As the world responded to COVID-19 impacts and restrictions in the past years, the ECA region also saw an unprecedented increase in the introduction and adoption of digital or digitally-enhanced solutions, products and services in both public and private sectors. At the same time, the pandemic revealed the significant digital divide and unequal state of digital access and digital literacy between and within countries. High scores and ratings amongst many countries in global/regional digitalization indices have proven to be rather inadequate to demonstrate the real state of digitalization. Even countries with high internet and mobile penetration rates struggled in ensuring business continuity, timely communications, and effective coordination of the pandemic response. Many education and health systems ground to a halt, and the most vulnerable suffered the most. While many governments and public sector institutions have adapted digitalization strategies and frameworks, they suffer from fragmentation, weak understanding of digitalization and technology and their role in development, inefficient and expensive legacy systems, poor digital literacy, lack of adequate financing and infrastructure, inadequate data systems, and an inability to harness the expertise of private sector, academic institutions, and civil society organizations, among others. Enhancing cybersecurity and enhancing national capacity to immediately recover from cyber attacks has become an importance.  The importance of effective digital governance – particularly at the local level – becomes even more crucial.  At the same time, there is significantly increasing role of digital and technology in innovation, economic development, gender equality, peacebuilding, disaster and conflict prevention, recovery and response, and in climate mitigation and adaptation, environment and natural resource management.

With the Digital Strategy 2022-2025, UNDP puts forth a long-term vision to create a world in which digital is an empowering force for people and planet. This vision is closely aligned with the UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025, which outlines how UNDP will seek to support countries in three directions of change – structural transformation, leaving no one behind, and building resilience – and underlines the importance of digital as one of three enablers to achieve this change. The Digital Strategy defines three objectives:

• Digitally enabled programming: amplify development outcomes by embedding digital across all UNDP programing
• Empowering digital ecosystems: Support societies in their efforts to create more inclusive and resilient digital ecosystems
• Digitally Native UNDP: Transform UNDP so that it has fit-for-purpose digital systems, processes, tools, and data, as well as a digitally competent workforce to effectively support the first two objectives.

Moreover, digital technologies have a significant impact on human rights – they can be used to better promote human rights, but also to undermine the protection and implementation of these rights. According to the UNDP Digital Strategy (2022-25), human rights are at the heart of UNDP’s approach to people-centred digital transformation. This is an important approach that needs to be implemented more effectively in development practice. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the real impact of the increasing use of digital technologies and AI on the realization of human rights. Privacy is a prerequisite for the full exercise of other human rights, notably the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The increasing use of the digital sphere to communicate and source information has also openend new challenges to, and opportunities for social cohesion between communities and with institutions. This is leading technology and digitalization to the core of conflict risks identified by both communities and governments across the region. In this environment, UNDP must enhance its understanding of the impacts of digital tools and their uses on conflict and peacebuilding dynamics–both in terms of negative and positive impacts across all stakeholders.

In 2022, IRH prepared a scoping study of the emerging trends, challenges, and regulatory frameworks related to data protection and the impact of technologies and AI on human rights in the ECIS region. The lack of national regulatory frameworks and capacities on issues of privacy and data protection in cybersecurity was highlighted as one of the areas for UNDP’s engagement.

The Istanbul Regional Hub is UNDP’s main knowledge and advisory hub for the countries serviced by UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS (RBEC). It supports integrated approaches and solutions to sustainable development through its thematic teams working on Governance and Peacebuilding, Inclusive Growth, Health and Development, Gender Equality, Knowledge and Innovation, Disaster and Risk Reduction, Nature, Climate and Environment, SDG Finance and New Partnerships. In alignment with the UNDP Strategic Plan (SP 2022-2025) and the ECIS Regional Programme Document (RPD 2022-2025) which recognizes the critical role of digital transformation and digital solutions in achieving the 2030 agenda and contributing to UNDP’s priority areas ,i.e., structural transformation, including green, inclusive and digital transitions; leaving no one behind; and building resilience. The SP identifies Governance as one of the UNDP signature solution and digitalization as an enabler of scaled up development impact.  IRH also facilitates the RBEC Digital Advocates Network (DAN), in partnership with the Chief Digital Office.

Programme and Policy development:

• Provide cutting edge intelligence and analysis to inform policy and programmatic offers to advance whole-of-government, whole-of-society digital transformation focusing on future-oriented solutions;
• Ensure alignment of RBEC’s digital transformation framework and strategy with UNDP’s Strategic Plan, UNDP Digital Strategy, the RBEC Regional Programme Document, and related corporate priorities, as well as with international digital development policies, norms and standards;
• Foster digital and tech integration and policy innovations in various thematic areas with focus on advancing smart, rights-based and inclusive digital governance and digital ecosystems;
• Together with UNDP Country Offices and IRH Teams, actively lead the identification, conceptualization, design, evaluation and scaling up of policy and programmatic initiatives including legislative, institutional, regulatory and financing frameworks to advance coherent digital transformation at national and sub-national levels;
• Advise on the identification and mitigation of potential digital risks and threats related to advanced technological solutions, applications and issues such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data privacy, misinformation and disinformation, among others.

Partnerships, Advocacy and Resource Mobilization:

• Support the mobilization of digital partnerships and resources to advance digital transformation in the region, including preparation of proposals, donor briefings, reporting, advocacy and information-sharing;
• Establish strategic partnerships with tech companies and solutions providers, private sector, civil society, academia and the private sector, with a focus on advancing approaches, solutions, insights and innovations to advance digital transformation;
• Support the design, conceptualization and organization of needs-based conferences, workshops and/or learning initiatives (online and offline), ensuring close engagement with external knowledge and expertise to inform internal approaches and solutions;
• Pursue opportunities for inter-agency engagement at national or (sub-)regional levels;

Knowledge Management:

• Coordinate timely and forward-looking knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, and codification of results/lessons learned on digital transformation in the region, including facilitating communications between CDO, IRH and CO digital focal points;
• Harness and mobilize the regional Digital Advocates Network (DAN) and digital focal points in the region as a strong knowledge network and active part of the global digital community of practice, towards ensuring robust capabilities on digital transformation at CO and regional levels;
• Support cross-regional exchange of knowledge by collaborating with policy teams in HQ and Regional Hubs to research, develop and share knowledge-based tools, guidance and case studies to help influence/advance policy dialogues on digital transformation in the region.

Institutional Arrangement

The Programme Specialist (Digital Transformation) will report to the Team Leader, Governance and Peacebuilding Team, Istanbul Regional Hub. S/he is expected to work closely with other thematic teams in IRH to ensure integration of digital and technology in all thematic areas of work. The Programme Specialist will also maintain a dotted-line reporting association with the global Chief Digital Office, with the Head of Data and Technology

• 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

• 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
• Intelligence Design:
  • Ability to bring together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions
• 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 robotization and automation etc.
  • Ability to design privacy protocols to ensure data is protected and used for legitimate purposes without unnecessary privacy risks
• Data Governance:
  • Knowledge of data science, skills to develop data management tools, organize and maintain databases and operate data visualization technologies
• Digital product management:
  • Ability to design and lead digital product development including testing, ongoing product iteration, product strategy and delivery.
• 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
• Governance:
  • E-Government