I.     Background and Organizational Context
UNDP/UNCDF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
UNDP/UNCDF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN's capital investment agency for the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs).  With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers ‘last mile’ finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

The UNCDF strategy of ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ is based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The goal of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use digital services, which improve their quality of life and accelerate our progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs). To achieve this, UNCDF uses a market development approach and continuously seeks to address underlying market dysfunctions that exclude people from benefiting from the myriad of technologies that can meaningfully improve people’s quality of life.

The team working under the Inclusive Digital Economies (IDE) practice area at UNCDF is composed of specialists in technologies that help us reach the sustainable development goals (e.g. edtech, fintech, agtech, healthtech) as well as policy, management, communications, financial and operations professionals. The latter support the technical specialists to implement projects that build digital economies that benefit marginalized communities.

One example of an IDE programme is a recent partnership with European Union and the Organization of Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS). This initiative of €14.5 million builds projects to unlock the potential of digital finance to benefit more than 600,000 women, youth and entrepreneurs across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. As part of that programme UNCDF is supporting key policy reforms for digital transformation and the creation inclusive financial services tailored to the needs of women and youth in the four regions.

For further detail on UNCDF strategy, refer to; https://www.uncdf.org/article/4931/global-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-in-the-digital-era.

Position Context: The IDE practice at UNCDF has recently realigned itself from a project-based structure to a geographical one.  It is based on country programmes, which are supported by regional and global specialists and managers.  The IDE practice has operations in over 25 countries and is in the process of establishing four (4) regional hubs in Asia (Bangkok, Thailand), West and Central Africa (Dakar, Senegal), East and Southern Africa (Kampala, Uganda) and the Pacific (Suva, Fiji).  Each of these hubs will support the countries operating in their regions and lead the expansion of IDE programming into other strategic LDCs in the respective region.

II.     Position Purpose

In East and Southern Africa, the IDE practice manages six (6) country programmes in: Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.  At the end of 2020, the IDE practice began to build a regional hub in Kampala with the hiring of a Regional Manager.  This position will be the second hire for the regional hub and their primary duties will be to manage partnership strategies, contracts, budgets, and procurement for the IDE team in the region.  Subsequently they will:

  1. Provide strategic advice to the regional and country teams on operational and financial procedures to support programming, human resources and resource mobilization.  This involves developing systems, templates, and processes for the region.
  2. Assist in crafting and monitoring regional and country budgets, giving strategic advice on delivery and resource mobilization.
  3. Support, mentor and train operations analysts on country teams.
  4. Act as programme support to countries when the operations analyst is traveling, on leave or when the position is vacant.
  5. Increasingly support operations for the regional hub as it develops projects and activities.

In this new context, the Programme Management Analyst, P-2 will have the responsibility for the programme management support for the full operationalization of Inclusive Digital Economies Strategy in ESA, with the aim of streamlining program support processes and improving internal controls & quality assurance. 

 Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director of the IDE Practice Area and the direct supervision of the Regional Hub Manager, the Programme Management Analyst is responsible for promoting a collaborative, client-oriented approach, in compliance with UNDP/UNCDF Programme & Operations policies & procedures. 

This position is based in Kampala, Uganda as part of East and Southern Africa IDE Strategy Support Unit (SSU).

III.     Duties and Responsibilities

In this section list up to five primary functions/accountabilities of the position (Typically one sentence each) and examples of duties that must be performed to successfully accomplish key responsibilities.

1.)     Ensures Support to the implementation & management of the “Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era” global, regional and country programme management strategies, adapts processes and procedures:

  • Programme support to technical staff for the full programme-cycle for implementation of the digital strategy, including quality assurance of performance-based agreements primarily with private sector partners to promote market development (grants, technical assistance, concessional loans and guarantees);
  • Full compliance with UNCDF/UNDP rules, regulations, and policies of programme activities, closely coordinating with Chief MSU on practice-wide compliance 
  • Ensure implementation of internal controls, in full operationalization of the Digital Strategy at regional and country levels.
  • Provide technical advice on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support programme planning, resource management, quality assurance, risk and management,
  • Programme financial resources management through planning, guiding, analysis and monitoring of the resources; preparation and monitoring of development project budgets; identification of operational and financial problems, and proposal of solutions.
  • Develop and maintain control mechanisms for all programme activities. Including business processes mapping and establishment of internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
  • Support IDE´s thematic portfolio teams in the design and formulation of programme/ project initiatives.
  • Reviews and provide feedback to project/ programme strategies and documents, workplans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications, as needed.

