UNDP Job Vacancy Ethiopia

Director – Peace Support Office (PSO)

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Required Languages: English

Background
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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 two-year conflict in Northern Ethiopia has triggered a major humanitarian crisis in Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions with profound adverse effects on Ethiopia’s ambitious economic and governance reforms. The conflict resulted from significant loss of lives; displacement of millions needing humanitarian assistance; and large-scale damage to infrastructure and services. On the 2nd of November 2022, an agreement for lasting peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities was signed between the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (GoE) and the TPLF. Led by the AU, the Peace Agreement has ended active combat in Northern Ethiopia and raised hope for a gradual restoration of services and humanitarian operations in the region. This wide-ranging agreement committed, among other things, to an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities, the creation of an interim administration in Tigray region pending regional elections, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants (XCs), resumption of unhindered humanitarian access, the restoration of essential services, reintegration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returning refugees, transitional justice, social cohesion and reconciliation, and recovery and reconstruction. The peace agreement also paves the way for the restoration of peace, security, and stability in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray Regions. 

It is in this context that UNDP has developed a ‘Peace Support Programme/Facility (PSP/F)’ nested within the Federal Government’s Resilient Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF) but focused on urgent actions over a period of 24 months to stabilize conditions, restore a sense of normalcy, and deliver a first peace dividend to conflict-impacted populations.  The approach is to fill the gap that is likely to open between the urgency of addressing a wide range of priority needs quickly to consolidate peace and stabilize conditions and the time it will take for the larger, longer-term, and more comprehensive 3R Framework to kick in meaningfully, possibly in late-2024, at the earliest.  Moreover, the PSP/F is designed flexibly, so that it could potentially be scaled up to become the foundation of a larger UN-wide effort in the same direction.  In line with this approach, the PSP/F is being implemented already in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions.

The strategic goal of the PSP/F is to contribute toward an irreversible peace process in Northern Ethiopia.  This will be pursued through an actionable set of measures that can build trust between communities and legitimate Ethiopian authorities and lay the foundations for recovery, peacebuilding, and sustainable development, founded upon country leadership and ownership.

Working within the broader framework of 3RF, the PSP/F will focus on the following windows: 

• Window 1:  Local Governance, Human Rights and Social Cohesion

• Window 2:  Basic Social Services (health, nutrition, education, WASH, protection)

• Window 3:  Economic Revival (enterprises and agriculture, demining)

• Window 4:  Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants 

• Window 5:   Solutions to Internal Displacement

Geographic Focus:  Afar, Amhara, and Tigray (Northern Ethiopia); Window 4 Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants (8 regions)

Target conflict-impacted populations:  10 million

Timelines for implementation:  June 2023 - May 2025

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Resident Representative (RR) and working closely with UNDP Country Office senior managers and programme/operations staff, the Director of the Peace Support Office (PSO) is responsible for the following functions: 

• Policy advisory support and management performance.

• Programme management, monitoring, oversight, and learning. 

• Partnership development and management

Policy advisory support and management performance

• Provides high quality and strategic policy and programmatic advice to the UNDP Country Office (CO), government and partners, informed by global experience and good practice.

• Offers technical leadership in the development of a relevant, high impact and well- integrated stabilization/peace support programme portfolio, including formulation of high quality and results-based projects appropriate to the Ethiopian context.

• Prepares policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials under the direction of the CO for use in the development and presentation of a coherent perspective to help define strategies and implementation actions.

• Oversees the Peace Support Office (PSO), ensuring that it operates in a cohesive, efficient, effective and transparent manner, upholding UN values and maintaining the highest standards of integrity.

• Takes responsibility for ensuring that the PSO meets all relevant benchmarks of programmatic and operational benchmarks set corporately by UNDP as well as by the CO. 

• Plays a key role in developing and maintaining a skilled, professional, motivated and high performing team in the PSO, including overseeing the proper discharge of core human resources functions. 

• Develops and oversees the operating and programmatic budget of the PSO, ensuring adherence with all relevant UNDP financial and programme budgetary rules and regulations as well as procedures.

• Maintains full adherence with UNDP procurement rules and regulations, including effective management of the procurement planning process.

• Represents the programme in appropriate fora as authorized by the RR or her/his delegate. 

Programme management, monitoring, oversight and learning

• Develops and oversees integrated programme planning, management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems that comply with UNDP standards, as adapted to Ethiopia by the CO.

• Establishes and oversees a robust, state-of-the-art, monitoring and verification system to ensure proper and accountable use of resources entrusted to UNDP by donors and government, maintaining detailed and accessible digital records that demonstrate proper targeting of beneficiaries and use of resources in full compliance with approved Annual Work Plans (AWPs). 

• Manages UNDP’s stabilisation/peace support efforts as a portfolio, applying necessary tools of portfolio management and ensuring measurable integration of cross-portfolio issues such as gender equality and empowerment, doing no harm, peace building, human rights and resilience.   

