Risk Management Advisor – P5

BACKGROUND

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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.

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. UNDP has been working in Afghanistan for more than 50 years on climate change and resilience, gender, governance, health, livelihoods, and rule of law. Under the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in close coordination with other UN agencies, UNDP is supporting the Afghan people’s aspiration for peace, prosperity, and sustainability. 

Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income estimated at $360 in 2022, reversing all progress made since 2007. 85% of the population (29 million people) needed humanitarian assistance in 2023. As of December 2022, approximately 6.5 million people remain in internal displacement. Almost half of the population – 18.9 million people – face emergency levels of food insecurity. Even prior to August 2021, social protection supports reached only 12.5 per cent of the population. 

UNDP is currently implementing the Transitional Country Programme Strategy (TCPS) 2024-2025. The Strategy will apply six implementation principles that focus on: (1.) applying the triple nexus approach bringing together the humanitarian, development and peace mandates (2.) promoting a whole-of-society approach; (3.) maximizing a risk managed approach and synergies between programme and operations to facilitate delivery of support; (4.) prioritizing the leave no one behind agenda; (5.) investing in enhancing gender equality and (6.) adhering to the fundamental postulate of “do no harm”. 

In Afghanistan, UNDP works with international partners, the UN Country Team and national implementing partners to launch and deliver a comprehensive, risk-informed crisis response programme composed of interventions, inter alia, in the areas of socioeconomic resilience and recovery as well as maintenance of key health services. 

An adaptive management and risk mitigation system has been put in place to assist the gradual roll-out and implementation of TCPS activities through continuous risk monitoring, learning, and adaptation loop.

The programme strategy for UNDP Afghanistan includes robust risk management based on UNDP’s Enterprise Risk Management standards and principles. The risk management strategy is designed based on the three lines of a defense model adapted from the UNDP Enterprise Risk Management policy and the ISO 31000 2018 risk management approach.

At the center of the UNDP Afghanistan Adaptive Risk Management and Mitigation Strategy is envisaged an Integrated Risk Management Unit (IRMU) that continuously assesses and manages risks involved in implementing programs in Afghanistan. This action-oriented capacity is meant to ensure a consistent “do no harm”/conflict sensitivity approach to UNDP’s intervention, agile support adaptation of programmes in a continuously changing context and ensure compliance with Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

The Team develops relationships with other UN system organizations on matters related to risks that impact delivering programmes in Afghanistan and define a common approach and risk and information sharing principles.

 

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The Risk Management Advisor will temporarily lead the IRMU unit during the transitional period and will further design, develop, implement, and maintain an integrated programmatic and operational risk management framework in coordination with relevant UNDP teams across organization lines at the country, regional and global levels. They will work closely with the Regional Bureau for Asia Pacific teams and UNDP Headquarters relevant departments.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP 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 include:

Lead Risk Management and Policy Development: 

• Develop, implement, and maintain policies, guidelines, and processes to identify, measure, monitor, mitigate, and report risk related to the design and implementation of the programme strategy in consultation with subject expertise within the Office and Regional Bureau.
• Provide a 1st and 2nd   Line of Defense review, offering an independent, expert perspective on the identification, assessment, and treatment of current and emerging risks, including areas such as programmatic, operational, banking/financial, fiduciary, money laundering and financing of terrorism, human rights/gender-related, institutional, reputational, and third-party risks.
• Guide define requirements and monitor the application of practical implementation and maintenance of risk processes and tools.
• Identify and engage with process owners and relevant stakeholders to facilitate targeted deep dives, unique reviews, and additional directives from senior leadership.
• Promote the application of advanced risk analytics to measure and monitor the UNDP CO programmatic and operational risk exposures and contribute to an adaptive management approach.
• Design and develop relevant analytical tools and processes to support the monitoring and reporting of risk events.

Build Effective Partnerships and Coordination: 

• Establish and strengthen partnership management with key internal and external stakeholders including UNDP/UN organizations in Afghanistan and other complex environment, donors, civil society, regulatory bodies etc.
• Provide technical support and advice on risk management practices to the UNDP CO, projects personnel and its partners.
• Establish formal and informal partnership with law enforcement institutions, UNDP/UN audit and investigation offices and research institutions, as necessary.
• Coordinate risk management activities across different partners engaged in implementation of risk management practices in Afghanistan.

