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Team Leader, Inclusive Green Growth

Through the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals the world is addressing the many dimensions of sustainable human development, including halving by 2015 the proportion of people living in extreme poverty. Inclusive green growth with pillars of pro-poor growth, equality, and environmental sustainability in terms of low-carbon and climate-resilient development has been identified as a major strategy for accelerating and achieving the MDGs and for sustainable human development.

But in recent times, countries have found that the normal development trajectories can be severely affected by shocks and vulnerabilities, coming from different sources – economic and financial crises, food price and energy price hikes, natural disasters and so on. Climate change also remains as a major source of shocks. Resilience of nations is an important development goal and in that context, issues of social protection remain critical interventions. Vulnerabilities have extended beyond the economic arena. The widening inequalities in capabilities, opportunities and development outcomes across nations and within countries have created socio-political tensions regionally and within countries. Changing demographic patterns in many parts of the world have added to it. People’s empowerment is thus a major objective.

In these contexts, countries are working to create their own national and local strategies, based on their own aspirations, needs and priorities. UNDP advocates for these nationally-owned solutions and helps countries to make them effective through ensuring a greater voice for poor people, expanding access to productive assets and economic opportunities, and linking poverty programmes with countries' international economic and financial policies. At the same time, UNDP contributes to efforts at reforming trade, debt relief and investment arrangements to better support national poverty reduction strategies and make globalization work for the poor. UNDP supports countries to address structural challenges as well as sudden shocks and vulnerabilities. It brings to the table knowledge products, tools and methodologies, innovative solutions and development experiences. In that process, it builds on South-South cooperation and uses Teamworks.

UNDP's core services in the area of poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs focus on four main areas: Inclusive Green Growth, Economic Governance, Inclusive Globalization, and Support for MDG Acceleration and Sustenance. In addition, UNDP's work on poverty and inclusive growth is reinforced by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), a joint initiative between UNDP and the Brazilian Government that promotes South-South Cooperation on applied poverty research and by Regional Poverty Practice Leaders and Policy Advisers in Regional Service Centre (RSCs) and over 166 Country Offices. Our core services to support national efforts to reduce poverty and inequalities, ensure inclusive green growth, improve economic governance and achieve the MDGs involve: (1) Policy advice and technical support; (2) Strengthening capacity of institutions and individuals (3) Advocacy, communications, and public information; (4) Promoting and brokering dialogue; and (5) Knowledge networking and sharing of good practices.

Within this overall context, the work of the Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) Team will focus on pro-poor green growth for low carbon climate resilient development, equity, fiscal sustainability and social protection for empowerment and protection. All such work will be linked to issues of economic crises, shocks and vulnerabilities. The work of the Team will be anchored in cross-cluster and cross- and multi-practice initiatives.

Duties and Responsibilities

Within the overall vision and the work of the Poverty Practice, the Team Leader for Inclusive Green Growth Team will lead the Team in terms of providing strategic leadership and vision to it – both substantively and operationally, implement the work plan of the Team including the management of assigned staff resources, effective use of resources and timely delivery of outputs. As a member of the Management Team of the Poverty Practice, the Team Leader of the IGG Team will assist the Practice Director, support the Practice Manager and coordinate with other Managers in determining the strategic direction and focus of the Poverty Practice, implementing its work plan and ensuring effective management of the Practice in terms of financial and human resources implications.

The Team Leader will contribute to practice advocacy, practice management and coordination, research and content development as well as policy development and policy advisory and programme support and delivery in various areas of inclusive development. In this context, he/ she will participate in global debate and dialogue on inclusive development; formulate the UNDP position on various issues of poverty reduction and inclusive development; provide policy guidance to UNDP Country Offices; provide substantive leadership and backup for a global network of UNDP practitioners and field-based policy specialists in giving direct policy support to developing countries; and build a global network of experts and institutions to provide research, policy guidance and technical assistance that are relevant to the practical needs of programme countries. He/she will work closely with other Teams of Poverty Practice, other UNDP practices and with other UN agencies with substantive expertise in different Practice areas, including Democratic Governance, Environment and Energy, HIV/AIDS and Conflict Prevention and Recovery as well as cross-cutting areas of capacity development and gender equality. He/she will play a key role in promoting the exchange of good practices and innovative thinking across regions and in providing substantive leadership. The Team Leader is expected to represent UNDP in key international and global for on the subject matter and to be able to engage leading thinkers, academics, and high-level government functionaries/Ministers on UNDP’s position, comparative advantage, and activities in this field.

