Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships Technical Specialist – Regular NPSA at UN Development Programme

Background

1. ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

Within the global UN system, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is mandated to drive the systemic transformations needed to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, and vigorously tackle climate change. By working with an extensive network of experts and partners in over 170 countries and territories, UNDP can create integrated, innovative and context-tailored solutions to respond quickly to each country’s particular needs.

Nonetheless, the great development challenges of the XXI century are complex, volatile, and uncertain by nature, hence no organization can address them effectively by working alone. That is why the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development makes an urgent call to increase the scale and ambition of multi-stakeholder partnerships within development ecosystems, securing not just the finance, but also the knowledge, innovation and territorial reach needed to make this ambitious promise a reality.

UNDP’s broad mandate and signature solution approach uniquely positions it to serve this integrator role within Peru’s development ecosystem. Moreover, 72% of its current partners believe this role should be UNDP’s most important contribution towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

That is why UNDP’s partnership vision is to strengthen its position as a “system leader,” an organization focused on catalyzing collective transformation, and fully capable of driving effective, whole-of-society responses towards the three-lane road of inclusion, productivity, and resilience, grounded on effective governance. To do so, UNDP will act as a broker of trust between diverse stakeholders, facilitating greater cohesion around national development priorities and practice.

Materializing this vision requires the consolidation of UNDP’s ongoing transformation towards an innovative “systems approach to partnerships,” in which multiple stakeholders “bring together essential, complementary resources that together create the levers required to deliver system transformation, which could not have been achieved by any other actor working alone.”

2. THE PARTNERSHIP AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

The road to mainstreaming the systems approach to partnerships is expressed in the Country Office’s current Partnership and Communications Strategy, which identifies 4 action lines:

Systemic platform approach: Following the systems approach to partnerships, UNDP will establish broad, cross-sectorial, and multi-stakeholder platforms that integrate financial and non-financial resources towards immediate and long-term development goals. This will be UNDP’s core contribution to the ecosystem, and will facilitate the expansion of an overarching culture of integrated stakeholder engagement, both in internal and external actors.
National appropriation: UNDP will ensure agile adaptation of its programming to the ever-evolving national development priorities, including strategic foresight and agile responses to emerging challenges and crisis, to maintain national leadership. It will also expand its work with decentralized Governments.
Innovative SDG Financing: UNDP will continue exploring innovative solutions that facilitate the enhanced participation of the private sector and academia in development finance, in a coordinated manner with public and civil society stakeholders. This includes mechanisms such as blended financing, crowdfunding, public work for tax deduction, SDG and green bonds, risk finance, among others.
Global alliances: Together with a regional partnership network, UNDP will target the emerging financing trends of IFIs, bilateral and multilateral donors and accelerate South-South and triangular cooperation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direction supervision of the Resident Representative, and in close coordination with the Strategic Planning Unit, including the Communications Team, the Multi-stakeholder Partnerships Technical Specialist will act as a catalyzer to mainstream and accelerate the vision described in section 2 across UNDP programme and operation units, as well as its partnership landscape. To do so he or she will:

1. Operationalize a systemic approach to partnerships across UNDP programme and operation teams, as well as the wider development ecosystem, contributing to the establishment, activation and management of broad, cross-sectorial and multi-stakeholder platforms that help integrate financial and non-financial resources to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs:

Map and manage knowledge around the Country Office’s current partnership landscape, promoting its integrated analysis and engagement throughout UNDP teams. This includes the active monitoring of the Partnership and Communications Strategy’s KPIs.
In close coordination with the Resident Representative, support the development and implementation of strategies to promote a shift in culture towards integrated stakeholder engagement, including internal capacity strengthening to fully implement this approach.
In close coordination with programme officers and the accelerator labs, develop strategic intelligence and engage with potential partners that can facilitate CPD implementation.
Support the identification of funding opportunities and facilitate the design of innovative, integrated programming solutions, with contributions to multiple SDGs.
Provide technical guidance and support on the available policies, mechanisms and tools that facilitate stakeholder engagement (e.g.- due diligence processes, financing agreements, etc.), securing agile consolidation of partnerships of financial and non-financial nature.
Work with the regional and global partnership teams to scale current experimentation on multi-stakeholder engagement solutions.
Support the interagency engagement efforts in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), identifying mechanisms to partner with other United Nations (UN) agencies most effectively.

