UNDP AFG - Programme Manager (P6)

Contract

This is a P-6 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 10 years of experience, depending on education. More about P-6 contracts.

Background

THIS IS A RE-ADVERTISEMENT; PREVIOUS CANDIDATES DO NOT NEED TO REAPPLY!

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. UNDP has been working in Afghanistan for more than 50 years on climate change and resilience, gender, governance, health, livelihoods, and rule of law. Under the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in close coordination with other UN agencies, UNDP is supporting the Afghan people’s aspiration for peace, prosperity, and sustainability. UNDP is currently implementing its flagship crisis response programme, ABADEI (Area Based Approach to Development Emergency Initiatives), as part of the ongoing UN-led response to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and the breakdown of Afghanistan’s economy following the August 2021 shift in power.

The ABADEI Strategy is a tailored area-based integrated programming approach to support basic human needs, complementing short-term humanitarian life-saving assistance with the safeguarding of livelihoods and the strengthening of community resilience. It is centered around addressing worsening poverty and vulnerability, supporting community resilience and social cohesion, addressing climatic vulnerability, and enabling the rehabilitation of small-scale infrastructure vital for basic human needs. It supports the creation of immediate sources of income through vocational skills training, cash-for-work, cash for market, small businesses, and livelihood opportunities with a particular focus on agri-business and regenerative agriculture infrastructure and services (critical for food security) that are under threat. It is sensitive to the chronic and newly emerging vulnerabilities of Afghan women and girls and aims at providing them assistance in a manner that does not exacerbate their susceptibility to violence and deprivation of opportunities and rights.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Programme Manager will be responsible of the following:

• Policy advisory and specialized technical support
• Programme management, monitoring and oversight and strategic direction to the regional project teams for efficient implementation of activities
• Partnership Building and Resource Mobilization
• Knowledge management.

Provides policy advisory and specialized technical support:

• Advises, supports, guides and provides inputs to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based programme interventions on recovery and resilience;
• Promotes recovery and resilience, ensuring appropriate levels of visibility and public awareness on results and ongoing activities;
• Provides policy advice to UNDP Senior Management, counterparts, donors and other partners on issues related to recovery and resilience and area-based strategies and programming;
• Develops, reviews and evaluates proposals and oversees the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality and compliance with requirements as per established rules and regulations. Takes timely action to take any corrective action to meet standards for submissions;
• Prepares policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for use in the development and presentation of a coherent perspective to help define strategies and plans of action for implementation;
• Represents the programme in appropriate fora as authorized by CO Senior Management.

Effective programme management, monitoring and oversight and provides strategic direction to the regional project teams for efficient implementation of activities:

• Provides managerial leadership of the ABADEI project, managing the project team (project advisors, technical staff, project specialists, and support staff;
• Plans, implements and supervises the support provided to ensure timely and appropriate services are provided as required. Identify areas of competencies and weakness to ensure focused and targeted interventions are provided;
• Provides strategic direction to the program and specialized technical advice to the senior management on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective programme planning, implementation, monitoring and timely reporting;
• Leads the annual work plan and associated resource allocation plan. Monitors and ensures the appropriate and timely utilization of resources;
• Leads on the integration of cross-cutting issues, such as gender, peace building, human rights and resilience into the ABADEI focus areas and associated activities;
• Advises on systematic and effective analysis, project monitoring, including but not limited to regular field visits, as appropriate, and participation in Project Board and/or Steering Committee meetings;
• Manages day to day administrative matters for the project with support from administrative staff and the performance of consultants, specialists, and advisers;
• Ensures the integrity of financial and administrative operations as well as the consistent application of UNDP rules and procedures for programme and operations issues related to the programme adhering to the mechanisms outlined as per UNDP internal control framework in contracts, assets, procurement, recruitment, etc., as required;
• Develops a plan for the overall monitoring and evaluation of all projects in support of ABADEI under programme portfolios and reporting on progress with regional staff to the Country Office;
• Recommends and/or sets monitoring standards, criteria and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results;
• Provides supervision and strategic directions to the regional project teams on ABADEI implementation and monitoring of the progress towards achievement of outputs;
• Supervises the project staff, provides coaching to staff and effective leadership;
• Leads the annual process of gathering information and preparing reports on the progress of programme implementation, assessing results and identifying areas for action and/or decision to ensure the achievement of results as planned and in accordance with the goals and objectives of the ABADEI programme;
• Leads on timely and adequate reporting against plans, including timely and articulate progress reports;
• Identifies risks and challenges to the ongoing operations of the projects and applies timely mitigation measures aligned to the CO risk management strategy documenting lessons learnt while providing advice to the Senior Management on mitigation strategies.

