Local Community and Capacity Development Officer - Migration and Local Development Project (phase II) - UNDP Moldova

Globally, UNDP is working to maximize the developmental benefits of human mobility and to mitigate any negative consequences. UNDP works with partner countries to balance short-term responses to addressing the impacts of emigration with long-term sustainable development solutions. UNDP addresses migration through development lenses.
The Moldovan Government (GoM) has increasingly recognized the potential of the diaspora as a catalyst for its development efforts and acknowledges that, if addressed and managed properly, human mobility can also bring opportunities and improvements in the country. The GoM migration policy focus shifted from a management and control perspective to capitalizing on the opportunities provided by migration.
The UNDP intervention has helped translate this approach into more comprehensive and systematic engagement by developing a comprehensive approach to make emigration work for local development.
The initiative, started in 2015, was implemented within the framework of the Swiss-funded Migration and Local Development Project (MiDL / phase I). It aimed to connect Moldovan emigrants with their native localities in Moldova and to meaningfully engage them at all stages of community development, transforming emigration into an opportunity. During the pilot phase, 38 communities have been supported to pioneer a new DMD model, which resulted in improved local infrastructure and local services with tangible benefit for over 310,000 citizens.
Building on the sustainable results achieved during its first phase of implementation, the objectives of the second phase of the MiDL project (2019 – 2022) are:

• Potential, current and returned migrants in the Republic of Moldova benefit from complex employment support services.
• Community members including the migrants are significantly involved in local development processes.

The Project’s overall objective is to maximize the impact of migration on socio-economic development through an enhanced institutional framework and involved Diaspora.
To that end, the project envisages a comprehensive, tailor-made and multi-layered capacity building support for its beneficiaries to enable them to achieve the objectives and goals of the project.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the MiDL II Project Manager, the Local Community and Capacity Development Officer shall ensure the effective and efficient community mobilization and capacity development of local stakeholders within the MIDL II Project.
The Officer shall apply and promote the principles of results-based management (RBM), as well as a client-oriented approach consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.
The Local Community and Capacity Development Officer will work in close collaboration with the Project Manager and other Project Officers for the effective achievement of results, anticipating and resolving complex project-related issues and information delivery.
The Officer shall exercise full compliance with UNDP programming, financial, procurement and administrative rules, regulations, policies and strategies, as well as implementation of the effective internal control systems.
Summary of Key Functions:
The Local Community and Capacity Development Officer will ensure, in line with the Project scope, the provision of the following community and capacity development services and products:

1. Provide support to the MiDL II project on community development and Diaspora engagement in the partner localities, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Advise and assist partner LPAs and HTAs in the implementation of sustainable local development initiatives that capitalize on the social and economic potential of migration;
• Contribute to the capacity building of HTAs to act as independent local actors and facilitate the establishment of a cooperation framework between the local community, LPAs and migrants;
• Ensure provision of top-quality advisory services and facilitation of knowledge building and management for the beneficiaries of the grant programs for HTAs;
• Coordinate the team support of technical consultants and specialized experts (e.g. local infrastructure engineers) to ensure the successful implementation of community projects;
• Provide support to the project team in linking the local communities from the left bank of the Nistru river to the Migrants’ Engagement for Development process from the right bank;
• Contribute to the series of preparatory steps and field interventions to be undertaken in the localities from the left bank of the Nistru river, including identification of local partners and development of their capacities to reach out to and reconnect the migrants to their communities;
• Liaise and coordinate with project partners with local outreach and collaboration experience;
• Support the MiDL II Project Manager and the UNDP CO in general project implementation and related strategic processes.

2. Ensure provision of top-quality advisory and M&E services, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Elaborate and maintain tracking tools and oversee the accurate reporting and documentation of the MiDL II project’s activities through different methods (which may include, but are not limited to data collection and analysis, strategic meetings, field visits, specific reports, etc.);
• Make sound contributions to local development-related knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Identify and document best practices from the field and ensure wide dissemination and visibility of project achievements;
• Provide solid inputs to project’s analytical products, work plans and progress reports, etc.;
• Prepare thematic briefs on possible areas of cooperation with development partners.

Corporate Competencies:

• Strict adherence to corporate rules, regulations and procedures.
• Familiarity with the internal control framework and results-based management tools.
• Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to identify relevant findings and prepare analytical documents in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to share knowledge and experience.
• Pursuit of continuous personal learning and ability to apply newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to establish and maintain contacts with senior-level governmental and local officials.
• Proven ability to develop and implement smart development solutions in a challenging socio-economic environment.
• Analytic capacity and ability to identify relevant findings and prepare analytical documents in a clear and concise manner.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Strong sense of initiative and ability to work independently.
• Capacity to build strong relationships with clients and respond positively to feedback.
• Proven ability to meet tight deadlines, to handle multiple priorities simultaneously and to adapt to changing circumstances.

Academic Education:

• Master’s degree in Local Public Administration, Economics, Public Finances, Business Administration, or other relevant fields.

Work experience:

• At least 5 (five) years of progressive experience (at the national or international level) in the field of policy development, with substantial recent work experience in local development projects.
• At least 2 (two) years of experience in developing or using monitoring and evaluation tools.
• Professional experience in implementing, coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating projects with civic engagement and community development components.
• Proven experience in establishing meaningful partnerships with stakeholders and/ or beneficiaries from the left bank of the Nistru river will be considered a strong advantage.
• Proven experience in development assistance or related work for a donor organization, governmental institutions, NGO or private sector will be considered a strong asset.

Required languages (at working level):

• English, Romanian and Russian.

Important applicant information

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

This is a local position, therefore only citizens of the Republic of Moldova or others legally authorized to work in the country are eligible to apply.

UNDP is an employer committed to gender equity and to providing equal opportunities to both male and female.

UNDP is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

Please note that only applicants who are short-listed will be contacted.

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.

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Please note that the person selected for this position will be offered a contract with UNDP under its National Personnel Services Agreement (N-PSA) modality. The UNDP Service Contract modality is phasing out over the coming year. More information about the N-PSA is available here https://bit.ly/341OFXC