Somalia: Portfolio Manager (Resilience & Climate Change)

Nov 5, 2017 | UNDP
View Original

UNDP Somalia is about to launch a new Country Programme (2018-2020) which rests on three outcome areas: inclusive political processes; accountable and transparent service delivery in a secure environment; and, progress from protracted socio-economic and environmental fragility. The new Country Programme is building on current achievements and is responding to the request of Federal Government of Somalia to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aligned National Development Plan (2017-19). The United Nations (UN) system in Somalia has collectively responded via the development of the UN Strategic Framework (UNSF) which is aligned both to the NDP and the SDGs. The UNSF has identified UNDP as a lead agency for most areas including inclusive politics, Rule of Law, resilience, and effective institutions. Lessons learnt from previous cycle provides UNDP a comparative advantage to contribute towards resilience building with targeted interventions to help address the challenges around low level of coping capacities to face climatic shocks (droughts and floods), lack of environmental management, limited access to sustainable sources of energy and absence of an operational framework on resilience and recovery to respond to climatic induced disasters. Since 2012, the UNDP have been following a multi-dimensional approach to build resilience of Somali institutions and communities. Ground breaking interventions have been rolled out for the formation of state institutions, multi-year development planning, political process, gender inclusiveness, economic recovery, durable solutions for the IDPs/returnees, youth employment, environmental management, climate change adaptation, sustainable energy and management of climatic-induced disasters. These efforts have helped in setting the foundations for resilience building and making a stronger case for humanitarian-development nexus across Somalia’s national and sub-national institutions and communities. Importance of Resilience is evident with it being one the main pillars of National Development Plan, the overarching framework for development priorities in Somalia. UNDP and other relevant partners will support the resilience agenda of the NDP with a well-targeted set of priorities to address root causes of recurrent crises from droughts and floods and break the cycle of famine risk. A Government-led post-drought Recovery and Resilience Framework (RRF) is being prepared to follow the PDNA (Post Disaster Needs Assessment) jointly with WB and EU, to serve as a basis for an investment platform that would direct public, private, domestic and international financing toward achieving collective, transformative and sustainable impact in terms of preventing the recurrence of cyclical famine risk in Somalia. Given the high degree of importance associated with resilience and recovery framework, climate adaptation, environmental management and access to sustainable sources of energy for basic and productive uses, UNDP Somalia is recruiting a Portfolio Manager (Resilience and Climate Change), with senior advisory and portfolio management roles.  Under the overall guidance of the Country Director and direct supervision of the Deputy Country Director (Programmes), the Portfolio Manager will provide strategic direction and advice to ensure that “Resilience and Climate Change” interventions fully achieve the targets of draft new CPD and substantially contribute to meet the priorities established in the NDP. The Portfolio Manager will lead the individual projects teams with supervisory role for Project Managers, thematic advisors and assigned admin staff.  The Portfolio Manager will work closely with relevant UN agencies, development partners, donors and range of national/sub-national organisations in the identification, design and implementation of multi-year interventions with direct links to conflict-sensitive resilience and recovery framework, climate adaptation, environmental management and access to sustainable sources of energy for basic and productive uses. The Portfolio Manager will ensure that UNDP interventions contribute to progress on SDGs and provide substantial inputs for resilience building. In particular contribution to SDG 7 on Affordable & Clean Energy, SDG 13 on Climate Action, SDG 14 on Life below Water and SDG 15 on Life on Land. The Portfolio Manager will ensure gender mainstreaming remains central to the entire portfolio with targeted activities that help enhance the coping capacities of women to natural disasters as well as support all-inclusive approach for economic / livelihoods resilience building of Somali women. Portfolio Manager will also be responsible to work across the UNDP programme areas to build synergies for a deeper impact and reaching out to the most vulnerable segments of population including youth, IDPs, women and poor households. The Portfolio Manager will closely work with Planning and Partnerships team and the Operations team of the Country Office for smooth implementation and corporate compliance on mobilisation of the inputs. 

Additionally, the position will require extensive engagement, networking and partnership building with international and regional partners, donors, civil society organisations, UNDP’s regional and global teams, including Secretariats of vertical funds (Green Climate Fund, Global Environmental Facility etc.) with aim of substantive knowledge sharing and resource mobilisation.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Strategic Policy Advice and Coordination
• Portfolio Development and Management
• Advocacy and Partnership building
• Resource Mobilization
• Facilitates knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Advice and support the UNDP Country Office Senior Management to build strong institutional commitment and leadership to implement set of interventions in the areas of resilience and recovery, climate adaptation, environmental management and access to sustainable sources of energy for basic and productive uses;
• Plan strategically to link the portfolio with the UNDP Country Programme and UN Strategic Framework for Somalia and keep track of the contribution of the portfolio to UNDP’s commitment under the Country Programme to the Government of Somalia;
• Provide Strategic Policy advice to Federal Government, Counterpart Ministries, respective Federal member state ministries and Somaliland Government on full-coverage of portfolio;
• Contribute to substantive discussions and policy work for the engagement of line ministries and cross-sectoral ministries; including the Federal and Regional Ministries of Planning to ensure priorities in National and Regional Development Plans are adhered to in the Resilience and Climate Change portfolio of UNDP Country Office;
• Provide inputs to UNDP programmes to ensure synergies and cross-portfolios complementarities with the objective of following a holistic approach for building resilience and setting a long-term development agenda for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• Ensure the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets on climate, life on land, life underwater and energy are promoted at national / sub-national levels and are also linked to other SDGs for poverty reduction, gender, food security, access to sustainable water sources, employment and inequalities;
• Apply adaptive management approach for resolving issues and provide all essential background information to the Senior Management for decisions on policy matters;
• Lead the respective projects teams of the portfolio to ensure coordinated approaches across the portfolio and review implementation challenges on a regular basis with a view to overcoming bottlenecks.