Supports partnership building and resource mobilization for UNDP for the programme:

• Ensures sufficient resource mobilization for the project in close consultation with Senior Management and is responsible for reaching the annual resource mobilization targets - specific emphasis will be required to nurture the relationship with key donors;
• Leads, coordinates, and builds/sustains partnerships with other UNCT members in multi-partner trust fund forums such as the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan (STFA), for the enhancement of technical strength and programmatic synergies of ABADEI
• Provides technical expertise and coordinates with other UN agency programme managers to ensure complementarity/harmonization amongst the activities and plans under the ABADEI joint programme commitments;
• Ensures the participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders in the programme -implementation so that the process is inclusive, participatory and transparent;
• Ensures proper coordination of the programme implementation among implementing partners;
• Advocates for UNDP's work and represents UNDP with the partners, the donor community, and international financial institutions, where requested;
• Liaises regularly and forges close linkages with other UN programmes, agencies and entities, as well as other international and national stakeholders concerned with or providing assistance on resilience, recovery and area-based programming in Afghanistan;
• Ensures high-quality and timely reporting to the partners and donors involved in the project whilst ensuring compliance to donor agreements;
• Contributes to the harnessing of effective partnerships and competitive selection of partners for implementation of UNDP projects;
• Leads in preparing project proposals including strategies to build partnerships and mobilize resources;
• Develops sustainable and solid relations with counterparts, resulting in enhanced reputation and credibility of UNDP.

Ensures knowledge management focusing on achieving the following results:

• Ensures regular assessments of the implementation plans and identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned from the project area to guide programme improvements and future strategic development plan for organizational sharing and learning as well as external Information;
• Manages the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
• Actively participates in UNDP knowledge networks and takes advantage of best practices and lessons learned that are available in the region and globally and encourages project staff to do so by creating a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Promotes the participation of UNDP Afghanistan in regional programmes related to the project area as appropriate;
• Supports capacity and knowledge building of the counterparts;
• Any other tasks related to recovery and resilience as assigned by the Senior Management.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

The Programme Manager will be heading the Programme Implementation Unit in Kabul and will supervise the project implementation teams in eight regional offices. The Programme will be supported by technical inputs from the various portfolios of the Country Office

Competencies

Core Competency

Achieve Results:

LEVEL 4: Prioritize team workflow, mobilize resources, drive scalable results/strategic impact

Think Innovatively:

LEVEL 4: Easily navigate complexity, encourage/enable radical innovation, has foresight

Learn Continuously

LEVEL 4: Create systems and processes that enable learning and development for all

Adapt with Agility

LEVEL 4: Proactively initiate/lead organizational change, champion new systems/processes

Act with Determination

LEVEL 4: Able to make difficult decisions in challenging situations, inspire confidence

Engage and Partner

LEVEL 4: Construct strategic multi-partner alliances in high stake situations, foster co-creation

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

LEVEL 4: Create ethical culture, identify/address barriers to inclusion

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy: Strategic Thinking

Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions

Business Development: Human-centered Design:

Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness

Crisis management/Country Management Support

Crisis Coordination and resilience-based programming

Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement

Humanitarian-Development Peace (HDP) Nexus

Recovery Solutions and Human Mobility

Area Based Development

Required Skills and Experience

UNDP STRONGLY ENCOURAGES QUALIFIED WOMEN TO APPLY FOR AVAILABLE POSITIONS FOR WHICH THEY MEET THE STATED MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Application Requirement

All Applicants MUST complete and attach the UNDP Personal History-P-11 Form (found here) to their applications in the vacancy site.

Submission of a personal resume or Curriculum Vitae (CV) will not be accepted and candidates who fail to attach the above required P-11 form will not be considered.

Minimum Education requirement****:

• Master’s degree in Public or Business Administration, Development Studies, Economics, Social Policy, Development Studies, or a related area is required.

Relevant Experience:

• At least 15 years of relevant experience in large-scale and complex project management and project assurance with a strong track record of delivery against the results required.

Required Skills:

• Proven experience in Resource Mobilization
• Proven track record in program support/monitoring
• Proven management experience, preferably in UNDP or other UN agency, with sound knowledge and experience in results based project management cycle.
• Experience of working in crisis or conflict country is a must.
• Experience of working with large multi-disciplinary and regional teams is highly desired.
• Knowledge of Results Based Management methodologies is required.
• Functionally-related professional management skills is required.
• Experience in designing and implementing Area Based Programmes highly desirable
• Experience from previous UN agencies and/or multilateral and bi-lateral aid organizations would be an asset
• Plan and prioritizes work activities to meet organizational goals and organizes and oversees work processes efficiently to achieve quality results
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and working knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, as well as experience in the handling of web based management systems

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required

Knowledge of Pashto/Dari is desirable but not essential