Please note the appropriate Tier indicated in the vacancy title and ensure that you are holding the applicable contract as defined below:
Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or whose contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026
Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) actively supports environment and mitigating the impacts of climate change as well as gender equality, peacebuilding, good governance and women’s empowerment as cross-cutting priorities in its development work. UNDP partners with government institutions, civil society, and communities to strengthen inclusive governance, prevent gender-based violence (GBV), and promote women’s participation in decision-making processes at all levels. In peacebuilding, UNDP facilitates community-led dialogue, conflict resolution, and social cohesion initiatives, particularly in fragile and post-conflict areas. Gender equality is mainstreamed across these efforts, with targeted interventions to empower women as agents of peace and change.

Violent conflict has been ever-present in the Highlands region of PNG and has been on an increasing trajectory over the last 30 years with over 300 deaths, 100,000 displaced persons, and 77 schools, and 35 health facilities either closed or affected. This is placing substantial pressure on the realization of human rights, social and structural stability and human development. These protracted conflicts have resulted in weakened social systems, reduced service delivery, eroded social structures and civic trust. They have polarized the political environment, harmed legitimacy and confidence in public institutions, reinforced a culture of violence, and disrupted social norms and social orders. Ultimately, this has threatened livelihoods and displaced entire communities. Exacerbated by poor governance, these highly fragile conditions pose a multi-dimensional challenge to economic and human development, which is amongst of the lowest in a country that ranks the lowest of all Pacific Island Countries on the Human Development Index.

In addition, climate variability acts as a threat multiplier in the region, contributing to food, health, and economic insecurity. Environmental hazards and climate fluctuations strain limited community and state resources, making vulnerable communities more susceptible to violence. Increasing frequency and intensity of climate-induced disasters, such as El Niño events, challenge traditional risk reduction knowledge, damage infrastructure, and hinder sustainable development. The intersection of conflict and climatic hazards disproportionately affects women, children, and vulnerable groups. They face increased risks of violence, displacement, and secondary gendered risks like domestic violence, sexual violence, forced marriage, and accusations of sorcery. With the expected increase in climate variability, more people, especially women, in the Highlands are at risk of displacement due to resource conflicts.

In this context, the first phase of the United Nations (UN) Highlands Joint Programme (HJP) in PNG was developed and implemented by six Participating UN Organizations (PUNOs) to sustain peace and development gains from the UN’s post-earthquake humanitarian and recovery efforts in the Highlands. From 2020-2023, activities under the HJP mobilised USD 15 million towards increased capacities for peacebuilding and social cohesion among conflict-affected communities, improved resilience of communities and households to manage risks and mitigate shocks from conflict and man-made and natural disasters, enhanced know-how among traditional leaders and local service providers to ensure conflict-sensitive service delivery and enhanced inclusion and responsiveness of public institutions to promote peace and security in the Highlands.

To further build on the positive results of the first phase, the new phase of the programme emphasises the importance of an inclusive, area-based, humanitarian-development-peace nexus platform approach anchored in community resilience. In particular, through the climate-gender-conflict nexus, UNDP plans to strengthen its ongoing gender transformative interventions aimed at empowering women's leadership in strengthening the Women, Peace and Security agenda and leading climate-induced conflict prevention efforts to reduce the risk exposure of vulnerable local communities. The programme focuses on empowering women leaders as conflict-sensitive community resilience activists through training and sharing best practices, while strengthening inclusive peacebuilder networks to promote gender equality.

UNDP is seeking a Project Manager to be primarily responsible for the successful management and implementation of current intersectional climate, gender and conflict projects, namely ‘Empower Her – PNG Peace Initiative’ and ‘Project for Preventing Climate-Induced Conflict’, and the soon-to-be-launched ‘Securing Conditions for Sustained Peace in the Highlands (SCSP)’. The Project Manager will work directly with these projects’ other PUNO (UN Women, UNFPA, IOM, and OHCHR) and in close coordination with the provincial governments of both Hela and Southern Highlands. UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration. 
 

