Senior Technical Advisor

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.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response.  BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

UNDP's Sustainable Finance Hub

The Sustainable Finance Hub, a finance and innovation platform, draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to leverage and align resources for the SDGs and support the implementation of UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 . The Hub is an integral part of both the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), as well as part of the GPN. Through regional focal points, it supports sustainable finance work in UNDP’s Country Offices and works in close collaboration with the Regional Bureaus. The Hub serves as a connector, broker and global coordinator among internal and external actors; curates and manages UNDP’s catalogue of service offers on SDG financing to governments, investors and companies. The Hub has five interconnected service offers: 

1) Public finance for the SDGs; 

2) Unlockign private capital and aligning business operations for the SDGs;

3) SDG impact management and finance tracking;

4) Integrated National Financing Frameworks and Portfolios; and 5) SDG Finance Academy.

UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility

The collaboration between the insurance industry and the development sector has grown significantly over the last five years. Key initiatives, such as the Insurance Development Forum, InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, have evolved into significant policy and standard setting partnerships, bringing together countries, the development sector, and the private and mutual/cooperative sectors of industry. The Tripartite Agreement between the German Government, UNDP and Insurance Development Forum (and its private sector members) is a flagship example of such transformative partnerships. Increasingly, these partnerships are moving beyond policy to programming, with a strong focus on not only delivering insurance and risk financing solutions to countries and communities, but also on long-term transformational change of insurance markets.

UNDP’s growing work in this space has led to the creation of the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, within the Sustainable Finance Hub. This work covers a range of critical areas where insurance and risk transfer solutions and collaboration with the industry can add significantly to achieving and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Covering inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, insurance investments, natural capital, health, SME development and more, UNDP’s work will look to not only develop and deliver insurance solutions together with countries and communities, it will also look to work with partners to transform insurance markets, working on legislation, regulation and institutional capacity.

UNDP’s dedicated team working on insurance, risk and resilience financing, is now being enhanced with additional capacity to deliver on the promise and commitment at the core of this flagship initiative. 

Position Purpose

Under the overall supervision of the Special Advisor, Insurance and Risk Financing Facility (IRFF) the Senior Technical Advisor will be a team leader within the IRFF as the senior-most technical member of the team, providing strategic and technical leadership, and guide UNDP’s work on its five thematic workstreams: sovereign and sub-sovereign risk financing, inclusive insurance, integration into development, insurance natural capital, and insurance investment. 

The Senior Technical Advisor will provide senior level representation to develop and deliver technical insurance and risk solutions, in addition to supporting the coordination of the IRFF’s activities with the SFH service offers and flagship programmes and promoting cross-unit collaboration as part of the UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) to ensure integrated, holistic support to countries to tackle societal, economic, environmental and climate change-related challenges as a means to achieving the SDGs. 

The Senior Technical Advisor will manage a team of Regional and Technical Specialists to ensure high quality technical guidance and support is delivered in policy and project development, working closely with implementation partners, SFH regional focal points, UNDP country offices, but also other UN agencies, the insurance industry, governments and inter-governmental organizations, NGO’s, donors, etc. 

Key Duties and Accountabilities

Technical Leadership, Coordination and Coherence

• Lead the strategic development and oversight of IRFF activities in programme countries from design through implementation
• Provide representation across UNDP’s work in insurance and risk financing both internally within UNDP and externally with partners and other stakeholders, at a senior level. 
• Actively engage with key global forums relevant for the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, including the Insurance Development Forum and InsuResilience Global Partnership, as well as with key partners including the insurance industry and other stakeholders
• Actively connect these key global fora and partnerships with UNDP’s work at the country level and focus on translating global policy discussions into practical action.
• Support UNDP’s corporate work by providing strategic advice, advocacy support, and critical analysis and information on risk finance, to enhance UNDP’s overall positioning

Technical Policy Advice

• Provide technical leadership and support to all of UNDP’s work in insurance and risk finance, and support all work, global, regional or at a country level (where appropriate);
• Play a key role in developing the IRFF’s workplans at the country level; covering legislation, regulation and institutional capacity development, product development, integration into development, as well as advocacy and awareness raising for both government (national and sub-national) and partners;
• Ensure delivery of results and impacts through high quality strategic guidance and implementation support including technical support, monitoring, troubleshooting, evaluation, reporting, and dissemination of results and impacts
• Provide input on the development of regional and thematic training and education packages for key stakeholders including insurers, governments, and UNDP country offices, and support their rollout across critical countries, regions, and all UNDP country offices.
• Work across UNDP teams of the Global Policy Network to develop aligned programming in related areas such as adaptation, disaster risk reduction and public sector financing, and actively develop and implement work with UNDP teams in these areas, with a focus on joint delivery of work at the country level
• Lead UNDP’s development work across insurance and risk finance, from project identification, through technical specification, partnership collaboration and delivery.
• Ensure coordination and efficient support to planning, monitoring, and reporting  of programme, results through the appropriate tools; 
• Ensure monitoring of overall delivery and implementation status of projects through regular review of financial resources received, disbursed and expected or already available;
• Undertake exploratory and monitoring missions to the project location and address in timely manner obstacles and challenges identified in the implementation of the programme;
• Continuously review the status of the programme and provide strategic and policy advice to the relevant partners on required follow up and/or alternatives for corrective action.
• Contribute significantly to the development of strategic programmatic partnerships with both internal and external partners to advance the implementation of the IRFF’s projects and initiatives
• Proactively support the overall team’s fundraising efforts (as well as that identified with country offices and the team’s Regional Specialists) as required.

