Sr.EDR Policy Advisor to ECC

UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years, UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels. UNDP has played a key role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund, which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational context:

The UN Electoral Support Project (UNESP) is the international community’s programming vehicle to support the next elections in Afghanistan, including the parliamentary and district council elections announced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) for 7 July 2018. The project has two overall objectives – 1) to build the capacity of the Afghan electoral institutions (the Independent Elections Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission) to implement elections in line with the national electoral legal framework and Afghanistan’s international commitments^; 2) to allow a programming mechanism for the international community to partially finance the elections as per the request of the Government of Afghanistan. The project follows previous UN projects in support of the Afghan electoral process, most notably the Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow (ELECT) projects, from 2006-2011 (ELECT I) and 2012-2015 (ELECT II), and the UNDP Project Initiation Plan that is in place since July 2015 – October 2017. The UNESP places the UN’s electoral support to Afghanistan directly under the political and supervisory oversight of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), and reflects the growing sustainability of the Afghan electoral process, as evidenced by the Government of Afghanistan’s financial commitment to both electoral institutions, and the provision of significant in-kind support to the implementation of elections. The Project Board, under the overall political guidance of the UNAMA Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Political, will be co-chaired by UNAMA DSRSG for Political and the Chairpersons of the IEC and ECC or their delegates. It will be comprised of all key stakeholders to oversee and approve UNESP’s budget, annual work plans and policy in support of the Afghan electoral institutions. Project implementation support will be provided by the UNDP Country Office, reporting, on fiduciary and operational matters, to the UNAMA Deputy Special Representative for Development/ UN Resident Coordinator/ UNDP Resident Representative through the UNDP Country Director.

Along with support to both electoral institutions, UNESP will also support Afghan civil society’s civic and voter education and observation efforts to enhance the quality and quantity of participation in the electoral process. Overall, the project will have three outputs: (i) administration of credible elections is facilitated by the meeting of key IEC structural and planning milestones; (ii) credible electoral dispute resolution is provided by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) (iii) public outreach (along with support to civil society) to encourage citizen engagement in the electoral process. Mainstreaming of gender throughout the project is evident in key output indicators related to women’s participation in all three project outputs, reflecting the importance that UNESP places on increasing the position of women in Afghan electoral and political life. The project also aims at supporting the EMBs in strengthening integrity of the electoral process by enhancing accountability of responsible actors and supporting the implementation of electoral fraud mitigation mechanisms. Assisting the EMBs to implement measures to increase public confidence in election and democracy will be mainstreamed through the electoral assistance provided.

Organizational Context of the Post

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Electoral Advisor and in consultation with the Deputy Chief Electoral Advisor / Project Manager, the Senior Electoral Dispute Resolution (EDR) Policy Advisor to the Election Complaints Commission of Afghanistan (ECC) will advise the ECC on the preparation of the framework for electoral dispute resolution such as adjudication on complaints and appeals related to voter registration, candidate nomination, election day polling and results. S/he  advises and assists in the  planning and operational activities of the ECC as it relates to the role of the UNESP project in the upcoming elections, from design through implementation, focusing on the achievement of the following results:

Summary of key functions:

1. Advise and assist the ECC on the development and implementation of adjudication on complaints and appeals during the electoral process consistent with the UN mandate, national legislation and international principles and best practices, including a case management system;
2. Reporting on operational activities at ECC;
3. Supervision and overall responsibility for the activities of the UNESP advisory staff at ECC;
4. Initiation of planning for the for the adjudication processes for upcoming electoral events in 2018 and 2019
5. Prepare for the coordination of the design, set up and management of the systems required for the adjudication of complaints and appeals during electoral processes for the ECC;
6. Coordination of the development of the legislative and regulatory structure and the operational MOUs required for the adjudication of complaints and appeals during electoral process for ECC.

Advise and assist the Commissioners and staff of the ECC on the development and implementation of adjudication of complaints and appeals during electoral process and develop plans consistent with the UN mandate and international principles and best practices including advising on the establishment of the necessary regulatory and procedural framework; IT infrastructure; staff capacity; and internal and external communication strategies:

• Advises ECC in setup of adjudication systems for complaints and appeals during electoral process and post-election activities and coordinates UNESP support to the planning process for the upcoming elections by advising on the design of planning systems and processes in a way that maximizes capacity building for the ECC and enables the ECC to increasingly take the lead in the planning process;
• Advises the Commissioners on strategic planning and on communication strategies for the ECC;
• Works closely with the ECC Chief of Secretariat and deputies to build their capacity, increase her/his electoral knowledge with regard to planning, systems and implementation and enables the ECC secretariat to take the lead in planning for future elections;
• Advises on the development of the election dispute resolution budget process for 2017, 2018 and 2019 through the identification of systems, resource requirements and costing;
• Advises on the feasibility of information and communication technology solutions for electoral dispute resolution with special focus on case management;
• Advises and assists the ECC with the development of contingency plans to ensure the electoral dispute resolution process remains on track.

