Capacity Building Specialist

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.

Pursuant to a request for United Nations (UN) electoral assistance from the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MATD) on 27 November 2020, the Under-secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs approved the deployment of a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) to Mali. Due to the deteriorating COVID-19 situation and the reinforcement of related restrictions, the mission could not physically deploy, and a virtual assessment was instead conducted remotely from 19 February and 6 March 2021. The NAM consulted a wide range of national and international stakeholders, including election authorities.

The last legislative elections in Mali, held in March and April 2020 were characterized by legal, social, security and political challenges, resulting in a coup on 18 August 2020 that led to the establishment of a transitional government. The transitional government, mandated with holding general elections, is facing the challenge of achieving political consensus among political actors. The NAM found out that the current electoral process faces various challenges, notably of political, legal and security nature. Nevertheless, the transition government has initiated consultations with political actors on key electoral and constitutional reforms, including the establishment of a single electoral management body (EMB). The NAM’s interlocutors agreed on the need to establish such a structure although they had different positions on the timing of its operationalization.

The NAM found that a significant challenge in this regard was to undertake several reforms, including a revision of the Constitution, in a rather limited period of time, which is further compounded by the lack of clarity and adequate communication around the electoral calendar. The NAM also found that the level of implication of women and youth, as well as public trust in institutions and political actors are low. Furthermore, given the volatile security situation, holding electoral operations in areas that are de facto outside of the government control remains a serious challenge.

The NAM found that the UN is considered a credible and neutral partner by all actors in the process and its engagement through good offices as well as technical assistance will have the potential to strengthen confidence in the electoral process.

Given the above, the NAM concluded that the UN should continue its engagement in support of the upcoming elections and constitutional referendum. Following this recommendation, a new Basket-fund on electoral assistance funded by Technical and Financial Partners (PTF) was set up. This UNDP-managed project, the “Projet d’Appui aux Réformes et aux Elections au Mali (PAREM)”, jointly implemented with UN-Women, went operational on 1st July 2021. It aims to provide technical, financial, material and logistical support to build the capacities of the key actors involved in political and institutional reforms, and the electoral process.

Position Purpose
To strengthen its support to the transition process, reforms and elections in Mali, the UNDP country Office in Mali is seeking to recruit a Capacity Building Specialist.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor, the capacity building specialist will:

1. Ensure Capacity building of the office/projects :

• Collaborate and support Malian election management bodies, political parties, media and CSOs to analyse and identify their training needs in order to implement their training plan;
• Contribute in designing training manuals adapted to the needs and training cycles of the elections management body its staff;
• Provide support to various stakeholders in the design and production of training materials and manuals for various training sessions scheduled;
• Provide support in the designing of ToRs for the recruitment of national trainers, and in the different stages of their recruitment;
• Organize and deliver training sessions planned within the framework of this project for the staff of the EMBs and their branches with the objective of providing support for capacity building of the electoral administration.
• Supervise the cascade training plan and related logistics;
• Coordinate the deployment of trainers and maintain close communication with them.

2. Provide Reporting, Institutional Communication and Civic Education:

• Coordinate the project communication strategy and plan implementation. 
• Provide support to national partners in the implementation and monitoring of an electoral education and voter awareness strategy and plan.
• Contribute to the visibility of PAREM of the technical and financial partners contributing to the Basket Fund.
• Assist in the design and production of various awareness and voter education materials.
• Contribute to the establishment of an information and exchange system on the electoral process, as well as the actions of other actors or stakeholders in connection with the process
• Actively participate in the implementation and supervision of awareness campaigns.
• Provide progress reports, as well as ad hoc information, to the UNDP Chief Technical Advisor upon request.
• Be responsible for the preparation of all project reports, including meeting reports, activity reports and periodic reports as well as the end of project report.
• Coordinate all reporting tasks 
• Support the development and implementation of a strategy and terms of reference for quality civic education for the population; to this end, the expert will propose materials and content Information/communication campaigns to raise interest and participation of the population in the various elections.
• Coordinate all tasks including training related to sensitization and civic education of voters and the population.
   

3. Carry out any other task within the framework of UNDP electoral support activities:

• Effective direction to and empowerment of supervisees
• Role-modelling of UN values and encouraging supervisees  to act ethically both in their relationships with each other and in the business decisions and actions they take
• Tangible steps to promote gender equality in UNDP (e.g. work to eliminate gender biased and ensure equal opportunities) as well as to create and maintain an inclusive,  and respectful working environment free from any form of bias, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority.
• Effective performance management of supervisees (incl. annual individual performance plans of supervisees completed on time; regular meetings with supervisees
  organized during the year to monitor progress towards agreed goals, provide feedback and support; annual review 
  (mid-term and annual) held on time)
• Support to supervisees in facilitating their learning and development. Ensuring that all supervisees have completed mandatory on-line courses on time
• Support to supervisees in implementing various arrangements in place to ensure their safety and security
• Support the supervisees in maintaining their health and well-being (e.g. staff are encouraged to use leave, with excessive leave balances being reduced/eliminated).

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of  the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The capacity building specialist will supervise 1 communications analyst and 1 IUNV Monitoring and evaluation specialist.
 

Competencies

Core Competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

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 Management - Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.

2030 Agenda: Engagement & Effectiveness - Crisis and Fragility Policy and Engagement: UN Transitions 

Communication - Crisis and reputational risk:  Ability to prepare for and respond to potential issues that may negatively impact UNDP's reputation.

General (across the functions) - Public relation: 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.

Business Management - Results-based Management : Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Public Administration, Political Science, Social science, or equivalent disciplines is required. or
• A bachelor’s degree in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years (with master’s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in electoral assistance or election observation is required.
• Electoral experience in minimum 3 countries is desired. 
• Demonstrated experience of sound understanding of the political and socio-economic environment of Mali and the foreign institutions present is desired.
• Good experience and knowledge of the rules and procedures of the Electoral Commission is desired.
• Good knowledge and practical experience of electoral processes, particularly in Africa is desired.
• Professional experience as capacity building specialist within the framework of electoral assistance is desired.
• Professional experience in electoral reporting is desired.
• Professional experience in sensitization and civic education is desired.
• Professional experience in institutional communication is desired.
• Experience in UNDP  is desired. 
• Good knowledge of IT tools (MS Word, Excel, Internet), and of online content management and publication tools is desired

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written French and English is required.
• Knowledge of another UN language would be an asset.

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