Background
ย Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP:ย we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a โleave no one behindโ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
ย 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.
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UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UNDP's policy work carried out at Headquarters, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Planย
Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan. BPPS's staff provides technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government, and civil society dialogues, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. In addition, BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response. While ensuring that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes, BPPS also assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. Lastly, BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts. In UNDPโs strategic plan, development finance is an enabler to advance the SDGs and support other programmatic areas of UNDP.
The world needs an economic governance architecture deliberately designed to support governments, development agencies, civil society, and the private sector to make decisions that prioritize investment in the SDGs. Thus, UNDP established the Sustainable Finance Hub (SFH) in 2019, aggregating UNDPโs existing work and expertise on financing the SDGs. UNDP aims to promote the investment of over $1 trillion of public expenditure and private capital in the SDGs and maximize development impact for country partners. With this goal, UNDP will mobilize governments, institutional and commercial investors, financial institutions, and enterprises alike to take a more integrated approach to sustainable investment, enabling and promoting the impact integrity of actual and realized investments to enhance transparency, and optimize private and public sectors contributions to achieving the SDGs. SFH is building an agile innovation platform that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives across all parts of the organization and wide-ranging partnerships to support the mobilization and leveraging of financing for the SDGs, at national, regional, and global levels. SFH offers a comprehensive package of methods and tools and brings the best of UNDP to accelerate progress of the SDGs.ย
Through SFH, UNDP has been increasing its engagement in global financial and economic policy making through the work carried out in different forums (i.e., G7, G20, UNโs Financing for Development process, etc.) as well as other regulatory and market-based networks.
Position Purpose
With a reporting line to the BPPS Director, the Director of SFH will lead on: 1) Strategic planning related to sustainable finance, implementation of the roadmap to the $1 trillion moonshot andย UNDPโs Private Sector Strategy 2023-2025, 2) Management and leadership of activities and operations, 3) Advocacy and external relations and 4) Innovation and knowledge management.
UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. This is a recognition of the interconnected nature of development risks & crises that the world is facing and that call for assembling of multidisciplinary teams for an integrated & systemic response. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across issues, units, functions, teams and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration. The finance area is an enabler in UNDPโs strategic plan, which means it needs to be included, when appropriate, across other areas of work of UNDP.
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Strategic planning related to sustainable finance, implementation of the roadmap to the $1 trillion moonshot and UNDPโs Private Sector Strategy 2023-2025ย
In accordance with the priorities of the GPN, develop and manage the technical, operational and financial strategy for the implementation of SFH and provide the substantive technical and managerial leadership required to implement it; Work with corporate partners (UNDPโs Executive Office, Bureau for Management Services, Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), Crisis Bureau and Regional Bureaux) to contribute to their agenda, upgrade the delivery of development products and services, and ensure collective success in delivering the Strategic Plan outcomes; Work together with the other GPN Team Leaders to integrate the SFH offers as enablers into other areas of work across UNDP (e.g. climate change, gender, energy, governance, crisis etc.). Integrate the finance moonshot with the others three moonshots in UNDPโs strategic plan. Work with the Regional Bureaux to formulate regional implementation plans for delivering the finance moonshot roadmap, drawing on aggregate results from country and regional programmes; Monitor and advise UNDP leadership on new policy options, innovative approaches and entry points to support the implementation of the finance moonshot roadmap and the GPN strategic objectives and leverage visibility and impact; Work as part of the GPN to advance the policy development, program support and external relations functions related to private sector and finance; Provide support to UNDP Global and Regional units and Country Offices to forge partnerships actors related to sustainable finance; Coordinate global, regional and national finance and private sector specialist network (community of practice) and, where appropriate, organize strategic conferences and workshops to draw on external expertise, advocate on key development issues, and contribute to global policy debates.Management and leadership of activities and operations
As part of the GPN and in close collaboration with BERA, Regional Bureaux and external partners, develop comprehensive annual workplans and budgets for SFH and work closely with its initiatives to build synergies, leverage shared partnerships, and achieve shared results.ย ย Prepare annual reports on the activities and results of the Hub for UNDP senior management and donors. Ensure that SFH operations and management are in line with UNDPโs rules and regulations. Provide strategic direction and coordinate the activities of SFH, ensuring integrity and accountability of human resources, financial resources, administration, finance, IT and procurement.ย Ensure monitoring and evaluation of the activities and outcomes of SFH and its initiatives;ย Ensure the integrity of financial transactions, systems and reports by consistent application of UNDP's rules and regulations. Ensure that systems are implemented to perform effective people management for organizational excellence.Advocacy and External Relations
