elections and constitutional processes, exclusion and inequality, environment, climate change, and natural resource management.

•            PDAs are deployed through a partnership between the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention. 

•            PDAs support Resident Coordinators (RC) and UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in their efforts to work with national partners on conflict prevention and sustaining peace. They support early warning and risk management measures and ensure that UN assessments, frameworks (mainly Common Country Analyses and UN Cooperation Frameworks), strategies, and programmes are conflict-sensitive and informed by high-quality analysis. They are located in the Resident Coordinators’ office, with a direct reporting line to the RC and a secondary reporting line to the UNDP Resident Representative and DPPA-DPO regional divisions. 

In 2022, PDAs will have been deployed into more than 70 countries through the Joint Programme. While most PDAs are deployed at the country level, there are a number of PDAs who cover multiple countries.

 •            In some contexts, PDAs are part of a small Peace and Development Advisory team composed of a PDA and a substantive national or international officer/analyst.

•            PDAs also receive additional support from a Joint Programme secretariat based at UN Headquarters in New York, UNDP and DPPA technical advisors/specialists globally, and a cadre of regional programme specialists supporting their regions in Amman, Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Dakar, Istanbul, and Panama. 

Given the broad range of skills and experience required by PDAs, the Joint Programme encourages applications from individuals with a combination of expertise spanning sustainable development, political affairs, peacebuilding, sustaining peace, conflict prevention/resolution, community engagement, justice, reconciliation, dialogue, mediation, and humanitarian-development-peace nexus among other relevant areas. While UN experience is a major asset, it is not a requirement for this position. Moreover, the skills of diplomacy, dialogue and facilitation, analysis, advocacy, networking, capacity development and coordination are critical elements of a PDA’s work.

PDAs at the P5 level will be deployed in a) particularly complex political, conflict, and security settings as determined by the Joint Programme criticality assessment and analysis carried out by DPPA and UNDP b) in contexts of UN mission/mission transition settings or with other political presences, c) when regional/sub-regional functions are required, or d) when engagement with high-level officials is expected.

Guinea-Bissau’s context

Guinea-Bissau has faced recurrent political and institutional instability since the 2014 presidential election. There have been continued disagreements and power struggles between the president and the Prime Minister, which has resulted in the formation of seven governments over a five-year period and a parliamentary impasse. Since then, the country has successfully held legislative elections on 10 March 2019, and presidential elections – two rounds on 24 November and 29 December 2019, within the legally mandated timeframe. Of note, the second-round presidential election results were contested by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) presidential candidate, and a legal case was filed with the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ). Further to the 10 March legislative elections, a new Parliament was installed in April 2019, where the former ruling party PAIGC is still the largest political group, however, without a governing majority. The Parliament, whose mandate will end in May 2023, has been riddled with inter-party disputes over the formation of its Executive Bureau and other parliamentary bodies. Based on the Electoral Law, the next elections should take place between October and November 2023; however, in the absence of an electoral calendar, the Parliament’s mandate is likely to be extended by six months.   

Further to the 1 February foiled coup attempt, there have been reported of increased violations of human rights.  At the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and President, ECOWAS is currently deploying about 600 troops to support stabilization efforts in the country with little national consensus backing this decision. Of note, ECOWAS has been leading mediation efforts in the country to address the cyclical political and institutional crises facing the country. It deployed a peacekeeping mission to the country, known as ECOMIB, in 2012 with a mandate to protect the state institutions and organs during the transition process. In 2016, ECOWAS brokered a Roadmap followed by the Conakry Agreement, which is the guiding framework for the political process in Guinea-Bissau. The ECOMIB mandate ended on 31 March 2020.

Concerns over the nomination of the new National Electoral Commission (CNE) persist. All political parties represented in Parliament have expressed their readiness to engage in dialogue, which is an opportunity for increased good offices by UNOWAS to facilitate such a dialogue to enable agreement on the key “time-bound” issues. Additionally, following the departure of the former CNE President, who was appointed as the President of the Supreme Court of Justice - reportedly with the support of President Embalo - a replacement with a judicial background needs to be nominated by the Supreme Court and approved by Parliament, with a two-thirds vote in favor. Other CNE Commissioners (Secretary-General and two Commissioners) will also need to be nominated by the Supreme Court and approved by Parliament. 

