GOVERNANCE TEAM LEADER/ADVISOR

 

Location : Sana'a, YEMEN

Application Deadline : 31-Jan-12

Type of Contract : FTA International

Post Level : P-5

Languages Required : English  

Duration of Initial Contract : One Year - Management Project Funded (MPF)

 

Background

 

The wave of demonstrations that has swept through Yemen since the beginning of 2011 brought to the surface the emergence of a nation-wide grass-roots movement demanding radical changes in the political, legal, and economic governance systems of the country and the formation of a more transparent, responsive, accountable, and inclusive government. As highlighted by the recent waves of protests and demonstrations, weak governance, including a lack of capable and effective state and non-state institutions, can be considered the single most important driver of conflict and political and socio-economic marginalization in Yemen.

 

As the implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Initiative has started, it is becoming increasingly clear that much of the support to the transition will fall within the area of Democratic Governance (DG). The GCC Initiative and Mechanism lay the foundation for several processes through two phases, a first phase which leads up to the swearing in of the President elected in the early Presidential Elections (21 February 2012), and a second phase over two years which follows the early Presidential Elections and ends after the swearing in of the new President elected according to the new constitution. 

  

Governance, justice and rule of law are the main components of the transition in Yemen. Thus, an assessment of the new governance requirements and landscape becomes a high priority for UNDP and the international community in light of the formation of a new national unity government, revision of the local governance and decentralization policies, constitutional reform, amongst others. In the short-term, and in close collaboration with other development partners, UNDP needs to be engaged in immediate governance reform discussions related to security, anti-corruption (e.g. asset recovery), and rule of law among others in view of identifying any initial support needs in the beginning of the transition period.

UNDP will provide support to debate and national dialogue on reforms to ensure that it is inclusive, representative and reflects the views and hopes of various political, social and economic groups, particularly young people and women. To this end, UNDP will implement a communication and engagement strategy and provide training and raising awareness for youth associations, women, political parties and CSOs.

 

Upon request by the new transitional authorities, the existing advisory support to government may be strengthened with an Advisory Team seconded to the Prime Minister’s office. The team will provide advisory services and engage the Government on major governance and economic reform initiatives including communication capacity, anti-corruption, security reform, human rights, etc.

In addition, considering the anticipated increase in support to Democratic Governance, coordination of efforts becomes essential. Funds, activities, projects and efforts, as well as the number of stakeholders and partners, are expected to increase significantly, and in order to enhance development effectiveness and avoid duplication, the re-initiation of a Democratic Governance Cluster, with the participation of relevant national authorities and development partners, becomes critical. Such a Cluster will build on previous efforts by development partners, DfID and the EU, in particular, and help develop synergies, effective divisions of labour and strategic partnerships to support the transition in Yemen. UNDP will provide the Secretariat for the DG Cluster to ensure its regular functioning.

  

Within this support effort, UNDP Yemen looks to hire a Governance Team Leader/Advisor. The Governance Team Leader/Advisor will lead the UNDP Governance Team to ensure adequate UNDP support to a broad governance reform agenda in accordance with the GCC Peace Initiative, UNDP Transitional Plan and the national transitional plan to be developed by the new Government. In particular, the Governance Team Leader/Advisor will lead the assessment of the new governance requirements and landscape; support a governance programming mission to design a comprehensive governance programme based on the CPD analysis and responding to new opportunities; contribute to designing UNDP programme of support to the national dialogue on governance reform, including communication and public advocacy efforts; organize provision of secretarial support to the Democratic Governance Cluster.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

 

Summary of key functions:
 

• Conduct an Institutional capacity analysis and advise UNDP on the focus of its Governance portfolio in the transition period of 2 years in accordance with the GCC Mechanism and beyond;

• Organize the Governance Cluster as a forum where the UN system,  development partners and national counterparts can engage in substantive exchanges on governance priorities and approaches, and coordinate modalities;

• Advise UNDP on how to best support the national dialogue on governance reform.

