Policy Specialist

Position description

The Crisis Bureau (CB) is galvanizing UNDP’s efforts to support countries to build resilience by strengthening capacities to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from the impacts of crises and shocks on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These efforts are geared towards reducing countries’ reliance on external humanitarian relief and peace interventions, while risk-informing development planning and decision-making to minimize creation of new risks. UNDP seeks to ensure that development perspectives are introduced as early as possible in response and recovery cycles, including approaching recovery as an opportunity to reset development practices onto more resilient, green, and equitable pathways.

UNDP’s corporate Crisis Offer (2022) provides a framework for development solutions to crisis and fragility, seeks to consolidate and strengthen UNDP’s crisis mechanisms to break the cycle of protracted crisis and fragility; to get ahead of the crisis curve through anticipating and preventing crises; and to sustain development throughout crises. Operating within this framework, CB supports Regional Bureaus (RBx) and Country Offices (COs) to ensure risk-informed and preventive approaches and effective responses when crises strike. 

Against this backdrop, the Crisis Bureau wishes to elevate its commitment to partnering with stakeholders at all levels, ranging from the leading donors to IFIs, the UN System, multi-stakeholder platforms, civil society, and the private sector. 

To this end, the Crisis Bureau is recruiting a Policy Specialist for the Strategic Partnerships and Communications (SPC) Team. SPC’s mission is to build, maintain and strengthen a network of partnerships across key constituencies – UN, IFI, bilateral, private sector, civil society – to raise visibility, deepen engagement and generate increased political support and funding for UNDP’s work on fragility and crisis. 

The Policy Specialist will contribute across the SPC team, and will:

• Support the operationalisation of relevant CB strategic priorities and initiatives by formulating UNDP’s offer and administrative mechanisms, working closely with C3RT, DRT, and RBx.
• Provide policy advice on UN system policies and programmes, with a view to support policy coherence and integration within the Crisis Bureau and to position UNDP in crisis and fragile settings.
• Support UNDP’s engagement strategy and contributions to relevant UN inter-agency coordination mechanisms, such as the IASC, JSC, among others.
• Working closely with BERA and CB’s communications capacity, advocate for and ensure the visibility of UNDP’s work – and the acknowledgement of key partners – to internal and external audiences.

Position Purpose

The Policy Specialist reports directly to the Senior Policy Advisor on Policy Coherence and Integration and is an integral part of the UN Systems Partnerships in the Strategic Partnerships and Communications (SPC). Team’s Policy Coherence and Integration Unit. The Policy Specialist is entrusted with support towards the coordination and policy coherence and integration in the context of crisis and fragility. As such, the incumbent is entrusted with supporting cross-pillar coherence of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus and Early Recovery, including across UN and multilateral mechanisms aiming for integrated solutions.

The Policy Specialist works across CB teams, and within the context of UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN), to strengthen engagement and leverage greater collective coherence and impact across UNDP’s consistent positioning at various inter-agency partnerships and fora. The Policy Specialist will have a focus on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, specifically on engagement with the humanitarian coordination structures and early recovery. This includes UNDP’s participation in the Grand Bargain, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) structures with specific focus on the GCCG, HPC cycle, as well as coordination with humanitarian actors on positioning. 

The Policy Specialist will support the positioning of UNDP in the various humanitarian coordination fora, formal and informal initiatives, dialogues, with humanitarian actors, support the development of multidisciplinary policies and solutions / tools to anchor development in fragile and crisis contexts, with a focus on the HDP Nexus and Early Recovery and related crisis response packages, through innovation that promote integrated and systems approach to crisis and fragility across UNDP. She/he will ensure coherence and integration of policies related to crisis, fragility, and resilience; and delivering an integrated response to the signature solutions and directions of change, as defined by UNDP’s Strategic Plan and Crisis Offer.

The Policy Specialist will foster cross fertilization with the other units of the SPC Team, across the CB, and GPN as a whole. In collaboration with the Partnerships and Financing for Fragility Unit, the incumbent will provide strategic policy inputs to promote and strengthen collective policy coherence and integration in the support of developing countries through the exchange of experiences and South-South cooperation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support to the Formulation of HDP and Early Recovery Solutions to Crisis and Fragility

