Programme Oversight Support Officer

UNFPA is formally named the United Nations Population Fund. The organization was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education. Since UNFPA started its work, the world has seen progress: The number and rate of women dying from complications of pregnancy or childbirth has been halved. Families are healthier. Young people are more connected and empowered than ever before. But too many are still left behind. More than 760 million people are mired in extreme poverty. Sexual and reproductive health problems are a leading cause of death and disability for women in the developing world. Young people bear the highest risks of HIV infection and unintended pregnancy. Many millions of girls face the prospect of child marriage and other harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM). Much more needs to be done to ensure a world in which all individuals can exercise their basic human rights, including those that relate to the most intimate and fundamental aspects of life. In 2018, UNFPA launched efforts to achieve three transformative results, ambitions that promise to change the world for every man, woman and young person:

United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO) serves as Co-Chair, alongside the AUC, of the SIARP 2.0 Regional Steering Committee (RSC), in line with its development coordination mandate. UNDCO does not implement programme activities. Its role is to support governance integrity, oversight, accountability, system-wide coherence, and alignment with UN system priorities and donor commitments.

UNDCO seeks to recruit an Oversight and Coordination Support Officer to provide analytical, coordination, and follow-up support enabling UNDCO leadership to effectively discharge its oversight and governance responsibilities under SIARP 2.0.

This role focuses exclusively on governance facilitation, coordination support, and accountability strengthening. It does not include programme implementation or operational management responsibilities.

The Oversight Support Officer will:

1.Support UNDCO’s Oversight and Governance Role:
• Assist UNDCO leadership in reviewing programme documentation submitted by the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU ) to ensure alignment with approved governance frameworks, result structures, and reporting commitments.
• Facilitate structured review of progress reports, financial summaries, and monitoring updates to support clearance by UNDCO leadership.
• Track adherence to agreed governance level arrangements, including timelines, reporting schedules, and decision points. This includes stocktaking engagements with all partners, leadership, and processes.
• Prepare concise analytical summaries and briefing notes to support UNDCO leadership’s oversight functions.

2.Strengthening Accountability and Information Management:
• Support systematic tracking of decisions, action points, and commitments arising from Regional Steering Committee meetings and other governance platforms.
• Maintain organized documentation to support transparency, institutional memory, and potential evaluations or audits to support UNDCO’s oversight functions.
• Support structured information flow between the PCU and UNDCO leadership for briefing purposes and decision-making.

3.Facilitate Coordination and Institutional Alignment:
• Support UNDCO leadership engagement with Resident United Nations Organizations (RUNOs), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the donor by preparing background materials and coordination briefs.
• Assist in ensuring clarity of roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines within established governance structures.
• Participate in coordination meetings as required, provide documentation, governance tracking, and follow-up to support UNDCO oversight function.

4.Monitor Risk and Compliance from a Governance Perspective:
• Track risk issues raised through governance mechanisms and flag matters requiring leadership attention to UNDCO leadership, limiting the scope to issues of the oversight function only.
• Follow up on oversight-related recommendations from audits, reviews, or evaluations that fall within UNDCO’s governance remit.
• Support UNDCO leadership in ensuring oversight responsibilities related to fiduciary and accountability standards are met, in coordination with the appropriate agency.

5.Other Support Functions:
• Provide analytical and coordination support as required to enable UNDCO leadership to effectively perform its oversight and co-chair responsibilities.