UNDP Nepal Vacancy for Federal Programme Coordination Analyst

Job Identification: 20105
Locations: Kathmandu, Nepal
Apply Before: 08/31/2024, 09:44 AM
Job Schedule: Full time
Agency: UNDP
Grade: NPSA-9
Vacancy Type: National Personnel Service Agreement
Practice Area”: Governance
Bureau: Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific
Contract Duration: 1 Year
Required Languages: English and Nepali
Vacancy Timeline: 2 Weeks
Mobility required/no mobility: no mobility required

Job Description

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.
Nepal adopted a new Constitution in September 2015, with the intent of transforming the then unitary and centralised system of governance into a federal and decentralised one as a vehicle to ensure equality, equity, and social justice. Nepal’s federal system is characterised by three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local) with non-hierarchical relationships within the levels of government. The Constitution stipulates that the three levels shall be the main structures of the Federal, Democratic and Republican Nepal and all levels shall exercise the power of state of Nepal pursuant to the Constitution and law. The powers of the three levels of government are enshrined in five Schedules of the constitution in the form of exclusive and concurrent powers. The federal system of governance became fully functional in February 2018 after all seven province governments were formed following the general election in November 2017.

With an objective to support on the implementation of federalism in Nepal, the Government of Nepal introduced a flagship programme of Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (2019-2024). Following an initial period of delivery and agreement by GoN, Provinces, stakeholders, and Development Partners that Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme remained necessary and relevant, a decision was taken to extend Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme, with changes necessary to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of Provincial Local Governments (PLG).

The Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme (PLGSP) 2024-2029 is the national framework programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational, and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. It aims to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive, and accountable provincial and local governance. Following an initial period of delivery (2019-2023), and agreed by the GoN, Provinces, Development Partners, and other stakeholders, PLGSP will continue for the next five years, with necessary changes to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the emerging needs of PLGs in advancing federalism in Nepal.

An extensive stakeholder engagement, consultations and re-programming process was undertaken between July 2023 and June 2024 that resulting in a substantial revision in the PLGSP Programme Document (ProDoc). This reprogrammed ProDoc outlines how re-programmed PLGSP emphasizes building the capacity and capability of PLGs’ to deliver on the institutional and individual capacities for advancing federalism in Nepal over the next 5 years. The ProDoc has focused on three outcomes for Federal, Provincial and LG level impacts, each with three related outputs. Three outcomes include:  Outcome 1: Federal level government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms are fully functional in support of federal governance as per the Constitution; Outcome 2: Provincial governments have efficient, effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions and organizations; Outcome 3: Local governments have capacity for Good Governance and for delivering inclusive basic services to all people. Furthermore, there are 9 outputs against the outcome mentioned. Four cross-cutting thematic streams: (i) Inclusive federalism acts, regulations, policies, and strategies; (ii) Collaboration within and across federal institutions and governments, and civic engagement; (iii) Supportive systems and tools for PLG inclusive federalism capacity; (iv) capacity development and transformation (applied to all 3 levels) have also been defined and articulated well.   The programme considers the broad principles and approaches including focus on federal devolution, transparency, and accountability, embedding transformative gender and diversity/inclusion agenda, human rights based and participatory approach, devolved, contextual and flexible programme design and implementation and adaptive programming. Further, unpacking structural barriers in political institutions, promoting ownership and trust in provincial and local government system and changing power dynamics in government institutions addressing intersectionality are the expected pathways for Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) transformation in the programme. Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executing agency of the GoN for PLGSP in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Provincial and Local Governments.

UNDP as the partner of PLGSP and Technical Assistance (TA) provider, has been working with the MoFAGA on the implementation of PLGSP since its inception. The TA component of the programme has also been revised accordingly to facilitate the transformation in the behaviours of the authorities towards federalism for inclusive service delivery, it is fully aligned with revised PLGSP incorporating learnings from the earlier TA engagement. The intent of the revised TA is to leverage UNDP’s technical expertise and facilitation role to support positive transformations that enable implementation of federalism in Nepal, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and effective delivery of inclusive services by PLGs to their people especially for the most marginalized and women.

