Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
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.
UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN development system and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work is carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, and forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. The GPN also aims to provide rapid and integrated support to UNDP country offices, combining policy advice, technical expertise, financial resources, agile tools and procedures, and partnerships. The Global Policy Network (GPN) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025).
Within the GPN, the Crisis Bureau guides UNDP’s corporate crisis-related strategies and vision for crisis prevention, response, and recovery. The UNDP’s Crisis Bureau supports resilience building through risk reduction and prevention, crisis response, and recovery and ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. The Crisis Bureau 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. The CB supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts. The CB’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.
The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Recovery for Building Resilience Team (DRT) provides integrated policy and programme support on disaster risk reduction and recovery in the context of UNDP’s broader approach to resilience building. The Team specifically fosters the integration of risk reduction as a key element in sustainable development and recovery at national, sub-national and sectoral level to strengthen resilience. It is also the responsibility of the team to support the regional hubs in their efforts to strengthen regional, national, and local capacities on disaster resilience and disaster risk reduction. The team provides high quality policy and technical advice along with programmatic support in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programmes. The team leads the development and coordination of policy in disaster risk reduction (DRR), and disaster recovery with a focus on resilience building and integrated approaches with climate adaptation while fostering risk-informed development approaches across development sectors and stakeholders.
Position Purpose
Despite continuous economic growth in the past ten years, the West and Central Africa (WCA) region has experienced a series of multidimensional crisis that have exacerbated the fragility of communities facing chronic humanitarian needs, security threats, depletion of natural resources and development deficit. While the population has historically demonstrated its capacity to mitigate and cope with the negative impacts of these threats, the increasing climate uncertainty, and extreme events, however, have eroded the adaptation and recovery capacity of the population. For many communities this implies that there is simply not enough time to recover before the next extreme weather event strikes.
In this context, UNDP has launch a renewed offer for Africa, that focuses on 6 strategic impact areas (Natural Resource Governance; Youth and Women’s Employment and Empowerment; Structural Economic Transformation; Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption; Affordable and Sustainable Energy, and; Peace and Security) and 6 enablers (Governance of Things; Digital Transformation; Sustainable/Innovative Financing; Strategic Partnerships and Communications; South-South Cooperation, and; Development Intelligence).
To operationalize this strategy in West and Central Africa, UNDP has developed several initiatives related to climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and natural resources management in the sub-region. Moreover, through its sub-regional office for West and Central Africa, UNDP plays a key role in the operationalization of the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) and other WACA regional strategies, and in supporting key regional actors such as regional economic communities (ECOWAS, ECCAS), specialized technical institutions, CILSS/AGRHYMET, Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall, , Climate Commission for the Sahel Region, Liptako Gourma Authority, river and lake basin commissions, etc.
To consolidate UNDP’s action and leadership in the field of resilience building and climate action and to ensure better interlinkages and complementarities with other UNDP and UN regional priorities UNDP is hiring a Programme Specialist -Recovery for Building Resilience to be based in the UNDP Sub-Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Dakar.
S/he will work in close collaboration with all relevant UN Agencies to provide high-level strategic and technical assistance to countries in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region on resilience building, climate action and disaster risk reduction, and to articulate development interventions with peace building and humanitarian activities and enable development programming in fragile areas.
The Programme Specialist will report directly to the Director of the UNDP sub-regional office in Dakar, with secondary reporting to the Regional Advisor for Africa – Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery based at the Resilience Hub for Africa in Nairobi. He or she will be part of the Africa Disaster Risk and Recovery for Resilience Team (DRT) and contribute to the UNDP Disaster Risk Reduction initiatives in Africa. He or she will be working closely with the Nature and Climate team as well as other UN/UNDP thematic teams to coordinate DRR and climate resilience efforts in the region.
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 across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Lead programme development
Lead the effort of the UNDP sub-regional office for West and Central Africa on disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate resilience and related fields including climate change adaptation, mitigation and natural resources management (NRM), by developing and applying a multi-disciplinary and cross-practice approach; and; ensuring coherence and complementarity with existing related resilience building-plans, strategies and initiatives at global, regional, sub-regional and national levels (e.g. National Development Plans, National Determined Contributions, national DRR strategies, Regional Resilience Strategy for West Africa, (AMHEWAS), Africa Urban Resilience Programme, Great Green Wall Initiative, UN Support Plan for the Sahel, etc.) Ensure the provision of programme support to Country Offices of the West and Central Africa sub-region in the thematic area of resilience building, DRR, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and NRM, helping them to ensure relevance of the services provided to country and regional context including crisis situations. Advise and support the operationalization of the UNDP sub-regional hub strategy and associated programmes, projects and initiatives that respond to country office needs, including through the provision of capacity building and technical backstopping. Advise and support the management and implementation of RBA regional programme components pertaining to climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and recovery in West and Central Africa region. Identify mission-critical roles for the thematic area in climate resilience, disaster response and recovery, and provide timely technical policy and programme advice for crisis situations coordinated by the Crisis Bureau. Liaise with the DRT global and Africa team to design and implement specific DRR and Recovery offers in the sub-region. Liaise with the HQ and RSCA Crisis Bureau teams to provide related contributions to UNDP SURGE support to country offices. Ensure proper coordination with the other teams in the sub-regional Hub, the RBA Country Support and Country Oversight teams in the Regional Centre and HQ.Provision of advisory support and policy development
