Capacity Development Specialist at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The Regional Programme for Africa is a flagship programme for UNDP that responds to challenges and opportunities facing the African Continent and to the priorities and aspirations of Africa as articulated by the African Union and other regional organs. 

 

Underpinned by African ownership and leadership and cognizant of the rich diversity of the continent, UNDP regional work is based on five mutually reinforcing rationality principles, which define the added value of regional or sub-regional approaches to addressing development challenges. These are: (a) promotion of regional public goods and services, based on strengthened regional cooperation and integration; (b) management of cross-border externalities (challenges and opportunities) and spill-overs – such as trade, the environment and conflict prevention that are best addressed collaboratively on an inter-country basis; (c) advancement of awareness, dialogue and action on sensitive and or emerging development issues that benefit strongly from multi-country and regional experiences and perspectives; (d) promotion of experimentation and innovation to overcome institutional, financial and/or informational barriers that may be too high for an individual country to surmount; and (e) generation and sharing of development knowledge, experience and expertise – for instance, through South-South and triangular cooperation – so that countries can connect to, and benefit from, relevant experiences from across the region and beyond. The current Regional Programme for Africa (2018-2021) contributes directly to the UNDP Strategic Plan (SP) by focusing on the three priority areas/outcomes:

As part of priority area three to strengthen resilience to shocks and crisis and support SP and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA), through its Regional Service Centre for Africa (RSCA), developed 

a PIP on AU-UNDP to address COVID-19. As part of the efforts to strengthen Africa response and preparedness in combating the COVID-19 pandemic the African Union Commission through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNDP have jointly designed a programme to support on-going efforts in Africa. 

 

The programme aims to coordinate the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts with the Member States, Regional Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms as well as Civil Society Organisations and Faith-based Organizations to ensure holistic cooperation and communication approaches to the pandemic. Six areas of intervention are proposed for this joint project:

The Capacity Development Specialist will be based in UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa and will report directly to the Regional Programme Coordinator. The Capacity Development Specialist will support the development of numerous flagship programmes with the Africa Union including the implementation of COVID-19 PIP The Capacity Development Specialist will be responsible for providing substantive policy and programme advisory services to the African Union, Africa CDC to implement the PIP. S/he will lead on catalytic support of the project and expand the partnership with the African Union on new flagships initiatives in broad areas of AU priorities consistent with the Regional Programme Document, such as but not limited to, sustaining peace, peacebuilding, stabilization, climate-security,  regional approaches to prevention and peacebuilding, situations of protracted conflict, promoting social cohesion, preventing violent extremism and supporting institutional capacity building within the framework of the ongoing institutional reform of the African Union.

 

1. Programme Support and Policy Advice;
2. Knowledge Management and Innovation; 
3. Partnerships, Representation and Resource Mobilization.

• Provide programme support to the African Union on COVID-19 PIP and ensure implementation of activities;
• Provide programme and policy advice  in the thematic area of COVID-19, Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding to the African Union to strengthen their capacity;
• Provide technical support for the conceptualization and design of post-COVID recovery initiatives and identify new regional initiatives on peacebuilding and conflict prevention;
• Collaborate with other teams in the Hubs in Africa and other regions, and HQ, for the delivery of technical policy advice and programme support to the African Union, to respond to member state’s needs;
• Identify and recommend new opportunities for policy advisory directions and programming to support the African Union and RECs;
• Provide substantive policy support to the RSCA in the development of and roll-out of UNDP-AU flagship initiative on Silencing the Gun beyond 2020 and enhancing capacities of the AU in reducing conflict;
• Support in shaping the design of the new Regional Programme Document (2022-2025) based on technical engagements and priorities of the African Union and regional economic communities and regional mechanisms.

• Coordinate and contribute to knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, the codification of results/lessons learned on COVID-19 including post-recovery interventions;
• Support the identification, development and adoption of innovative solutions, including new technologies, for COVID-19 response and recovery, Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in UNDP Africa;
• Coordinate and support the cross-regional exchange of knowledge, develop and share knowledge-based tools and guidance to help influence/advance policy dialogue in the thematic area and present such material to AU, RECs and at various fora. 

• Under the guidance of the RBA Regional Coordinator support the mobilization, fostering and strengthening of strategic partnerships with the African Union and RECs in response to COVID-19;
• Provide substantive support to the RBA Regional Coordinator to engage with partners and in resource mobilization initiatives, including through preparation of funding proposals, briefing notes, timely corporate and donor reporting, advocacy and information-sharing requirements;
• Contribute to UNDP engagement in UN interagency coordination on the COVID-19 interventions with the aim to advance UNDP’s corporate response to COVID-19;
• Advocate for policy and positioning of the Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding area with the AU and RECs as well as in various fora and through programme efforts, including academia and civil society.

Competencies