Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

  • Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or 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

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

UNDP India’s new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

  • Strong, accountable and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
  • Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
  • Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.

South-South cooperation, gender equality and social inclusion are promoted across the pillars. The programme is supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, strategic innovation and accelerator labs, and data and digital architecture.

You are invited to join a team of future-smart development professionals to support India in achieving the national and globally agreed goals. As part of the UNDP team, your focus will be to work with diverse stakeholders to find country-specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and reach those furthest behind first.

India faces increasing risks from changing climatic conditions and variability, which include cyclones, floods, heat stress, and droughts. This has implications for disaster risk resilience and sectoral impacts, for e.g. a massive 54.6% of the total workforce is engaged in agricultural and allied sector activities, and 57% of the rural households are directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. At the same time, India remains a disaster-prone country, facing recurrent hydro-meteorological and seismic hazards such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes, lightning, and forest fires. Climate change is intensifying these risks, leading to escalating economic losses, livelihood disruptions, and non- economic impacts.

In this context, UNDP India is leveraging the global programmes led by UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub, namely the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF). Its work covers a range of critical areas where insurance and risk transfer solutions and collaboration with the global insurance industry can add significantly to achieving and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Covering inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, insurance investments, natural capital, Agriculture and Climate Insurance and more.

In India, IRFF is implementing two workstreams: (1.) To support climate adaptation efforts for smallholder resilience in 5 countries (India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda). This initiative focuses institutionalization mandate on the design and implementation of agriculture insurance through innovative partnerships and catalyzing further financing to scale up initiatives. (2.) To support the Government of India to implement the 15th Finance Commission's recommendations on insurance and risk pooling for effective disaster management.

UNDP India is currently working on both these areas of work, by supporting the Ministry of Agriculture through setting up of a Central Program Management Unit (CPMU) for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and KCC, to improve institutional and programme responsiveness, increase coverage and better access among marginalized and excluded farm households, and support for the National Disaster Management Authority through its National Resilience Programme, which includes work with states on insurance and risk finance solutions as well as in formulating a National Natural Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pool.

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Project Manager –Insurance and Risk Finance will work under the supervision of the Head – Inclusive Growth, UNDP India in collaboration with Programme Specialist (Resilience), National Programme Director – CPMU, Sustainable Finance Advisor and Regional Specialist – Insurance and Risk Finance. S/He will ensure engagement of all direct stakeholders and delivery of IRFF project objectives in full integration to the current work of the CPMU.

Reporting To: Head, Sustainable Inclusive Growth Unit, NOC With matrix reporting to: Advisor, Sustainable Finance

The expected duties and responsibilities include:

1. Coordinate activities for designing and development of comprehensive insurance and risk finance solutions. This will include:

  • New Product design, Development and integration / mainstreaming into relevant national schemes/policy solutions
  • Facilitate integration of Sandboxing approaches to pilot and launch new insurance solutions
  • Facilitate review and analysis of existing international and domestic legislative and regulatory frameworks as applicable in the context of Agri insurance and disaster risk financing solutions.
  • Support the work of the agriculture insurance and disaster risk finance project teams for designing, approving, piloting and implementing relevant strategies, technical studies and products.

2. Lead outreach, capacity building and multi-stakeholder engagements for agricultural insurance and risk financing activities

  • Facilitate engagement, training, advocacy, and knowledge exchange with stakeholders, which includes government, insurance companies, regulators and public-private partners.
  • Implement capacity needs assessments for different levels of stakeholders
  • Organize consultation workshops and seminars with key experts as needed to inform deliverables of IRFF and broader
  • Establish partnerships for designing and implementing new agricultural insurance and risk finance products and integrate UNDP as a national multistakeholder coordination mechanism for agricultural insurance and disaster financing solutions.
  • Develop workshop reports for the inception workshop and all technical workshops
  • Identify and connect with relevant international organizations, research institutions, and development partners to leverage expertise, resources, and best practices.

3. Support research and documentation for the development of new insurance products, tools and services

  • Develop communication materials, guidance notes, and toolkits to raise awareness of agricultural insurance and risk financing solutions.
  • Document the India experience and facilitate data collection on outreach for the Insu Resilience Global Partnership
  • Facilitate research for guiding development of Agri insurance products
  • Support the design and creation of global and national knowledge materials on best practices of comprehensive agriculture insurance and risk finance products
  • Supervise the work of national experts and institutions to ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget, and to high-quality standards; facilitate, guide and monitor the work

4. Reporting, communications and M&E

  • Review all national-level deliverables to ensure quality and consistency with IRFF methodology.
  • Signal any delays in national deliverables compared to the workplans to relevant colleagues;
  • Develop briefing notes, case studies, press releases, web articles and other media products as required
  • Regular monitoring and reporting of all project activities, including the preparation of annual work plans and procurement plans.

5. Strengthen partnerships for country office programming on agricultural insurance and disaster risk financing

  • Support the development of proposals, presentations and project documents that build on IRFF’s work with the India country office in the area of agricultural insurance and disaster risk finance, including UNDP’s national resilience Programme.

6. Facilitate knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing, and advocacy relevant to the project.

  • Identify capacity building needs and opportunities. 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. 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 staff.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

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

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

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.

Business Development

  • Collective Intelligence Design: Ability to bring together diverse groups of people, data, information, ideas, and technology to solve problems and design solutions or services. Knowledge and understanding of Collective Intelligence Design principles, methodology and practices.

Business Management

  • Customer Satisfaction/ Client Management: Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs; Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy.; Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests.; Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
  • Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
  • Resource Management: Allocate and use resources in a strategic or tactical way in line with business needs and priorities and principles of accountability and integrity.

Communications

  • Advocacy strategy and implementation: Ability to create and implement advocacy strategies which lead to impactful change.

Partnership management

  • Emerging partnerships: Ability to engage with emerging partners, develop and
    manage a strategy and develop approaches to developing and managing these new strategic partnerships.
     

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Insurance, Business Administration (MBA), Finance, Public Policy or equivalent is required, or
  • A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with an additional 2 years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of advanced university degree.

Experience:

  • Minimum 5 Years (with Master’s Degree) or 7 years’ (with Bachelor’s Degree) of relevant experience in insurance industry in India, preferably parametric and weather index-based products.

Required skills:

  • Experience building, mobilizing, and leading multidisciplinary teams, along with relevant national-level experience working with governments and private entities in the insurance sector in a lead role, including experience engaging with Central and/or State Governments, international agencies, or similar assignments.
  • Experience in insurance, insurance product design and delivery, indemnity-based insurance, index-based insurance products, existing agricultural insurance and disaster risk financing schemes, regulatory laws and supervision related to insurance sector, related concepts and initiatives, policies and practices.
  • Demonstrated experience in project management, including managing and formulating budgets, and leading the design, formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects.

Desired Skills:

  • Experience in cross-cutting thematic areas such as value chains, risk management, CCE, financial, legal and regulatory standards, procurement procedures, and environmental and social safeguards, along with strong understanding of legislative, legal and regulatory structures related to agricultural insurance and risk finance in India.
  • Demonstrating substantive technical experience in possessing strong capacity for strategic planning, results-based management, and reporting.
  • Experience developing strategic insights that inform programme direction, effectively tailor and deliver information to diverse audiences through multiple
    communication channels, and build productive partnerships in multicultural and diverse environments with sensitivity and respect.

Required Language(s)

  • Fluency in English and Hindi 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.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

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.

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