Junior Professional Officer - Programme Analyst, Strategic partnerships and resource mobilisation

IMPORTANT: This post is opened in the context of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) scheme sponsored by the Government of the United Kingdom and is addressed exclusively to United Kingdom nationals.

Background:

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) is responsible for UNDP’s external relations and advocacy functions. The Bureau leads and supports the organization in cultivating, building and nurturing strategic relationships and alliances that are essential for advancing and successfully achieving the mission of UNDP. These relationships encompass a wide range and number of key constituencies and development partners, that includes programme countries, existing and prospective donor countries/emerging economic powers, multilateral institutions such as the IFIs, the European Commission, civil society, the private sector, foundations, academia and think tanks, the wider UN system, various UN inter-governmental bodies, as well as global, regional and national media. The main priority of BERA for the next 12 months are (1) Resource mobilization, coordination and partnership management (2) UN & Multilateral coherence; and (3) External Communication to raise UNDP’s profile and improve communication.

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy consists of the Directorate where the Strategy and Analysis Unit is located, and the following groups: Communications Group; Resource Partnerships Group and UN System Affairs. In addition, BERA has 5 Representation Offices in 5 major donor cities, namely: Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and Washington.

BERA has over 125 staff and consultants. BERA is located in DC1-19th Floor in One UN Plaza across the street from the Secretariat Building. Once a month BERA have all staff meetings including the 5 Representational Offices and once a year BERA holds an all staff retreat off site. The department is an open space environment with 2 conference rooms and a lunch room for the staff. The office is centrally located in Midtown Manhattan with several restaurants, cafes and food bars nearby. Additionally, there is plenty of shopping, cleaners, bakeries, gym, banks, spas, sightseeing, etc nearby as well. And recently, New York City has introduced biking in its effort to practice its greening initiative.

The JPO will be working in the Directorate with the Strategy and Analysis Unit (SAU) and the Management Support Unit (MSU). The Strategy and Analysis Unit constitute the ‘nerve centre’ responsible for providing forward looking strategic analysis and advice to the Director on overall strategy and tactical positioning of the Bureau. MSU manages the operations for BERA including procurement, HR, finance and directs the preparation of the bureaus policies and guidelines for the Bureau.

The JPO will be working with SAU on Resource Mobilization which is a UNDP wide corporate priority. SAU has recently produced a Resource Mobilization Strategy (RMS) and a Resource Mobilization Action Plan (RMAP). SAU is the lead in coordinating the effort between the UNDP Regional and Central Bureaux in monitoring the RMAP as well as implementing the activities assigned to the unit. A significant portion of the JPO work would be to support in the overall monitoring and implementing activities for SAU. In order to implement the RMAP, the JPO will be in meetings, discussion and communications with UNDP colleagues across the bureaus and member states located in New York. MSU is the management team of BERA and the JPO would support the team in the overall strategic work plan and management activities in the bureau.

Organization chart of the office where the JPO would be assigned: See it here…

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific action the JPO will be expected to perform are:

1. (30%) Support to strategic analysis and foresight on development finance and ODA trends.
   •Conduct research and analysis on development finance, economics trends, ODA trends and other areas related to global or international financing.
   •Participate in internal and external meeting, events, discussions related development finance.
2. (30%) Support to “incubation” of strategic partnership opportunities for UNDP with potential for replication and resource mobilization.
   •Conduct research on resource strategies, fundraising options, and private sector investments
   •Follow the resource strategies of other multilateral organizations.
   •Provide strategic and innovative thinking for ways to obtain funding for UNDP.
   •Support in implementation of UNDP’s Resource Mobilization Action Plan which has been designed as an organizational wide priority in contributing to the mobilization of resources.
   •Keep abreast the financial development and/or contributions to DAC Countries, LDC, MIC, and LICS
   •Keep abreast of member states development focus and interest.
3. (40%) Support to implementation of the RMAP.
   •Support the Strategy and Analysis Unit (SAU) in performing the actions as stated in the Resource Mobilization Action Plan.
   •Support the planning and coordination of brown bag lunches and sides events related to resource mobilization

Competencies

Core competences:
•Ethics & Values
•Working in Teams
•Communicating Information & Ideas
•Self-management & Emotional intelligence
•Decision making

Functional competences:
•Strong verbal and written presentations skills in English
•Ability to work in a multicultural work environment with high work pace
•Ability to work independently and to deliver with tight deadlines
•Strong coordination and organizational skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
•Master's Degree or equivalent Advanced Degree in a related field of expertise

Experience:
•A minimum of two years of paid working experience in a relevant field

Language:
•Working knowledge of English

Other desirable education and work experience:
•Exposure to the UN System and intergovernmental structures
•Experience in partnerships, relationship building and resource mobilization
•Experience in strategic analysis and foresight.

HOW TO APPLY:

IMPORTANT: This post is opened in the context of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) scheme sponsored by the Government of the United Kingdom and is addressed exclusively to United Kingdom nationals.

More details about the JPO Programme and how to apply for this vacancy can be found at:http://www.undp.org/content/jposc/en/home.html