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2100 Portfolio Manager – Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation

Belgrade

  • Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Location: Belgrade
  • Grade: Consultancy - SB-4 (SC8/SC9), Service Contract, Local Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Social Affairs
    • International Relations
    • Political Affairs
    • Banking and Finance
    • Democratic Governance
    • Civil Society and Local governance
    • Governance and Peacebuilding
    • Project and Programme Management
    • Managerial positions
    • Disability Rights
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

Purpose
 
To provide strategic and policy advice in the implementation of the Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and Inclusive Political Dialogue (3rd Phase) project and to monitor and guide the implementation of projects under the Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation Portfolio. 
 
Objective
 
To ensure result-oriented, effective, efficient and accountable implementation of the assigned projects and portfolio activities and achievement of envisaged results.
 
Background Information
 
Democratic governance is characterized by transparency and accountability in both the public and private sectors. An open, participatory governance process responds to citizen and business needs, resulting in better and fairer government policies.
 
The fulfilment of all human rights, whether civil, political, social, cultural and economic, requires democratic processes and institutions that are inclusive and responsive, and which protect the rights of minorities, provide separation of powers and ensure public accountability. Holding free and fair elections and allowing free and independent media which enable the freedom of expression, thought and conscience, separating powers between the three branches of government, which helps protect civil and political rights and encouraging an open civil society, which facilitates peaceful assembly and association and citizen participation represent the basic presumptions and goals that Serbia is aiming to achieve in the process of creating a free and open society.
 
Although much has been achieved in the previous years, Serbia is still struggling to overcome the shortcomings that have been identified in independent assessments of achievements in reforming society. 
 
The political scene in Serbia has become increasing polarized in recent years which has had a negative impact on the work of democratic institutions. This has had an immediate reflection in the work of the national parliament and the lack of genuine cross-party debate and meaningful participation of all members of parliament irrespective of their political orientation. Although much progress has been achieved in building a democratic society and strengthening institutions, persistent shortcomings remain to be addressed.  Lack of transparency in financing political campaigns and political, blurred distinction between party and state activities and the unbalanced media coverage remain key obstacles that need to be addressed on one hand while independent bodies need to be further empowered to practice their monitoring and oversight roles effectively. The previous parliamentary practices have led to a deterioration in legislative debate and scrutiny (i.e. cramming of discussion points and excessive use of the urgent procedures) and significantly undermined the parliament’s oversight of the executive. The parliament has failed to support the role of independent institutions and has not discussed any of the annual reports submitted by independent bodies in its plenary sessions, exemplifying its lack of willingness to ensure effective oversight over the government. Whilst confidence in the national parliament has remained the same as in 2017 (29%), mistrust has increased (from 31% to 37%) accordioning the 2019 Opinion Polls.
 
UNDP has been providing continuous support to strengthening the National Assembly’s representative and legislative scrutiny functions, improving transparency and efficiency in the work of the National Parliament and the oversight role of local assemblies over the past seven years, through technical assistance projects funded by the Swiss Cooperation Agency (SCO). The first Phase of parliamentary support  (2012-2015) had a three-fold purpose: to develop the capacity of scrutiny teams; to improve the Parliament’s outreach to citizens, especially at the local level, with emphasis on oversight/scrutiny mechanisms and to pilot a successful outreach mechanism in local assemblies; to develop a system for real-time tracking of the State budget expenditure in the Parliament. The second phase of the project (2015-2019) responded to the needs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and a selected number of local assemblies to enhance their representative and oversight functions among other. The goal was to bring MPs and local assemblies closer to their electorate and strengthen their roles on both national and local levels. 
 
The Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and Inclusive Political Dialogue (3rd Phase) project is a continuation of the previous support to the elected assemblies in Serbia – the National Assembly and local assemblies. The project focuses on political dialogue, transparency and gender equality and aims to support the National Assembly in fostering a political culture which will ensure continuous cross-party dialogue between MPs and with civil society and citizens, enabling access to information in order to ensure better and more inclusive policy-making processes; supporting Local assemblies in increasing transparency and providing information to citizens and civil society while at the same time empowering them to better fulfil their democratic role and respond to citizen’s needs; and providing support to citizens and civil society organizations, and in particular women, to engage more actively with parliaments at the central and local level as conveners of inclusive dialogue and participants in policy creation.
 
