Policy Specialist - Governance and Social Protection, Bangkok, Thailand
Closing date: Sunday, 16 March 2014
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Location :Bangkok, THAILAND
Application Deadline :16-Mar-14
Additional Category:Democratic Governance
Type of Contract :FTA Local
Post Level :NO-C
Languages Required :English
Starting Date :(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)01-May-2014
Duration of Initial Contract :1 year renewable subject to good performance and availability of funds
Background
UNDP's Strategic Plan 2014-2017 and the Asia Pacific Regional Programme 2014-2017 articulate the corporate requirement to bring timely and effective substantive and technical services to the country offices through strengthened practice architecture at the global, regional and country level. The Asia-Pacific Regional Centre (APRC) (located in Bangkok with a multidisciplinary office in Suva, Fiji) provides the 24 UNDP Country Offices in the region with reliable and easy access to quality advisory services and technical support based on UNDP's mandate to address poverty challenges, achievement of the MDGs and promotion of sustainable development. The APRC is organized around three main pillars (focus areas) corresponding to the main pillars of the UNDP global strategic plan. The APRC is headed by a Regional Manager, supported by three team leaders in charge of, respectively: I) Inclusive Growth, II) Inclusive and effective Governance and III) Resilience and Sustainable Development.
The work of the Inclusive Growth Team focuses on development policy and planning to address poverty and inequality; the MDGs and the Post2015 Agenda; the Poverty and Environment Initiative; social protection, inclusive and sustainable urbanization; and inclusive and green growth. The work of the Inclusive and Effective Governance focuses on supporting the establishment of responsive governance systems at national and sub-national levels, based on the rule of law, and the implementation of policies that are economically, environmentally, and socially inclusive and sustainable. It also stresses the importance of ensuring voice and accountability for women and excluded groups at all levels, including political participation, as well as access to justice. In line with its Regional Programme, the APRC, through a multidisciplinary task team, will respond the increasing demand for country support on extractive industries, particularly for ensuring that the national legal and policy frameworks, including royalties and tax regimes support the national poverty reduction strategy.
Reporting to both the Regional Team Leader for Inclusive Growth (50%) and the Regional Team Leader for Inclusive and Effective Governance (50%), through a matrix management arrangement, the Policy Specialist – Governance and Social Protection will contribute to the achievement of the Inclusive Growth outcome/s and the Inclusive and Effective Governance outcome of the Regional Programme. S/he will be working on issues related to the governance and post 2015 agenda, social policies and social protection, and governance for inclusion and equity. S/he will coordinate with the work of other practice and contribute to cross-practice task teams/development solution teams, including on governance of extractive industries and inclusive growth and social protection.
Duties and Responsibilities
1. Country office support
- Provide support to integrate the work on governance and inclusive growth at country level;
- Provide technical and advisory support to country offices on the governance of extractive industries and inclusive growth;
- Respond to country offices' demands for top quality policy advisory services and technical support for programme development and implementation in the area of social protection and social policies;
- Build strong relationships with clients, focus on impact and results for the client and respond to feedback and requests on a timely basis;
- Participate in integrated cross-practice missions, providing inputs on governance and inclusive growth as required.
- Contribute to the design of programmes related to social protection and local governance, and management of natural resources;
- Manage and lead the cross-practice task team on social protection and local governance;
- Implement the regional project on social protection and local governance;
- Assist the Practice Team Leaders to implement relevant parts of the regional programme, with particular focus on cross-practice initiatives and development solution teams, including effective application of results-based management (RBM) tools;
- Coordinate and cooperate with other regional initiatives, such as the Poverty and Environmental Initiative, indigenous people's rights, anti-corruption and access to justice, and others as relevant;
- Contributes to the work of cross-practice teams/development solutions teams, including on inclusive and sustainable urbanization and extractive industries and inclusive growth.
- Analyse and identify strategic partnerships and opportunities, in the context of interagency and intergovernmental processes relevant to her/his area of work, for visibility and advocacy purposes;
- Support knowledge management and contribute to the development of knowledge products in the area of social policy and social protection;
- Consolidate and synthesize best practices and lessons learned, particularly cross-practice development solutions, in the area of social policy and social protection;
- Work with external experts on policy research in the area of social policy and social protection, review and provide substantive feedback on research pieces;
- Conduct research and prepare short think pieces, papers, op-eds, articles, programme concept notes.
- Analyse and research donors' white papers, identify possible areas of cooperation with prospective donors, identify opportunities for initiation of new projects, and actively contribute to the overall office effort in resource mobilization;
- Identify strategic partnerships with country offices, regional cooperation institutions, donors, CSOs/NGOs, Think Tanks, UN agencies, the private sector and other regional actors, for collaboration in the areas of social policy and social protection;
- Build and support strategic partnerships with regional organizations, such as SAARC and ASEAN;
- Follow up on resource mobilization activities in coordination with country offices.
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP's values and ethical standards;
- Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
Knowledge Management and Learning
- Share knowledge and experience and contribute to UNDP key practice areas and actively works towards continuing personal learning and development;
- In-depth practical knowledge of interdisciplinary development issues with particular focus on social policies and social protection, governance for inclusion and equity and inclusive growth;
- Understanding of the MDGs, debate and discussion around the Post-2015 development agenda.
- Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
- Capacity to adapt policies, approaches and models to meet emerging needs;
- Ability to lead formulation and evaluation of development programmes;
- Ability to apply economic theory to the specific country context, carry out high-quality research;
- Ability to work with minimal supervision.
- Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback;
- Encourages risk-taking in the pursuit of creativity and innovation;
- Leads teams effectively and shows conflict resolution skills;
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
- Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
- Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors.
- Strong track records of the capacity to work in teams and collaboratively;
- Strong track records of the capacity to work hard and contribute substantively and equitably to the work of the team;
- Strong track records to listen to others and take other team members' views into consideration;
- Treats all members of a team equally and with respect, no matter their experience, level, gender, nationality and other;
- Promotes a harmonious work environment within the team and supports others when in need.
- Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
- Track records of capacity to use positive and empowering language, provide constructive comments and feedback to colleagues and team members;
- Strong track records to communicate constructively with other colleagues.
- Track records of the ability to manage conflicts and build constructive work relationships with team members and colleagues;
- Track records of the capacity to take feedback constructively and maturely.
- Strong track records of the capacity to acknowledge the contribution of all team members and give all team member credits for their contribution when put in a leadership position;
- Strong track records of the capacity of working independently with little supervision, delivering good quality work in a timely manner;
- Takes initiative on aspects of work that needs to be done or completed, even without the need of the request from the supervisor.
- Strong track records of ethical behavior.
Education:
- Master's degree in international relations, law, development studies, international development, economics, social policies or other relevant social sciences.
- At least five years of relevant work experience at the national and/or international level with at least two or more years on social policies, social protection, governance;
- Proven track record of country-level programming work and policy-oriented research/publications;
- Demonstrated understanding of development issues in Asia-Pacific, particularly in the area of: democratic governance, gender, inequalities and exclusion, social protection, and urbanization;
- Familiarity with the MDGs and multidimensional poverty;
- Asia-Pacific development issues;
- Experience with standard office software packages;
- Prior experience in the UN system and the Asia-Pacific region will be an advantage.
- Fluent in written and spoken English;
- Working knowledge of other Asia-Pacific languages is an asset.
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