Democratic Governance Practice Leader

UNDP’s Strategic Plan (2008 – 2013) defines Capacity Development as the overarching contribution of UNDP. The Strategic Plan and the 2008 regionalization framework articulate the corporate requirement to bring timely and effective substantive and technical services to UNDP country offices through a strengthened practice architecture at global, regional and country levels. The UNDP practice architecture serves as a framework for better organizing UNDP to provide consistent policy advisory services , more relevant and substantive policy knowledge, better linking of policy, programming, and capacity development. The value of the practice architecture lies in its comprehensive structure to solidify UNDP and its staff into global knowledge teams that ensure coherence, consistency, alignment and quality assurance in the way UNDP delivers services to development partners and programme countries, as well as internally.

The Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) is responsible for articulating UNDP’s global development policy, using evidence gathered through country applications, regional experiences and global interactions. BDP has a key role to play in helping country offices to accelerate human development by supporting the country offices in the design and implementation of programmes and projects that effectively contribute to the national-level policies and results. Driven by demand, and working through the Regional Bureaux and the RSC, BDP provides the global tools, analysis and capacities that country offices need to make a real difference in UNDP’s practice areas.

BDP’s support of UNDP’s strategic plan 2008-2013 is focused in 4 practices (Poverty Reduction and the MDGs, Governance, Environment and Energy, HIV/AIDS) and 2 thematic areas (Capacity Development and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment). At the RSC level, the practice management structure is composed of a dedicated regional Practice Leader (PL) for each practice/thematic area and a Knowledge Management Team Leader (KMTL) at the 6 RSCs in Bangkok, Bratislava, Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg and Panama City. The PL coordinates the regional and community of practice with the global practice, regardless of funding source, to promote consistency and coherence within the practice.

Practice/Thematic Approach: Democratic Governance

UNDP’s democratic governance practice focuses on fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and promoting democratic principles. Inclusive participation expands equal opportunities for engagement by the poor, women, youth, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups who are excluded from power. Efforts in this area aim to strengthen opportunities for civic engagement in the core channels linking people and the state, at the national, regional and local levels.

Work on governing institutions has traditionally emphasized the design and functions of the core pillars of the state, including the legislative, executive and judicial branches, at national, regional and local levels. Strengthening responsive governing institutions entails promoting the core channels of representation and accountability in the state at the national, regional and local levels. Responsive institutions mean that the state reflects and serves the needs, priorities, and interests of all people, including women, the poor, youth, and minorities.

Supporting national partners to strengthen democratic practices grounded in human rights, anti-corruption and gender equality require UNDP leadership in promoting integration, coordination and information-sharing of policies, practices, and strategies strengthening democratic governance within and outside of the UN family.

In order to provide timely and quality policy advisory services and knowledge products in democratic governance, the Democratic Governance Group (DGG) has organized its work and its staff along these three main clusters. A core group of policy advisors representing capacity along these three clusters are based in Headquarters (New York, Geneva and Brussels) and in the Oslo Governance Centre, with a specific mandate of providing policy advisory services , knowledge management as well as partnership building and advocacy. As part of the practice architecture, which allocates decentralized capacity to the Regional Service Centers, a number of policy advisors are based in Johannesburg and Dakar (for Africa), Bangkok and Colombo (for Asia and the Pacific), Panama and Port-of-Spain (for Latin America and the Caribbean), Bratislava (for Europe and CIS) and Cairo (for Arab States).

Regional Context - Africa

UNDP Africa’s strategic vision places capacity development for pro-poor growth and accountability at the centre of all UNDP-supported activities in the region, given the fact that lack of capacity in these areas remains one of the key challenges faced by Africa today in its efforts to achieve the MDGs. To achieve this goal UNDP has set itself the tasks of: i) strengthening its strategic thinking and advocacy functions in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan and with Africa’s development agenda; ii) creating in-house capacity to translate corporate support goals into capacity development results; and iii) providing support to UN reform and strengthening its partnerships with both UN and external development partners.