Although civil society has become increasingly acknowledged as one of the key actors in shaping the socio-economic environment at national and local levels, modest progress was made towards establishing an enabling environment for the development and financing of civil society. In Serbia in previous years and further efforts are needed to ensure systematic cooperation between the government and civil society. Although a national strategy and action plan for creating an enabling environment for civil society have been drafted by the relevant national authorities, they have not yet been adopted and the criteria for public financial support for CSOs need to be clarified and implemented to ensure overall transparency, especially at local level.
 
Public administration represents one of the key realms through which the relationship between the state, civil society and the private sector is reflects most explicitly. Serbia has come a long way since the first Public Administration Reform Strategy was adopted in 2014, most notably in improving service delivery and the adoption of a strategic and legislative framework governing policy planning, public consultations, e-government, and salary system in the public sector but consistently fails to depoliticize and professionalize the public service.  Following the government’s rightsizing efforts and decrease of public administration staff as part of the overall fiscal consolidation measure undertaken from 2014, the structure of the public administration needs to be streamlined. The lines of accountability between agencies and their parent institutions are blurred, contributing to overlapping functions, fragmentation, and unclear reporting lines and institutions continue to maintain a bureaucratic and process-oriented approach to planning, budgeting and the reporting of their activities. Nevertheless, the Government of Serbia has done much in implementing the flagship Initiative on the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans by introducing e-government, introducing e-services, such as e-payments and simplifying administrative procedures. 
 
The UNDP Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation portfolio will aim to support institutions in both the legislative and executive branches of power, at central and local level in addressing the shortcoming and gaps in three key areas of democratic governance – parliamentary reform, fundamental rights and reform and strengthening the role of civil society in shaping further socio-economic development in the Republic of Serbia. 
 
The key institutions supervising these processes in Serbia are the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (NARS), local assemblies, the Ministry for Public Administration and Local Self Government (MDULS), local self-government and civil society organizations all of which represent key partners and beneficiaries of the portfolio. 
 
A cross-cutting theme of the portfolio is EU accession, as a strategic orientation of the country and the focus of the portfolio in this respect is to support Serbia in achieving, among others, Flagship initiative 1 – strengthening support to the rule of law (enhancing support to civil society, democracy activism and independent media), flagship initiative 5 - Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans focuses on building digital economy and society in the region of the 2018 EU Western Balkans Strategy. While most interventions promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels (SDG 16) they are also designed to facilitate the alignment with EU Acquis, there are also activities that support the EU accession process itself.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

