Location: Bangkok,
THAILAND
Application Deadline: 22-Feb-13
Additional Category: Millennium Development Goals
Type of Contract: FTA International
Post Level: P-5
Languages Required: English
Starting Date: (date when the selected candidate is expected
to start) 01-Apr-2013
Duration of Initial Contract: One year (renewable)
Background
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UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for
the world’s 48 least developed countries. Its mission is to create new
opportunities for poor households and small businesses by increasing
access to financial services and investment capital. UNCDF programmes
help to empower women and are designed to catalyze larger capital flows
from the private sector, national governments and development partners,
for maximum impact toward the MDGs. Within its broader economic
development mandate, UNCDF focuses on public and private financing
mechanisms. Effective and efficient finance – in both the public and
private sectors – can spur economic growth and make it more sustainable
and inclusive. UNCDF’s focus on financing mechanisms has special
relevance for least developed countries, where public financial
management is often weak, and private financial systems often
underdeveloped and inaccessible to poor people.
UNCDF is growing
rapidly. Annual income and financial delivery are now roughly $60
million. This trend is expected to continue. Innovative new programmes
(e.g. mobile money; climate change finance for local governments;
savings-led microfinance; clean energy finance) are attracting
significant partner interest and new programmes are in the pipeline.
Regional
Offices are closely integrated with the work of UNCDF Headquarters.
Their primary function is to: (i) provide technical support to the
implementation of programmes; (ii) manage relationship with UNDP country
offices; (3) develop and coordinate partnerships with regional
institutions and organizations.
The Manager of the Regional
Office reports to the Deputy Executive Secretary. All regional office
staff report to the Manager of the Office. (Regional Technical Advisors
also report to the Practice Director).
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Functions / Key Results Expected
Managerial
- Build and manage a coordinated and effective team of technical advisors, portfolio specialists and operational staff;
- Prepare
annual results oriented work plan for the Office in consultation with
all concerned staff, and the Deputy Executive Secretary;
- Promote a work environment that is conducive to producing the outputs and delivering the results of the work plan;
- Assist the Deputy Executive Secretary with the preparation of the required annual planning, budgeting and reporting;
- Ensure
effective liaison with the UNDP Resident Representatives in the host
country, but without any representational functions vis-à-vis the host
government;
- Liaise at appropriate level with regional organizations;
- Assess
performance of the staff of the Regional Office and prepare RCAs in
coordination with the Practice Directors for the Regional Technical
Advisors.
- Assist the Practice Directors in management and
delivery of their regional strategies and the staff and resources
involved in implementing them.
All Managerial/leadership
functions are performed in an integrated and team relationship with the
Headquarters units, in line with established UN/UNCDF management norms,
rules and regulations, and in conformity with UNCDF internal
accountability framework. Coordination, Coherence and Knowledge Management
- Ensure
policy coherence across UNCDF two practice areas [Financial Inclusion
Practice Area (FIPA) and Local Development Finance Practice (LDFP)] in
the Office and work closely with the Directors of the Practices at HQ to
ensure global and regional policy coherence;
- Manage
the team of regional technical advisors for the provision of policy
advisory services, programme and technical support for programme
development and implementation;
- Promote effective
implementation of the Practice functions including quality standards,
creation and sharing of knowledge products;
- Promote
incorporation of lessons learned from regular monitoring and project
reviews as well as recommendations from evaluations into planning and
programme development;
- Serve as liaison in the Region
on behalf of UNCDF with UNDP Regional Service Centers and UNDP Country
Offices; Ensure inclusion of UNCDF in UNDAFs; Participate as necessary
in the meetings of the Regional and Country based UN Development Group.
Partnership, Resource Mobilization and Communications
- Develop a comprehensive resource mobilization and regional partnership development strategy for the Regional Office;
- Develop
strategic partnership with regional institutions and organizations for
knowledge, research, advocacy, policy impact, programme replication;
- Manage relations with donors in the region;
- Ensure achievement of resource mobilization targets;
- Represent
UNCDF at key events at regional and country level to promote the
organization’s comparative advantages and strategic niches.
Impact of Results
The post of the Manager, Regional Office is critical for:
- The efficiency of the Office;
- The policy coherence of UNCDF’s work;
- The quality of support to UNCDF programmes;
- The contribution to knowledge management.
The
Regional Office Manager has a critical role in ensuring effective and
efficient functioning of the office and in ensuring coherence between
the practice areas and representing UNCDF’s policy agenda in the
region. She/he has an important role in managing the relationship with
UNDP in the region and in maintaining the image of the organization
internally and with external stakeholders.
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Competencies
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Functional Competencies
Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda Influencing the public policy agenda
- Dialogues
with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen
advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global
perspectives
Strategic Partnerships Building strategic alliances
- Makes effective use of UNCDF’s resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships
- Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations
Resource Mobilization Developing resource mobilization strategies at country level
- Actively develops partnerships with potential donors and government counterparts in all sectors at country and regional level
- Develops innovative approaches and strategies for fund raising activities
Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing
- Participating
in the development of policies and innovative approaches and promoting
their application throughout the organization
- Promotes UNDP as a learning/knowledge sharing organization
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise
Expert knowledge of own discipline
- Possesses
expert knowledge of advanced concepts in primary discipline, a broad
knowledge of related disciplines, as well as an in-depth knowledge of
relevant organizational policies and procedures
Core Competencies:
- Promoting ethics and integrity
- Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
- Building and promoting effective teams
- Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
- Building an emotionally intelligent environment
- Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning
- Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking
- Capacity to lead and manage multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams and resolve conflicts
- Strong interpersonal, communications and presentation skills
- In-depth
practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues,
particularly in the area of economic development and poverty reduction
- Ability to mainstream Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women into the programme cycle
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Required Skills and Experience
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Education:
- Masters degree in
economics, public/business administration, social sciences, political
science, or other development-related field.
Essential Knowledge and Experience:
- At
least ten (10) years relevant experience in progressively more
responsible positions in the field of development-both in the field and
headquarters environments-with an international development organization
- At least three years of management responsibilities of similar size and complexity
- Knowledge and experience in the UN system particularly UNDP
- Experience in designing policies and programmes and in managing teams of experts
- Experience
and understanding of public finance for local development and financial
services for the poor and/or private sector development an asset
- Good understanding of the role of civil society and private sector in development
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English and French is an asset.
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Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
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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.
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