In these contexts, development entrepreneurship is a key to position UNDP and move forward its agenda in a rapidly changing complex development scenario. As a development entrepreneur, the Cluster Leader is expected to lead formulation of innovative solutions to development challenges, develop partnership and contribute to resources mobilization. The Team Leader for IGG Team will also serve as a Senior Adviser on inclusive growth, equity, and resilience.

The specific tasks of the Team Leader for IGG Team will be:

Team management and coordination

  • Promote Team coherence across Poverty Practice, ensure Team work planning, financial and human resources management and as a member of the management Team of the Poverty Practice, support the Practice Director both in substantive and operational areas;
  • Provide substantive leadership and backup for a global network of UNDP practitioners and field-based policy specialists in giving direct policy support to developing countries; and build a global network of experts and institutions to provide research, policy guidance and technical assistance that are relevant to the practical needs of programme countries;
  • Liaise substantively with other Practices (e.g. Democratic Governance, Environment and Energy, HIV/AIDS and Crisis Prevention and Recovery) and with cross-cutting areas (e.g. gender, capacity development) to ensure integrated policy guidance and advisory services to UNDP Country Offices;
  • Manage programmes within the IGG Team and ensuring oversight and Integrate meaningfully the operating principles into the IGG Team work and mobilize resources for Global programmes, Trust Funds and flagship initiatives;
  • Provide strategic leadership in indentifying the scope of multi-practice work, develop the content in relevant areas, mobilize the Team and move it forward.

Policy Development

  • Play the leading role in the Poverty Practice for policies for accelerating inclusive green growth. This focus will cover pro-poor macro-economic policies, meso issues and local-level interventions;
  • Lead policy work in areas of equity, resilience and social protection. Contribute to cross-thematic work on poverty-environment, poverty-climate change and low carbon climate-resilient development;
  • Take a lead role in testing and piloting designed policies and programmes pilot in global, regional and country-level programmes in close collaboration with Policy Advisers in RSCs;
  • Interact substantively with other UN agencies and development partners to ensure mutual synergies in policy development through exchanges of ideas, learning from mutual experiences and collective research;
  • Provide substantive inputs in international and regional conferences and other fora on issues inclusive green growth, equity, resilience and social protection and cross-thematic strategies to help shape global and regional development strategies, policies, norms and standards in areas of macroeconomic frameworks.

Research and content development

  • Lead work on analysis of data, case studies, applied policy research in order to distil good practices and lessons in various areas of inclusive green growth, equity, resilience and social protection and cross-thematic issues;
  • Lead discussions and debates on the above thematic issues and cross-thematic strategies and policy options in Teamworks, UNDP’s Poverty Network and MDG Network and thus promote knowledge networking within UNDP and with other UN agencies;
  • Produce cutting-edge discussion papers, Human Development Viewpoints, IPC-IG One-Pagers, working papers, practice notes, major research papers and book publications on the above thematic issues and cross-thematic strategies;
  • Generate, based upon research and analysis, innovative operational concepts and develop, test and roll out tools and methodologies in above thematic and cross-thematic issues and policy choices.

Policy advisory/programme support

  • Spearhead the provision of policy advisory services on inclusive green growth, equity, resilience and social protection and cross-thematic issues through coordinating and supervising other Poverty Practice Policy Advisors working in the Team and through active collaboration with regional bureaux and RSCs and with selected strategically important Country Offices;
  • Provide policy advice at the country level by ensuring the highest caliber policy analysis and substantive support;
  • Undertake participatory and broad-based multi-stakeholder consultation processes to accomplish this task;
  • Contribute to strengthening the capacity of national governments, private sector, civil society including media in such diverse areas as effective participation in national and local economic policy-making processes, fostering skills in coalition-building, monitoring the implementation of economic reforms, and making information about economic decision-making available to people, providing access by civil society including the voices of the poor in policy-making mechanisms;
  • Play a leading role in training and capacity development in inclusive green growth areas for effective programme support.

