Programme Specialist on Rule of Law, Security, and Human Rights- NPSA 10

Jordan

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
Location: Jordan
Grade: Level not specified - Level not specified
Occupational Groups:
- Legal - Broad
- Legal - International Law
- Human Rights
- Democratic Governance
- Security and Safety
- Project and Programme Management
Closing Date: Closed

Background

UNDP 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 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.

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.

The Sustainable Development Goals provide the framing for UNDP’s development efforts across the globe. Through its Regional Hub for Arab States, UNDP provides technical assistance, programming and policy advice to country offices in 17 Arab countries, with an 18th office located in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Regional Hub in Amman, including through its Governance and Peacebuilding Team, provides assistance to the needs and priorities of these country offices and to regional initiatives to deliver and ensure quality programming. UNDP’s history of engagement in the region to promote rule of law, justice, security and human rights (RoLSHR) varies widely across a number of sub-thematic areas, from e-justice to gender and environmental justice, development of constitutional capacities in the region, support to national human rights institutions and the promotion of business and human rights, for example. In addition to providing proactive and responsive technical and other support to country offices in the region, the RoLSHR Unit contributes to a range of global policy initiatives through the GPN.

The Arab States region continues to witness major conflicts and fragilities driven by multiple and intersecting root causes, such as social contracts that do not respond to aspirations, approaches to policing that continue to require oversight and people-centered approaches, unlawful human rights restrictions, and recently, the intersecting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with more visible and exacerbated inequalities generally.

Part of the Crisis Bureau, the Rule of Law, Justice, Security and Human Rights (ROLSHR) team is responsible for practice and policy development in the areas of rule of law, justice, security, and human rights as they relate to crisis prevention, response and recovery in conflict and disaster settings through the implementation of the Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Justice and Security for Sustainable Peace and Development, Phase IV (the Global Programme). The Global Programme is widely recognized for its ability to mobilize funds, provide technical and strategic expertise, and collaborate and coordinate across UN entities to enable more holistic, coherent and comprehensive responses to rule of law, justice, security and human rights challenges. It provides tailored, context-specific technical, financial and strategic support to contexts across the development spectrum.

The RoLSHR Specialist will contribute to the regional RoLSHR community of practice, support work on e-justice and other regional areas of work, provide accompaniment and analysis to support a range of technical and other country office work and provide feedback and inputs into global policy and guidance on RoLSHR as required. Experience in programming within fragile or conflict affected contexts, and in applying gender and conflict sensitive approaches will be required. He/she will be expected to support the positioning of the Regional Hub in Amman to respond to regional and country office developments as proactively as possible. This will likely require an openness to learning and investing in new areas of work from an individual, professional perspective.

Duties and Responsibilities

A primary objective of the assignment is to substantively contribute to the regional implementation of the Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law, Human Rights, Justice and Security for Sustainable Peace and Development.

The individual recruited will contribute to the Regional RoLSHR Unit as described below.

Country-Office Support: Provide rule of law, justice, security and human rights advice, support and expertise to country offices in the region. Perform substantive analysis, research and writing to feed into programming.

Build relationships with RoLSHR focal points in country offices assigned to cover.
Develop and contribute to analytical products in support of country projects, programmatic frameworks and portfolio approaches promoting the RoLSHR.
Participate in field missions and events assisting country offices in their research and analytical programming actions.
Support the development of portfolio approaches on RoLSHR at the country level.

Regional Programming: Support conceptualization, development and implementation of expanded regional initiatives on rule of law, justice, security and human rights issues, with e-justice being one priority area. At least one other regional thematic area will be assigned to the individual depending on both Regional Hub needs and their areas of experience in RoLSHR.

Develop concept notes, project documents and coordinate with country offices and organize events as required on different topics as needed.
Contribute to the formulation of technical initiatives warranting collaboration with HQ and regional teams to research, develop and share programming tools, and other research-based products to influence and advance UNDP’s ability to delivery high-quality technical support to the justice and rule of law areas including through support to the Justice Futures CoLab.
On e-justice, provide critical perspectives and strategic planning in response to the growing interest and demand from country offices in the region. Going beyond the Arab States Region and working in close coordination with the regional Digital Transformation Team, other Regional Hubs and the Global ROLSHR Team through the GPN, support country offices around the world as needed on e-justice. Channel the experiences and knowledge gained from wider country office support on e-justice to promote south-to-exchange, both within the region and beyond for sharing of good practices and the promotion of collaboration with other Regional Hubs around learning and the further development of UNDP e-justice expertise.

