Head of Solutions Mapping
Lagos
- Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
- Location: Lagos
- Grade: Junior level - NO-B, National Professional Officer - Locally recruited position
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Occupational Groups:
- Operations and Administrations
- Development Cooperation and Sustainable Development Goals
- Social Affairs
- Communication and Public Information
- Civil Society and Local governance
- Innovations for Sustainable Development
- Managerial positions
- Social Entrepreneurship
- SOLUTIONS MAPPING
- Closing Date: Closed
Background
- Experimentation: Instituting rapid learning about emerging challenges through design and running of a portfolio of experiments that is coherent with the type of challenges that are part of UNDP’s strategic plan, and
- Mapping Solutions: Ethnographic methods and immersion in community dynamics, identification of and work with lead users, and implications of bottom up solutions for the policy design
- Exploration: The exploration function focuses on discovery and sensemaking of emerging trends, implications for systemic impacts and risks, and their potential for accelerating progress toward SDGs. Its work feeds into the portfolio of experiments ensuring its coherence with the emerging risks and opportunities and connects local dynamics and solutions into the broader national and international ecosystem of potential funders, partners, and allies thereby increasing the chances for acceleration. While critical for the functioning of the Accelerator Lab, the exploration function will also service the Country Office as determined and agreed with the UNDP senior management.
You:
Duties and Responsibilities
- Developing and sustaining positive relationships with a range of local community and citizen groups
- Identifying and training local volunteers, recruiting Universities and think tanks for sustaining long term community outreach and engagement and identification of lead users, providing training and mentoring
- Translaton of ethnographic and field research findings into learning and action for the Accelerator Lab activities
- Design specific field research and participatory methods to focus on the most vulnerable populations and those not usually engaged in public policy debates on development methods
- Explore, document and increase understanding on emerging methods of tapping into bottom up solutions, lead users and grassroots innovations related to sustainable development
- Convene a broad range of new partners with UNDP including artists, community organizers and emergent movements to explore areas for collaboration on sustainable development
- Proactively manage risks with using ethnograpic tools and methods, including those related to ethics and privacy
- Design and implement methods for sensing and building on indigenous knowledge and local solutions, consolidating, screening and describing incoming
- Design criteria for consolidating incoming local solutions
- Conduct field research to determine best methods fo making solutions transferable, design methods to test and stretch ideas for their applicability and diffusion as part of a portfolio approach.
- Test the solutions and potential ideas in real life context to understand potential channels of spreading (including identifying private and public sector venues for uptake)
- Analyse system level issues that local solutions address (and those that they don’t address, therefore creating insights on the gaps)
- Design ‘things and tools’ needed to successful scale indigenous knowledge, lead user solutions, turning its insights into systemic change.
- Advise on the accelerator lab’s experiment portfolio to ensure experiments are designed based on people’s knowledge, behaviors and peer to peer methods of managing and diffusing knowledge about sustainable development issues.
- Design methods for integrating collective intellengence into UNDP programmes and engage with programme and project managers to translate ideas into concrete practice
- Undertake cultural and behavioral analyses for the accelerator lab portolio of experiments
- Advise on the accelerator lab’s experiment portfolio to ensure experiments are designed based on people’s knowledge, behaviors and peer to peer methods of managing and diffusing knowledge about sustainable development issues.
- Ensure ethics framework is implemented for the lab’s portfolio of experiments
- Design methods to test accelerator ideas for their applicability and diffusion
- Integrate cultural norms, peer to peer methods and behaviorial insights into technology based experiments
- Convene a broad range of new partners with UNDP including artists, community organizers and emergent movements to explore areas for collaboration on sustainable development
Working out loud and Organizational Learning
- Lead communication efforts and proactively use blog and social media to share findings from field research
- Ensure UNDP’s communication efforts respect privacy and ethics considerations
- Liaise with the broader Accelerator Lab network and the support team to share learnings and insights from the country-specific experience
- Jointly with the CO, support lab partners to develop an emerging pipeline of new initiatives, support other activities related to the design and operation of the Lab
- Proactively use blog posts and social media to share insights, attract partners and help position Accelerator Lab at the forefront of the exploration of new trends.
- Help embed solutions mapping and lead user methodology within the CO portfolio, design and provide trainings that include various methodologies and steps to identify and work with lead users
- Provide technical consultation and training for national partners and the CO through various phases including asset mapping, developing a strategic portfolio logic, experiment design, prototype testing, and evaluation;
- Develop communication and other tools to transform field research into actionaable intelligence
- Work together with your Accelerator Lab colleagues and experts to codify and advance the Accelerator Lab practice and solutions mapping in particular.
- Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab
- Design and deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from field research and grassroots innovation.
Competencies
- Ability to make new and useful ideas work.
- Adept with complex concepts and challenges convention purposefully
- Ability to persuade others to follow.
- Generates commitment, excitement and excellence in others
- Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.
- Models independent thinking and action
- Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.
- Synthesizes information to communicate independent analysis
- Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement.
- Meets goals and quality criteria for delivery of products or services
- Ability to manage organizational resources and deployment in pursuit of innovation approaches and initiatives.
- Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise
Required Skills and Experience
- Master’s degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Behavioral psychology, Design, Architecture, Communications or related field and minimum of 2 years of professional experience in development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization
- Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Behavioral psychology, Design, Architecture, Communications or related field and minimum of 4 years of professional experience in development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization
- Demonstrated ability to undertake field research in remote communities and document ethnographic evidence and honor expertise in unusual places
- Demonstrate ability to work in participatory methods, follow the lead of people as experts in their own sustainable development
- Professional experience in development programming or policy and social innovation.
- Proven professional knowledge and experience in approaches such as Ethnography, Systems Thinking, Behavioral Insights, Co-creation, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Positive Deviance, Community Asset Mapping, Service Design or Human Centered Design
- Demonstrated ability to work with partners to help surface unarticulated needs
- Proven ability to design ethical frameworks for managing public sector experiments
- Proficiency in written and spoken English.
Disclaimer
Important applicant information
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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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