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Manager works under the direct supervision of the Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Specialist and collaborates closely with other team members from across the Governance and Peacebuilding Portfolio including the HJP Coordinator and relevant programme focal points in CO Gender Team. In addition, the Project Manager will collaborate with the CO Climate and Environment Portfolio and Operations Units. To implement the projects, the Project Manager will be supported by a Project Admin and Finance Associate.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: None
 

Under these projects, UNDP’s responsibility includes but is not limited to the implementation of the following project outputs:

Securing Conditions for Sustained Peace in the Highlands (SCSP):

• Strengthen provincial and local planning approaches for integrated climate security and disaster risk management.
•  Enhance conflict-affected community capacities for climate resilience and disaster preparedness.
• Inclusive community-led initiatives to advance climate adaptation and resilience (Youth-led community initiatives to address climate resilience including through livelihoods opportunities, Support PWD-led initiatives to address climate and disaster risks including access to quality rights-based information and services, Women and Girls initiatives to address climate and disaster-induced conflicts through community leadership and livelihood opportunities).

Additional project-related activities may include but not be limited to the following project outputs:

• Deliver training of women community leaders in awareness of climate-induced risks and local approaches/ to mitigate risks.
• Support community-led establishment of inclusive community civic spaces to facilitate collective decision-making and implement community-led projects
• Support community-led establishment of inclusive community civic spaces to facilitate collective decision-making and implement community-led projects
•  Conduct of provincial and sub-provincial climate risk assessment in target provinces
• Support provincial authorities in development of provincial climate and gender-sensitive peace and security strategies with costed provincial action.
• Improve women and girls’ access to quality local justice services
• Strengthen women’s participation in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding in the PNG Highlands through Women Insider Mediators and Mediators Networking
• Foster women-led community initiatives to promote post-conflict recovery, sustain local peace processes, and advance WPS priorities.

In addition to existing projects, the project manager will have responsibilities projects currently under development on related topics.  The Project Manager responsibilities will cover the geographic scope of Southern Highlands, Hela, Western Highlands and Enga provinces, in line with the operational expansion of the second phase of the UN Highlands Joint Programme.

Lead, manage, coordinate, and develop effective project planning and implementation.

• Lead the formulation of project’s annual work plans (AWP) and contribute as required to joint project planning and input to Highlands Joint Programme joint annual work plans; 
• Lead development of detailed implementation plans; 
•  Lead formulation of budgets, and procurement and HR plans 
• Lead revision of Annual Work Plans (AWPs), periodic revisions of procurement/HR plans ensuring that plans are updated in a timely manner and in close coordination of UNDP Country Office (Programme, HR and Procurement Teams) 
• Provide direct supervision of UNDP project personnel including the Project Associate as applicable

Lead project implementation

• Lead consultations and engagement with provincial and sub-provincial stakeholders (particularly provincial and local government) in the inception and subsequent implementation of UNDP’s project activities;
•  Lead the recruitment and supervision of technical expertise to implement UNDP’s specific component activities.
• Lead the implementing partners identification and onboarding process, and subsequent supervision of partners to implement UNDP’s specific component activities.
• Oversee implementation of UNDP-led project activities against annual work plans and delivery targets.
• Provide regular field updates to UNDP management.
• Coordinate project inception including development and conduct of baseline assessment.
• Contribute to biannual Highlands Joint Programme Steering Committee meetings as required.
• Contribute joint project communications and visibility efforts including the development of a range of core communication content including reports, briefings, infographics, case studies and presentations. 

Develop strategic partnerships.