Knowledge Sharing, Communications, and Community of Practice Networking: Coordinate, develop communications material and organize events in order to promote knowledge sharing and a greater understanding of UNDP’s work on RoL across the region.

Suggest and organize knowledge-sharing events, forums, and conferences for the region promoting peer-to-peer exchange and identification of good practices among country offices and/or regional partners
Contribute to the continuous analysis, documentation, codification of national and regional experiences/lessons learned and the development of replicable tools from applied initiatives.
Review regional data, case evidence and research findings to distill pivotal lessons for UNDP regionally and globally, and feed into new data initiatives within the Crisis Bureau and UNDP.
In coordination with global and regional communications focal points, support the design of regional communications, advocacy and promotional campaigns that promote human rights, anti-discrimination and people-centered approaches to justice and security.
Develop regional fact sheets in support of the new programming areas and initiatives as needed.
Share regional context analysis for various thematic reports, policy papers, concept notes and other research-based knowledge/programming products.
Identify and advance knowledge-based research and policy initiatives to further position UNDP as a global thought leader in the areas of justice and rule of law.
Further develop and strengthen linkages with the RoLSHR community of practice, both inside and outside of the UN system.

Institutional Arrangement

The Programme Specialist will work remotely with the Amman Regional Hub, under the overall guidance of the Governance and Peacebuilding Team Leader and the direct supervision of the RoLSHR Programme Specialist and as an integral member of the ARH Governance and Peacebuilding Team and the Global RoLSHR. S/he will work with various sub-thematic area leads across the GPN to draw relevant expertise and will coordinate and collaborate with other Teams in the Regional Hub and RBAS more widely on relevant initiatives.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results:

LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have a lasting impact

Think Innovatively:

LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, and 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

Thematic Area	Name	Definition
2030 Agenda	Sustainable Development Goals	Knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations.
Rule of Law	Rule of Law, Justice, and Security	Knowledge of rule of law, justice and security concepts and principles and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations
Rule of Law	Human Rights	Knowledge of international human rights legal standards and principles and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations
Knowledge	Knowledge Management	Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge.
Partnerships	Collaboration & Partnership Development	Ability to develop, maintain, and strengthen partnerships with others inside (Programmes/projects) or outside the organization who can provide information, assistance, and support on substantive work and coordination on ROLSHR.
Business management	Communication	Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience
Business management	Monitoring	Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Academic Education	A Master's degree, preferably in law, human rights, international development, or a related field, or else compensating experience in rule of law, security and/or human rights. A professional law degree is preferred.
Min. years of relevant work experience	Minimum of 5 years of full-time work experience in implementation of the programmes/projects in the areas of the rule of law, justice, security, and/or human rights.
Required skills	Experience in either implementing ROLSHR programming and/or researching, analyzing, developing, and preparing reports, concept notes and programming documents on rule of law, justice and/or human rights; ROLSHR experience with UN agencies in particular, with strong preference for UNDP on crisis contexts. Experience with the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP) and UN-wide coordination on ROLSHR. Experience with the policy and/or practice of e-justice, in addition to a broad range of experience working across rule of law, justice, security and/or human rights. Experience organizing events both online and offline, including planning, logistics and subsequent reporting and with stakeholder engagement of (e.g. government, businesses, civil society);
Desired additional skills	Knowledge and understanding of political context in the Arab States Region and implications for rule of law programming is preferred. Gender expertise for gender mainstreaming efforts and gender-specific programming is preferred. Experience related to business and human rights, gender justice, national human rights institutions, constitution-making and/or corrections from a criminal justice perspective and other areas relevant to the regional portfolio.
Required Language(s) (at working level)	Proficiency in written and spoken English. Oral and written knowledge of either Arabic or French is required.
Professional Certificates	N/A

Disclaimer

Important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders)

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