Advocate for UNDPโs finance and private sector priorities by managing complex agendas, (e.g. interaction with key stakeholders like the GPN, BERA and UNDP Bureaux and Country Offices, other UN offices and organisations, the private sector and Member States, to promote visibility of UNDPโs work across the globe by showcasing key programmatic interventions and innovations and related impact in development generation and capacity building; Advise senior management of UNDP on opportunities and emerging risks arising from implementing the finance offers and the private sector strategy, addressing them in a timely and coordinated manner; Support BERA with the development and implementation of the communications and information strategy, and foster relationships with the media, for the work on finance and private sector programming; As guided by senior management, represent UNDP with the external partners, including UN organisations, Members States, IFIs, businesses, philanthropy and others; Coordinate and implement a new transformational set of global partnerships with the financial and private sector, as well as support the development and implementation of regional and national transformational partnerships; Lead resource mobilization approach and priorities for UNDPโs finance and private sector work from the Members States, foundations and businesses, in accordance with BERA and the GPN. In addition, support regional and national UNDP offices to mobilize resources from all types of donors, both public and private; Foster collaboration across UN organisations on issues related to finance and private sector in consultation with BERA teams working on partnerships and UN system affairs.Innovation and Knowledge Management
Establish, leverage and promote the development of UNDPโs sustainable finance and private sector community of practice to foster creativity and knowledge exchange on issues at the core of UNDPโs work, as integral part of the GPN. When useful, add external partners to the community of practice. As an integral part of the GPN, help UNDP play a catalytic role in addressing economic and sustainable development challenges.ย As part of the GPN priorities, position UNDPโs leadership especially through the integration of private sector development and finance knowledge across different areas of programming and SDG implementation; Articulate UNDPโs positioning on key issues related to sustainable finance, including through policy dialogues, conferences and use of information technologies Coordinate, produce, quality assure and disseminate finance and private sector development knowledge and communications products. Build innovative offerings for UNDPโs finance expertise that can demonstrate and scale new business models.ยย Competencies ย
Core -ย CoreBehaviouralCompetencies.pdf (undp.org)
Achieve Results:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
Prioritize team workflow, mobilize resources, drive scalable results/strategic impactThink Innovatively:ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
Learn Continuouslyย ย ย ย ย
Create systems and processes that enable learning and development for allAdapt with Agilityย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
Proactively initiate/lead organizational change, champion new systems/processesAct with Determinationย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
Able to make difficult decisions in challenging situations, inspire confidenceEngage and Partnerย ย ย ย ย
Construct strategic multi-partner alliances in high stake situations, foster co- creationEnable Diversity and Inclusionย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
Create ethical culture, identify/address barriers to inclusionPeople Management:
UNDP People: Management Competencies can be found on the dedicatedย site.ย
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Direction and Strategy: Strategic Thinking
Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDPโs objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDPBusiness Management: Portfolio Management
Ability to select, prioritise 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 optimising return on investmentBusiness 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 systemBusiness Management: Results-based Management
Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus on improved performance and demonstrable resultsBusiness Management: Communication
Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both 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 other appropriate channelsBusiness 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 situations2030 Agenda: Partnerships: SDG Finance
Knowledge and understanding of global partnership for effective development cooperation, inclusive markets/businesses and value chain development, Innovative Finance, philanthropy, public private partnershipsย Required Skills and Experience ย Education: An advanced university degree (i.e. Master's degree or equivalent), preferably in international development, law, international affairs, business administration, development economics, or other relevant field is required OR A first-level university degree (bachelorโs degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree. Experience: A minimum of 15 years (with masterโs degree) and 17 years (with bachelorโs degree) of experience in public sector (national or multilateral, including UN), the private sector (non-governmental sector, corporate) or the academia is required.ย Leadership experience in the UN System related to sustainable finance, private sector development and large-scale partnerships with the private sector (including financial institutions) is required.ย Proven hands-on experience in leading and managing large initiatives in the area of private sector and sustainable finance issues in international organizations including field experience is required. Excellent negotiating and communication skills and ability to mobilize support from a wide range of partners (public, private, academic, civil society, business community leaders) is required. Strong management and resource mobilization skills are required. Public finance management and investment pipeline development experience are desired. Strong Impact Management and Measurement, including monitoring and evaluation system are desired. Experience with the Finance for Development UN process is also desired.
Language:
Fluency and proficiency in English is required. Fluency in at least one other UN language is an advantage.ย Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.ย Disclaimer
ย Important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders)ย
ย 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.ย
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ย Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.ย 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.
ย Non-discrimination
ย 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.ย ย
ย 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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