2. Contribute to the design and implementation of a positioning strategy that increases awareness and appropriation of UNDP’s programme vision and objectives across different levels of Government:

Support the identification of visibility windows and engagement opportunities with different public institutions, across all levels of Government.
Work with the strategic planning unit, particularly the communications team, in the development of a coherent UNDP discourse across programme and operation teams.
In close coordination with the political advisor, senior economist, accelerator labs and strategic planning unit, contribute to the design of: a) strategic foresight on the emerging development trends and challenges; b) agile, multi-stakeholder responses to ongoing crises; 3) business cases to make visible the contributions to the SDGs of certain development challenges deemed “sensitive”, such as gender equality, climate change, migration, etc.

3. Promote experimentation and accelerated learning on innovative development finance mechanisms, to de-risk strategic policy design and multi-stakeholder platforming with the potential of accelerating the achievement of SDGs:

Contribute to the establishment of a portfolio of innovative finance experiments, establishing and monitoring comparable KPIs to map and constantly increase their cost-effectiveness and agility.
Design and implement a capacity building strategy that increases organization-wide readiness to drive innovative finance mechanisms.
In close coordination with the regional and global finance teams, identify opportunities for joint experimentation and piloting of emerging mechanisms in Peru’s project portfolio.
In close coordination with the communications unit, ensure that innovative finance is included as an UNDP added value in external communication efforts.
In support of the Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO), contribute to the establishment of financing mechanisms that widen UNSDCF action.

4. Contribute to the strengthening of relations with international finance institutions (IFIs), third-party Governmental donors, multilateral and thematic funds, and UNDP’s own global finance windows:

Support the identification of strategic windows to showcase UNDP Peru’s tailored value proposition, backed by quantitative and qualitative evidence of its results and human impact.
Support the promotion and strengthening of policy dialogue opportunities with international stakeholders, towards the establishment of shared development visions.
In close coordination with UNDP’s Regional Center for Latin America and the Caribbean: 1) Promote UNDP’s thought leadership on regional development challenges, including multi-country advocacy in favor of innovative policies and solutions; 2) Contribute to the development and activation of a regional partnership network that shares knowledge and instruments to facilitate agile multi-stakeholder engagement.
Work closely with the programme team to identify south-south and triangular cooperation opportunities, particularly at the sub-regional level

Competencies

Leadership, level 3: Inclusive in decision-making

Encourages dialogue and acts in accordance to team inputs
Anticipates and resolves conflict
Embraces differing opinions and sees them as opportunities for improvement
Recognizes ideas and talent beyond the limits of the organization and works closely with external actors towards shared objectives
Determines appropriate resources, methods, information and solutions

Innovation, level 5: Collaborates and integrates

Creates new opportunities for collaboration and integration
Integrates diverse contributions into a coherent service
Aligns strategy to service delivery components
Scales up innovation for greater impact
Links strategy to a series of clearly, actionable initiatives, considering impacts on all parts of the organization

People management, level 3: Encourages collaboration and improves team performance

Takes ownership of responsibilities
Involves team in different steps of the process
Seeks and values other’s initiatives and expertise
Drives team engagement
Produces new ideas and approaches in relation to own team
Recognizes and rewards visible improvement in behaviors

Communication, level 5: Builds trust and creates lasting partnerships

Builds professional networks with institutional partners
Sought for advice by peers and leaders
Distills strategy into concise, practical messages
Outstanding written and oral communication abilities, in Spanish and English, including capacity to persuade and advocate
Influences decision makers
Establishes a culture of trust and integrity, with internal and external actors
Actively engages colleagues to make joint decisions
Continually challenges organization’s leaders to enhance their current practices

Delivery, level 4: Makes new ideas work

Critically assesses value and relevance of existing thinking and policy
Embraces difficult obstacles that interfere with getting work done
Anticipates constrains and identifies solutions
Strives to improve team reputation with clients
Expands capacity of team to deliver on time and on target
Combines hard data and personal insights to identify benefits and make decisions to create value above and beyond the expected.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Undergraduate degree required in a relevant field – international relations, political sciences, social work and/or social entrepreneurship, communications, and/or similar.

Experience

Minimum 4 years of experience in partnership building, corporate affairs, political communication, and/or other areas linked to actor mapping and stakeholder engagement. Additional points will be scored to applicants with demonstrated experience on multi-stakeholder and/or multi-level engagements.

At least 2 years of experience working with development institutions or in a sustainable development-related unit, including public institutions, civil society organizations, international cooperation, the corporate social responsibility/external affairs units in private companies, among others.

Successful applicants will provide evidence of their work either within or in close coordination with the United Nations System, additional points will be score to applicants with demonstrated experience on interagency efforts.

Languages

Fluency in English and Spanish is required. Applicants with advanced capacities in other UN-language will be scored additional points.

Place of Work / Travel

Home-based until return to office is deemed safe by the United Nations Defence and Security System (UNDSS). When cleared, operations will be mostly carried in the Lima, Peru office, with travel to regions when strategic for appropriate implementation of the position