Partnership Officer

Job Description

Background

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The UNDP Project for Access to Justice and Rule of Law aims to promote the resilience of communities and institutions to strengthen the social contract between society and the state through the delivery of the following four Outputs:

• Output 1. Community Safety: Community self-help initiatives are supported to address diverse community justice needs with a focus on marginalized groups, such as women, youth, the displaced, and the poor.
• Output 2. Legal Empowerment: Society-state partnership is promoted between community-based service providers and institution-based supervisory authorities in addressing diverse justice needs.
• Output 3. Gender Justice: Gender-inclusivity is enhanced at the rule of law institutions with stronger women’s participation and leadership in providing gender-responsive justice services to women, girls, men, and boys.
• Output 4. Detainee Protection: basic condition is improved at detention facilities, vocational training is provided to promote livelihood opportunities after release, and community re-entry is supported.

Given the significant needs of access to gender justice in Yemen, the Output 3 is further operationalized through the below results with additional and complementary donor funding.

• Output 1. Empowerment: Gender-inclusive early recovery of rule of law institutions through the empowerment of women justice professionals.
• Output 2. Protection: Gender-responsive protection and justice services through the participation of women in displaced and host communities.

The Project takes the following approaches based on lessons learned from Yemeni and other contexts:

• Strategically combine “top-down” (institutions) and “bottom-up” (communities) interventions to offer a development solution of a “people-centered approach to institution building.”
• Bridge the oversimplified dichotomy between the state and society, utilizing numerous intersections across State non-justiciable mechanisms and non-state justiciable mechanisms.
• Structure its way of working to be participatory and inclusive, iterative and adaptive, context-specific and problem-led rather than cookie-cutter and solution-driven.

Against this backdrop, UNDP is recruiting a National Partnership Officer with the below responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provide contextual updates for adaptive management.
• Build partnerships for inclusive project governance.
• Offer technical advice on access to gender justice.
• Conduct results-based monitoring and reporting.
• Mainstream gender in all project aspects.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Provide contextual updates at the national and sub-national levels for adaptive management.

• Share the latest updates on formal and informal political economy dynamics relevant to the project implementation and risk management.
• Map project stakeholders comprehensively to ensure inclusive participation, Leave No One Behind (LNOB), and Do No Harm.

Build national and sub-national partnerships for inclusive project governance.

• Liaise with government counterparts at the national and sub-national levels to secure necessary permits to facilitate project implementation.
• Organize consultation meetings to foster partnerships with government, civil society, and community leaders, such as the Project Board Meetings and the Technical Working Groups.

Offer technical advice on access to gender justice as per the Yemeni context and project Outputs.

• Provide technical advice on access to gender justice, women’s empowerment, and protection as relevant to the Yemeni context and project results framework.
• Contribute to substantive documents in support of the Project Manager, such as Terms of Reference (ToRs) for Responsible Parties (RPs) and Results-Oriented Annual Reporting (ROAR).

Conduct results-based monitoring of project progress and reporting on knowledge/evidence base.

• Undertake regular site monitoring visits and trace project progress, identify challenges and risks, and suggest solutions and mitigation measures.
• Oversee project RPs to ensure their satisfactory performance, including timely progress and final reporting with the required evidence base for knowledge generation.

Mainstream gender in all aspects of project implementation.

• Advise national and local partners, including RPs, on gender mainstreaming in project implementation and disaggregated reporting.
• Uphold the UN Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) policy within the project team and with all project stakeholders.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The Project Partnership officer will report to the Project Manager, Access to Justice and Rule of Law. S/he will be an integral part of the UNDP Project Team for Access to Justice and Rule of Law and will be performing in collaboration with and complementarity with other national team members.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational requirements

• Advanced University degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Socio-Legal Studies or Business Administration or related field is required. Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Min. years of relevant work experience

• Minimum two (2) years of (with Master’s degree) or four (4) years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in project management, partnership management or relevant related field is required

Essential skills

• Demonstrated experience in project implementation with special focus on women and children, community engagement and mobilization
• Prior experience in project Results-based monitoring and reporting

Desirable Skills

• Demonstrated experience and advanced understanding of People-Centered Approach (PCA) to justice and security in the fragility context.
• Advanced experience on community safety to facilitate a bottom-up and participatory identification and resolution of community issues.
• Advanced experience in strategic communications to reconcile competing values and secure project’s narrative position.
• Proven experience in conflict and diversity-sensitive analysis of development opportunities and challenges to promote access to justice
• A relevant work experience in Yemen is Preferred

Required Language(s)

Fluency in English and Arabic, both written and oral is required.

Professional Certificates

Qualifications on protection, esp. women and children; community engagement and mobilization; strategic multi-stakeholder communications is desired.