Programme Specialist, SURGE Delivery Lab

Contract

This is a IPSA-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as International Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally internationally recruited only. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about IPSA-10 contracts.

Background

The world is changing fast, and so is UNDP. Governments and donors continuously demand new and innovative policies and programmes from UNDP, and the post COVID-19 world requires a new set of operational policies and approaches to accompany those. Even though UNDP has lived up to these high expectations and the organizational and resource delivery remains on the rise, new and smart approaches to delivery will continuously need to be discovered, experimented with, codified and disseminated. In crisis settings, accounting for more than half of UNDP’s resource delivery, the pursuit for UNDP to be fast, effective, efficient and cutting edge will need to be even more relentless. The Crisis Bureau in consultation with BMS established the SURGE Delivery Lab in 2020 to boost UNDP’s work in such challenging circumstances.

The SURGE Delivery Lab is responsible for providing short term support to country offices to accelerate delivery and provide solutions to operational bottlenecks. The Lab is activated in consultation with Regional Bureaus in country offices where it is deemed that the Lab’s interventions would provide immediate and time-bound results.

The key goals of the Lab include:

• Analysis of current operations capacities and processes.
• Identification of delivery, operational and procedural challenges.
• Solution mapping and implementation through innovation and experimentation.
• Ensuring that the engagements can offer sustainable delivery solutions.

The Lab Coordination Unit is the component of the Lab that manages its operation and ensures the seamless running of the Lab. The Unit is responsible for engaging the Lab in consultation with the Regional Bureaus: activating Country Offices, embedding Operations Advisors, activating the Solutions Network, and facilitating Lab analysis, experimentation, and solutions mapping. Furthermore, one of the main roles of the Unit is to ensure smooth collaboration and coordination among the Lab Networks, the Country Offices, the Lab Advisory Board, the Lab Technical Guidance Group, and all SURGE Delivery Lab partners. The Lab Coordination Unit is led by the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager.

The Programme Specialist will work within the Lab Coordination Unit and report to the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager. The Programme Specialist is responsible for supporting the functioning of the SURGE Delivery Lab and for ensuring the Lab’s interventions in its country office engagements are carried out successfully. The Specialist will work closely with Lab consultants to perform analysis, identify operational bottlenecks and support the implementation of solutions.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Support the implementation of the Lab’s strategies in its Country Office Engagements

• Support finalization of SURGE Delivery Lab Engagement Frameworks outlining the Lab’s engagement with each country office, in collaboration with country office senior management, SURGE Delivery Lab Manager, and the respective Operations Advisor.
• Work with country office teams to identify actionable areas, identify deliverables, and experts necessary for implementation.
• Support the Lab’s Operations Advisor to conduct analysis of CO delivery and operations capacities. Identify bottlenecks and challenges and ascertain delivery acceleration opportunities.
• Support the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager to lead pitching the Lab concept to potential clients, UNDP Country Directors, and senior management.
• Coordinate and convene meetings between the SURGE Delivery Lab and Country office management;
• Write up SURGE Delivery Lab strategies, and articulate identified bottlenecks and challenges in engaged country offices to share with CO and Crisis Bureau management.
• Capture and communicate opportunities for experimentation and innovative solutions workshopped by the SURGE Delivery Lab team.
• Supervise the write up formal updates on each of the CO engagements and the status of Lab activities there.

2. Oversee the SURGE Delivery Lab day-to-day activities

• Review and finalize terms of references for required Lab activities, outlining specific deliverables and crisis contexts.
• Manage engagement and contracting of Lab consultants. Identify relevant expertise from the GPN ExpRes Roster and manage end-to-end recruitment processes.
• Coordinate Lab consultants and monitor progress of Lab activities in each country office engagement.
• Analyse successes and challenges faced during each CO engagement.
• Coordinate with Lab Operations Advisors and help to expedite processes as necessary to speed up implementation of Lab interventions.
• Ensure Country Support Management Team Regional Teams are kept abreast of Lab initiatives and interventions in their respective regions.
• Report to the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager and carry out ad-hoc requests as required

3. Support the SURGE Delivery Lab’s Country Support mandate:

• Along with the Lab Manager a country support teams, identify country offices in fragile contexts for potential Lab engagement based on context, crises, interest, and delivery challenges.
• Facilitate the lab’s 360-degree approaches to looking at operations in country offices, targeting specific bottlenecks and addressing non-traditional operations issues such as digitalization, leadership trading etc.
• Support the Coordination Unit’s mandate of assisting country offices with the implementation of the Crisis Offer by advocating for operational agility in fragile contexts.
• Coordinate the development of SURGE Delivery Lab Engagement Frameworks that outline the Lab’s engagement with each country office, in collaboration with country office senior management, and the respective Operations Advisors.
• Pitch the Lab concept to potential clients, UNDP Country Directors, and senior management.
• Contribute to the outreach of CO engagements and help present progress and status of Lab activities to the Lab Advisory Board, Crisis Bureau and GPN senior management.

4. Support the SURGE Delivery Lab’s experimentation and innovation agenda for operational agility in fragile contexts

• Under the supervision of the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager, develop and deliver new concepts for Lab products, such as DIY Delivery Lab, the Lab’s corporate solutions and Next Generation Fast Track Procedures
• Under the supervision of the SURGE Delivery Lab Manager, Develop FTP Next Generation Vision Document in partnership with BMS and oversee the development and roll out of the concept
• In collaboration with BMS, introduce the next generation of FTPs to support UNDP COs in fragile contexts for the next decade.
• Support the Lab with Special Projects such as Capacity Mapping, GPN work force planning etc.

Competencies

Core

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 inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Communications

Writing and editing

Ability to create and/or edit written content in different UN languages.

Communications

Social Media management

Ability to represent and promote the UNDP brand in virtual communities and networks

HR -People strategy and planning

Job design

Ability to design job roles to meet specific organizational objectives

Crisis management / Country Management Support

Crisis related communication and advocacy

Crisis management / Country Management Support

Crisis deployment capacity

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education requirements

Master’s Degree in Economics, International Relations, International Development, Public Policy or similar fields

Min. years of relevant Work experience

Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in crisis response, operations, and/or management in an international development context, preferably including UN experience.

Required skills

Knowledge of Project management, good IT skills and human resources experience

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Experience in managing increasingly complex services with a large operations component
• Experience in developing and rolling out effective operations solutions
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word Excel, etc.) and advanced knowledge of spreadsheets and databases required;
• Project Management
• Experience in country offices and/or crisis contexts

Required Language(s)

Fluency in English, both written and oral. Working knowledge of another UN language is desirable.

Professional Certificates