Assistant Programme Management Officer

Org. Setting and Reporting

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. UN-Habitat is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system. UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty. With its Headquarter in Nairobi, Kenya, UN-Habitat’s Regional Programmes Division (RPD) has a Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in Fukuoka, Japan, and a Bangkok Programme Office in Thailand. ROAP was established in 1997 as the second Regional Office of UN-Habitat. The Office oversees programme and project portfolios in the region, manages country teams undertaking country projects as part of UN country teams, engages with Member States at national level and in Bangkok, the regional UN center, and collaborates with the UN system and the Regional Commission. ROAP engages with over 30 developing countries in Asia and the Pacific and has 15 country offices. The ROAP office in Fukuoka has a dedicate team, currently of 15 professionals of whom 4 are international. Under the guidance of a Regional Representative, the office employs a team of substantive and admin/finance specialists and staff. The NO-A responsibilities, which is for a Japanese national, intensive collaboration with local and national counterparts to promote partnerships and development cooperation, always in support of the ROAP programme and the Regional Representative. Counterparts include: various sections of national ministries and Japanese development cooperation entities; and various relevant counterparts in local governments, academia, the private sector and civil society. Within delegated authority, the Assistant Programme Officer will be responsible of the following duties:

Responsibilities

Description of Functions:

Provides support for strategic planning for and coordination of ROAP’s partnerships in and with Japan:

• Provides support as assigned, for the development and implementation of ROAP’s Strategy in alignment with and support of the UNSCDFs in relevant countries;
• Monitors and assesses, as relevant, the strategy at regular intervals to harness new emerging opportunities, to identify probable changes to the internal direction and external environment, and to propose mid-term adjustments;
• Provides support to the relevant Programme Officers, (Senior) Human Settlements Officers and the Regional Representative in identifying risks and opportunities related to specific partnerships, and suggests mitigation measures as relevant;
• Prepares inputs on due diligence processes of potential investment and partnership opportunities, under close guidance and in accordance with UN regulations and procedures;
• Provides support to ROAP to develop and implement locally-tailored partnerships and resource mobilization strategies and initiatives;
• Contributes to dialogues with partners to improve development assistance policies and practice;
• Assists in liaison and coordination with UN entities at country, regional and HQ levels, to help package and define UN collaboration opportunities, including differentiated value propositions to attract partners, both traditional and non-traditional.

Participates in relevant resource mobilization for ROAP programmes;

• Provides support to ROAP to develop and implement locally-tailored resource mobilization strategies and initiatives, and identify appropriate data and benchmarks to measure progress and success;
• Monitors and analyzes existing resource mobilization partnerships and relationships, including those with high net worth;
• Contributes to the design, formulation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of joint programmes and programming processes for use in joint resource mobilization;
• Assists in the production and distribution of marketing materials to raise awareness about opportunities for working with the UN-Habitat on SDG investment;
• Contributes to building the UN-Habitat brand via events, media and public relations opportunities targeted to the diverse partners, in close collaboration with the UN-Habitat communications focal points.

Provides technical and mission support on financing for accelerating collaboration with Japanese entities, including JICA, as directed;

• Provides support on financing for development options, instruments, modalities to ROAP, in alignment with the relevant Common Country Analyses (CCA), UNSDCFs and the agreements with Japanese institutions including JICA;
• Analyzes trends and provides support on new and innovative financing mechanisms for development and SDG acceleration;
• Provides inputs for briefing papers and discussion points on issues related to financing for development for consideration by ROAP;
• Assists in engaging with external stakeholders – including the national government and relevant financial institutions and others;
• Contributes to the design and execution of innovative proposals to strengthen ROAP engagement and reputation, and to generate greater financial resources in support of ROAP’s portfolio;
• Assists in the establishment and management of existing and new ROAP programmes in close collaboration with Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office and similar funds.

Supports communication, knowledge management and capacity development;

• Assists in the development, maintenance and sharing of knowledge and intelligence, to inform and position of ROAP to effectively generate and harness opportunities to meet its resource mobilization targets;
• Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice at national, regional and global levels;
• Undertakes activities to strengthen the capacity of ROAP to mainstream and promote SDG investment partnerships;
• Provides support for the discovery, evaluation and selection of partnership opportunities at the sourcing and origination stages.

Other

• Contributes to the collection and analysis of data and identification of trends or patterns and provides draft insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting;
• Documents requirements and background information used for data analysis;
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent degree) in business or a related area. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum one (1) year of relevant experience in providing strategic support to partnerships, project/programme management, resource mobilization or development finance in the context of development cooperation or related area is required. Experience in supporting liaison and resource mobilization with Japanese government entities and development cooperation organisations is desirable. Experience in contributing to advocacy networks, communities of practice or communication partnerships is desirable. Experience in drafting and updating communication strategies, initiatives and materials using digital and other means is desirable. One (1) year or more of experience in data analytics or related area, including for the preparation of briefing papers, talking points, project information sheets and meeting reports for official meetings is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position, fluency in both English and Japanese is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable. NOTE: “fluency equals a rating of “fluent” in all four areas (read, write, speak, understand), and ” Knowledge of” equals a rating of ” confident” in two of the four areas.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/248313?language=en