Regional Programme Associate

Position Purpose

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Team Lead for West Africa, the Regional Programme Associate ensures effective delivery of programmes/projects in the West African Region by managing data and supporting programme/project oversight and implementation consistent with UNCDF & UNDP rules and regulations. 

The Regional Programme Associate works in close collaboration with members of the Investment and Implementation Division (IID), Investment and Finance Oversight Division (IFOD), Operations and Oversight Division (OOD), as well as programme and project staff in the region.

UNCDF adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNCDF personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Key Duties and Accountabilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Support the Regional Team Lead with programme/project oversight, implementation and reporting
• Provide effective monitoring and operational support to country and regional programmes/projects and    transactions.
• Support to resource mobilization.
• Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing.

Support the Regional Team Lead with programme/project oversight, implementation, and reporting Collection, analysis and presentation of background information for projects/programmes and transactions in the region.

• Presentation of background information for formulation of country or regional programmes/projects: extract content from approved project documents, prepare work plans, and prepare budgets for the regional team (including capturing budget information from projects/programmes and transactions in the region).
• Maintain a filing system, with accurate and high-quality vetted data in the corporate Quantum+ system for all projects developed and implemented in the countries covered by the UNCDF regional team as well as related documents supporting the implementation for audit purposes. This will require ensuring that project teams implementing projects exercise their due diligence as required per corporate standards.
• Coordinate documents processing, securing the needed signatures to support programmes/projects implementation in the region (regional and country level projects) as relevant to all stages of the project cycle.
• Collection, analysis and checking for accuracy and consistency of information against established formats and templates.
• Timely and pro-active follow-up on correspondence with project counterparts, Regional Investment Officers, and Operations and Oversight Division.
• Organizes scheduled weekly regional team meetings as well as ad hoc meetings as may be required;
• Attends Regional team meetings and takes minutes, and circulates and ensures proper filing of minutes in line with corporate standards.
• Assist in the collection of inputs into the region-focused and integrated Business Work Plan.
• Support the Regional Team Lead with coordination between Regional Investment Officers and Global Thematic Leads.

Provide effective monitoring and operational support to country and regional programmes/ projects

• Support the creation as well as review the create of projects in Quantum/Quantum+ modules, preparation of and review of required budget revisions, revision of project award and project status, determination of unutilized funds, operational and financial close of a project;
• Provision of guidance to country and regional programme and project staff on routine protocols as per UNCDF’s policies and regulations for the design, implementation and closure of transactions, projects and/or programmes.
• Support collection, and ensure quality, of information for audit of programmes/projects and supports implementation of audit recommendations.
• Effective and timely communication to projects/programmes on the processes relating to Delegation of Authority (DOA) and ensure the proper DOAs are established as per corporate protocols and standards.
• Collaborate with the Regional Programme and Management Support Specialist in regional portfolio analysis, in particular, ensuring all data necessary for the analysis is collected from projects and consistent for any specific projects under his/her portfolio
• Provide support and coordinate in a range of operational matters such as HR, procurement, travel, and admin work in collaboration with the dedicated colleagues for HR, procurement, travel and admin at the regional level
• Ensures there is a functional and retrievable filing system for all documents including soft and hard copies as per corporate standards.

Supports resource mobilization 

• Analysis of information on donors and preparation of donor’s profile in collaboration with the External Relations Unit.
• Support the Regional Team Lead with communications and engagements with governments, donors, and other stakeholders.
• Track and monitor delivery on a regular basis as well as donor agreements reporting and other requirements to ensure the projects are properly following the legal commitments.
• Track and monitor funding and partnerships, including with the private sector, development banks and other development finance institutions, in coordination with the Investment and Finance Oversight Division (IFOD) and Operations and Oversight Division (OOD).

Ensures facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing 

• Actively support the organization of training for the operations/projects staff in the region.
• Synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices in the region.
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• Assist in the preparation, updating, and dissemination of PowerPoints and other presentations and managing dissemination of information that describe the work and achievements of the region in line with corporate standards via the Strategic Communications Unit

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Secondary education is required.
• A university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, or related field will be given due consideration, but it is not a requirement.

Experience:

Experience, Knowledge, and Skills

• A minimum of 6 years (with secondary education) or 3 years (with a bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible administrative/management or programme experience is required at the national and/or international level.
• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, and experience in handling of web-based management systems such as ERP is required.
• Proven ability to review and edit documents and proven ability to produce meeting reports identifying key actions is required.
• Extensive experience in project oversight and/or management highly desirable.
• Experience with tools and methodologies to follow-up on projects or project cycle management is preferred.
• Fluency in English and French is required.

Source: https://estm.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/job/22709