The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has corporate responsibility for developing all relevant policies and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. Together with the Crisis Bureau, BPPS forms the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of global experts and practitioners to connect countries to the world of knowledge, resources, and networks of best practice they need to achieve development breakthroughs.

Within BPPS, the Effectiveness Group is the custodian of, amongst other programming policies, UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards (SES) comprising of the Programming Principles applied to Country Programmes and Project level Standards applied to Development Projects/Portfolios through the Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP). UNDP’s SES are underpinned by an Accountability Mechanism with two key components: (i) the Stakeholder Response Mechanism (SRM) that ensures individuals, peoples, and communities affected by projects have access to appropriate grievance resolution procedures for hearing and jointly addressing complaints and disputes related to the social and/or environmental impacts of UNDP-supported projects; and (ii) the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU) which investigates alleged non-compliance with UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards and screening procedure from project-affected stakeholders and recommends measures to address findings of non-compliance.

To support the implementation of the SRM, the Stakeholder Response Mechanism Coordinator is a key member of the Effectiveness Group, leading UNDP’s SRM efforts that enable stakeholders to engage with UNDP when they believe that a UNDP project may have adverse social or environmental impacts on them; they have raised their concerns with Implementing Partners and/or with UNDP through standard channels for stakeholder consultation and engagement; and they have not been satisfied with the response. The SRM provides a way for UNDP to address these situations systematically, predictably, expeditiously, and transparently. Through the SRM, UNDP Country Offices, Regional Bureau and Headquarters collaborate in a thorough, good faith effort to resolve outstanding concerns to the satisfaction of all parties, and to document the results to ensure accountability and promote organizational learning.

The functions performed by the SRM coordinator will aim to improve environmental and social outcomes for local communities and other stakeholders affected by UNDP projects by:

• Enhancing UNDP’s ability to manage risks related to its Social and Environmental Standards, to avoid or mitigate social and environmental impacts.
• Ensuring that UNDP responds to the concerns of project stakeholders (particularly vulnerable groups that are central to UNDP’s programmatic work) regarding social and environmental risks and impacts.
• Ensuring feedback and operational learning from the SRM, by integrating SRM requests, responses and results into UNDP’s results-based management, quality assurance processes; and
• Reflecting and advancing best practices among development institutions, whose stakeholders (including governments, civil society, indigenous peoples, and international partner agencies) increasingly expect social and environmental grievance resolution processes to be a regular, integrated part of project management.

Scope of Work

1. Stakeholder Response 

• Liaise with SECU/OAI on intake and requests that include compliance issues.
• In collaboration with SECU advise complainants in a comprehensive manner on the different avenues of grievance redress available to them (SRM/SECU) and provide a comprehensive overview over the SRM process.
• Lead in the response to requests when it cannot be done impartially and/or effectively at the country level, or when it is requested by the complainant.
• Provide backstopping and technical advice to CO-led SRM response.
• Build and maintain a roster of effective grievance resolution professionals for use in SRM cases that require external expertise, with a particular focus on the establishment of country- and region-level registries of mediation expertise.
• Maintain the SRM component of UNDP’s public AM case registry.

2. Stakeholder Response Mechanism and Grievance Redress Mechanism – Tracking and Reporting

• Track SRM cases, collect lessons learned, and report annually on the SRM to corporate management, Regional Bureau, and Country Offices.
• Engage with colleagues managing corporate quality assurance and risk tracking, monitoring, and reporting systems to assess entry points for incorporating grievance tracking.
• Support the design and maintenance of digital systems and tools to register, track and monitor grievances at the country-, regional- and HQ level, including means of notifying/linking to corporate SRM and annual reporting systems (Quantum, ROAR etc).
• Prepare guidance for Country Office- and project-level staff on how to track grievances.
• Design measurable targets for annual benchmarking and tracking of SRM uptake and establishment at the respective levels. Report on progress towards those measurable targets on an annual basis for EfG management and BPPS senior management attention.
• Collect and analyze lessons from cases and report annually on the SRM to corporate management (OPG/Risk Committee), Regional Bureaux and COs.
• Provide ongoing analysis on UNDP’s support to project/national GRMs, with the aim of documenting and disseminating lessons learned and improving UNDP’s overall approach.

3. Strengthen the establishment, roll out and operational capacities of SRM and GRM at Country – Regional and Global Levels

• Conduct assessments of grievance risks and current GRM capacity, through desk reviews, interviews etc. engaging COs and RBx.
• Provide advice and recommendations on strengthening GRMs where needed, through assessment reports and other requested formats.
• Develop, together with the Project Management Units (PMU), procedures for the effective functioning of a project GRM, including roles and responsibilities, budget and capacity needs and measures to address gaps.
• Develop procedures for reporting and responding to complaints and the communications around them, focusing on links between project-GRMs, CO-level SRM focal points and SRM HQ.
• Develop procedures with associated communication materials for project staff to disseminate to stakeholders about project-GRM and SRM/SECU.
• Prioritize the establishment and roll out of project GRM for complex moderate, substantial/ high risk projects as per SESP.
• Socialize and build staff capacity at country, regional and global levels on SRM and GRM, how it works (including stakeholder outreach, receipt, response, tracking, monitoring, reporting, escalation, mediation, the Ruggie Principles, etc.) and the designation of SRM focal points for COs and RBx.

4. Learning, Knowledge Management and Communication

• Prepare cases on the establishment of the SRM and use of a project GRM for UNDP projects, highlighting lessons, challenges, recommendations.
• Develop operational guidance and communications materials for internal and external use, to inform staff, government counterparts and stakeholders about the SRM.
• Conduct public outreach to inform global stakeholders about the SRM and support COs in performing parallel outreach at country level.
• Prepare handout materials in simple format on project GRMs/SRM for projects/RBx/COs to tailor and distribute to project stakeholders (to be translated into multiple languages).
• Coordinate with SECU on the creation/dissemination of knowledge pieces and explore paths for joint knowledge products.

5. Outreach and Partnerships

• Establish regular channels of communication and learning exchange with counterparts at other UN organizations and MFI’s.
• Participate in conferences and external meetings (e.g., Annual Meeting of Independent Accountability Mechanisms, UNAMmet, Grievance Redress and Accountability Mechanism hosted by GCF) with partner organizations to enhance UNDP’s overall grievance handling process and ensure steady improvements.
• Ensure that lessons learned from other organizations are reviewed and relevant elements distilled for use by UNDP.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization

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:    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 inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

• Business 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 Development –  Knowledge Facilitation:

-Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally

• 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 parts of the system

• 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

• 2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness –  Effectiveness:

-Stakeholder Response Mechanism

• 2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness –  Effectiveness

-Social and Environmental Standards

•   Demonstrated knowledge of UNDP’s Programming and Operations Policies and Procedures is an asset.
•   Experience in developing learning products, particularly in- depth online courses and comprehensive institutional training is an asset.
•   Demonstrated experience in excellent analytical and organizational skills is desired.
•   Working experience on grievance redress with other international organizations, especially international financial institutions (IFI’s), is an asset.
•   Experience in stakeholder engagement, including with a focus on indigenous peoples and local communities is desirable.

Required Language(s)  

• Fluency in English is required
• Working knowledge of Spanish and French is an asset.