Overall responsibilities:  
  • To provide strategic and policy advice in the implementation of the Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and Inclusive Political Dialogue (3rd Phase) project;
  • To monitor and guide the implementation of all projects under the UNDP Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation Portfolio. 
Specific responsibilities will include the following:
  • Strategic coordination and provision of policy advice on the Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and Inclusive Political Dialogue (3rd Phase) project
  • Applying concepts of strategic and work planning and adaptive management in the implementation of the project
  • Maintaining regular communication and effective cooperation and coordination with national counterparts, project partners and other relevant stakeholders.  
  • Ensuring the incorporation of best practices and lessons learned on parliamentary development worldwide, and
  • Monitoring and effective management of the responsible parties in project implementation.
Monitoring of Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation portfolio progress (conducting effective risk assessment and management; ensuring that risks are identified and addressed; progress and results reporting)  
  • Developing and managing an overall portfolio implementation strategy in coordination with national partners and the portfolio team,
  • Reviewing project work plans and project reports and presenting them to national partners (progress reports including the Final report and their presentation to the National Project Director/Project Board for review/approval);
  • Monitoring of the implementation of projects in the portfolio in line with the timetable set out in the project documents and preparation of regular updates and reports to Project Boards on projects’ progress, implementing issues, emerging risks/problems and proposals for necessary remedial actions;
  • Coordinating activities with other portfolios in the Good Governance cluster,
Provide quality assurance for portfolio results and deliverables, and, ensuring that results are duly communicated
  • Reviewing from a quality assurance perspective all portfolio outputs/products/deliverables; and
  • Ensuring the project has the required communication package and preparation, upon request of the UNDP office, of information materials – including success stories, for dissemination within UNDP globally and regionally, and to external stakeholders.
Support partnerships, resource mobilization and provide policy advise to national partners
  • Maintaining an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up to date on related issues;
  • Maintaining regular communication with relevant authorities as listed in the background section of the ToR in order to advise them on developments concerning the portfolio and providing recommendations for action;
  • Providing support to the Good Governance Team Leader in generating a new pipeline of project initiatives primarily under the portfolio themes, in line with the Country Program Document 2021-2025 and in agreement with Senior Management;  
  • Ensuring effective coordination with other donor and government funded projects in the areas and on topics which fall within the scope of the Inclusive Political Processes and Civic Participation Portfolio; 
  • Maintaining and further building UNDP’s position in the portfolio sectors;
  • Identifying, collecting and analyzing relevant policy-related information and data; 
  • Preparing briefs, talking points and other relevant materials for UNDP senior management, 
  • Facilitating and actively participating in coordination meetings, training sessions, conferences and public promotion of projects in the portfolio.
Team management, other duties
  • Managing the portfolio team and consultants and facilitating staff learning and knowledge sharing;
  • Organizing regular coordination meetings with the Parliamentary Portfolio and Local Democracy Portfolio staff; 
  • Assuming responsibilities in line with the Internal Control Framework and acting as a `first authority` for project transactions;
  • Perform other duties as required.
Performance Indicators for evaluation of results
  • Guidance provided for delivery of portfolio projects;
  • Reports and Annual Workplans developed on time in line with quality standards;
  • Advisory services provided to national partners and regular contact with relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries maintained;
  • Resource mobilization support to the Good Governance Team Leader provided; 
  • Effective management of the Portfolio Team.

Competencies

  • Knowledge and expertise in implementing public administration reforms related to parliamentary scrutiny of government policy making, ensuring civic participation in policy making and legislative activities as well as public sector institution reorganization and capacity building;
  • Ability to review and evaluate the key organizational components of elected bodies (leadership, staffing, policies, strategies, partnerships, resources and processes)
  • Ability to analyze work methods and workflows in order to rationalize them for improved efficiency (rationalizing systems and procedures to eliminate delays, overlaps and redundancies to improve effectiveness),
  • Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Excellent negotiation and representational skills at senior level;
  • Displays analytical judgment and demonstrated ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner;
  • Demonstrates strong intellectual and operational capacity in providing and coordinating advisory services to stakeholders;
  • Good application of Results-Based Management;
  • Good communication, coordination and facilitation skills;
  • Consistently ensures timeliness and quality of project work;
  • Establishes lasting relationships and substantive dialogue with clients;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
  • Strong oral and written communication skills; 
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling ethical standards. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Minimum MA or equivalent in the field of law, political science, organizational science, or other related fields.
Work experience:
  • Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience in the Rule of Law and Public Administration reform sectors, preferably in a multilateral development context, with at least 5 years in high level public policy formulation, strategic and management advisory services;
  • Experience in working in or with legislative bodies elected by citizens; 
  • Experience in engaging with legislative and independent state bodies, political parties and/or facilitating political processes; 
  • Experience in managing teams and complex projects/processes that included extensive communication, coordination and facilitation requirements;
  • Experience in partnership building at international, national, regional and local level.
Knowledge:
  • Excellent understanding of Serbia's political, institutional, and socio-economic situation; 
  • Thorough knowledge of the national institutional and legal framework and public sector policy implementation processes;
  • Good understanding of development trends and reforms in the Rule of Law and Public Administration reform sectors (parliamentary scrutiny over government policy making and public expenditure, inclusive policy and legislation development, public sector accountability and institutional organization reforms) as well as the applicable EU accession requirements in the field. 
Personal qualifications: 
  • Proven leadership skills, ability to organize and motivate team, deliver when working under pressure and within changing circumstances;
  • Excellent writing/reporting and presentation skills;
  • Excellent interpersonal, networking and team building skills.
Language:
  • Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Serbian and English.
Special consideration:
 
As this position is under Service Contract modality, only applicants with Serbian nationality or valid working permit in Serbia will be considered for the vacancy. The selected candidate will be subject to a Government security check prior to signature of contract. 

Disclaimer

Important applicant information

All posts in the SC categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

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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