Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: 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 ‘leave no one behind’ 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.
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 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 HQ, 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 (Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery for Building Resilience; Environment and Energy and Poverty and Inequality) and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.
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. BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes. BPPS 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. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.
BPPS’s Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, with the support of the Vertical Fund Programme Support, Oversight and Compliance Unit, works with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate nature, climate, energy and waste related concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies, support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and oversee the implementation of the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste.
The newly established UNDP Climate Hub is the arrowhead of UNDP’s commitment to the “Climate Promise” that aims to support programming countries designing and implementing pledges under the Paris Agreement, including ambitious National Determined Contributions, with climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions fully embedded in the national development planning and budgetary processes. The Climate Hub will build on UNDP’s existing over USD 4 billion country-level climate portfolio on Climate Change Policies and Strategies, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change Mitigation, Climate and Forests, covering over 142 countries, as well as on UNDP’s Nature portfolio, UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP’s Digital offer and other relevant portfolios on youth, gender, health, climate security among others.
The Climate Promise initiative provides direct financial and technical support to countries on NDC implementation in the context of national development priorities. As part of this portfolio initiative, contributions from the Government of Japan with $42M (2021) and $23M (2022) to Country Offices and global team was delivered to enhance implementation of NDCs. These contributions will provide financial and technical assistance to 28 countries/territories around the world. This Japan – UNDP partnerships seeks to respond to the status and context of the country’s NDC process under two key pillars: clean energy and net-zero pathways; and helping vulnerable and fragile communities to be more resilient to climate impacts.
In pursuance of sustainable and inclusive development in Small Island Developing States, UNDP has commenced a USD $37.53 million project, in partnerships with the Government of Japan since February 2023. It will support four Pacific Island Countries (Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu) with a ‘Green Transformation (GX)’ of their economies that will reduce reliance on fossil fuels, drive sustainable economic growth and help them cope with the impacts of climate change. The two-year project, titled Promoting Green Transformation in the Pacific Region towards Net-Zero Emissions and Climate-Resilient Development will support investments in clean energy, more efficient management of natural resources and strengthened coping capacity in the face of extreme weather events linked to climate change. UNDP’s multi-country implementation modality will be followed for this project. BRH, together with the four Country Offices in the Pacific region, lead the implementation of the project with strong engagement of the Environment team within the GPN based in Bangkok Regional Hub.
UNDP is recruiting a Strategic Partnership Specialist to augment and strengthen the partnership and policy engagements and implementation on climate promise and GX among the Government of Japan, UNDP and local partners, including but not limited to national and sub-national authorities, industry, companies, academia, and CSOs. The incumbent will advocate for UNDP values and efforts and create new opportunities for the Climate Promise JSB and the Pacific Project for Promoting Green Transformation in the Pacific Region toward Net-Zero, and Climate-Resilient Development.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the guidance and supervision of Environment Regional Team Leader and Climate Hub, the Strategic Partnerships Specialist Climate will work to strengthen policy engagement with partners in Japan while effectively communicating results and impact of projects in a timely manner under the framework of Pacific Green Transformation project and Climate Promise. He/she will build, nurture and maintain effective external partnerships and communications guided by stakeholders and Tokyo Representation Office (TRO), and strategically and substantively engage in effective policy advocacy.
The Strategic Partnerships Specialist will be based in Tokyo Representative Office and have matrixed reporting. He/she reports to the TRO Deputy Director as primary supervisor and to the Environment Regional Team leader in Asia Pacific and the Climate Hub Climate Strategies Specialist for Climate Promise as secondary supervisors. Regular meetings will be conducted with the secondary supervisors and their respective project teams, whenever needs arise in order to report on progress and agree on priorities and needs. Secondary supervisors will contribute to the incumbent’s annual work planning and performance review exercise.
Successful performance envisages close cooperation with technical advisors and managers on the global, regional and country office levels. The Specialist will support the project management and spearhead the overall effort to build partnerships, assist with the effective strategic programme planning, coordination, and implementation, including liaison, representation functions and coordination of communication flow. The incumbent will promote a client-oriented approach, in the framework of UNDP policies, rules, and regulations.
