Chief Intergovernmental Inter-agency & Policy Dialogue Branch

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

The primary roles of the Chief IIPDB are:

• Lead, manage and empower the Branch, expanding its capacity to respond to evolving client priorities, enhance the policy dialogue and support national and regional managers;
• Lead and coordinate efforts for positioning UNFPA’s mandate in multilateral and inter-agency processes, including providing strategic advisory services for executive decision making;
• Broaden the support base for the ICPD agenda and UNFPA mandate, including nurturing intergovernmental and inter-agency and forging new alliances;
• Coordinate efforts for leveraging evidence and data and multi-disciplinary perspectives for the development of strategy, policy guidance and decision making;
• Lead and coordinate UNFPA’s participation in intergovernmental and inter-agency processes, and provide appropriate corporate guidelines;
• Lead and coordinate technical support for the national implementation of outcomes and resolutions of multilateral and interagency instruments and linkages with programmes;
• Coordinate the development and formulation of institutional positions and corporate approach to engagements, including cross-organizational inputs to high-level processes, and with UN entities on UN Reform, other UNDS developments and multilateral processes.

Responsibilities:

Normative Positioning:

• Lead institutional efforts and advisory that successfully position UNFPA’s mandate and ICPD Agenda in intergovernmental processes, and other high-level UN inter-agency mechanisms, including ensuring global frameworks and international intergovernmental instruments reflect the ICPD-related norms and terminology;
• Coordinate the provision of policy guidance for positioning UNFPA on specific strategic and substantive issues, including with UN member states, UN Agencies and partner institutions, CSOs, youth networks and international partners, regarding processes related to the 2030 Agenda at national and regional levels;
• Provide constructive, substantive and effective advisory services to intergovernmental and interagency processes to move the needle on global standards and norms in the context of the 2030 agenda.

Intergovernmental and Inter-Agency Partnership Building :

• Advance the policy dialogue on global standards and norms with Permanent Missions, CSOs and policymakers in UNDS, to ensure international intergovernmental and interagency instruments reflect ICPD-related norms and terminology;
• Lead, coordinate and manage technical support efforts to the Member States and other stakeholders to enrich and facilitate negotiations, dialogue and debate on a continuous basis;
• Forge new alliances, create partnerships and assure strategic collaborations with the Member States and other stakeholders and UN agencies and counterparts for positioning UNFPA’s mandate in intergovernmental and UNDS processes;
• Oversee the annual UN Population Award event and processes.

Political Trends Analysis :

• Empower a team of partnership and policy experts to leverage compelling and relevant evidence, trusted data, multi-disciplinary perspectives and professional networks to strengthen UNFPAs participation and reputation for excellence in intergovernmental and inter-agency engagements;
• Advise on trend analysis of political contexts at global, regional and national levels to identify factors that may hinder or facilitate the integration of the ICPD into the follow-up processes of the 2030 Agenda UNFPA’s positioning and support in intergovernmental processes related to the 2030 Agenda;
• Provide strategic leadership for shaping the design and implementation of the UNFPA political trends analysis architecture, including monitoring and analysis of political, socio-cultural and economic trends/issues and sharing knowledge and perspectives, to help the organization react timely to the changes in the external context for organizational strategic positioning.

Strategic Planning :

• Coordinate UNFPA’s participation in intergovernmental and inter-agency processes, creating innovative platforms and mechanisms for one voice political positioning that strengthens the coherence and impact of UNFPA’s messaging;
• Ensure UNFPA is strategically and firmly placed as the leading, reliable partner in the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and 2030 Agenda;
• Plan and prioritize corporate engagement at major UN events, including UNFPA side events, e.g. during the General Assembly debate and CPD;
• Develop and implement strategies, including brokering critical policy dialogue, to bridge the disparities between global intergovernmental processes and national implementation; leveraging evidence from programme implementation and analysis for global positioning.

Policy Guidance & Technical Support:

• Provide technical support for regional and country offices in their local political engagements and policy dialogues with a practical approach for aligning global, strategic mandates with programme implementation, simultaneously reinforcing global positioning with local analysis and realities;
• Provide policy guidance on normative and substantive linkages on ICPD and the work by regional, representation and country offices and how these feed into the global level discourse, including addressing the gaps in programming;
• Coordinate the development of messages and strategies for advocacy and policy dialogue.

Coordination:

• Coordinate political review and quality assurance of products and messages towards ensuring consistency with organizational priorities;
• Coordinate with UNFPA divisions, country and regional and sub-regional offices and where relevant, with other organizations of the United Nations System and partners in the development of the political positioning and preparation for advocacy engagements (briefings, speeches, talking points and presentations);
• Provide effective representation and participation at the Commission on Population and Development Bureau.

Resource Management:

• Assume overall accountability for achieving the expected results of the Branch;
• Develop, ensure approval, implement and monitor the Branch’s workplans;
• Propose annual financial requirements for the work of the branch and monitor the use of resources in compliance with UNFPA rules, regulations, and procedures;
• Direct, manage and supervise the staff.
• Any other duties as advised by the Director.

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education: 

• Master’s Degree or equivalent Degree in Population and Development, Health and Social Sciences, International and Public Relations or Development Studies.

Knowledge and Experience: 

• A minimum of 15 years of relevant and increasingly responsible professional and managerial experience in reproductive health, population and development and multilateral affairs at the international level. Strong knowledge of human rights, global health and humanitarian affairs an asset;
• Knowledge of the ICPD agenda and related intergovernmental processes and negotiations essential;
• Strong interpersonal skills, strong public speaking skills; excellent speech writing and report writing skills;
• Knowledge of the substantial content of the reproductive health and population and development programming is essential.

Languages: 

• Proficiency in English required.
• Knowledge of an additional UN language an asset

Source: https://www.unfpa.org/jobs/chief-intergovernmental-inter-agency-policy-dialogue-branch-iipdb-d-1-new-york