Effective quality programming and results-based management of IRFF projects across programme countries, including planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation

• Lead UNDP’s development work across Risk Finance, from project identification, through technical specification, partnership collaboration and delivery.
• Ensure coordination and efficient support to planning, monitoring, and reporting  of programme, results through the appropriate tools; 
• Ensure monitoring of overall delivery and implementation status of projects through regular review of financial resources received, disbursed and expected or already available;
• Undertake exploratory and monitoring missions to the project location and address in timely manner obstacles and challenges identified in the implementation of the programme;
• Continuously review the status of the programme and provide strategic and policy advice to the relevant partners on required follow up and/or alternatives for corrective action.
• Contribute significantly to the development of strategic programmatic partnerships with both internal and external partners to advance the implementation of the IRFF’s projects and initiatives 
• Proactively support the overall team’s fundraising efforts (as well as that identified with country offices and the team’s Regional Specialists) as required.

External Engagement, Knowledge Management, Advocacy, Research and Evidence

• Map out key internal and external stakeholders and work effectively to develop and maintain professional collaboration and partnerships ;
• Support the technical development of marketing, policy, learning and advocacy materials related to the team’s work, as well as in support of both the Sustainable Finance Hub and wider GPN.
• Support the development of the IRFF and its resource mobilization, from initiative identification and development, and through both documentation and in meetings/missions.
• Extract lessons learned to support programme improvement and feed into new policies and programming knowledge globally.
• Represent UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility across media, and actively contribute to its work through a strong social media presence supported by regular expert articles, as appropriate. 

Team Leadership and Management 

Act as the primary supervisor to the Regional and Technical Specialists in the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, and ensure that all specialists tasks are delivered on time, to the appropriate quality, and with the appropriate level of resources.

• Together with the Head of the IRFF,iIdentify areas of integration and synergies with other teams in the Sustainable Finance Hub and develop collaboration to  ensure that high quality technical guidance and support is delivered in policy and project development.

Requirements:

Education

• A Master’s degree in Economics, Finance, Insurance, Public Financial Management or other closely related area is required 

 Experience, Knowledge, and Skills

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience insurance and or risk financing for development (preferably at sovereign and sub-sovereign levels), especially in developing countries, ideally working with both the public (national or multilateral, including UN) and private sectors (academia, non-governmental sector, corporate), with an increasing level of responsibility is required;
• Experience in managing teams, inspiring and mentoring staff, facilitating their capacity development, and resolving conflicts is required;
• Experience in agricultural insurance, Takaful, gender, insuring natural capital, are an advantage 
• Experience in overseeing implementation of insurance and risk finance projects involving government, private sector, academia and/or intergovernmental stakeholders, in developing countries is highly desirable; 
• Experience in results-based and results-oriented project implementation and management is desirable; 
• Experience in developing and implementing technical assistance programmes for risk financing, including training and ongoing development support is an advantage;
• Experience in managing projects across issues of strategy, financing, administration and human resources is desirable;
• Experience in resource mobilization and building public-private partnerships in the field of insurance for development in an asset; 
• Working experience in UN or other international organization, and knowledge of UNDP policies, procedures and practices is an advantage.
• Excellent knowledge of the English Language , with good writing and communication skills a must
• Working proficiency in Spanish, French and or Arabic is an asset 

Expected Demonstration of Competencies

Core : 

• 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
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

People Management 

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site. 

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies 

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

Partnership management

Emerging Partners

• Ability to engage with emerging partners, develop and manage a strategy and develop approaches to developing and managing these new strategic partnerships

Business Direction and Strategy

Strategic Thinking

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions. 
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

Business Management

Risk Management

• Ability to identify and organi]e action around mitigating and proactively managing risks

Business Management

Results-based Management and Team Building

• Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results.

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
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

2030 Agenda: Partnerships

SDG Finance

• Insurance for development