2.)     Facilitates programme planning across the ESA regional and country programme teams of the Digital Strategy:

  • Reporting of project achievements, disbursement delivery and other areas of accountability;
  • Work closely with the Country Technical specialists and respective regional Digital Hub Managers to manage the country budget revisions, reporting and analysis;
  • Working closely with the Management Support Unit (MSU) of UNCDF and the Digital Programme Manager, ensure UNCDF/IDE has available a complete range of human resource tools (staff, consultants, consulting firms) so that a range of flexible tools are available to support implementation of the digital strategy.

3.)     Support resource mobilization and donors reporting requirements for the Digital Strategy including narrative and financial reporting:

  • Review draft proposals prior to submission to funders to ensure budgets are aligned to maintaining our regional and country technical infrastructure; cost recovery principles and costs of delivering on proposed results, working together with Regional/Country Technical Specialists;
  • Planning, elaboration & follow-up of a reporting strategy, based on donors’ agreements, corporate requirements for reporting schedules for both programmes and projects;
  • Drafting and finalization of donors’ narrative reports including progress, annual and ad-hoc ones focusing n highlighting progress of targets against agreed upon indicators; analyzing impact, reflecting on lessons learned and operational challenges;
  • Review financial reports as per donors’ agreements, in collaboration with PPC & PMSU colleagues.

4.)     Knowledge building and knowledge sharing with all IDE stakeholders on programme management

  • Work closely with UNCDF Management Support Unit, contributing to UNCDF’s Operations Manual based on lessons learned and evolving programming practices;
  • Contribute to the centralization of information management across the global Digital Strategy portfolio (Including archiving, configuration management, version control);
  • Actively participate to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
  • Organize and conduct - trainings on relevant programme management areas aimed at building the capacity of field teams;
  • Promote transparency and information sharing with all relevant stakeholders and
  • Review financial reports as per donors’ agreements, in collaboration with PPC & PMSU colleagues.

The key result expected is the support of UNCDF IDE programming in the ESA region so that IDE can streamline the programming processes (planning, resource management, quality assurance, risk management, implementation, monitoring and progress reporting) of the different initiatives born out of the “Leaving no-one behind in the digital era” strategy.  More specifically this approach will enable UNCDF IDE to:

  • Provide consistent programme management support services in a client oriented and flexible way, that can easily adjust to donor cycles, provide support to all Digital portfolio and large global undertakings.
  • Allow different programmes to cost share programme infrastructure and activities.
  • Provide a comparative benchmark and improve UNCDF IDE´s accuracy in estimating and managing the financial resources of the individual programmes.
  • Professionalize programme and portfolio management for all the IDE countries in ESA including to streamline programme management, providing a common methodology for activity planning (namely grants, technical assistance, loans, guarantee letters and others).
  • Maintain a common and consistent quality standard for all IDE project activities in the region.
IV.     Expected Demonstration of Competencies

Core

Achieve Results:

  • LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.

Think Innovatively:

  • LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously

  • LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.

Adapt with Agility

  • LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.           

Act with Determination

  • LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.

Engage and Partner

  • LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

  • LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area - Name - Definition

Finance - Financial planning and budgeting:

  • Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP's long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analysing and reporting

Procurement - Contract Management:

Knowledge of contract management concepts, principles and methods, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations

Digital & Innovation - Digital business analysis:

Ability to support digital business processes across a range of digital projects, programmes and activities

Information Management & Technology

Information and Technology Strategy - Portfolio management and governance: Knowledge of developing and implementing ICT strategy, portfolio and project management services, governance, and policies. Knowledge of project management principle. PMP or PRINCE2 certification of equivalent desirable.

Business Management - Communication:

  • Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication.

Keywords

  • Programme management.
  • Financial resources management.
  • Administration.
V.     Required Skills and Experience
Education:
  • Master’s Degree or equivalent in Business Administration, Public Administration, Law, Finance, Economics or related field.
Experience, Knowledge, and Skills:
  • A minimum of two (2) years’ experience in the field of programme management, project management and/or operations or related fields.
  • A minimum of one (1) year working in the UN system in finance, operations or project management.
  • Demonstrable project management, budget/financial management and coordination skills.
  • Work experience in Least Developed Countries LDCs is preferred.
  • Experience in compliance & quality assurance is preferred.
  • Experience supporting market development programmes with a technology and/or private sector focus is preferred.
  • Previous experience /familiarity with results monitoring and reporting is preferred.
  • English Fluency, both oral and written is required and French is highly desirable.
Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.
Disclaimer
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UNDP/UNCDF is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
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