Monitoring and reporting of operational activities:

• Supports the ECC in monitoring the adjudication of complaints and appeals raised during electoral activities, especially during peak times leading up to and immediately after events such as voter registration, candidate registration and election day activities of all electoral and advisory staff, and advises the ECC counterpart on implementation progress;
• Review field reports on political developments, program activities, and measure program results and determine, in conjunction with ECC counterparts, actions to be taken;
• Advises, monitors and reports to the CEA, DCEA / Project Manager and other counterparts on the dispute resolution system during electoral processes, policies and procedures adopted by the national electoral management bodies and their implementation by local election administrations;
• Liaises and advocates as necessary with UNAMA, UN Agencies, government officials, technical advisors and experts, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors and civil society organizations;
• Maintains a system of continuous evaluation of electoral dispute resolution activities;
• Advise the ECC on operational issues affecting delivery and overall adjudications;
• Identifies new approaches and modalities that are adaptable to achieve established targets.

Supervision and overall responsibility for the activities of United Nations advisory personnel assigned to support the ECC:

• Ensures that United Nations personnel assigned to support the ECC apply the appropriate methods in all their activities to facilitate the building of capacity of local counterparts in ECC;
• Provides overall strategic direction to operations technical advisors and direction of long term planning and day to day activities;
• Supervises the operation support staff including complaints and appeals, Communications & Outreach, , I.C.T., Procedures and Training and other required functions; Establishes relative management scorecard targets, work plans and monitors achievement of results;
• Coordinates with the Senior Electoral Operations Policy Advisor to Independent Elections Commission (IEC) in providing operational support advise from Communications & Outreach, Security, Logistics, I.C.T. and other required functions;
• Coordinates with other organizations providing technical assistance to the ECC and provides overall management to the International technical assistance to ECC.

Support the initiation of planning by the ECC for the dispute resolution systems for upcoming electoral events:

• Advise and assists the ECC to develop planning processes for complaints and appeals in the upcoming elections, building on lessons learned from the previous planning processes;
• Provides guidance and support to the ECC on the concept of dispute resolution, timeline and budget planning for the 2017 voter registration and subsequent elections.

Prepare for the coordination of the design, set up and management of the facilities required in the dispute resolution for the voter registration and elections processes:

• Assists the ECC in the design of its HQ structure, and case management system
• Assists the ECC to design its field structure and coordinates support in the set up and management of its facilities throughout Afghanistan;
• Coordinates the design of the ECC structure and field presence with that of the IEC and the overall UNESP field structure;

Coordination of the development of the legislative structure, regulatory structure and the operational MOUs required for the electoral process.

• Assists the ECC in the coordination and development of the ECC legislative structure, regulatory structure and the MOUs required to support the dispute resolution process for the electoral cycle in Afghanistan.
• Coordination with UNESP Project Operations Manager for the provision of administrative support in order to support the dispute resolution during electoral cycle.
• Assist the CEA, and Deputy Chief Electoral Advisor / Project Manager in the overall management of UNEST assistance for capacity building of the ECC and other related responsibilities.

Corporate Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Knowledge, Management and Learning

• Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• In – depth practical knowledge of interdisciplinary development issues;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNDP Programme.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to lead strategic planning, change processes, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to lead formulation, oversight of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
• Ability to apply development theory to be specific country context to identify creative, practical approaches to overcome challenging situations.

Management Leadership

• Builds strong relationship with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Ability to lead effectively, mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Remains calm, in control, and good humored even under pressure;
• Proven networking, team-building, organizational, and communication skills;
• Capacity to work under pressure, manage stress and adapt to rapidly evolving situations
• Sound time management and organized skills with the ability to handle multiple tasks;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment with sound understanding and capability to empower and develop the capacity of national counterparts;
• Advanced computer skills and strong knowledge of various software including Excel, Power point and Word.

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master or equivalent) in Law, International relations, Social Sciences, Development, Political Sciences, Management or other relevant fields.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in legal or electoral assistance or related area, of which 5 are in electoral dispute resolution;
• Experience in advising in at least 3 state elections;
• Experience in large-scale post conflict electoral programs desirable;
• Proven management experience;
• Prior experience in Afghanistan, in particular on previous election dispute resolution programs, is an advantage.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
• Knowledge of Dari/Pashto an asset.

Important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders)

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UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

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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

UNDP is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

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