Contribute to the development of the UNDP’s sub-regional platform strategy and lead the integration of UNDP’s work on Resilience and related thematic areas within the region into a coherent policy and programming framework in support of the implementation of the UNDP Strategic Plan and Signature Solutions. Design policy initiatives for relevant contexts on emerging policy agendas collaborating with policy teams in HQ and Regional hub and communicating and representing perspectives and knowledge from Country Offices and the region. Critically assess and measure policy services in the designated area and recommend to COs, HQ and Hub Management new policy and strategic alignment options; and foster policy innovation in the specific thematic area to enhance programme delivery. Deliver policy advice to UNDP’s senior management and R-UNSDG representatives in West and Central Africa on resilience building, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and ensure strong linkages and synergies with environment, humanitarian, and peace building effort in the sub-region.Build strategic partnerships, representation, advocacy and resource mobilization
Lead UNDP’s engagement with Regional Economic Communities and other regional specialized entities on disaster and climate risk and resilience issues and related thematic area. Mobilize, foster, and strengthen strategic partnerships with UN agencies, NGOs, CSOs, Academics, Private Sector and provide substantive inputs to those partnerships in support of UNDP initiatives. Engage in UN interagency coordination as well as in other fora with the aim to advance UNDP’s strategic agenda in resilience building and climate adaptation, particularly in the context of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement, and other Rio conventions agendas. Advocate policy and positioning of this thematic area in various fora and through programme efforts, including academia and civil society. In collaboration with BERA, the Head of the Global Team, the Director of the Dakar sub-regional platform and the Head of the regional DRR team, lead and/or contribute to resource mobilization efforts to support the delivery of UNDP results and oversee the preparation of funding proposals, donor briefings in the thematic area. Set the overall direction for the climate resilience team in the Dakar sub-regional office, including roles and responsibilities, accountability, and reporting. Overall Management and Resource MobilizationEnsure Team management
Identify capacity needs and lead capacity building of the project teams in the thematic areas linked to climate resilience in the Dakar sub-regional Hub. Lead, manage and coach project teams in the formulation and implementation of the substantive work plans of the respective teams, aligned with the strategic priorities and overall plan of the Hub and oversee accountability. Ensure that the technical capacity is optimally aligned with business needs of the Dakar sub-regional office. Encourage teams to critically assess itself against emerging trends and thinking in the profession. Ensure that Performance Assessments are carried out according to UNDP procedures. Ensure that the work of the teams is conducted in accordance with relevant business processes and that high-quality outputs are delivered on time. Establish and maintain an enabling environment for harmonious working relationships and team- building, by promoting consistent and constructive communication, innovation, open information sharing, and coordination among all staff.Ensure Innovation and knowledge management
Regularly contribute to relevant GPN Communities of Practice in the thematic areas related to climate resilience, DRR, natural resources management, and related fields. Oversee the knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned in the specific thematic area, ensuring that knowledge sharing, and content management is in line with guidelines and performed using corporate tools; and Support cross-regional exchange of knowledge by collaborating with policy teams in HQ to research. Oversee the development and sharing of knowledge-based tools and guidance to help influence/advance policy dialogue in the thematic area and present such material at various fora.The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.
Competencies
Core competencies:
Achieve Results
Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.Think Innovatively
Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.Learn Continuously
Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.Adapt with Agility
Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.Act with Determination
Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.Engage and Partner
Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.Enable Diversity and Inclusion
Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.People Management:
UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Direction and Strategy: Systems 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 Direction and Strategy: Strategic Thinking
Develop effective strategies and prioritised plans in line with UNDP’s mission and objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, opportunities, and potential risks; link the general vision to reality on the ground to create tangible targeted solutions; learn from a variety of sources to anticipate and effectively respond to both current and future trends; demonstrate foresight.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 Direction and Strategy: Negotiation and Influence
Reach a common understanding/agreement, persuade others, resolve points of difference through a dialogue, negotiate mutually acceptable solutions and create ‘win-win’ situations.2030 Agenda: Planet - Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery
Risk Governance: Disaster and Climate Risk Governance.Business development: 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.Business development: Knowledge facilitation
Ability to animate individuals and groups, internally and externally, and to design and facilitate activities, to share and exchange knowledge, information, and ideas. Knowledge of tools and approaches to stimulate active participation, contribution, and exchange.Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Environment, Disaster Risk Reduction, Natural Resources Management, Climate Change, Development, Social Sciences, or related disciplines is required. OR A first-level university degree in the areas mentioned above, in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.Experience:
Minimum of 7 years (with master’s degree) or 9 years (with bachelor’s degree) of professional work experience providing policy and programme advice and pioneering approaches in the general area of resilience building, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and recovery in different development contexts is required. Experience in designing and delivering resilience building, disaster risk reduction and environment related policy and programme support that fosters linkages with other themes is required. Proven track records of ability to turn knowledge of global and regional climate resilience, DRR, recovery, and NRM policies, frameworks and principles into policy, strategic and/or practical guidance is required. Demonstrated ability to establish networks and partnerships with knowledge and experience of UNDP and UN system policies and programming is desired. Minimum 3 years strong and relevant experience working in developing country settings and disaster-prone regions is required. Experience working in the Africa region is an asset.Language:
Fluency in French and English, both written and oral is required. Working knowledge of another UN language is an asset. Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.