To this effect, TA will support PLGs for their institutional and organizational capacities. The TA support to federal government will help develop and implement necessary laws and policies to strengthen inter-governmental relationships thereby supporting cooperative federalism. To attain the sustainable achievement described above, TA has been categorized into Implementation Support TA (ISTA) and Transformational TA. ISTA focuses more on supporting the governments in the implementation of PLGs thereby building their institutional and individual capacities. Whereas Transformational TA focuses more on supporting behavioural transformation through research and analysis as well as providing high level expertise as needed. Overall, the TA staff (ISTA and Transformational TA) works together in close coordination with each other in overall guidance of respective government and UNDP Country Office.

Position Summary:

The position holder has a key role in PLGSP programme implementation through Programme Coordination Unit at federal level. S/he will be responsible to support the National Programme Director (NPD) and National Programme Manager (NPM) for the effective implementation of the programme. In addition, the incumbent will be an interface for coordination among the provincial teams, transformational team and MoFAGA. S/he will be first point of contact for PLGSP annual work plans, reporting requirement and any other technical support required to deliver for PLGSP.

The Federal Programme Coordination Analyst will report to and work under the direct supervision of the PLGSP NPM and under overall guidance of the NPD and Governance and Rule of Law Portfolio of UNDP. The Federal Programme Coordination Analyst will coordinate the ISTA team, support staff and national and international consultants deployed during the programme implementation.

The incumbent will work closely with MoFAGA, OPMCM, sectoral ministries, PLGs, PLGSP development partners, LG Associations, UN agencies and other national and international stakeholders and institutions working on inclusive federalism. S/he may represent PCU on different technical forums to share information about the programme and provide technical guidance on issues related to federalism and governance. The Analyst will supervise four direct reports.

Duties and Responsibilities

The position contributes to outputs 1, 2 & 5 of the Programme.

Contribute to the overall management and implementation of the programme:

• Work with the NPD and NPM on the overall implementation of the Annual Strategic Implementation Plans & Budgets (ASIPB).
• Provide technical insights to the province based ISTA team in preparing Provincial-ASIPBs (P-ASIPB) and Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) team to prepare
• Federal Annual Strategic Implementation Plan and Budget (FASIPB) and lead the consolidated ASIPB (including TA annual workplan) to present to the National Steering Committee (NSC).
• Provide support to PLGSP management to convene PLGSP governing committees meeting, workshops, training and other events. This will include preparations and submissions for NSC, Federal Coordination Committee (FCC) and Technical Assistance Committee (TAC).
• Inspire and engage the team, including support staff, to function effectively and efficiently in design and implementation of their assignments and engagement with partners.
• Guide and support Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) of PLGSP in preparation of reports namely annual progress reports, monitoring reports and other required reports.
• Facilitate support team for the provision of UNDP financial resources through funding advances, direct payments or reimbursement using the Fund
• Authorisation Certificate of Expense (FACE) form.

Ensure effective delivery and quality of the planned results:

• Guide program support team to consolidate financial progress reports submitted by the responsible parties for implementation of programme activities.
• Review and ensure technical soundness and cost effectiveness of programme activities starting from their concepts to delivery.
• Manage programme risks, including social and environmental risks, maintaining programme risk log to present them to the governing mechanism as appropriate. This also includes the development of contingency plans in consultation with the key stakeholders.
• Develop results acceleration plan to make sure that all the results are achieved on time and financial delivery is monitored periodically.
• Support contracting and quality assurance of national and international experts and service providers, including for baseline, third party monitoring, mid-term, and final evaluation.
• Contribute to carry out financial/operational compliance related activities for the programme as per UNDP rules and regulation.
• Enhance PLG internal and external performance accountability through transparency, learning and people’s voice in line with the programme.

Ensure Coordination and Partnership with concerned stakeholders and implementing partners:

• Ensure programme activities carried out by the federal agencies, the provincial governments and local government are coordinated and aligned with PLGSP outcomes and outputs.
• Guide and support PLGSP management to ensure MoFAGA and Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) work in coordinated way to deliver on PLGSP outcomes in coordination with transformational TA.
• Contribute to strengthen coordination between PLGSP and national and international agencies working on federalism in Nepal.
• Facilitate PCU to conduct regular meetings with all the development agencies, I/NGOs working in the areas of governance and federalism to explore the areas of synergy and coordination.
• Coordinate with PLGs on good practices, learning and scaling opportunities in coordination with transformational TA team.
• Facilitate in establishing partnerships between PLGSP, Parliamentary Support Programme (PSP), Sub-National Governance Programme (SNGP), Provincial
• Support Programme and other projects and Development Partners (DP), I/NGOs for cross-learning and capture/scaling of good practice.