• Support policy coherence and integration within the Crisis Bureau, and across UNDP as a whole on crisis and fragility related issues with a special focus on the HDP Nexus and Early Recovery, working closely with the Regional Bureaux, BERA, other GPN teams and relevant knowledge domains, as well as facilitate information sharing amongst these.
• With a focus on the HDP Nexus and Early Recovery and in close collaboration with Regional Bureaux, the GPN substantive, thematic and policy teams, support and coordinate the development of:
  • evidence-based and substantive policy and guidance notes, strategic papers, and analysis on the role of risk-informed development in addressing and reducing crisis and fragility.
  • policy innovations and solutions that would promote integrated and systems-based approach to crisis and fragility across UNDP.
  • high quality policy initiatives for different contexts on key emerging policy agendas in collaboration with relevant internal and external partners.
• Support and coordinate the collection of evidence /data to support the development of policy guidance and analysis in close collaboration with Regional Bureaux, GPN substantive, thematic and policy teams including the relevant UNDP COPs.
• Serve as CB focal point for the South-South and fragile-to-fragile cooperation.
• Support UNDP’s contribution to UN system-wide policy processes related to crisis and fragility, promoting policy coherence, and facilitating information sharing.
• Support and coordinate the preparation background briefs, speeches, and talking points on crisis and fragility policy issues for UNDP Senior Management in their representation role in relevant crisis and fragility related mechanisms, (e.g. with the IASC, UN Secretariat, EC/DC, UNDG, etc.).

Support to Inter-agency coordination for the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus and Early Recovery

• Support UN system-wide coherence and cross-pillar integration, to strengthen engagement and leverage greater collective coherence and impact across UN and multilateral system.
• Coordinate and collect the evidence base for the HDP Nexus and Early recovery narratives in UNDP and UNDP’s specific role therein.
• Establish and maintain the informal network for HDP Nexus Advisers in COs.
• Focal point for the HDP Nexus Area of Common Concern (AOCC) in the Humanitarian Networking and Partnerships Weeks
• Support the Global Cluster Coordinator for Early Recovery function including the Early Recovery Cluster mechanism.
• Support and coordinate the development and roll out of demand driven HDP and ER trainings in close collaboration with Regional Bureaus, the GPN substantive, thematic and policy teams including the Crisis Academy
• Support UNDP’s engagement with policy processes, and engagement with the humanitarian system (through the IASC, Cluster system, HPC, Grand Bargain, etc.) to position the narrative of risk-informed development from the onset.
• Function as a resource person for the Nexus Academy.

Advocacy and Representation 

• Consistently advocate for development approaches and solutions to crisis and fragility, including through external engagements on relevant issues and processes.
• Contribute to representing and positioning UNDP in crisis-related interagency and multi-stakeholder processes with a focus on the humanitarian coordination architecture and processes (e.g. IASC, GCCG, Grand Bargain, HPC, etc) in coordination with Regional Bureaus, GPN substantive, thematic and policy teams.
• Provide standing liaison function on policy issues for key UN and external actors to share information and collaborate across organizations; enable such partners a clear entry-point to UNDP.
• Contribute to the promotion of information sharing and collaboration on crisis and fragility work within the Crisis Bureau, across UNDP, and with key internal and external partners.

Competencies

Core:

Achieve Results

• Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively

• Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Learn Continuously

• Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

Adapt with Agility 

• Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

Act with Determination

• Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

Engage and Partner

• Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

• Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional & Technical:

Business Direction and Strategy: System Thinking             

• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Direction and Strategy: Entrepreneurial Thinking

• Ability to create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners and to develop service offers responding to client needs based on UNDPs organizational priorities and mandate.

Business Development: Integration within the UN

• Ability to identify and integrate capacity and assets of the UN system and engage in joint work; knowledge of the UN System and ability to apply this knowledge to strategic and/or practical situations.

Business Development: Collective Intelligence Design

• Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions.

Programme and Policy: Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement           

• Humanitarian-Development Peace (HDP) Nexus.

2030 Agenda – Peace: Crisis management / Country Management Support 

• Humanitarian inter-agency coordination.

Digital & Innovation: Innovation ecosystem curation

• Ability to give sense of purpose and build trust, develop programmes of activities and platforms to build and strengthen relationships.

Required Skills and Experience:

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in development, international relations, political science, or related field. 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.

 Experience:

• Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in evidence-based policy development in the area of development, recovery and/or humanitarian affairs required. Demonstrated UN experience highly desirable.
• Recent field experience in 2 or more crisis and fragile contexts required.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of crisis and fragility policy debates with a focus on humanitarian, development and peace collaboration required.
• Demonstrated experience in inter-agency mechanisms and the humanitarian architecture highly desirable.
• Knowledge and experience of UNDP and UN system policies and programming is highly desirable.
• Experience of managing complex inter-agency processes is desirable.

Application instructions

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