• Identify opportunities and lead in the conceptualization of strategic portfolio interventions that respond to the needs and concerns of vulnerable groups impacted by the climatic events, unsustainable management of natural resources in a conflict setting and those facing barriers to improve living conditions or engage in productive employment opportunities due to lack of access to sustainable sources of energy;
• Support implementation of strategic portfolio interventions across Development Priorities 1, 2 and 3 of the draft UNDP Country Programme – with specific focus on Priority 3 on “Progress from Socio-economic and Environmental Fragility”;
• Provide advice on appropriate indicators in the planning and implementation frameworks to cover humanitarian-development nexus and resilience building;
• Guide the projects teams in the monitoring and reporting of portfolio results/outputs and objectives against agreed indicators, in close collaboration with Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist;
• Monitor political, economic and social developments trends and challenges undermining the resilience building efforts against climatic disasters to keep relevance of the portfolio to evolving circumstances;
• Support knowledge building and sharing at the country office focusing on achievements, lessons learned and methodologies utilized in addressing the challenges of climate change, environment and energy;
• Work closely with UN agencies contributing to the NDP pillars and sub-pillars working groups on Resilience, Infrastructure and Economic Recovery to ensure complementarity and avoid overlap;
• Actively participate and lead in relevant areas of the UN Strategic Framework and National Development Plan for technical advice, progress monitoring and demonstrate openness to new approaches to address evolving needs of the institutions and communities.

• Ensure leading role of UNDP in fora and meetings related to resilience and recovery, climate adaptation, environmental management and access to sustainable sources of energy for basic and productive uses;
• Participate in and represent UNDP in activities to highlight key issues around resilience, climate change, access to sustainable energy and environmental management in line with national policies, Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements, Paris Climate Accord and Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus as per the principles of “New Way of Working”;
• Maintain relationships with UNDP’s partners including donors, government agencies and Civil Society, on portfolio matters with a view of ensuring strategic partnerships and strengthening collaboration;
• Proactively engage with national partners, projects teams and communications team of the Country Office for awareness raising, advocacy and visibility of achievements under the portfolio;
• Explore all means of communications for “development messaging” relevant to the portfolio under the guidance of Senior Management and in line with the communication strategy of UNDP Country Office;
• Initiate and coordinate strategic advocacy activities to maximize support of the UN agencies, development partners, government, civil society organisations, think-tanks on resilience, climate, environment and sustainable energy;
• Provide substantive inputs to the National Focal Points for the Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements in drafting the position papers on country context and presentation in the Conference of Parties meetings.

• Manage the effective application of UNDP’s Social and Environmental Screening criteria across the programmes and portfolios with the support of Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist;
• Identify and follow-up on strategic opportunities for resource mobilization from traditional and non-traditional donors for implementation of the portfolio;
• Build strong partnerships with donor agencies on Somalia and keep the Resilience and Climate Change portfolio robust enough to engage donors and development partners for the achievement of CPD results;
• Work with Partnerships and Planning Unit for resource mobilisation, reporting and corporate compliance for portfolio management.

• Analyse and document lessons learned and recommendations for policy dialogue, public advocacy and future programming and organize dissemination of learning within the CO and with partners;
• Monitor and report on the implementation of the targets in CPD linked to the portfolio;
• Contributions to knowledge networks, thematic discourse and signature programme areas of UNDP;
• Encourage projects teams to actively participate in knowledge networks and create a conducive work environment to maximize the learning potential for the team members.

The achievement of results will lead to substantial contribution of UNDP in building the climate resilience, improve environmental conditions and promote access to sustainable sources of energy for Somali women and men. Furthermore, new and additional resources will be mobilised from vertical funds to implement NDP priorities relevant to the portfolio and progress on SDGs.   

Competence

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences advocating on behalf of UNDP’s mandate.
• Creates effective advocacy strategies.
• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses.

• Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals.
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting.
• Ability to lead implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects, mobilize resources.
• Ability to formulate and manage budgets, manage transactions, conduct financial analysis and reporting.

• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Sets clear performance goals and standards; executes responsibilities accordingly.

• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work.
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration
• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation.
• Analyzes country situation to identify opportunities for project development.
• Participates in the formulation of project proposals and ensures substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches and drafts proposals accordingly.

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
• Promotes UNDP’s agenda in inter-agency meetings.

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals.
• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations.
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking.
• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

• Analyses information on potential bilateral donors and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach;
• Identifies and compiles lessons learned;
• Develops a resource mobilization strategy at the country level.

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines.
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally.
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments.
• Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities and post requirements with excellence.
• Is motivated and demonstrates a capacity to pursue personal development and learn.

• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at country level.

• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Creating synergies through self-control;
• Managing conflict;
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s Degree in Development Studies, Environment/Natural Resources Management, Climate, Energy or other relevant development-related field.

• Ten years of relevant experience at the national and international level in the UN/DP and/or international organizations in the areas of climate, environment, sustainable energy, resilience and recovery programmes;
• Experience in leading teams, managing programmes/ projects and maintaining conducive work environment; 
• Experience in establishing good working relationships among international organization and national governments;
• Experience in crisis, post-conflict countries and least developed countries. Understanding of Somalia context will be an asset
• Knowledge and experience of UNDP and UN system policies and programming is desirable.

Fluency in spoken and written English.