Organization: UNDP – United Nations Development Programme
Location: Dhaka
Grade: Level not specified – Level not specified
Occupational Groups:
Project and Programme Management
Managerial positions
Closing Date: 2024-08-31
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.
The NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) under the Prime Minister’s Office is the organization that steered being behind all the success rendered by the NGOs in Bangladesh. At the beginning, there were only 347 NGOs registered with only 67 human resources to deal with. But coming in 2023, the number of registered NGOs under NGOAB are 2554 (2289 are national and 265 international NGOs) with the same 67 human resources. NGOAB has been facing constraints to effectively perform their responsibilities due to lack of adequate staff, required skills of the employees and smart system that can deliver timely services and ensure oversights to significant number of NGOs and projects. NGOAB receives millions of foreign donations every year and clears those amounts through NGOs’ proposals as well. If the results and progress can be captured and reflected in a complementary manner, it will reveal a true picture of SDG progress with GO and NGOs’ contributions.
Given the context, the country is economically progressing and graduating to the Middle-Income Country by 2026. Therefore, NGOs in Bangladesh have scope to revisit their working modality, and the way of engagement in addressing development challenges and in this regard NGOAB has an important role to play. As UNDP Bangladesh has been working with several government agencies to support sustainable LDC graduation and achieving SDGs, UNDP considers its engagement with NGOAB for targeting valuable improvements in service delivery through digitalization and online process. This is in line with UNDP’s mandate which is to engage with our partners to support achieving the long-term development vision of the government of Bangladesh.
UNDP in collaboration with Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and NGOAB designed a 2.5 year’s project entitled “Institutional Strengthening for Promoting Accelerated Transformation (ISPAT)” for the overall improvement of NGOAB/NGOs service system by next two and half years. The overall objective of the project is to make NGOAB fully capable of providing fast, efficient and effective services to NGOs in managing foreign donations and supporting them to contribute in attaining SDGs by 2030. the project will consider three-prong strategy to strengthening system and improving work-culture by- i) improving the institutional capacity through digitalization of services; ii) augmenting professional skills and competence of NGOs and NGOAB officials to implement the gender responsive digital services with greater efficiency; and iii) providing technical assistance for enhancing policy support to ensure wider convergence of sectoral policies as well simplification of services with necessary policy guidelines.
In this backdrop, this Implementation plan outlines ISPAT’s strategy to capacitate with digital innovation for improving service delivery system. This project will contribute to achieve the following results:
Outcome 1: Ensuring effective and efficient utilization of foreign donations to improve the socioeconomic status of the poor, women, and other marginalized sections of the people.
Outcome 2: Recognizing and documenting contributions of NGOs in the attainment of global goals and national priorities of reducing poverty, improving governance and service delivery aligning with women and human rights.
Outcome 3: Strengthening policy formulation and fostered innovation of NGOs by showcasing and scaling-up nationally.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Project Managerwill be responsible for strategically and adaptively leading project management, including planning, implementation, monitoring, generating expected outputs and outcomes in line with the approved Project Document, and evaluation. S/he will work closely with the component/output lead of the ISPAT project, UNDP operations unit, Programme cluster, Government officials, private sector, NGOs and civil society organizations. S/he will be responsible achieving the project’s outputs and outcomes.
Key Functions:
Result-based Project Management, including Planning, Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation:
Provide management oversight to ensure project implementation is on track.
Management of project finances and achievement of quarterly and annual programme-finance delivery targets, with accountability to the National/Project Steering Committee/Project Board and UNDP.
Ensure the preparation of annual work plan, budgeting, finance, procurement, audit, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, etc.
Management of risks and issues, and execution of adaptive management in consultation with the Programme Analyst overseeing this project and the Assistant Resident Representative/UNDP Cluster Lead.
Management of project team to ensure the team operates in a productive manner, through a clear division of labour, and setting of specific quarterly and annual goals and targets for all team members, including annual performance planning at the start of each year and performance evaluation at mid-year and at the end of each calendar year.
Management of experts/specialists and service providers through planning, managing and monitoring the delivery of outputs, reports and knowledge products.
Review and contribute to all outputs and deliverables required by the project.
Supervision of the planning and organisation of events; capacity building activities including trainings; consultations; meetings of the National/Project Steering Committee, Technical Working Committee, Core Groups, etc; and technical, evaluation, corporate, development partner and other missions.
Ensure that the project draws from and collaborates with other UNDP-supported projects, avoiding duplication and maximizing synergy.
Completion of other relevant duties and tasks.
Partnership and Stakeholder Management, and Networking:
Identification of stakeholders and implementation partners for the undertaking of various outputs and activities.
Preparation and implementation of a stakeholder mapping and stakeholder engagement/partnership strategy, including civil society/non-government organisations with activities, targets and expected results.
Liaison with NGOAB and government counterparts, as relevant, including focal persons assigned for the specific project outputs for effective and smooth project coordination.
Coordinate with relevant partners/stakeholders/actors, the UNDP Country Office and its programmes/portfolios/projects at large, including to share information about trends, issues and results in the thematic area, to coordinate and utilize resources effectively and efficiently.
Development of new partnerships with development partners/donors, government, civil society and/or non-government organizations, academia, local communities and private sector to deliver the project outputs, as needed.
Evidence-based Advocacy and Support for Policy Reforms:
Analyze and consolidate project results/outputs, and provide results-based reporting of project progress at the outcome and impact levels.
Development and implementation of capacity building activities aimed at government counterparts and other relevant stakeholders.
Ensure highest UNDP standards in the provision of technical and advisory inputs, organization of workshops, seminars, training and delivery of product
Knowledge Management and Resources Mobilization:
Manage and contribute to the development of knowledge products, involving UNDP Programme Analyst, Cluster Lead and other relevant colleagues, implementing partners, consultants/experts/specialists, etc.
Manage and contribute to the design and publication of communication materials and knowledge products; as well as knowledge-sharing platforms, tools and mechanisms.
Manage the synthesis and documentation of project results, lessons learned, good practices, case studies, etc., from the project.
Preparation and update of project information, results and other material on UNDP, government and other websites, media, etc., on a quarterly basis.
Sharing of knowledge and information between UNDP, project management and government counterparts in the process of project implementation.
Assist the UNDP Country Office in resource mobilization through developing a business case model, pulling the lessons learnt from the project for wider demonstration.
Navigate opportunities to engage other potential development partners/donors with a view to mobilize more resources for the project.
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 processe.
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.
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:
General (across the functions)
Public relations: Ability to build and maintain an overall positive public image for the organisation, its mandate and its brand, while ensuring that individual campaigns and other communications and advocacy initiatives are supported in reaching the public
Partnership management
Multi-stakeholder engagement and funding: Knowledge and ability to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships, and remove any obstacles to resource mobilization and multi-stakeholder funding platforms
Resource mobilization: Ability to identify funding sources, match funding needs (programmes/projects/initiatives) with funding opportunities, and establish a plan to meet funding requirements
2030 Agenda: People
Gender: Gender Mainstreaming
2030 Agenda: Prosperity
Inclusive Growth: Poverty and Human Development
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 Development
Knowledge Generation: Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need
Required Skills and Experience:
Education:
Advanced university degree (Master´s Degree or equivalent) in Social Science Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, or any other relevant discipline is required OR
A first-level university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in the above field in combination with an additional 2 years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience:
Minimum 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services, and/or hands-on experience in planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects or relevant related field is required.
Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and web-based management systems, and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.
Knowledge and experience in relevant thematic area
Proven professional skills to effectively interact with technical and non-technical end users in a pleasant, cooperative, and helpful manner.
Demonstrated ability to solve problems and work independently.
Excellent skills and experience to manage team.
Strong analytical, communicational and writing skills/experience.
Knowledge and experience in relevant thematic area
Proven networking skills with different levels.
Proven experience of sharing knowledge, experience and learning to the stakeholders.
Excellent writing (Bangla) skills to draft/review policy documents in Bangla.
Required Languages:
Fluency in English and Bangla is required.
Disclaimer
Important information for US Permanent Residents (‘Green Card’ holders)
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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