Background
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Nepal adopted a new Constitution in September 2015, with the intent of transforming the then unitary and centralised system of governance into a federal and decentralised one as a vehicle to ensure equality, equity, and social justice. Nepal’s federal system is characterised by three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local) with non-hierarchical relationships within the levels of government. The Constitution stipulates that the three levels shall be the main structures of the Federal, Democratic and Republican Nepal and all levels shall exercise the power of state of Nepal pursuant to the Constitution and law. The powers of the three levels of government are enshrined in five Schedules of the constitution in the form of exclusive and concurrent powers. The federal system of governance became fully functional in February 2018 after all seven province governments were formed following the general election in November 2017.
With an objective to support on the implementation of federalism in Nepal, the Government of Nepal introduced a flagship programme of Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (2019-2024). Following an initial period of delivery and agreement by GoN, Provinces, stakeholders, and Development Partners that Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme remained necessary and relevant, a decision was taken to extend Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme, with changes necessary to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of Provincial Local Governments (PLG).
The Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme (PLGSP) 2024-2029 is the national framework programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational, and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. It aims to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive, and accountable provincial and local governance. Following an initial period of delivery (2019-2023), and agreed by the GoN, Provinces, Development Partners, and other stakeholders, PLGSP will continue for the next five years, with necessary changes to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the emerging needs of PLGs in advancing federalism in Nepal.
An extensive stakeholder engagement, consultations and re-programming process was undertaken between July 2023 and June 2024 that resulting in a substantial revision in the PLGSP Programme Document (ProDoc). This reprogrammed ProDoc outlines how re-programmed PLGSP emphasizes building the capacity and capability of PLGs’ to deliver on the institutional and individual capacities for advancing federalism in Nepal over the next 5 years. The ProDoc has focused on three outcomes for Federal, Provincial and Local Governance (LG) level impacts, each with three related outputs. Three outcomes include: Outcome 1: Federal level government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms are fully functional in support of federal governance as per the Constitution; Outcome 2: Provincial governments have efficient, effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions and organizations; Outcome 3: Local governments have capacity for Good Governance and for delivering inclusive basic services to all people. Furthermore, there are 9 outputs against the outcome mentioned. Four cross-cutting thematic streams: (i) Inclusive federalism acts, regulations, policies, and strategies; (ii) Collaboration within and across federal institutions and governments, and civic engagement; (iii) Supportive systems and tools for PLG inclusive federalism capacity; (iv) capacity development and transformation (applied to all 3 levels) have also been defined and articulated well. The programme considers the broad principles and approaches including focus on federal devolution, transparency, and accountability, embedding transformative gender and diversity/inclusion agenda, human rights based and participatory approach, devolved, contextual and flexible programme design and implementation and adaptive programming. Further, unpacking structural barriers in political institutions, promoting ownership and trust in provincial and local government system and changing power dynamics in government institutions addressing intersectionality are the expected pathways for Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) transformation in the programme. Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executing agency of the GoN for PLGSP in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Provincial and Local Governments.
UNDP as the partner of PLGSP and Technical Assistance (TA) provider, has been working with the MoFAGA on the implementation of PLGSP since its inception. The TA component of the programme has also been revised accordingly to facilitate the transformation in the behaviours of the authorities towards federalism for inclusive service delivery, it is fully aligned with revised PLGSP incorporating learnings from the earlier TA engagement. The intent of the revised TA is to leverage UNDP’s technical expertise and facilitation role to support positive transformations that enable implementation of federalism in Nepal, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and effective delivery of inclusive services by PLGs to their people especially for the most marginalized and women.
To this effect, TA will support PLGs for their institutional and organizational capacities. The TA support to federal government will help develop and implement necessary laws and policies to strengthen inter-governmental relationships thereby supporting cooperative federalism. To attain the sustainable achievement described above, TA has been categorized into Implementation Support TA (ISTA) and Transformational TA. ISTA focuses more on supporting the governments in the implementation of PLGs thereby building their institutional and individual capacities. Whereas Transformational TA focuses more on supporting behavioural transformation through research and analysis as well as providing high level expertise as needed. Overall, the TA staff (ISTA and Transformational TA) works together in close coordination with each other in overall guidance of respective government and UNDP Country Office
Position Summary:
The position holder has a significant role in provincial level transformational activities foreseen in the Predoc. S/he will be carrying out an analytical and research work for the innovativeness in the PLGs capacity development thoughts, process and systems. S/he will coordinate the mobilization of expertise, partnerships etc to this effect in close coordination with Provincial Programme Support Unit (PPSU) and Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) based transformational team. More importantly the incumbent is supposed to contribute on the implementation of transformative component under the programme, outreach, civic engagement and service delivery. In this regard, s/he will be responsible to engage with local government associations, academia, and national and international agencies working in the area of governance.
The Provincial Governance Analyst will report to and work under the direct supervision of the Federal Governance Specialist and under guidance of the Provincial Programme Manager (PPM) and the Provincial Programme Director (PPD).
Duties and Responsibilities
The position contributes primarily to outputs 4,5 6,7, 8,9 of the programme.
Provide guidance and expertise (including comparative experience) to portfolio stakeholders on strengthening federalism in Nepal at the province:
- Review and analyze regularly the progress, issues and challenges on implementation of federalism at province level and provide updates to PLGSP stakeholders.
- Provide technical support to the Provincial Programme Director (PPD) and Provincial Programme Manager (PPM) at the province level in designing the Provincial Annual Strategic Implementation Plan and Budget (P-ASIPB).