Ensure risk information sharing and knowledge management: 

• Ensure that risk information-sharing platforms and mechanisms are developed and maintained to inform risk analysis and assessments.
• Promote information sharing across development and humanitarian stakeholders.
• Contribute to decision-making, management, and implementation of UNDP programme and its operations.
• Ensure the development of protocols, procedures, and techniques on risk management and information security.
• Communicates operational risk information to Management.
• Present risk exposure information and highlight cross-functional impacts.
• Maintain knowledge of emerging best practices and other international standards in operational risk management.
• Serve as a resource person and support organizing and conducting risk training to promote a risk   culture in UNDP.

Lead risk-informed programming and programme implementation: 

• Work in close coordination with the country, regional and HQs teams to incorporate UNDP’s ERM policy, Social and Environmental Standards (SES), AML/CFT and other corporate requirements in UNDP’s programmatic initiatives.
• Review readiness status of the CO on partner risk assessments and give advice on the response plan.  
• Review, monitor and update project risk dashboard, Advise on the quality of project/programme risk registers and mitigation measures to safeguard programme implementation.
• Advise on risk assessments and coordinate due diligence of high-risk development partners through third-party vendors, where required.

Provision of Audit and Investigation Service: 

• Review cases of suspected malpractice brought to the attention of UNDP CO, including assessing fraud and corruption risks, money laundering and terrorism financing.
• Provide overall support to partner/programme and country office audit.
• Liaise with internal and external audit and investigation bodies by availing information resulting from risk analysis and assessments and progressing allegations’ submission.
• Conduct due diligence and verification of documents and processes.

Other Duties:

• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the office and the organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: 

• Supervision of IRMU personnel.

 

QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

• An advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, or related fields is required. Or
• A first-level university degree in the areas mentioned above, in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience will be given consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience, Knowledge, and Skills: 

• A minimum of (10) ten years (with master’s degree) or (12) twelve years (with bachelor’s degree) in programme and project management working in a crisis or post crisis environment is required.
• Of above, at least five years’ experience must be in the areas of risk analysis or risk advisory and/or operational risk management is required.
• Proven experience in operational risk data management and analysis is required.
• Practitioner level experience in developing risk framework and/or coordinating risk assessments is required.
• Possession of a proven record in developing and/or deploying operational risk measurement models is desired.
• Demonstrated experience and understanding of operational risk characteristics, including the development of Operational Risk Monitoring (ORM) tools, including deep-dive, operational risk self-assessments, Scorecards, Key Risk Indicators (KRIs), etc. is highly desired.
• Demonstrated experience in to assessing and challenging findings is desired.
• Professional training in financial risk management is highly desirable.
• Experience in financial risk planning, anti-money laundering, and similar areas is an asset.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems and ERP systems is desired.

Languages:

• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language is desired.

 

COMPETENCIES

Core Competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 4: Prioritize team workflow, mobilize resources, drive scalable results/strategic impact
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 4: Easily navigate complexity, encourage/enable radical innovation, has foresight
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 4: Create systems and processes that enable learning and development for all
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 4: Proactively initiate/lead organizational change, champion new systems/processes
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 4: Able to make difficult decisions in challenging situations, inspire confidence
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 4: Construct strategic multi-partner alliances in high stake situations, foster co-creation
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 4: Create ethical culture, identify/address barriers to inclusion

People Management Competencies: 

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

 

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies: 

Finance: Anti-fraud and anti-bribery and corruption

• Understand the policy and best practices relating to anti-bribery and corruption controls and ensure these are implemented and widely understood within the organization.
• Understands the fraud risks faced by public bodies and can effectively analyze data to support fraud identification and fraud risk management.
• Understands the fraud risks faced by public and non-governmental institutions and can conduct fraud risk assessments and response plans.

Business Management: Risk Management

• Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.

Finance: Due diligence management

• Ability to conduct a comprehensive appraisal of an organization or opportunity to be undertaken, especially to establish its capacity and evaluate the potential opportunity and its related risks, knowledge of respective methodology and tools.

Finance: Financial risk management

• Ensures financial resilience through proactive risk assessment, controls implementation, and mitigating action.
• Understands risk and reward about collaborative and commercial projects.
• Provides a culture of positive risk management.

Business Management: Portfolio Management

• Ability to select, prioritize and control the organizations 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.

Partnership Management: Emerging Partnerships

• Ability to engage with emerging partners, develop and manage a strategy and develop approaches to developing and managing these new strategic partnerships.

Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

 

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Important information for US Permanent Residents (‘Green Card’ holders)

Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment. 

UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.

 

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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