Programme Specialist (Special Advisor to the Minister of the State Administration) (NPSA11)

The Constitution of Timor-Leste envisages that the State will be territorially organized in a decentralized manner and the local units will have a status of corporate bodies vested with representative organs and their organization, competence, functioning and composition of the organs will be defined by law. In this line, since the independence of the country, administrative decentralization has been considered a useful tool to promote national identity, territorial cohesion, and socio-economic development.

An initial policy towards administrative decentralization was laid out in early 2006. However, the process could not take momentum due to several political and administrative reasons. Nearly ten years ago, a new impulse to this process was given with the new administrative division of the country followed by the Implementation Strategy of the Administrative Decentralization and the Setting up of the Representative Bodies of the Local Power in Timor-Leste which envisages a gradual but progressive decentralization. Recently, the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to decentralization through Government Resolution n.º 45/2020 (Implementation of Administrative Decentralization Strategy and Installation of Representative Organs of Local Government) and aims at developing and approving the necessary legal framework for the implementation of the decentralization process and preparing for the municipal elections in 2022.

In order to meet its commitment and building on the past experiences, the Government of Timor-Leste has been working on revising the legal framework on decentralization. The Ministry of State Administration (MSA), as the nodal agency on decentralization, has been leading this exercise. To support the Government in general and the MSA in particular in their decentralization endeavor, UNDP Timor-Leste has been partnering with the Ministry. Earlier in 2020, UNDP Timor-Leste launched the project “Strengthening Integral Local Development by Building the Capacities of the Municipal Authorities in Timor-Leste”, in partnership with the European Union.

Building on its long-standing experience in supporting decentralization in Timor-Leste and other countries, UNDP will support the Ministry to enhance its capacities to strengthen the legal, policy and institutional framework for administrative decentralization. In this regard, UNDP will support the MSA’s efforts to identify gaps, harmonize legal, policy and institutional framework, including amendment of the existing laws, and build capacities of the local authorities. UNDP is going to hire a team of national and international advisors to provide the technical assistance to the MSA on this matter. This Terms of Reference (ToR) describes duties and responsibilities, competencies, qualifications of  Special Advisor to the Ministry of State Administration.

• Fixed-term employment contracts (Tetum and Portuguese and/or English);
• Contracts and contractual renewals of political appointment employees of the Minister’s Office on a regular basis;
• Technical-administrative opinions, as requested;
• Circulars of any aspect or administrative nature;
• Services Orders of any aspect or administrative nature;
• Speeches in Tetum, Portuguese, English (and Indonesian);
• Press releases (usually in (English version);
• Ministerial Orders at the level of public administration and/or relating to the civil service
• Dispatches of nomination (appointments) signed by the Minister of State Administration
• Memoranda of Understanding (according to higher request);
• Official letters in Portuguese, Tetum and English (and Indonesian);
• Corrections/edits made to documents, depending on requirements and/or conveniences.

Carry out research on social and historical matters, if they are requested by the supervisor, in search of up-to-date, correct and situational information for the preparation of speeches or documentary narrations. 

Professional translator for official, academic and administrative matters from Portuguese-Tetum-Portuguese; from Portuguese-English-Portuguese; from Portuguese-Indonesian-Portuguese (according to convenience); and from English-Tetum-English

Provision of advice for technical-administrative analysis, including legal advice for issuing opinions within the context of the Civil Service, as requested by supervisors.

Provision of technical and administrative advice, as requested, to the Services of the General and National Directorates of:

• Administrative Decentralization;
• Human Resources Services and Local Administration Services;
• Technical Secretariat of the Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento dos Sucos/ ST-PNDS and other service bodies integrated in the General Directorate of Administration and Finance and the General Directorate for Rural Development, including ANTL and STAE;

Revelation of linguistic understanding, promoting the use of the Portuguese Official Language and the official development of the Tetum Language, obeying the universal criteria of good grammar, without underestimating the standard of the Tetum language, now under development, among the civil servants of the MAE, and in particular those working in the Office of the Minister of State Administration.

Assist the respective Chief of Staff and the Minister’s Executive Secretary in the preparation of official documents in Tetum, Portuguese or English.

Perform as necessary and at the request of the Minister the services that involve electronic correspondence, namely replying and notifying via emails to the relevant entities or institutions, within the scope of the assigned task.

Administratively assist the Senior Secretary of the Minister of State Administration, in accordance with the requirements, in emerging moments.

Periodically submit the report to the Minister of State Administration for the attention of the Head of the Minister’s Office.

Verification of performance indicators with the competent directors of the State Administration that are synchronized with the cost or expenses incurred in the execution of the 2022 State Budget in each service organization and reporting the result to the Minister of State Administration accordingly. Provide ideas and opinions or suggestion to improve the management of activities of the State Administration service bodies in the context of carrying out and implementing the performance indicators referred to herein.

Provide assistance related to its area of responsibility and perform other services of similar nature, assigned by superiors.

• 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 Development:

• Collective Intelligence Design: Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions

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
• Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.

Digital & Innovation:

• Behavioural insights: Being able to define specific behavioural goals (what to change), explore and understand barriers and contextual factors to desired behaviours, use principles from behavioural science to generate ideas for nudges and interventions, use experimental methods to improve ideas (prototyping) or evaluate impact (trials). Use these results to develop a scaling strategy
• Developmental evaluation : Being able to carry out evaluation thinking in complex systems and adapting evaluation strategies to changing realities.

Communications:

• Creative direction and copywriting: Ability to creatively communicate concepts in an engaging and simple way

Partnership management:

• Relationship management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding

• Master’s degree or higher in Public Administration, Political Science, Human Resources or related fields or
• Bachelor’s degree in the relevant field with an additional two (2) years of relevant experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the Master’s degree

• Minimum seven years with Master’s degree  or nine years  with Bachelor’s degree and of working experience in local governance and related field
• Previous working experience in any UN agencies, central government or government institutions
• Proven technical and administrative experience in Administrative Decentralization, Human Resources Services and Local Administration Services
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Experience is official document translations
• Good knowledge in high-profile administration and protocols.
• Excellent speech and report writing skills
• Interpretation skill, multi-linguistic is desirable
• Experience in providing technical administrative analysis, and legal advice in the context of Civil Service is desirable