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.
Partnership development and effective external communications
- Provide strategic advice and policy recommendations with a view to strategically position Pacific Green Transformation project and Climate Promise through partnerships between programme countries, Japan and UNDP.
- Act as liaison with the public sector in Japan. Organize and participate in meetings and consultations as required, while anticipating and addressing challenges and concerns.
- Develop partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and academia to ensure successful communication and reporting on the delivery of the two large scale programme and explore potential scaling up through diverse partnerships.
- Identify specific opportunities for Japan – UNDP partnerships, by maintaining advocacy with Japanese counterparts.
Lead capacity development, liaison with UNDP country offices and coordination of consultation to contribute to effective project implementation
- Serve as liaison between UNDP, programme countries and Japanese counterparts to help organize capacity development activities/initiatives based on capacity needs assessments, and capacity development impact is measured, and linked to effective implementation.
- Serve as liaison, if and when requested by UNDP Country Offices with Japanese partners (private or public) to facilitate engagement at the project level.
- Lead the coordination of consultations among BPPS, Regional Bureaus, BERA and Bureau for Management Services for effective implementation and call for proposals process. Provide substantive inputs to proposals pertaining to supporting implementation of Japan’s policy priorities, in line with a revised Development Cooperation Charter of Japan.
Advocacy with donor and external audiences
- In coordination with Management Teams and communications specialists, amplify dissemination of lessons learned, good practices, stories and results from Pacific Green Transformation project and Climate Promise and through various challenges and make timely reporting to the Government of Japan.
- Contribute to strategic policy advocacy and engagement with MOFA and broader audiences in domestic, regional and global fora.
- Work closely with RBAP/BPPS management and technical teams of any events or meetings which require briefing notes, presentations or talking points and lead the preparation of material, aligned with Japanese counterparts’ requirements or needs.
- Contribute to Knowledge Networks and Communities of Practice within the organization and at various platforms.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Competencies
CORE
Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
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 demands
Act with Determination: EVEL 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 inclusivity.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies
Partnership management OECD/DAC Partnerships Knowledge and understanding of OECD DAC members policy, strategy, systems and decision-making processes related to ODA
Partnership management Private sector engagement Ability to identify, conduct outreach, and manage relationships with the private sector
Partnership management 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
Partnership management - Strategic engagement Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives
Business Direction & Strategy Negotiation and Influence Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates ‘win-win’ situations
Business Direction & 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
Business Management Portfolio Management Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization´s 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 investment.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in International Relations, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Finance, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, or related field is required; or
- A first-level university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master´s degree.
Experience:
- Minimum 7 years (with Master´s degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor´s degree) of experience in partnership development, external communications, liaison with UNDP country offices and coordination of consultation to contribute to effective project implementation, public policies or development programmes of Japan.
- Proven experience in strategy development and donor partnerships/public relations at the international level is required.
- Demonstrated significant experience in international cooperation / resource mobilization for development is required.
- Demonstrated strong diplomatic and negotiation skills, ability to effectively communicate with partners are required.
- Demonstrated experience in working with international organisations, or in diverse settings is required.
- Demonstrated experience of work with the Government of Japan or other Japanese stakeholders is an asset.
- Demonstrated strong understanding of global development issues is an asset.
- Previous working experience in project implementation and partnership building in developing and/or crisis countries is an asset
- Previous experience with UNDP or with other UN organizations is an advantage.
- Solid knowledge of the Paris Agreement, 2030 Agenda, climate negotiations is an advantage.
- Previous experience with Japanese private sector or NGOs is an advantage.
- Excellent writing and analytical skills including writing high-quality reports, position papers and policy briefs are an advantage.
- Fluency in English languages is a requirement.
- Fluency in Japanese languages is an asset.
Please note that continuance of appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.
Disclaimer
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.
Non-discrimination
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.
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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