BACKGROUND
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.
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Nepal adopted a new Constitution in September 2015, with the intent of transforming the then unitary and centralised system of governance into a federal and decentralised one as a vehicle to ensure equality, equity, and social justice. Nepal's federal system is characterised by three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local) with non-hierarchical relationships within the levels of government. The Constitution stipulates that the three levels shall be the main structures of the Federal, Democratic and Republican Nepal and all levels shall exercise the power of state of Nepal pursuant to the Constitution and law. The powers of the three levels of government are enshrined in five Schedules of the constitution in the form of exclusive and concurrent powers. The federal system of governance became fully functional in February 2018 after all seven province governments were formed following the general election in November 2017.
With an objective to support on the implementation of federalism in Nepal, the Government of Nepal introduced a flagship programme of Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (2019-2024). Following an initial period of delivery and agreement by GoN, Provinces, stakeholders, and Development Partners that PLGSP remained necessary and relevant, a decision was taken to extend PLGSP, with changes necessary to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of PLGs.
The Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme (PLGSP) 2024-2029 is the national framework programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational, and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. It aims to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive, and accountable provincial and local governance. Following an initial period of delivery (2019-2023), and agreed by the GoN, Provinces, Development Partners, and other stakeholders, PLGSP will continue for the next five years, with necessary changes to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the emerging needs of PLGs in advancing federalism in Nepal.
An extensive stakeholder engagement, consultations and re-programming process was undertaken between July 2023 and June 2024 that resulting in a substantial revision in the PLGSP Programme Document (ProDoc). This reprogrammed ProDoc outlines how re-programmed PLGSP emphasizes building the capacity and capability of PLGs’ to deliver on the institutional and individual capacities for advancing federalism in Nepal over the next 5 years. The ProDoc has focused on three outcomes for Federal, Provincial and LG level impacts, each with three related outputs. Three outcomes include: Outcome 1: Federal level government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms are fully functional in support of federal governance as per the Constitution; Outcome 2: Provincial governments have efficient, effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions and organizations; Outcome 3: Local governments have capacity for Good Governance and for delivering inclusive basic services to all people. Furthermore, there are 9 outputs against the outcome mentioned Four cross-cutting thematic streams: (i) Inclusive federalism acts, regulations, policies, and strategies; (ii) Collaboration within and across federal institutions and governments, and civic engagement; (iii) Supportive systems and tools for PLG inclusive federalism capacity; (iv) capacity development and transformation (applied to all 3 levels) have also been defined and articulated well. The programme considers the broad principles and approaches including focus on federal devolution, transparency, and accountability, embedding transformative gender and diversity/inclusion agenda, human rights based and participatory approach, devolved, contextual and flexible programme design and implementation and adaptive programming. Further, unpacking structural barriers in political institutions, promoting ownership and trust in provincial and local government system, and changing power dynamics in government institutions addressing intersectionality are the expected pathways for Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) transformation in the programme. Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executing agency of the GoN for PLGSP in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Provincial and Local Governments.
UNDP as the partner of PLGSP and Technical Assistance (TA) provider, has been working with the MoFAGA on the implementation of PLGSP since its inception. The TA component of the programme has also been revised accordingly to facilitate the transformation in the behaviours of the authorities towards federalism for inclusive service delivery, it is fully aligned with revised PLGSP incorporating learnings from the earlier TA engagement. The intent of the revised TA is to leverage UNDP’s technical expertise and facilitation role to support positive transformations that enable implementation of federalism in Nepal, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and effective delivery of inclusive services by PLGs to their people especially for the most marginalized and women.
To this effect, TA will support Provincial and Local Governments for their institutional and organizational capacities. The TA support to federal government will help develop and implement necessary laws and policies to strengthen inter-governmental relationships thereby supporting cooperative federalism. To attain the sustainable achievement described above, TA has been categorized into Implementation Support TA (ISTA) and Transformational TA. ISTA focuses more on supporting PLGs in the implementation of their tasksthereby building their institutional and individual capacities. Whereas Transformational TA focuses more on supporting behavioural transformation through research and analysis as well as providing high level expertise as needed. Overall, the TA staff (ISTA and Transformational TA) works together in close coordination with each other in overall guidance of respective government and UNDP Country Office.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
The Federal Governance Specialist will work under the overall guidance of National Programme Director of Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme (PLGSP), under the direct supervision of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative. The Specialist will also coordinate closely with the designated Portfolio Manager and on policy matters with the Governance Advisor of UNDP Nepal.
