Regional Strategic Innovation Specialist
Panamá
- Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
- Location: Panamá
- Grade: Level not specified - Level not specified
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Occupational Groups:
- Innovations for Sustainable Development
- Closing Date: 2024-05-02
Office/Unit/Project Description
Countries worldwide are facing increasingly complex and multifaceted development challenges, ranging from the climate emergency, the lack of trust in institutions and growing levels of inequality. UNDP’s new Strategic Plan calls for adopting system & portfolio approaches to nurture capabilities of the development sector to support tackling these complex issues & transform the very systems that underpin development.
In that context, the Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) within the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has worked with various UNDP teams, governments, and other partners on exploring portfolio approaches that can help facilitate system transformation. This work progresses along the two parallel tracks – one that focuses on building capabilities for developing a different value proposition to tackle complex development challenges and another that addresses the institutional redesign necessary to enable a shift from projects to portfolios. This critically implies a rewiring of core systems - from M&E and finance to new capabilities & ways of working.
The SIU team does this through the work of its distributed regional and global team and a network of colleagues embedded within country offices and other corporate units. The global SIU team is responsible, among others, for several initiatives including a seminal Innovation Facility and a more recent investment of the Gates Foundation in the M&E Sandbox that it set up in 2022.
Scope of Work
The Regional Strategic Innovation Specialist will provide support to LAC country offices on the design and implementation of the portfolio approach leading the provision of training workshops and capacity-building tools in areas related to strategic innovation and inclusive digital transformation portfolios.
Key functions include:
- Development of a strategy for LAC’s uptake of a portfolio approach
- Perform a portfolio approach implementation in coordination with the Regional Bureau and Country Offices from LAC
- Evaluate the status of portfolio implementation and successful cases from LAC
- Provision of country office support of portfolio design and implementation
- Capacity building and knowledge development for Country Offices and RBLAC’s Regional HUB
1) Provision of Country Support
- Support offices in the Latin America and Caribbean region in identifying new entry points and value propositions in line with needs in the country and UNDP’s mandate.
- Provide support to offices in the roll-out of the portfolio policy, and design of portfolios of interventions, including through designing the process, supporting consultations with stakeholders and facilitating ideation of interventions.
- Lead on continued sensemaking of the regional innovation and digital portfolio vis a vis emerging trends to ensure coherence in institutional innovation and transformational capabilities to government counterparts.
- In collaboration with country offices, advise and develop context-specific monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks, and support the operationalization of portfolios.
- Harnesses bottom-up feedback and implications of the strategy to ensure a continued fit between the direction and demand and needs from the field.
- Supports strategic outreach and engagement with donors and Governments to integrate innovation into their work.
- Organize training and capacity-building workshops for UNDP offices and partners on topics related to system innovation, portfolio design and management, and other related topics.
2) Capacity Building and Knowledge Management
- Contribute to regional efforts, as needed, for the mainstreaming of the portfolio approach in the Panama Regional Hub and at the country level in LAC.
- Identify opportunities to scale innovation practices across geographies, in coordination with RBLAC’s Chief Economist team, and in collaboration with the Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) and Chief Digital Office (CDO).
- Supports the provision of training and capacity building to COs in areas related to strategic innovation, system and digital transformation portfolios in coordination with RBLAC’s Digital Advisor and Innovation Analyst.
- Ensure that the region’s innovation community, including the Accelerator Labs, is kept abreast of the latest trends on strategic innovation, and portfolio approach, proactively sharing insights and experiences and developing compelling knowledge products on said themes.
Institutional Arrangement
The Regional Strategic Innovation Specialist will report to the Panama Regional Hub Manager, with the overall guidance of RBLAC’s Chief Economist based in New York, USA and the Portfolio Specialist based in Istanbul, Turkey from the Strategic Innovation Unit under the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS).
Competencies
Expected Demonstration of Competencies
|
Achieve Results:
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LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact |
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Think Innovatively:
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LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems |
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Learn Continuously
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LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences |
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Adapt with Agility
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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 |
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Engage and Partner
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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 |
| Business Direction and Strategy | System Thinking | Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgment to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system. |
| Business Management | Partnerships Management | Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and Policies. |
| Business Management | Communication |
Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels |
| Business Development | Knowledge Generation | Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need. |
| Business Development | Collective Intelligence Design | Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions. |
| 2030 Agenda: Engagement and Effectiveness | Innovation | Technology and Innovation. |
| 2030 Agenda: Engagement and Effectiveness | Innovation | Placeholder for the various Accelerator Lab competencies. |
Minimum Qualifications of the Successful IPSA
Min. Education requirements
- Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Public Administration, International Development, Social Sciences, or related fields; or
- A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the above-related fields with an additional 2 years of relevant experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree, with a deep understanding of innovation and international development.
Min. years of relevant work experience
- Minimum 5 years (with a Master’s degree) or 7 years (with a Bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in an innovation role in international organizations, civil society, public sector administration, or private sector partnerships for social goods.
Required skills
- In-depth understanding/experience of system innovation approaches (foresight, system thinking, portfolio, etc.) and demonstrable experience in applying them in the context of large-scale organizations;
- At least 2 years of experience in delivering innovation policy advisory services;
- Strong experience in the design and facilitation of multi-stakeholder workshops and training methodologies.
Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
- Good knowledge of the regional political, social, and economic context of Latin America and the Caribbean, desirable;
- Excellent knowledge of UNDP’s work in the region, and its Strategic Plan, desirable;
- Experience working on joint projects with multi-stakeholders and other development agencies, desirable;
- Experience working with the UN system or international organizations, desirable.
- Experience in developing or facilitating training, would be an asset.
Required Language(s)
- Fluency in Spanish and English.
- Knowledge of Portuguese and/or French is an advantage.
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Workforce diversity
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