Managing the Governance programme portfolio and supervising the Governance team:

• Thorough continuing analysis of the political, social and economic developments in Yemen to ensure that the UNDP Governance programme portfolio responds to the emerging challenges while remaining strategically aligned with UNDAF, CPD, CPAP, the UN Stabilization Framework and the UNDP Transitional Plan;

• Ensure effective management of the Country Office (CO) programme and supervision of the programme team focusing on the quality control of the fully cycle of programming from formulation to implementation;

• Establish and maintain strategic partnerships with the UN Agencies, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral organizations and other partners;

• Analysis and research of information on donors, identification of possible areas for cooperation and opportunities for cost-sharing;

• Provide top-quality advisory services to the UNDP senior management and facilitate knowledge building and management.

Designing a comprehensive governance programme and programmatic interventions in support of the transition process:

• Help conduct an assessment of the new governance requirements and landscape to provide context and advice for UNDP programmatic interventions;

• Liaising with the other UNDP units, support the UNDP governance programming mission to design a comprehensive governance programme based on the CPD analysis and responding to new opportunities, including potentially local governance, justice sector, transitional justice, security reforms, public administration, human rights, gender equality, anti-corruption and transparency;

• Develop proposals for and support the functioning of a high-level embedded technical advisory team to engage the Government on major governance and economic reform initiatives including communication capacity, anti-corruption, security reform, human rights etc.

Supporting the national dialogue on governance reform:

• Design a programme of UNDP support to discussions and national dialogue on reforms to ensure that the processes are inclusive, representative and reflect the views and hopes of various political, social and economic groups, particularly young people and women;

• Design and help conduct public awareness and advocacy campaigns, round tables and other discussion fora in the context of a national dialogue on governance reforms; 

• Develop and support implementation of a communication and engagement strategy and provide technical advice on training and raising awareness among youth associations, women, political parties and CSOs.

Providing support to the Democratic Governance Cluster:

• Provide analytical briefs and background materials for regular consultations and discussions on the democratic governance issues in Yemen as requested by the DG Cluster;

• Contribute to the establishment of robust and efficient mutual monitoring and accountability mechanisms with Government of Yemen (GoY) and amongst development partners for their engagement within the governance sector;

• Contribute to identifying and disseminating good practice in operational approaches/practices in donor support  with demonstrable, measurable and effective impact (e.g. studies; reviews: M&E exercises; advocacy);

• Support and participate in coordinated and/or joint fact-finding missions, field reviews and/or evaluation missions among GoY and DPs;

• Oversee provision of secretariat services to the DG Cluster, including preparation of meetings.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards;

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

• Ability to work in a team, also across the UN agencies;

• Ability to structure a task in terms of the analytic/investigative process and to produce a well-structured output;

• Demonstrates expert knowledge of governance issues in post-conflict and transitional societies;

• Strong management skills and an ability to lead multi-cultural inter-disciplinary team;

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills;

• Effectively builds and maintains strategic networks and partnerships;

• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;

• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;

• Ability to lead the formulation and implementation of projects;

• Good understanding of UNDP programming modalities.

 

 

Required Skills and Experience

 

Education:

• Masters in a relevant discipline, such as Master’s degree in Economics, Sociology, Public Policy, Political Science, Law or other social sciences. 

 

Experience:

• At least 10 years of proven relevant work experience, with a minimum of 5  years of experience in governance programming, management, monitoring and evaluation at the national and/or international level; 

• Experience in crisis and post-crisis countries in recommended

• Strong technical knowledge of the field of governance and public administration, particularly in governance reform in post-conflict and transitional societies, including elections, constitutional reform, justice and rule of law;

• Experience in planning processes, such as UNDAF, PCNA, PRSP, etc. and UNDP analytical frameworks;

• Experience in multi-stakeholder analysis and engagement.

 

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English;

• Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.

 

 

 

 

Application Process 

 

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