• Substantively contribute to the harnessing of effective partnerships and lead the identification and onboarding process for implementing partners. 
• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships and strategic linkages with implementing and development partners, government officials, businesses, NGOs, other national and regional stakeholders, and beneficiaries to support and ensure accurate interpretation of project objectives and promote inclusive project implementation. 
• Substantively contribute to project communications and visibility efforts. Make recommendations to the management team on activities with potential for scale-up, replicability and synergies. 
• Provide technical support to the implementing partners and act as a liaison between UNDP and the partners. 
• Support resource mobilization efforts and project development

Ensure monitoring and evaluation

• Develop and implement project monitoring and evaluation framework in close coordination with partner UN agencies.
• Develop/optimize project results frameworks, using the outcomes of baseline studies in close consultation with partner UN agencies.
• Coordinate the finalization of detailed results framework with a focus on agreed indicators and targets in close consultation with partner UN agencies.
• Monitor and report annual targets and results in close coordination with partner UN agencies and HJP joint annual reporting in accordance with the project results framework.
•  Lead development and conduct of the mid-term/annual reviews, and endline assessment;
• Coordinate the conduct of an independent evaluation.

Provide technical support and facilitation of knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing, and advocacy

• Provide technical inputs on intersectional climate-conflict-gender issues such as climate security; climate, conflict and youth; conflict-sensitive climate adaptation; women, peace and security, etc
• Working closely with implementing partners in the Highlands, ensure appropriate training, project workshops and other relevant activities are organized and implemented in a consultative manner, involving technical experts and stakeholders that may include the government, private sector, NGOs, donors, and/or academia.
• Ensure project reports capture results, lessons learned and good practices for possible wider application.
• Participate in and ensure sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice on development and project related issues, including representing UNDP in regional and global forums
• Oversee production of knowledge products and communications products
• Support UNDP project development in the climate-conflict-gender nexus
• Support establishment of knowledge platforms for the project, facilitate innovative mechanisms for dissemination of knowledge from the project, and develop knowledge resources and products to share with project partners and to support UNDP’s engagement in this area.
• Promote advocacy for UNDP’s work and opportunities for collaboration in addressing development trends in coordination with the project partners, stakeholders, and UNDP communications personnel. 
  The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact 
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems 
•  Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
• Adapt with Agility: 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
• Engage and Partner: 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

People Management

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site. 
   

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Management    

• Results-based Management. Ability to manage the implementation of strategies, programmes, and projects with a focus on improved performance and demonstrable results. Knowledge and understanding of relevant theories, concepts, methodologies, instruments, and tools.
• Project Management. Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
• Monitoring and Evaluation. Ability to systematically monitor results of strategies, programmes, and activities with a view to make sure that they are being implemented effectively; Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback and reporting on the consistency or discrepancy between planned activities and programme management and results. Ability to make independent judgment of the management and results of strategies, programmes and activities based on set criteria and benchmark, keeping in mind the needs and concerns of client, current and upcoming. Knowledge and understanding of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, concepts, methodologies, systems, processes, and tools. Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
• 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 Direction & Strategy    

• System Thinking. Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement 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

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness    

• Effectiveness. Project Quality Assurance Programming (PPM) policies and procedures

2030 Agenda: Peace    

• Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Responsive Institutions. Climate, Peace and Security
   

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Political or Social Science, International Development, Peace and Conflict, Conflict Studies, Humanitarian Action, or related fields are required. Or
• A first-level university degree in the areas mentioned above, with an additional 2 years of relevant experience will be given due consideration, but it is not a requirement.

Experience:

• Minimum of five (5) years (with a master’s degree) or seven (7) years (with a bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in complex settings, peacebuilding, humanitarian affairs, crisis management, political affairs, climate security, operational planning and coordination or related field.

Required skills:

• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and web-based management systems, and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages. 
   

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section:

• Experience working in international development in PNG, at the community level, preferably with direct experience working in the Highlands is an asset, 
• Demonstrated experience in project management, implementation, and stakeholder engagement in complex, multi-partner environments is an advantage.
• Experience in peacebuilding and/or political affairs within the UN system is desired. 
• Experience in facilitation and preparation of strategies, development plans, analysis, coordination mechanisms in particular within the UN system is desired. 
• Proven experience of work on intersectional conflict drivers and dynamics (e.g. climate security, e.g. extractives, land and conflict, e.g. women/youth, peace and security) is desired. 
• Experience in project quality assurance is desired. 
   

Required Language(s):

• Fluency in English is required. 
• Fluency in Tok Pision is required. 
   

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

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.

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.