Partnerships Development Specialist

UNGP is the Secretary General’s Innovation Lab, and is mandated to advance UN agendas under 3 objectives:

(1) Advance digital innovations for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and crisis response.

(2) Facilitate development of global frameworks for digital innovation to minimize risks.

(3) Support the transformation of the UN into a ‘next-generation’ institution.

UNGP has launched a new strategy and complementary partnerships approach to achieve the above and to meet our objectives we require an ecosystem of partners. Our new partnership approach aims to push the boundaries and way the UN does partnerships. In particular, we aim to foster an ecosystem enabling partnerships for innovation.

To achieve its goals, UNGP is recruiting a Partnerships Development Specialist to support the efficient and effective execution of partnerships in the form of projects, programmes, strategic engagements and other. The position will support operationalizing partnerships across all network programmes, projects and capabilities across our offices (Jakarta, Kampala, Helsinki). The Partnerships Development Specialist will support both internal UN partners and external partners, and work across UNGP Regional Hubs.

The Partnerships Development Specialist will provide advice on different forms of legal partnership agreements including amongst others, 1:1 partnerships, multi stakeholder partnerships, pro bono partnerships, partnerships between UN agencies, and partnerships with a diverse set of non UN actors including with the public, private and civil society sector. They will engage as needed with other legal offices in the UN such as UNOPS and OLA.

The Partnerships Development Specialist will also support innovative resource mobilization efforts across the network and regional hubs. They should be highly flexible, adaptable to change and able to work in a fast paced environment with a high level of uncertainty.

The position supports the work of UN Global Pulse under the supervision of the Partnerships Specialist and will be responsible for the following:

• Support UNGP projects with contracts as needed to ensure their success.
• Liaise with the Executive Office and Multi Partner Trust Fund of UNGP, and other legal teams as needed, to execute partnership agreements. Identify bottlenecks and suggest ways to address them as needed.
• Manage internal pipeline discussions on legal partnerships agreements, keep record of all partnership agreements at network level, follow up with teams as needed on changing priorities.
• Provide advice across the UNGP network on the execution of partnerships, including by assisting in the negotiation of partnerships with external partners and developing partnership agreements, with support from relevant legal teams at UNOPS and other UN entities when needed.
• Support the accountability of partnerships, including through early risk assessment and formal due diligence processes. Keep track of the execution of partnership agreements through monitoring, evaluation and learning.

• Support regional hubs and the UNGP network to develop resource mobilization plans.
• Strengthen relations with existing donors and diversify the donor base by developing targeted outreach and engagement strategies matching donors´ interests with UNGP fundraising priorities.
• Leverage funding opportunities within the UN system by proactively identifying UN administered funds and other sources that could be accessed by UNGP.
• Explore and pilot new and innovative approaches to resource mobilization, such as crowdfunding, philanthropy and innovative finance tools amongst others.
• Support strategic engagement with private sector partners aimed at achieving higher levels of corporate giving and other in-kind contributions- focusing on core funding rather than project based funding.
• Organize and participate in targeted events for resource mobilization purposes, and represent UNGP effectively.
• Support collection of relative data on financial contributions, in kind contributions, and other metrics from project teams in coordination with other global services.

Partnership brokering:

• Support the network with new and existing partners and partnerships throughout the partnership cycle; from Scoping & Building → Managing & maintaining → Reviewing & revising → Sustaining outcomes of partnerships.
• Build active collaboration between UNGP members, its partners and other stakeholders, including donors. Represent UNGP as needed in applicable forums and support other colleagues in the network to represent UNGP effectively.
• Encourage and be a role model for good partnering behavior in the network that will help the partnership to function effectively and creatively, while protecting the vision and core principles of value based, innovative partnerships.
• Provide partnership brokering services to the UN family and ecosystem to support the UN 2.0 agenda and transformation.

3. Monitoring and Progress Controls

The Partnerships Development Specialist will meet with the Partnerships Specialist to outline ongoing deliverables, and ensure that projects and engagements have realistic deadlines and workflows. In coordination with the Partnerships Specialist, they will outline long term areas of work as well as support immediate network operational priorities.

The Partnerships Development Specialist is expected to exercise flexibility in the consultancy assignment regarding the potential of dynamically changing delivery requirements. Even though the duty station is indicated as Multiple (New York, Helsinki) consideration may be given to allow the position to be home-based, depending on the incumbent's personal situation. For home-based positions, a location-specific fee scale is applied in determining the contractor's fee. The position may require international travel.