International Consultant, Strategic Planning

Background

In line with its mandate and the OSCE commitments, the OSCE Mission to Serbia works in partnership with the Republic of Serbia institutions and civil society in supporting the country’s pursuance of its strategic reform priorities, essential for its more effective functioning as a democratic state. 

The Mission leadership has determined that a relevant multi-year strategy for the Mission’s activities is needed in order to provide clear links with the Government and institutions’ planned efforts and promote a multi-year approach to project planning. Such a framework would strengthen the Mission’s ability to provide relevant, impactful and sustainable support for the host country’s achievement of strategic priorities over the coming three years, and promote greater co-ordination of Mission programmatic activities, thereby increasing the Mission’s impact in all areas of its mandate.

This MY strategy will provide the overarching framework for the Mission’s work in the next three-year period (2022-2025) and set out what the Mission will strive to accomplish during this period. The priorities laid out in the MY strategy will be reflected in the Mission’s annual Unified Budget documents. During these three years, the Mission will monitor and evaluate progress against the achievable targets identified in the MY strategy, which will help to further shape and improve annual planning and refine the strategic directions for the Mission’s programmatic engagement.

To this end, the Mission requires the expertise of an experienced international consultant who would assist in conducting the strategic planning process and produce the MY strategic document. The consultant would facilitate a consultative process of drafting the MY strategy, involving all Mission programmes/Departments. The consultant’s work will be guided by the Mission’s Strategy Task Force, which consists of Deputy Head of Mission, Chief of Fund Administration Unit, Chief of Policy and Planning and the National Programme Co-ordination Officer. 

Tasks and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Mission’s Strategy Task Force, the consultant will be responsible for performing the following tasks:

1.    Preparing and presenting the work plan, including the timeline and key milestones, based on an initial input from the Mission Strategy Task Force and an operational outlook provided by the Mission;
2.    Conducting a desk review of relevant Mission programmatic and strategic documents;
3.    Conducting introductory interviews with the Mission leadership (Head of Mission and Deputy Head of Mission), Heads of Departments, and other relevant Mission staff; 
4.    Updating the work plan and present to the HoM and Strategy Task Force an outline of the strategic planning process and the MY strategy, including the specific timeline;
5.    Facilitating an offsite retreat for relevant Mission staff to translate Mission mandate into five-seven key crosscutting programmatic objectives;
6.    Proposing and facilitating the formation of cross-Departmental working groups for each objective, with groups tasked to develop the relevant portion of the strategy;
7.    Providing support to the work of the cross-Departmental WGs;
8.    Compiling input from each  WG into a draft strategy;
9.    Producing the first draft of the MY strategy and sharing it with the Strategy Task Force for Mission feedback; 
10.    After incorporating feedback, producing the final document of the MY strategy.

The consultant will work from home for the tasks which do not require physical presence. Depending on the epidemiological situation in Serbia, the consultant may be required to participate in the in-person off-site retreat of Mission staff to facilitate the strategic discussion and identification of key programmatic priorities (or facilitate a Zoom brainstorming session as an alternative, to be decided), as well as for meetings of the working groups tasked with developing a key objective. When in Serbia, the consultant’s duty station will be in the Mission HQ in Belgrade.

Necessary Qualifications

•    Advanced university degree (MA/MSc, MPhil or PhD) in social sciences, humanities, business administration and such.
•    Minimum 7 years of professional work experience related to facilitating strategic management events and leading change;
•    General knowledge of the OSCE principles, commitments and organizational culture;
•    Demonstrated ability to present information from a plethora of sources and materials into concise summaries and findings;
•    Professional fluency in English language, both oral and written, and excellent drafting skills;
•    Computer literate with practical experience in Microsoft packages;
•    Ability and willingness to work with people of different cultural, national and religious background;
•    Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, as well as the ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities.

Candidates are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the OSCE Competency Model available at: https://jobs.osce.org/osce-competency-model.

Remuneration Package

The consultant will be employed on a Special Service Agreement approximately starting from 8 November 2021 until 28 February 2022 and will be paid EUR 320 per day worked, up to EUR 9 600 in total.

Travel and accommodation costs, if any, will be covered by the Mission.

How to Apply

Please apply online through this website (https://vacancies.osce.org) no later than 21 October 2021. Only applications received through this website will be considered; applications received by email, post etc. will not be accepted. 

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Candidates who have not been contacted by 1 December 2021 should consider there will be no follow up to their application.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise the vacancy, cancel the recruitment, offer a consultancy at a different level or with modified terms of reference or for a different duration.