 Meanwhile, the constitutional review process, requested by ECOWAS in its communique of 22 April 2020, continues to be mired with ambiguities, with no clear indication if the draft text prepared by Parliament will be put forward for a debate at the next parliamentary plenary session in May 2022. On the one hand, President Embaló had established a presidential technical commission that undertook a review of the constitution and prepared a draft constitutional text leaning towards more presidential powers. On the other hand, the draft text from the constitutional review process led by Parliament aims to clear ambiguities in the roles and responsibilities among the Executive (President and Prime Minister), which has been one of the core reasons for political crises in the past, Legislative and Judicial bodies. Calls for the streamlining of the two processes have yet to yield results; however, all political parties in Parliament, including the President’s party MADEM-G15, unanimously agree that the review of the Constitution falls under the prerogative of Parliament.

Overall, the Conflict Analysis document, prepared by UNIOGBIS and validated by the Government in 2020, identified several conflict drivers, including:

•            Conflicting interpretations of the Constitution and other legal frameworks have given rise to recurrent political crises that often paralyze the State institutions. This includes conflicting interpretations of legislation related to the division of power and responsibilities within the Executive Branch (President and Prime Minister), which exacerbate political tensions; and continuing power struggle in Parliament, amidst shifting parliamentary alliances and majorities, impacting progress in the reform agenda and the Government’s programme;

•            Impunity and unaddressed violations of human rights, as well as continued divisiveness and political polarization stemming from past, unsettled grievances;

•            Weak economic and governance systems affect the State’s capacity to deliver basic services and goods to the population, payment of salaries and pensions to civil servants, or support capital investment;

•            Entangled political-military relationship of the State and in national politics, in addition to a stalled Security Sector Reform (coupled with reduced budget allocations to the defense and security forces, which leads to the deterioration of their living conditions;

•            Continued expansion of drug trafficking and organized crime, coupled with a weak judicial system, will have a negative impact on the country’s political stability, given the involvement of senior state officials (political and military), and continued socio-economic challenges, amid a situation of high urban youth unemployment, exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19 and the triple impact of the Ukraine crisis on food, energy, and finance.

The above-stated take place in a transition context for the United Nations in Guinea-Bissau. Following 20 years of UN mission presence in the country, and in keeping with the mandate of the Security Council that was adopted under resolution 2512 of 28 February 2020, the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) closed on 31 December 2020. Before its closure, UNIOGBIS, in collaboration with UNDP, supported the Government in implementing urgent reforms, including the constitutional review, the electoral law and political parties’ law, as stipulated by the Conakry Agreement and the ECOWAS roadmap. In this connection, following the closure of UNIOGBIS, UNOWAS, the United Nations Country Team in Bissau, and other partners, have assumed the main peacebuilding priorities. In accordance with an agreed Transition Plan, all transition milestones have been concluded, including the finalization and signing in August 2021 of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2022-2026). Moreover, in response to the needs of the country, the SG Executive Committee held a meeting on 21 January 2020 and decided that a Peace and Development Advisor (PDA) should be deployed to support the Resident Coordinator and the UNCT on the political analysis and reporting. Additionally, the RC will work closely with UNOWAS SRSG in support of his good offices’ efforts, including by providing reporting on political and security developments and progress made towards the full implementation of the reform agenda envisioned in the Conakry Agreement while safeguarding the political stability and security gains achieved by UNIOGBIS. The PDA will support the RC in such reporting for the SRSG UNOWAS good offices.

Guinea-Bissau is one of the PBF Priority Countries, both in its funding window (PBF) and its political advocacy platform, the Peacebuilding Commission Configuration for Guinea-Bissau (PBC). Continued focus on peace and development will be important to ensure that the country overcomes the prevailing challenges and evolves into a stable and cohesive nation-state.

Position Purpose:

There are three broad functions of the position:

1. Undertake conflict analysis and provide strategic advice to the Resident Coordinator and the UNCT in their engagement with high-level government officials, academia, civil society, including youth and women’s networks, HQ, and other relevant stakeholders. Submit the analysis and reporting to the RC, UNDP RR, and DPPA Western Africa Division. The PDA works closely with the UNDP Governance Unit.

2. Identify opportunities to build national capacities for conflict prevention, including areas of strategic, programmatic, and policy engagement with national stakeholders, and support the RC and the UNCT action in areas of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, human rights, humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus, Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) among others.

3. Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key national stakeholders, regional and international actors, and development partners on issues related to Sustaining Peace and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Undertake conflict analysis and provide strategic advice to the Resident Coordinator and the UNCT in their engagement with high-level government officials, academia, civil society, including youth and women’s networks, HQ, and other relevant stakeholders. Submit the analysis and reporting to the RC, UNDP RR, and DPPA Western Africa Division. The PDA works closely with the UNDP Governance Unit: