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.ย
UNDP Bangladeshโs Country Programme Document (2022-2026) seeks to assist the Government of Bangladesh and its development partners in implementing the SDGs by 2030. To realize this vision, and working within the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF:2022-2026), UNDP is delivering a Country Programme focusing on five Strategic Priority Areas for engagement: (i) inclusive and sustainable economic development; (ii) equitable human development and well-being; (iii) sustainable, resilient and healthy environment; (iv) transformative, participatory and inclusive governance; and (v) gender equality and eliminating gender-based violence.
The Democratic Governance (DG) cluster of UNDP Bangladesh aims to support accountable and inclusive governance so that all citizens can openly and peacefully contribute to Bangladeshโs development story. It focuses on making the country inclusive, capable, rules-based, accountable and transparent by 1) strengthening effective and accountable governance that responds to the needs of people, 2) strengthening civil society and promoting participatory governance to ensure that the voices of all citizens are heard, and 3) enhancing civic and economic empowerment of women and youth. UNDP-supported initiatives include the digitalization of public services, policy reforms to improve the effectiveness and impact of social protection systems, support to scaling a Village Courts system nationwide, improving legal aid and access to justice for women and disadvantaged groups, and building urban resilience through city corporations. UNDP is a committed, impartial partner to government, civil society, community and academic organizations seeking to improve the transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of Bangladeshi institutions.
Following a month of deadly anti-government protests in Bangladesh, August 2024 saw the establishment of an Interim Government. This Interim Government faces the challenge of restoring political stability and public security, addressing both recent and historical human rights violations, rebuilding trust in security and governance institutions, preventing economic decline, and addressing social grievances, while establishing a clear path to free and fair elections. Their task is complicated by high expectations, political fragility and polarization, and a compressed and indefinite timeframe, and broader risks such as high youth unemployment, the ongoing Rohingya crisis, elevated extremism risks, and significant vulnerability to climate change.
The Aspire to Innovate (a2i) project builds on the Government of Bangladeshโs efforts to introduce a citizen-centric culture of innovation in civil service to improve service delivery and make services more inclusive, affordable, reliable, and easier to access. This project is aligned with the governmentโs effort to create digitally assisted prototype solutions to improve public services to support the development momentum of the country and address emerging development needs and challenges. This project aims to support the government in instilling those innovations and building up necessary institutional mechanisms so that efforts already made would be incentivized and scaled up to bring sustainable impact. In addition, this project intends to engage the private sector in this journey including making progress in emerging fintech platforms to foster broader partnerships to attune the country to changes taking place in the contemporary world. Briefly, a2i focuses on accelerating the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through three components:
Institutionalizing public service innovation and improving accountability Catalyzing digital financial services and fintech innovations Fostering public-private partnerships in in public-service innovation ย ยย Duties and Responsibilitiesย
ย The International Project Manager will work in close collaboration with the ARR โ Governance, under the direct supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative (DRR) and under the overall guidance of the Resident Representative (RR). ย ย
The International Project Manager will oversee the strategic planning, implementation, and monitoring of the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) project, ensuring its alignment with UNDP and national objectives. The role involves coordinating all project activities, driving e-governance innovations, fostering public-private partnerships, and managing the development of digital public goods and financial inclusion strategies. Additionally, the Project Manager will provide technical leadership for policy formulation and capacity development, build strong networks with government entities, donors, and other stakeholders to secure resources and monitor and evaluate project outcomes to ensure impactful and sustainable delivery.
Provide strategic leadership and project management for effective project planning and implementation:
Lead strategic planning for the a2i project, ensuring alignment with national priorities and global best practices in digital transformation in the public sector, and coherence across workstreams. This includes formulation of annual project work plans (AWPs), product roadmaps, budget plans, HR, procurement, and overall project implementation. Provide quality and timely management of the project life cycle, including meeting programmatic and financial deliverables in adherence to project documents and applicable UNDP policy and programme management procedures, Government standards, rules, and regulations and UNDPโs digital standards and data principles. Enhance adaptive management at a2i by embedding user feedback loops, digital product metrics, and real-time data analytics to drive informed decision-making and promptly address project deviations. Proactively integrate risk management strategies to mitigate operational, financial, and reputational risks. Prepare budget spending strategy and facilitate budget spending decisions by tracking and forecasting project budgets in alignment with technical development roadmaps, breaking them into technical requirements and specific TOR milestones for third party partners. Lead technical reviews of project documents to ensure the delivery of high-quality outputs.ย Guide collaboration with vendorsโ digital product development teams, including UX/UI design, architects, developers and testers in line with common agile digital development practices and methods. Ensure all project interventions integrate a gender equality perspective/gender equality mainstreaming and a focus on closing the digital divide to the extent local context allows. Ensure proper execution of all administrative activities associated with project implementation that includes building and sustaining effective liaison with the COโs functional areas and units (i.e., programme, M&E, finance, HR, procurement, and supply management). Identify opportunities for synergies with other projects utilizing digital solutions within UNDP and beyond.Build and maintain a2iโs strategic partnerships ย