• Plans and executes a timely, inclusive and transparent annual work planning process for the PSP/F, manner, acting in close consultation and collaboration with the CO, and involving Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions as well as federal entities including UNDP’s coordinating body, the Ministry of Finance.

• Leads on timely and adequate reporting against plans, including on-time, substantive and well-documented progress reports, and ensures regular assessments of programmes/projects to identify and synthesise good practices and lessons learned, update risks and risk mitigation, to inform future plans, CO and corporate learning and strategic communications. 

• Ensures that approaches to gender equality are integrated into all aspects of planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, subject to rigorous assessment of effectiveness.  

• Ensures that the PSO meets all relevant project quality and management as well as M&E and audit benchmarks and requirements, including timely and full implementation of annual and multi-year M&E plans, project audit plans (NIM and DIM, as appropriate), HACT assessments and spot checks, reporting on the gender marker, project quality assurance (PQA) and ESG standards, and substantive contributions to the CO’s annual Results-Oriented Annual Report (ROAR).

• Brings key policy, programmatic and operational issues to the attention of the CO and troubleshoots collaboratively with the RR and other CO staff to resolve implementation bottlenecks to enable speedy, flexible and timely action.

• Identifies risks and challenges to the ongoing operations of the projects and applies timely mitigation measures aligned to the CO risk management strategy and corporate Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) system, documenting lessons learnt while providing advice to the RR and other senior managers on mitigation strategies.

Partnership development and management

• Develops and implements a partnership strategy for the PSP/F, in close coordination with the CO, to develop a wide base of partners that enables collaboration across a broad range of issues: advocacy and communication on shared concerns, joint research and analysis, operational partnerships, and resource mobilization.

• Builds close, trusted, and productive working relationships with senior and mid-level government counterparts at federal and regional levels, UN colleagues in Addis and in the field, donors, civil society organizations, the private sector, and academia. 

• Bring key partnership issues to the attention of the CO and troubleshoot collaboratively with the RR and other CO staff to secure smooth and timely resolution of any issues.

• Develops and implements a state-of-the-art communications strategy that effectively conveys the performance of the PSP/F to stakeholders, builds broad and deep interest in the work of UNDP, engages partners, delivers high-quality products (both physical and electronic), and builds a strong social media identity and presence for the PSP/F, consistent with the broader positioning of the CO and in full conformity with UNDP’s social media guidelines. 

• Develops and maintains a ‘pipeline’ of high-quality funding proposals and meets annual resource mobilization targets (as agreed with the RR).

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: YES

Competencies

Core
Achieve Results:
   LEVEL 4: Prioritize team workflow, mobilize resources, drive scalable results/strategic impact.
Think Innovatively:
   LEVEL 4: Easily navigate complexity, encourage/enable radical innovation, has foresight.
Learn Continuously
   LEVEL 4: Create systems and processes that enable learning and development for all.
Adapt with Agility 
   LEVEL 4: Proactively initiate/lead organizational change, champion new systems/processes.
Act with Determination    LEVEL 4: Able to make difficult decisions in challenging situations, inspire confidence
Engage and Partner
   LEVEL 4: Construct strategic multi-partner alliances in high stake situations, foster co-creation 
Enable Diversity and Inclusion
   LEVEL 4: Create ethical culture, identify/address barriers to inclusion. 

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

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies 

Business Direction and Strategy   

• Strategic System   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.

• Strategic Thinking   Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.

Business Development   

• Human-Centered Design   Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

• UNDP Representation   Ability to represent UNDP and productively share UNDP knowledge and activities, advocate for UNDP, its values, mission and work with various constituencies.

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness 

• Crisis Management/Country Management Support   Crisis coordination 

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness

• Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement   Humanitarian-Development Peace (HDP) Nexus

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Job requirements

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in the social sciences, international relations, international law, public administration or related field is required.

• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in Public/ in the social sciences, international relations, international law, or public administration and/or related fields in combination with additional 2 years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of advanced university degree.

• Specializations in crisis management, stabilization, conflict resolution, and/or application of key tools such as RPBA and PDNA will be an advantage. 

Experience:

• At least 15 years (with Master’s degree) or 17 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of progressively higher levels of responsibility in international development (of which at least five years) in senior management positions is required.

• Experience in conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives is required.  Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially but not only in the Horn of Africa, will be an advantage.

• Experience in managing large-scale projects with multiple sectoral teams is required)

• Experience in coordinating multiple stakeholders and inter-agency programs is desired.

• Record of interaction at higher levels of government, UN, and donor community is required. 

• Record of resource mobilization is required.

• Prior experience with the UN/UNDP and/or multilateral development banks (e.g. World Bank, African/Asian Development Bank) and bilateral aid organizations is desired. 

Language requirements (Required / Desired)

• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.  Knowledge of any local languages spoken in Northern Ethiopia will be an advantage.  

How to Apply

Register using this LINK