The Federal Governance Specialist will supervise the transformational TA team, national thematic experts, support staff and national and international consultants deployed during the programme implementation. The Federal Governance Specialist will work closely with MOFAGA, Provincial Governments, Development Partners, PLG Associations, sectoral ministries, local governments, PLGSP team, UN agencies and other national and international stakeholders and institutions working on inclusive federalism. Federal Governance Specialist will represent the project in different technical forums to share information about the project and provide technical guidance as required on issues related to inter-governmental relationships, federalization of governance, fiscal federalism, institutional and individual capacity building of the concerned authorities.
UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work with the diverse government partners from federal and sub-national level, across units in UNDP, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.
Key Duties and Accountabilities include:
Provide strategic analysis, guidance, and expertise (including comparative experience) to portfolio stakeholders on strengthening federalism in Nepal (direct contribution) and lead the overall process of preparing Capacity Development Strategy and Plan for PLGs development:
Review and analyze on regular basis the overall progress, issues, and challenges on implementation of federalism in Nepal and provide updates to PLGSP stakeholders. Identify the pertaining issues on federalism including political economy and facilitate governance dialogues, policy discussions among the federal, provincial, and local governments accordingly. Produce policy briefs on identified issues, as an input into policy discussions and learning events; Liaise with other programme/projects contributing to overall federalism and governance issues implemented by Government (MoFAGA), different Development Partners, UN agencies including UNDP projects, I/NGOs and promote coordination and cross learnings; Identify relevant international and national best practices, and potential partnerships to bring these best practices into policy discussions and cross-learning facilitated by PLGSP; Support contracting and quality assurance of national and international experts and service providers, including for baseline and final evaluation. Guide the capacity gap assessment of PLGs applying innovative approaches. Develop an overall capacity development strategy and plan, in collaboration with key stakeholders. Guide in designing an implementation plan for capacity development. Take lead in inspiring a collaborative and systems approach to (institutional) capacity development (CD). Develop profiles and briefing notes of the programme and key programme initiatives on governance and capacity development of the PLGs and update them periodically. Facilitate the development of a platform for exchange of information, ideas, good practices, and lessons learnt between PLGSP and other governance-related programmes/projects/initiatives. Lead development of a CD Strategy and provision of agreed CD actions for PRTA for adaptive Governance of federalization process and basic service delivery.Contribute actively and directly to achieving of PLGSP Outputs related to IGR and ensure that Institutions have the necessary legal frameworks, capacity and performance accountability for good governance, civic engagement, and basic service delivery systems to achieve development results for the benefit of people, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized:
Provide strategic guidance to strengthen IGR at all three tiers of the government. Provide advisory support to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and Office of Prime Minister to identify thematic areas of IGR for policy dialogues etc. Provide high quality technical inputs and advice to MoFAGA and concerned federal ministries and agencies, through the PCU, in the drafting and review of laws and policies, tools and systems, and related guidelines to the provincial and local governments (PLGs). Bring in international expertise to the Programme in the areas of inter-governmental relations in federal Nepal taking reference to the international policies and practices and provide technical support to help establish new mechanisms or strengthen existing mechanism of inter-governmental relations. Ensure that relevant line ministries and statutory commissions are engaged as required in their respective areas of expertise (e.g. fiscal aspects, inclusion etc.); Ensure that the TA staff working in the Provincial Programme Implementation Support Units (PPISU) and Provincial Research and Training Academy (PRTA) are properly oriented on the relevant laws, policies, plans, tools, systems, and guidelines issued by the federal government. Contribute to the drafting of periodic spotlight reports on key programmatic areas that DPs or MoFAGA identify as requiring further discussion, attention, and reflection. Provide advice to the Federal Programme Coordination Analyst on the development of the interface between the Government and the DPs to coordinate and liaise between them, and to update the DPs regularly about the progress and issues related to programme implementation.Lead the Transformational TA team and ensure effective coordination with the Implementation Support TA, and stakeholders at all three levels of Government and lead the development and implementation of change management process:
Lead the mobilization of the Transformational TA team and other components of transformational TA (consultants, institutional partnerships) for critical analysis, design, and implementation of effective strategies to support transformational changes/behavioral change in line with federalism at all three tiers of government. Lead effective and efficient coordination within the transformational TA team, and between the ISTA and transformational TA teams, with Development Partners (DPs) and between DPs, MoFAGA, OPMCM and PLGs on issues related to technical assistance, policy advise and capacity. Organize the provision of technical support to NPD, NPM and PLGSP TA staff, in the development and implementation of Annual Strategic Implementation Plan and Budget (ASIP). Organize the provision of technical support to the PPD and PPM at the provincial level in designing the provincial annual strategic implementation plan and budget. Ensures the transformational TA team provides effective technical support to PCU in preparations for FCC, NSC, and Technical Assistance Committee (TAC) meetings. Provide strategic guidance to the TA team at provincial level to prepare TA Plan and on the provincial coordination committees. Guide NPD/NPM in identifying areas where PLGSP requires external national and international TA. This includes drafting or editing Terms of References, providing support during implementation, and assisting in translating TA recommendations into action. Manage the Transformational TA team as well as the support staff and lead Transformational TA for achieving their assigned result areas. Ensure coherence that results assignment activities are aligned to the broader project work plan and capacity strengthening process of PLGs. Provide high quality facilitation in delivering an understanding of and application of change theory. Develop a project change management strategy and plan, in collaboration with key stakeholders, based on the programme Theory of Change (ToC) and Results. Lead the design and implementation of mapping exercises and related design of change strategies and plans for achieving individual programme result areas, in close collaboration with assigned TA and result area stakeholders. Establish partnerships between PLGSP and other programmes/projects including Parliamentary Support Programme (PSP), Access to Justice Project of UNDP, Sub-National Governance Programme (SNGP) and other projects and Development Partners (DP) for cross-learning and capture/scaling of good practices. Enhance PLGSP internal and external performance accountability through transparency, learning and people’s voice. Support development of a digitalization strategy for LGs, based on people’s needs and LG mandates in collaboration with other programmes/projects by providing insights from the ground, bringing in the people's voice, and supporting research and resting. Strengthen PLGs voice in Governance and implementation of federalization process in line with programme results framework.Advise and support effective and efficient coordination among Development Partners (DP) and between DPs and MoFAGA including Knowledge management and Resource Mobilization:
Guide the implementation of PLGSP TA monitoring and knowledge management plan development, including regular technical coordination meetings among implementing partners, and support to TAC meetings. Provide guidance to the MEL Analyst to devise effective strategies and tools to monitor output and outcome level changes, trends, and learning, and formulate recommendations to adjust PLGSP approaches as needed. Ensure progress monitoring and reporting and adaptation of approaches and assignment work plans based on learning and reprioritization. Coordination with other Provinces on good practice, learning and scaling opportunities and provide guidance on documentations. Extract learning and policy lessons from the PLGSP and support the PLGSP management, as requested, in channelling them as inputs into policy discussions with federal, provincial, and local governments and administration in Nepal. In close collaboration with Federal Programme Coordination Analyst, who has primary responsibility for coordination: Contribute to regular coordination between GoN and DPs to ensure timely implementation of the programme. Develop options to resolve programmatic issues by discussing possible solutions with MoFAGA, Joint Financing Agreement (JFA) partners, UNDP and other UN agencies, and DPs working on sub-national governance, promoting effective dialogue between all concerned stakeholders. Participate in discussions on priorities and issues with MoFAGA on a weekly basis and identify any issues that may require DPs attention. Participate in key PLGSP meetings in coordination with NPM and share key news and issues that require attention with DPs and MoFAGA. Support effective information flows between PLGSP and the DPs, notably by contributing to the drafting of monthly updates on programme-related activities, progress and issues. Contribute to the implementation of the portfolio approach, tools and methodologies. Take lead in fostering a learning environment among team members, which will encourage innovation and sharing of ideas across the organization. Contribute written inputs to UNDP flagship products/newsletter/policy briefs, based on project results, data and information, lessons learned and best practices.Advise and contribute to the mainstreaming of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) throughout program interventions:
Drive the overall GESI agenda of the program, with support form the GESI Analyst and relevant team members and consultants/partners; Ensure that GESI is mainstreamed in all result areas of the project, based on solid analysis of inequality in power relations and their impact on federalism. Ensure targeted interventions are planned and implemented to promote inclusive governance and federalism, taking into account international best practices; Provide strategic guidance to team members to establish a system for collecting gender and social inclusion related disaggregated data, impact stories and results that benefit males, females, persons with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities, other marginalized, vulnerable groups. Advise in identifying the risks and challenges associated for their meaningful participation in the federalism process, particularly in service delivery. Ensure GESI is adequately captured in project progress reports, baseline survey and final project evaluation. Provide guidance to GESI Analysts to integrate transformative GESI approaches in the TA strategies that could be replicated in the governance system and process. Advise in creating a safe working environment by developing respectful and safe organizational culture and supporting practices. Strictly Comply with the policies, strategies, code of conduct, guidelines on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). Strict compliance with the UNDP applicable rules, regulations and policies related to ethics and integrity. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the program.Other Duties:
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:
The Federal Governance Specialist will supervise the transformational TA team of national thematic experts, support staff and national and international consultants deployed during the project implementation.QUALIFICATIONS
Education:
Advanced University degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Public Policy, Public Administration/ Sector Management, Public Finance, International Development Law, Federalism and local governance, Rural Development, Capacity Development and Change, International Relations, Political Science, a relevant Social Science is required, OR First level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, with an additional two years qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.Experience, Knowledge, and Skills:
Minimum 7 years (with Master’s degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of progressive experience in local governance, federalism, capacity development, public policy, and programme management is required. Experience in complex, Government-led programmes in developing countries is required. Knowledge and experience in policy advocacy with national and international stakeholders to promote inclusive federalism and/or local governance is required; Demonstrated capacity to advise on change management processes in the context of governance programmes is desired. Experience in conducting research and development of policy papers in governance is required. Strong networking, coordination and communication skills and experience with Development Partners (DPs), Government, authorities at different levels and others are required. Proven track record of producing high quality reports and other materials is desired. Excellent knowledge of computers including MS Office (Word, Excel, mail, and Power Point) is required. Practical knowledge and experience in promoting GESI for evidence-based policy formulation, formulation, advocacy is desired. Experience in facilitating coordination and dialogue among different stakeholders such as citizens, elected representatives, CSOs, ministries etc. is desired as well as proven capacity to develop and manage partnerships across diverse partners is desired. Proven knowledge and familiarity with UNDP/Development sector policies and procedures and operating knowledge of Quantum/or similar platforms would be desirable. Experience of working in Nepal or South Asia in policy advisory positions will be desirable. Experience in the challenges that arise from varying social and cultural perceptions and the sensitivity to diverse opinions is desired.Languages:
Fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another UN language would be an asset.COMPETENCIES
Core Competencies:
Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivityPeople Management Competencies:
UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:
Business Direction and Strategy: System Thinking
Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.Business Management: Project Management
Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.Business Management: Partnerships Management
Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts, and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.Business Direction and Strategy: Effective Decision Making
Take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one's authority, area of expertise and resources and take into consideration potential wider implications.Business Management: Portfolio Management
Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization's programmes and projects in line with its strategic objectives and capacity. Ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives with regular activities for optimal return on investment. Knowledge and understanding of key principles of project, programme, and portfolio management.2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness: Effectiveness
Project Quality Assurance2030 Agenda: Peace: Governance
Inclusion and Participation of marginalised groups.2030 Agenda: People: Gender
Communication and Advocacy for Gender Equality
Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.
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