March 17th, 2020 at 10:33 am
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the daily supervision of the Programme Management Specialist, with overall and technical supervision of the LoCAL Programme Manager and in close collaboration with the national counterpart, the National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will contribute to the daily implementation of the project including overall gender-sensitive planning, oversight and monitoring of project implementation and substantive and financial reporting.
The National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will oversee the team of field officers on a daily basis and provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to the national counterpart, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and MMDAs in relation to Results 1 and 2 and with a focus on the PBCRGs.
Summary of key functions:
- Programme implementation, including team management (20%)
- Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (60%)
- Knowledge management and communication (10%)
- Networking and partnership building (10%)
- Programme implementation including team management (20%)
- Contribute to the day-to-day management and monitoring of the programme, including effective and regular use of the ATLAS platform and effective programme implementation;
- Contribute to the management of the risk log of the project;
- Document progress towards the achievement of outputs and contribute to the preparation and timely submission of comprehensive technical and financial reports in line with contractual agreements including semi-annual reporting;
- Provide effective technical direction to and empowerment of supervisees, including through coaching and mentoring;
- 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;
- Ensure effective performance management of supervisees (including 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 reviews (mid-term and annual) held on time; facilitating learning and development);
- Support to supervisees in implementing various arrangements in place to ensure their safety and security and in maintaining their health and well-being.
- Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (60%)
- Oversee the day-to-day implementation of the activities related to Result 1 and 2 with a focus on local government finance and local economic development
- Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts at central and local levels;
- Provide technical advice and capacity building support (“learning by doing”) and support for the preparation of local government development and investment plans and budgets that foster job creation, gender equality and green and climate resilient local economies;
- Provide technical advice and capacity building support for the delivery of investments through “cash for work” programmes and procurement to local SMEs, employing youth, returned migrants and women;
- Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice for the design and implementation of the performance-based climate resilience grants mechanism that can be up-scaled nationwide and harness international climate finance;
- In partnership with SOS The Netherlands / Ghana, ensure that the outputs of Results 2 under the oversight of UNCDF, i.e. delivering core employability life skills and technical training in skills development, are realized for the cash for work beneficiaries;
- Lead, together with the Programme Management Specialist, the technical dialogue and provision of policy and technical advisory services to national and local government counterparts in relation to local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development in support of women, returned migrants and youth employment.
Knowledge management and communication (10%)
- Identify key knowledge constraints and organize learning, knowledge exchange, training, workshops, etc. to build awareness and capacities in relevant themes (i.e. local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development in support of women, returned migrants and youth employment, etc.);
- Contribute to the implementation of the Communication and Visibility Plan of the Programme, in collaboration with the Project team, partners and technical consultants;
- Identify, collect and disseminate best practices and lessons learned from the Programme in areas of specialty;
- Manage the process of convening national and regional stakeholders to share lessons learned on selected themes.
Networking and partnership building (10%)
- Builds effective and efficient partnerships at the operational level with national counterparts and EU Delegation to coordinate selected activities in-country;
- Maintain close working relationships with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, and other key stakeholders at various levels in order to generate interest in and execution of the PBCRGs and its key results areas to expand the mechanism in Ghana;
- Organize consultative meetings, seminars and workshops to drive analytical and policy work of the Programme;
- In coordination with the PMS, serve as the UNCDF focal point in working groups and steering committees on the issue of local government finance, performance-based grants and local economic development and provide inputs for conducive policy and regulatory environment;
- Support the PMS to mobilize additional resources based on programme requirements and new opportunities.
IV. Impact of Results
The incumbent will pursue the following key results of the Programme and related activities:
Result 1: Local economies are stimulated and short-term job opportunities for youth, women and returnees are created through green and climate resilient investments
A.1.1. Strengthen capacities (“learning by doing”) of MMDAs in the preparation of climate risk informed, participatory and gender-sensitive local economic development planning.
A.1.2. Deliver green and resilient local infrastructure / investments (including those to be co-financed by the diaspora) under the oversight of MMDAs, through cash for work (benefitting the youth, women and returnees) and procurement to local SMEs.
A.1.3. Design and deploy a performance-based grants system (PBGS) that can be scaled up and attract various sources of finance, including private finance, international finance and diaspora funds to build resilient local economies.
Result 2: Employability of youth, women and returnees is improved through orientation support and assistance, to transition to skills development programmes, for the benefit of green and climate resilient local economies (cash for work beneficiaries)
A.2.1. Carry out needs’ assessment of the target beneficiaries (cash for work applicants and participants), analysing existing programmes in the target MMDAs, in order to inform core employability training, coaching and mentoring activities, in line with market opportunities and trends (in complement to SNV A 2.1).
A.2.2. Deliver core employability life skills and technical training for the cash for work beneficiaries of the investments of the 9 MMDAs (in complement to SNV A 2.2).
A.2.3. Support beneficiaries that participate in the cash for work programme to participate in skills development programmes with a view to ultimately start a viable business and/or join running green SMEs (in complement to SNV) A 2.3.
TECHNICAL
Candidates will be assessed on their work experience in the following areas:
- Deep knowledge and understanding of key concepts related to local government finance, including decentralization, and local economic development;
- Experience in policy, regulatory and technical advice and project management related to the fields of local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development or equivalent;
- Proven experience in project management ;
- Relevant technical experience with policy and regulatory bodies and central and local governments in developing countries;
- Work experience with environmental sustainability and climate change in developing countries and Ghana;
- Experience with addressing gender equality as project objective and/or cross-cutting issue ;
- Experience working with local communities, youth and women.
PROFESSIONAL
- Experience forming, leading or being part of teams, working with other stakeholders to achieve common goals;
- Strong client orientation, recognizing the importance of providing appropriate, user-friendly and affordable services;
- Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and communicates with management to develop new projects or services;
- Comfortable advocating and advancing an agenda, including with high level counterparts and other stakeholders;
- Experience managing project teams and/or consultants, including recruiting, hiring and managing and evaluating international and national expertise;
- Takes on new approaches and fosters innovative thinking;
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
- Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback.
FUNCTIONAL
- Proven ability to manage projects and managing for results;
- Excellent speaking and proficient writing skills in English are necessary;
- Excellent analytical and communication skills;
- Strong general IT skills, including ability to work regularly with MS Office Suite;
- Proven cross-cultural communication, able to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment;
- Demonstrated broad knowledge of development issues, especially in the areas of poverty alleviation and local development.
CORE COMPETENCIES
- Builds and promotes teams and partnerships;
- Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
- Creates and promotes open communication;
- Demonstrates ethics and integrity;
- Demonstrates political acumen and calculated risk-taking;
- Builds confidence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
- Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
- Conducts fair and transparent decision making;
- Treats all persons fairly without favoritism;
HOW TO APPLY
DEADLINE: 31/03/2020
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