African priorities in the area of governance include the consolidation of democratic and participatory governance, including through support to the implementation of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Working through regional and country programmes, specific areas of UNDP support to Africa’s governance agenda include: i) strengthening equal participation by men and women in political and economic governance processes, and public sector efficiency and responsiveness; ii) supporting regional integration efforts; iii) strengthening accountability as a cross-cutting goal of both political and economic governance and of public administration reform; and iv) promoting governance knowledge codification and sharing to improve inter-country learning. Interventions to support democratic governance in the region seek to strengthen governance institutions and processes, enhance political participation and the effective management of elections, strengthen service delivery, and promote the sound management of Africa’s resources through more effective mechanisms of transparency and accountability. They also seek to contribute towards enhancing capacities for regional integration, while enabling effective implementation of African governance initiatives.

Operating within the Democratic Governance Practice in the (sub-region), the Practice Leader will provide Country Offices in the region with technical input needed to ensure that all of the above areas of intervention are properly supported.

Duties and Responsibilities
The Practice Leader’s role is to strengthen the democratic governance practice in the Africa region, with emphasis on practice co-ordination and permanent connection to global experiences. The incumbent will provide and coordinate demand-driven services to Country Offices to ensure the quality and relevance of programmes and projects in the governance practice in the region, while ensuring consistency with the global level. To that end the Practice Leader‘s functions are fully integrated in the planning and delivery structure of the Regional Service. As a result, the incumbent will be accountable for the delivery and quality of results to both the Deputy Regional Director (DRD) at the RSC and the Democratic Governance Practice Director (PD) in BDP, NY.

The assessment of the PL’s performance will be conducted in line with the provisions of the 2008 regionalization framework. He/she will report to the Deputy Regional Director through the RSC Manager on all matters related to the planning and delivery of demand-based governance support to Country Offices, and to the Democratic Practice Leader in BDP/New York on issues pertaining to compliance with Governance practice policies, norms and standards, and contribution to global evidence-based knowledge.

Summary of key functions:

Practice Management and Coordination

Substantive Leadership:

* Provide substantive and managerial leadership of the democratic governance practice team and coordination for all personnel engaged in related operational activities in the RSC;
* Lead advocacy in the democratic governance practice area in the region including promotion of the practice’s global policies, norms and standards and the sharing of the practice’s global experience;
* Provide quality assurance for policy advice and support provided by the regional governance practice
* Collaborate with the Practice Director and policy advisors in headquarters to ensure that the RSC-based practice team is up to date on evolving policies.

Coordination and Management:

* Consolidate and anchor the democratic governance practice architecture in the regions to support country offices;
* Liaise with country offices and with the Regional Bureau for Africa to support the inclusion of practice areas at the planning stages of country and regional programmes.
* Prepare work plan for democratic governance practice area to integrate into the RSC overall work plan;
* Identify sub-regional and inter-country development and integration opportunities and support their translation into capacity development initiatives to address cross-border governance issues;
* Support the Global Tracking system for the practice:
* Manage all activities related to the democratic governance practice functions at the RSC including direct supervision, when appropriate, of the policy advisors and other practice specialists; create positive team environment and ensure access to learning opportunities for all staff.

Mobilizing the Community of Practice:

* Promote the development of a democratic governance community of practice (COP) at the regional level and catalyze and connect to global experiences;
* Coordinate all cross-practice collaboration and capitalize on the approaches and tools in other practices.

Partnership Building

* Effectively position UNDP’s practice capacity within the UN system to foster consistency in approach, at the regional level by scanning and assessing activities of non-UNDP players, UNCTs and UNDP CO programming arrangements with government counterparts;
* Provide guidance and leadership for the engagement of civil society in regional and country programmes, the promotion of civic engagement and the establishment of strategic partnerships;
* Engage national and regional partners in practice policy and programme responses under the leadership of the country offices and the UNCT;
* Lead partnership building with regional and local institutions and consultancies;
* Develop with staff an expert roster for the region in the practice area;
* Develop multi-partner proposals;
* Lead the formulation and implementation of the regional partnership to support the democratic governance practice area and support resource mobilization strategies in liaison with the Regional Bureaux and other concerned units;
* Scan partnership opportunities and donor intelligence and informs DRD of new partnership developments – e.g. donor priorities; pledges, new donor funding modalities, etc. ensuring that this supports the practice area;
* Maintain and strengthen partnerships with key multilaterals (BWIs, Regional Banks, etc) and key regional institutions to support the practice architecture.

Practice Advocacy

* Provide substantive and content leadership in UNDP corporate discussions and Inter-Agency coordination on practice issues;
* Represent UNDP (and UN partner organizations) to advocate practice messages in the international development for a discussion;
* Mobilize external partnerships behind UN/UNDP initiatives.