- Guide the transformational TA team at province level to prepare TA plan and on the provincial coordination committees.
- Coordinate with Provincial Institutions and Officials, the Provincial PLGSP team, other Provinces, other projects/organizations/stakeholders, MoFAGA/PLGSP and Development Partners.
- Strengthen synergy with all agencies including development partners, UN agencies working in the area of governance and federalism in the provinces to avoid overlapping and consolidate diverse efforts.
Provide guidance and support to develop and implement the change management process that guides the TA support to system and structures at provincial and local government level with sufficient flexibility:
- Provide facilitation in delivering an understanding and application of change theory and facilitate governance dialogues at PLGs.
- Guide and support to develop a project change management strategy and plan, in collaboration with key stakeholders, based on the project Theory of Change (ToC) and programme results.
- Guide and support the implementation of mapping exercises and related design of change strategies and plans for achieving individual project result areas, in close collaboration with assigned TA and result area stakeholders.
- Support development of a digitalization strategy for LGs, based on people’s needs and LG mandates. The LG digitalization strategy will be developed with lead from other programs and actors, and the role of the project is to provide insight into on-the ground realities, people’s voice and to support research and testing.
- Strengthen Provincial Voice in Governance and implementation of federalization process in line with programme results framework.
- Strengthen network with local government associations, NGOs/CSOs to enhance civic engagement in the governance process.
- Conduct necessary research/assessment on the accountability means and measures to strengthen vertical and horizontal accountability.
Provide guidance and support the overall process of preparing Capacity Development (CD) Strategy and Plan for PLGs:
- Guide and support to conduct capacity gap assessment of PLGs capacity assessment applying innovative approaches.
- Guide and support the Federal Programme Specialist on designing the implementation plan of a CD.
- Strengthen community of practices to exchange learning from each other.
- Facilitate in inspiring a collaborative and systems approach to (institutional) CD.
- Facilitate development of a CD strategy and provision of agreed CD actions for Provincial Research and Training Academy (PRTA) for adaptive Governance of federalization process and basic service delivery.
Coordinate to introduce customized monitoring systems and development of knowledge management plan:
- Introduce sharing and learning exchange events with internal and external practitioners of governance.
- Support the Monitoring Learning and Evaluation Analyst to devise effective strategies and tools to monitor output and outcome level changes, trends and learning, and formulate recommendations at provincial level to adjust PLGSP approaches as needed.
- Ensure progress monitoring and reporting and adaptation of approaches and assignment work plans based on learning and reprioritization.
- Support the Federal Governance Specialist in coordination with other Provinces on good practice, learning and scaling opportunities and provide guidance on documentation.
Contribute to ensure mainstreaming of GESI throughout programme interventions:
- Ensure GESI is mainstreamed in all result areas of the project and targeted interventions planned and implemented to promote inclusive governance and federalism at provincial and local level.
- Provide guidance to the team members in coordination with the GESI Analyst to establish a system to collect gender and social inclusion related disaggregated data, impact stories and results benefiting male, female, people with disabilities and marginalized groups and risks and challenges associated for their meaningful participation in federalism process, particularly service delivery.
- Ensure GESI is adequately captured in project progress reports, baseline survey and final programme evaluation.
- Work with the GESI Analyst to integrate transformative GESI approaches in the TA strategies that could be replicated in the governance system and process.
- Support in creating a safe working environment by developing respectful and safe organizational culture and supporting practices.
Other:
- The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the PLGSP programme.
- Strictly comply with the UNDP policies, strategies, code of conduct, guidelines on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
- Strict compliance with the UNDP applicable rules, regulations and policies related to ethics and integrity.
Competencies
Core competencies:
- Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
- Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
- Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
- Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
- Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
- Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
- Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making
People Management competencies:
- UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Management
- Partnerships Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts, and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
- Communication: Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and unambiguously through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience; Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and another appropriate channel.
- Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; Ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.
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
- Effective Decision Making: Ability to take decisions timely and efficiently in line with one’s authority, expertise and resources.
2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness
- Effectiveness – Project Quality Assurance.
2030 Agenda: Governance
- Governance – Inclusion and Participation.
20230 Agenda: People
- Gender – Gender Mainstreaming.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Public Policy/ Administration/ Sector Management, Public Finance, Rural Development, Capacity Development & Change, International Relations, Political Science, Social Science or other relevant areas is required. Or.
- A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the area mentioned above in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience:
- Minimum 2 years (with master´s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor´s degree) experience in local governance, federalism, capacity development, public policy, and programme management working in complex, Government-led programmes in developing countries is required.
- Knowledge & experience in policy advocacy with national & international stakeholders to promote inclusive federalism and/or local governance is required.
- Experience in conducting research and development of policy papers in governance is required.
- Experience in strong analytical and writing skills and a track record of producing quality reports and other materials is required.
- Demonstrated experience of strong networking, coordination and communication skills with Government and authorities at different levels is required.
- Experience in formulating capacity development strategies is required.
- Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point etc.) and web-based management and analytical tools.
- Experience in facilitating coordination and dialogue among different stakeholders such as citizens, elected representatives, CSOs, ministries etc. is desired.
- Experience of working in Nepal or South Asia will be desirable.
- Knowledge of and familiarity with UNDP/Development sector policies and procedures and operating knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an asset.
- Experience and knowledge in promoting GESI for evidence-based policy formulation, formulation, advocacy is desired.
Required Languages:
- Fluency in English and Nepali language is required.
- Knowledge of any national language of the above duty station will be an added advantage.
Disclaimer
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Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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