Substantively contribute to the harnessing of effective partnerships and lead the identification and onboarding process for implementing partners. Cultivate, guide and maintain strong relationships and strategic linkages with implementing and development partners, government officials, businesses, NGOs, other national and regional stakeholders, and beneficiaries to support and ensure accurate interpretation of key objectives, and to promote inclusive and transparent project implementation, and clearly position a2iโs role as an advisor and enabler to build trust and coherence across the ecosystem. Communicate relevant and critical information with key implementing partners and members of a2i project steering committee (project board), and substantively contribute to project visibility efforts. Make recommendations to the CO management team on activities with potential for scale-up, replicability and synergies. Promote alignment across the ecosystem by fostering interoperability and integration of digital initiatives, addressing siloed approaches, and supporting systemic impact at both public sector and citizen levels.Monitor and report on progress in implementing a2i programming and achieving the targets and results set:
Provide leadership and technical advice to the project in developing baselines and indicators for project monitoring and evaluation, and coordinate the finalization of detailed results framework. Ensure strategies, processes, systems, and mechanisms are in place to effectively fulfill programme and financial monitoring, evaluation, quality assurance and reporting requirements.ย Ensure the monitoring and evaluation framework is effectively implemented to track project progress, assess outcomes, and capture lessons learned. Develop and submit timely project progress reports, including analysis of project performance and recommendations for adjustments. Lead evaluations of project activities and initiatives, ensuring that lessons learned are shared and incorporated into future planning. Coordinate the preparation of corporate, donor and government reports in line with the reporting schedule and UNDP and donor requirements. Ensure provision of ad hoc reports and information requested by relevant entities.ย Ensure proper operational and financial closure of the project.Lead knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing, and advocacy relevant to the assigned thematic area(s) of a2i programming and UNDP.
Identify capacity building needs and opportunities. Ensure appropriate training and other relevant capacity building activities are organized and implemented in a consultative manner, involving technical experts and stakeholders that may include the government, private sector, NGOs, donors, and/or academia. Lead workshops with senior level officials and stakeholders. Ensure the proper documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned by developing a knowledge repository that captures insights from a2iโs work and aligns with UNDPโs global digital transformation goals. . Support the development of digital public goods by ensuring that technical solutions and innovations created under a2i are appropriately documented, open-sourced where possible, and designed for global replicability and scalability.ย Strengthen advocacy efforts by actively participating in national and international forums, contributing to communities of practice, and promoting a2iโs achievements and methodologies as models for digital transformation. Ensure alignment with global initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Represent UNDP in relevant technical meetings and working groups under the direction of CO management.ย Promote financial sustainability of digital solutions by ensuring their seamless transition to appropriate government entities or other stakeholders.ย Provide comprehensive capacity-building support, operational guidelines, and governance frameworks to enable sustainable management.Advocate for policy and institutional frameworks that support the scaling and sustainability of digital innovations, ensuring they align with national strategies and reduce reliance on external funding. Embed a culture of continuous learning within a2i and partner institutions by implementing regular feedback loops, sense-making routines, and iterative design processes to refine approaches and address emerging challenges.Lead Resource Mobilization and Sustainability:
Provide leadership for and Team Management of the a2i project:
Provide strategic leadership and direction to the a2i team, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and results-oriented working environment that prioritizes innovation and shared accountability, Supervise and mentor a diverse team of national and international staff, ensuring their alignment with project objectives and professional growth. Support their capacity-building efforts by introducing agile methodologies, system change approaches, and other cutting-edge innovations in the digital transformation realm. Promote gender equality and diversity in team management, ensuring that recruitment, decision-making, and capacity-building efforts reflect an inclusive and equitable approach.The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.ย
CompetenciesCore competencies:
Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impactย Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problemsย Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demandsย Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivityPeople Management competencies:
UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.ยCross-Functional & Technical competencies:
Business Direction & Strategyย ย ย ย
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 systemDigital ย ย ย ย
Digital inclusion. Knowledge of how digital inclusion works, opportunities and challenges for governments and society Data privacy and digital ethics. Knowledge of ethical usage of digital technology (e.g. AI, robotics, automation) and data. Ability to assess ethical implications when using, combining or sharing data, when building or implementing AI systems, and when advising on robotisation and automation etc. Ability to design privacy protocols to ensure data is protected and used for legitimate purposes without unnecessary privacy risks.Business Managementย ย ย ย
Project Management. Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.ย Communication. 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 channelsPartnership Managementย ย ย ย
Relationship Management. Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust, and mutual understanding Required Skills and Experience ย Education: Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Computer Science, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, or related field is required, orย A first-level university degree (bachelorโs degree) in the areas 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 of 7 (seven) years (with masterโs degree) or 9 (nine) years (with bachelorโs degree) of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in project management, quality assurance, management advisory services, monitoring and evaluation of development projects with a digital component, and partnership management is required.ย Prior experience in leading a project team comprising national and international experts.ย Experience in working, liaising, and collaborating with UN agencies, governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, and public international organizations. Knowledge and experience in inclusive digital transformation and implementation of complex digital technology solutions.ย Prior experience of resource mobilization.ย Experience in improving operational efficiency.ย Experience in the advanced use of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, SharePoint, Teams, etc.), database usage, web-based management systems, and project management tools. Experience in digital system architecture, digital public infrastructure and cyber security for digital solutionsยRequired languages:
Fluency in English is required. Disclaimerย 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 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.ย
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