UNDP Jobs

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are particularly relevant to the development context of Sub-Saharan African countries; yet progress towards achieving the goals has so far been below the desired pace in most of the African countries. A key missing link that has been identified between the aspirations and concrete progress towards the MDGs is the lack of well-formulated and ambitious national development strategies that are explicitly geared towards attaining the goals. This prompted the World leaders at the December 2005 World Summit to call for all the developing countries, notably those in Africa, to put in place MDG - based national development strategies (Paragraph 22a of the World Summit Outcome Document).

In response to this, the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa management put in place a strategy for enhancing RBA’s direct capacity for supporting MDG-based planning processes in its countries. This included setting up in May 2006 in New York a core RBA/MDG Support Team comprising of 5 Economists and backed up by 8 other specialists in the country offices. This measure yielded very positive results within a relatively short period of time, first in terms of acceleration of transfer of expertise from the former Millennium Project team and then strengthening of RBA support to MDG-based planning processes in the countries.

By end-2007, most of the RBA countries had embarked on MDG-based planning processes with support from the RBA MDG Support Team, in collaboration with the Field Economists in the Country Offices and the global UNDP MDG Support team,  starting with MDG needs assessments. One important challenge now is to ensure that the results of the needs assessments are fully incorporated within comprehensive medium and long-term plans, with MDG-consistent macroeconomic and budgetary frameworks underpinning them. The other is to ensure that the binding capacity and funding constraints are effectively addressed.

In this connection, RBA intends to expand the MDG Support Team from 4 presently to 6 (comprising of 2 MDG policy advisers and 4 MDG specialists) and deploy them (three each) to the Dakar and Johannesburg Regional Service Centers (RSCs) respectively in the context of the RBA restructuring process and UNDP’s regionalization strategy. They will be fully integrated within the Regional Service Centers, but each team will have a Team Leader, who will assist the Deputy Regional Director to coordinate the work of the team.

The teams will work closely with the other RSC and BDP policy advisers, the Resident Coordinators and UNDP country economists in scaling up support to countries to prepare and implement strategies ambitious enough to achieve the MDGs.  The teams will also support the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s MDG Africa initiative at the country level.

The core responsibilities of the MDG Policy Advisor fall into four categories as outlined below.

i. Country-level sector support

• The Policy Advisor will work with the UN Country Teams and the network of the field economists (as well as the team of macroeconomic and budget specialists supported by the French Government in the case of the Dakar RSC) to assist national governments in the countries of their jurisprudence in undertaking policy analysis and sector needs assessments as part of MDG-based poverty reduction strategies. The Policy Advisor will play a lead role in:
• Assisting governments and UN Country Teams to prepare the sector-related components of MDG-based poverty reduction strategies; including MDG needs assessments. This includes identifying needed interventions, specifying national targets linked to the MDGs, linking the relevant sectors to other critical components of a poverty reduction strategy, and estimating the associated financial, human resource and institutional building requirements of achieving the MDGs.
• Providing technical assistance in the preparation of MDG-based plans. This may include reviewing existing sector strategies and budgets and advising on operational implementation.
• Identifying relevant Quick Impact Initiatives at the country level and support the government in design and implementation.
• Identifying and translating analytical and operational lessons from the country work, including at the level of the communities, so that they can be applied more broadly.

ii. Country-level planning support

• The Policy Advisor will, in collaboration with the other colleagues of the team (including the French-supported macroeconomic and budget specialists in the case of Dakar RSC), support governments in synthesizing the sector needs assessments and integrating them into the national economic planning and budget frameworks. Specifically, the Policy Advisor will:
• Assist governments and UN Country Teams in preparing macroeconomic frameworks that support MDG-based poverty reduction strategies. This will include support for fiscal and macroeconomic policy issues, including medium term expenditure frameworks.
• Work with development partners, including the international financial institutions, to identify ways of financing the scaling up of public investments to achieve the MDGs.
• Identify analytical and operational lessons from the country work so that they can be applied more broadly.

iii. Support to the UN system

• The Policy Advisor will work with other UN organizations to strengthen the UN system’s support for MDG-based strategies and relevant Quick Win initiatives. In particular, the Policy Advisor will:
• Support UN organizations, the Regional Director’s Team(RDT), UN Country Teams in advising governments and regional organizations on preparing and implementing sector components of MDG-based poverty reduction strategies
• Support UN organizations, including RDTs, UN Country Teams, in providing advice to governments and regional organizations on macroeconomic frameworks that are consistent with MDG-based poverty reduction strategies. 
• Provide training on preparing sector strategies, underlying analyses such as needs assessments, and MDG consistent macro frameworks and medium-term expenditure frameworks.

iv. Knowledge building

• Working closely with the Bureau for Development Policy, the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery and the other RBA Economists and Policy Specialists, the Policy Advisor will:
• Provide guidance and support on MDG-related issues to the Deputy Regional  Director and other colleagues.
• Develop tools for needs assessments and policy analysis in close collaboration with UN agencies, the IFIs and other development partners.
• Work with UNDP on outlining appropriate fiscal policy responses for countries implementing MDG-based strategies.
• Make publications on the relevant areas of the MDG-based planning processes.

v. Other responsibilities

The Policy Advisor will also:

• Support outreach to the UN system, development partners, civil society, and the private sector.
• Coordinate the country-level advisory work by the MDG Support team in the RSC.
• Reporting
• This position will report to the Deputy Regional Director.
  

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrated commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.  The candidate selected will be required to take UNDP’s mandatory training on Gender, and on the Prevention of Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority, within two months of their assuming their functions in this position.
• Demonstrates ability to function in a team environment and where required lead the team
• Shares knowledge and experience

Functional Competencies

• Excellent verbal and writing skills
• Capacity to interact with senior officials of government, donors, CSOS, etc;
• Ability and disposition to travel extensively, especially in the Africa region
• Outstanding analytical and negotiations skills.  Ability to present coherent and convincing positions both in writing and orally.
• Strong ability to take initiative  to move complex processes forward to achieve articulated results, work at varying levels and on different initiatives simultaneously (personal organization and ability for multi-tasking). 
• Ability to work under pressure and to accommodate change.
• Demonstrable networking capability and interpersonal skills.
• Strong ability to promote team work.

Education:

• Advanced degree in development economics, economic planning, macroeconomics, quantitative economics, agricultural economics, health economics, or similar qualifications.

Experience:

• Minimum of ten years of work experience, including substantial experience in managing complex projects and/or teams.
• Substantial experience with poverty reduction strategy processes in the developing world.
• Strong quantitative skills and demonstrated capacity to perform outstanding original research including statistical analysis.

Language and IT Skills: 

• Excellent written and oral English communications skills. Fluency in at least one of the languages: French, Spanish and Portuguese with adequate working knowledge of the other language would be an asset.
• Fully e-literate in terms of software and e-networking.
• The Policy Advisor will be expected to travel regularly.