Strengthen monitoring and reporting against the planned results:

• Provide support on monitoring, and reporting of the PLGSP activities, and develop capacities of counterparts accordingly.
• Coordinate to prepare joint monitoring plan along with all the stakeholders and carry it out.
• Coordinate to carryout third party monitoring on timely manner and support in carrying out periodic programme evaluations.
• Support MoFAGA to organise annual review meeting with the programmes/projects working in the governance sector in coordination with the transformational TA team.
• Ensure that the indicators included in the programme results framework are monitored annually in advance of the submission deadline.
• Prepare regular progress reports in line with reporting schedules, as well as any other reports requested by Government, UNDP, development partners other stakeholders, as appropriate.
• Monitor implementation of plans including the gender, social inclusion action plan, stakeholder engagement plan, and any environmental and social management plans.
• Facilitate to ensure, documentation of lessons learnt, good practices and completion report for the closer of the programme.

Strengthen Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) work through Programme Interventions:

• Ensure that GESI is mainstreamed in all result areas of the programme and targeted interventions planned and implemented to promote inclusive governance and federalism.
• Collaborate with the transformational TA and identify the entry points on GESI specific interventions for transformative GESI results.
• Provide support to the team members to establish a system to collect gender disaggregated data, impact stories and results benefiting male, female, people with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities, and other marginalized groups.
• Support to identify and address risks and challenges associated for their meaningful participation in federalism process, particularly in receiving services.
• Ensure GESI is adequately captured in programme progress reports, baseline survey and final evaluation.
• Facilitate to create a safe and enabling working environment by developing respectful and safe organizational culture.
• Ensure zero tolerance for sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse of authority.
• Collaborate with team members, programme partners, and sub-grantees to ensure timely implementation of programmes at the community level applying Do No Harm approach.

Other:

• Strictly Comply with the policies, strategies, code of conduct, guidelines on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
• Strict compliance with the UNDP applicable rules, regulations and policies related to ethics and integrity.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the programme.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

People Management competencies:

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

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business /Project and Process Management

• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.

Business Management

Partnerships Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts, and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.

Business Direction and Strategy

Effective Decision Making: Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources

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
Finance

Budget management: Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness

Effectiveness: Project Quality Assurance
2030 Agenda: People

Gender: Gender Mainstreaming

2030 Agenda: Peace

Governance: Inclusion and Participation

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Management, Public Administration/ Rural Development, Political Science, Social Science, or other relevant area. Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the area 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 2 years of experience (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) in programme/project management, local governance and federalism, Government-led programmes in development context is required.
• Additional experience in the above area will be an added advantage.
• Experience in coordination with government agencies and facilitating dialogue among different stakeholders such as citizens, CSOs, etc. to promote inclusive federalism is required.
• Experience in planning, monitoring, and knowledge management is required.
• Experience in the preparation of donors or other technical and financial reports is required.
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point etc.) and web-based management and analytical tools.
• Proven experience in coordination with multi-stakeholders.
• Experience in project management of multi-donor funding programme/project.
• Knowledge of and familiarity with UNDP/Development sector policies and procedures and operating knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is desired.
• Experience in Result based planning and programming is desired.
• Demonstrated experience in Communication and quality report writing is an asset.
• Knowledge and experience in policy advocacy with government and other partners with national and international stakeholders to promote inclusive federalism and/or local governance is desired.
• Monitoring and results tracking experience skills is desirable.
• Experience of Strategic engagement, partnership with government and development partners is desirable.
• Experience working with the federal agencies of the government is desirable.
• Knowledge and experience in promoting GESI for evidence-based policy formulation, advocacy and inclusive local governance is desired.

Required Languages:

• Fluency in English and Nepali language is required.
• Knowledge about national language will be an asset.

Disclaimer

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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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