Practice advocacy

  • Contribute to strategic partnerships, where appropriate, with U.N. organizations for advocacy and development of inclusive development;
  • Develop partnerships at the highest level with NGOs and civil society institutions working in areas of poverty reduction;
  • Formulate, with guidance from the Senior Management of UNDP, the position of the organization in various areas of inclusive green growth;
  • Contribute to the communication strategy of the Poverty Practice and liaise with the BDP Directorate, the Communication Office and others;
  • Represent the organization in key international fora where appropriate and contribute to present the UNDP’s position and work to the outside world.
Development entrepreneurship
  • In policy development, research and content development, innovate strategies and policy options and development solution. In that context, draw on southern solutions, development experiments and experiences;
  • In policy support and programme, experiment with new modus operandi for service delivery. Develop new partnerships and draw on concentric circles of COP;
  • Innovate new ways of public and policy advocacy for resource mobilization, greater visibility of the organization in a mutually synergetic way.

Competencies

The incumbent is expected to be a development entrepreneur, who will apply her professional training, analytical and policy knowledge and on-the-ground practical experience to provide the necessary vision and intellectual leadership to enable the Team deliver the expected development results. The management skills, attitudes and behaviour of the incumbent are expected to bring together a cohesive team, efficient and effective management of financial and human resources of the Cluster. In that overall context, the following competencies are of critical importance.

Leadership & Management:

  • Strong managerial/leadership and decision-making skills;
  • Proven record of building and managing teams and creating an enabling environment, including the ability to effectively lead, supervise, mentor, develop and evaluate staff, and design training/skills enhancement initiatives to ensure effective transfer of knowledge/skills;
  • Demonstrated flexibility in leadership by performing and/or overseeing the analysis of complex programme issues;
  • Excellent management and team building skills;
  • Strong resource mobilization and partnering skills;
  • Strong management experience, including change management experience, in a global multicultural setting respecting gender equality and an ability to contribute to team work.

Substantive skills:

  • Demonstrated intellectual leadership and ability to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives;
  • Well-versed in all key facets of poverty reduction and solid analytical knowledge of inclusive green growth issues and the ability to frame them in a holistic manner. Strong research skills on general topics of sustainable human development;
  • Innovative approach to problem solving and to global development issues;
  • Substantive knowledge and understanding of development cooperation, with emphasis on functional issues related to analysis, advocacy, partnership building, outreach to RSCs and Country Offices, and resource mobilization efforts;
  • Experience in providing advisory services to developing countries in areas related to inclusive green growth, equity, resilience, social protection and cross-cutting themes.

Integrity:

  • Demonstrated integrity, ability to stand by the decisions that are in the Organization’s interest and resist undue pressure in decision-making;
  • Ability to act without consideration of personal gain and take prompt action in case of unprofessional and unethical behavior.

Professionalism:

  • Ability to assume higher-level responsibility within large international organizations and to respond flexibly to their structural changes;
  • Flexibility in carrying out responsibilities and responsiveness to complex needs and demands;
  • Ability to effectively represent UNDP at the senior level in internal and external meetings.

Communication:

  • Excellent drafting ability and communication skills, both oral and written; ability to defend and explain difficult and complex issues with respect to key decisions and positions to staff, senior officials and members of legislative and oversight bodies;
  • Excellent presentation skills;
  • An extensive global network of institutional and individual contacts.

Judgment/Decision-Making:

  • Mature judgment and initiative and Independent judgment and discretion in advising on and handling major management and operational-related issues and problems;
  • Proven ability to provide strategic direction and ensure an effective work structure to maximize productivity and achieve goals;
  • Demonstrated ability to serve in a senior management team and to provide leadership to a team;
  • Dedication to UN principles and demonstrated management abilities, including being able to work harmoniously with persons of different cultural backgrounds;
  • Extensive experience with the UN system, and development cooperation more broadly. Familiarity with UN global policies, treaties, processes and partners the ability to forge partnerships with other UN agencies, Bretton Woods Institutions and other development actors.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master's degree in Economics, preferably in Development Economics.

Experience:

  • Approximately 15 years of experience, including a minimum of 10 years of direct experience in poverty-related research and advisory services. Developing region experience is desired.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluent and proficient in English, with fluency in at least one other UN language strongly 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.

Team Leader, Inclusive Green Growth