Policy Advisory/Programme Support-delivery

* Upon demand from country offices or the Regional Programme, organize and provide policy advisory services to the Governments and other partners in the region in the practice area, in particular in the area of public administration reform and the fight against corruption;
* Provide demand-driven policy advisory support services to strengthen state capacities for effective and accountable delivery of public services at the national and local levels;
* Contribute to the formulation of country office programmes drawing upon lessons from programmes and other initiatives in the region and from global experiences;
* Provide effective support and backstopping for, and timely feedback and reporting on implementation of programmes in support of the practice architecture;
* Strengthen internal country office capacity on the use of UNDP corporate practice development frameworks;
* Promote the utilization of financial resources mobilized and allocated for practices in regional and country programmes and in HQ, thematic trust funds , ensuring that all policy advisors are able to facilitate access to these funds by country offices and regional projects;
* Provide guidance on cross thematic issues and lead the development of cross practice synergy.

Policy Development

* Contribute to the development and formulation of global policies, norms and standards with the Practice Director in BDP, NY, with specific emphasis on public administration reform and anti-corruption strategies;
* Contribute experience and expertise to the formulation at the central level of new and evolving global policies, norms and standards.

Quality Control and Assurance

* Provide Quality Assurance to ensure alignment with global development policies, norms and standards;
* Co-ordinate delivery of demand-driven service delivery to country offices and regional programmes ensuring professionalism in support – e.g. timelines, responsiveness, quality in deliverables, etc;
* Promote quality standards including long-term locally driven initiatives;
* Ensure cross-practice approach and cross-regional collaboration back into the global practice level.

Knowledge Management (KM)

* Build and facilitate internal and external Communities of Practice in relevant thematic and cross-thematic area(s)
* Contribute to global and regional knowledge networks;
* Produce knowledge products in accordance with corporate standards;
* Manage content in the relevant practice service space of Teamworks.

The Practice Leader’s role will impact the strengthening of the global practice architecture of UNDP, the quality and relevance of programme and project services in the practice area as a whole and in the areas of and the results of UNDP’s programmes in the region in the practice area. In turn it will impact on UNDP’s capacity to deliver on its Strategic Plan 2008-2013.

Competencies
Corporate:

* Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’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.

Functional:

* Strong ability to apply various governance related development theories to the specific context, including translating democratic governance principles into effective policy and programme interventions in the field;
* Capacity to interact with senior officials and credibly influence senior decision makers in UNDP programme countries and other international development organizations;
* Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
* Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Democratic Governance Practice.

Leadership

* Strong managerial/leadership experience and decision-making skills;
* Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience;
* Knowledge and expertise in UNDP’s programming processes;
* Proven ability to lead a practice area and drive for results with a strong knowledge of results-based management and budgeting.

Managing Relationships

* Demonstrated well developed people management and organizational skills;
* Strong ability to manage teams; creating an enabling environment, mentoring and developing staff;
* Excellent negotiating and networking skills;
* Strong resource mobilization and partnering skills.

Managing Complexity

* Ability to address global development issues;
* Substantive knowledge and understanding of development cooperation with the ability to support the practice architecture of UNDP and inter-disciplinary issues;
* Demonstrated substantive leadership and ability to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives;
* A sound global network of institutional and individual contacts.

Knowledge Management and Learning

* Ability to strongly promote knowledge sharing and knowledge products and services;
* Demonstrated ability to understand clients' needs and concerns; respond promptly and effectively to client needs; and customize services and products as appropriate;
* Demonstrated ability to collaborate with others in own unit and across boundaries; acknowledge others' contributions; promote collaboration and facilitate teamwork across organizational boundaries;
* Open to new ideas; shares own knowledge; applies knowledge in daily work; builds partnerships for learning

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

* Masters Degree in a development related area - Economics, Public Policy, Development Management, International Relations , etc.

Experience:

* 10 years of overall relevant professional experience as well as a proven professional record in the democratic governance practice area, particularly in public administration reform, and anti-corruption strategies;
* Work experience from a developing country context is a necessity;
* A track record of extensive national/international working experience with increasing managerial responsibilities in the development arena and UNDP’s practice areas;
* Experience in leading/managing knowledge product development and dissemination.

Language Requirements:

* Fluency (both written and verbal) in English;
* Working knowledge of another UN regional language desirable

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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.