UNDP is on the ground in more than 170 countries provides a global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. Across Asia and the Pacific, UNDP helps countries build and share their own solutions to urgent development challenges, supporting coalitions for change and connecting individuals and institutions so they can share knowledge, experience, and resources.

In the Asia and Pacific region, UNDP drives one of the largest youth movement for empowerment, equality, social inclusion, and social justice (Youth Co:Lab). The programme empowers and invests in youth, so that they can accelerate the implementation of the SDGs through leadership, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. Working with partners in government and the private sector, UNDP is co-creating national and regional programmes positioning young people front and center to solve the region’s pressing problems. Through our country offices we are working with young people to build entrepreneurial skills and capacity, help governments increase engagement with young people by creating supportive policy and regulatory environments; and working with private sector, academia and other partners to create an enabling ecosystem for young social entrepreneurs.

Youth Co:Lab’s research and thought leadership component seeks to generate, amplify, and leverage evidence in order to strengthen the ecosystem for youth leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship in Asia-Pacific. Research and thought leadership are closely connected to Regional Youth Empowerment Portfolio’s (YEP-AP) impact measurement and management function, which generates evidence and lessons learnt directly from programme activities and enhances the visibility of Youth Co:Lab’s mission to position young people front and centre to solve the region’s most pressing challenges.

The Youth Co:Lab and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) partnered in 2020 to pilot research studies on the ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship in key programme countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The first studies conducted in Bangladesh and Indonesia tested a youth-responsive analysis framework, identified entry points for strengthening the operating environment for young entrepreneurs in these countries and provided recommendations to make the ecosystem more enabling for young aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. Similar studies were also conducted by Youth Co:Lab in Singapore in 2021, Pakistan and Maldives in 2023, with the Pakistan report launched in 2024 and Maldives report scheduled for launch in 2025.The engagements have concluded that the ecosystems most beneficial for youth entrepreneurship are those in which targeted technical support and tailored support in areas such as education, finance, networking, and market-building that are provided within an overall environment conducive to conducting business.

The lessons learned and key findings from the studies have paved the way for strengthening the current methodology with specific benchmarks across various domains. In addition, the toolkit for ecosystem diagnostic studies will be updated to reflect the enhanced methodology and practical strategies, enabling ecosystem stakeholders to develop their own diagnostic studies.

The United Nations World Youth Report 2020 recommended the formation of a task force that regularly reviews and evaluates the business environment and its specific impact on youth entrepreneurship and makes recommendations for improvements. Building on this need, UNDP and partners such as ILO, Commonwealth Secretariat and ESCAP established a Strategic Intelligence Hub for government and private sector representatives from across the region to co-ideate, co-share good practices and co-strategies regional and national level priorities for youth entrepreneurship ecosystem development.  The Hub has facilitated knowledge exchanges with policy makers in the region through the regional youth co:lab summit, webinars and policy briefs. The outcomes from these exchanges will be leveraged to develop targeted capacity building initiatives for policy makers on developing youth inclusive and innovative policies for a just and green transition in Asia and the Pacific countries.

Leading into the eighth year of operations of the Youth Co:Lab, UNDP is seeking the services of a Policy Specialist – Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship to provide policy support related to Youth Entrepreneurship, lead the Research and Impact Management frameworks of the project.

• Lead the management of the Research and Thought Leadership Framework of the YEP-AP project. Closely liaise with the project co-leads to ensure synergies and the achievement of overall project goals. Support team members, vendors and partners to achieve various components of the Framework, regular monitoring of progress and update project team and donors.

• Lead the management of the Impact Measurement and Management Framework of the YEP-AP project. Closely liaise with the project co-leads to ensure synergies and the achievement of overall project goals. Support team members to achieve various components of the Framework, regular monitoring of progress and update project team and donors.

• Support project risk management of the YEP-AP project including gender mainstreaming in accordance with the guidelines set by the Regional Youth Project Document.

• Support showcasing of Project activities through thought leadership and strategic positioning opportunities involving UNDP Senior Management, Op-Eds and blogs in Regional Media, Youth Co:Lab and UNDP websites and internal and external social media platforms.

• Support to the UNDP Regional Programme. Liaise with relevant GPN teams of UNDP Asia-Pacific and HQ to ensure that the YEP-AP is aligned with the Regional

• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Institutional Arrangement         

The Policy Specialist – Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship will report to the Regional Youth and Civil Society Specialist with the close supervision of the Regional Youth Project Manager and work in close collaboration with the UNDP country offices and other key parties. The success of the project depends on the timely delivery of each component.  The Lead should ensure timely identification of potential risks and signal any delays in deliverables. The contract will be effective immediately upon signature by UNDP.

UNDP BRH will have the following responsibilities: (i) Provide relevant documents; (ii) Discuss and agree on the methodologies of the assignment; and (iii) Monitor and evaluate the progress of the assignment.

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
Business Development  –  Collective Intelligence Design:   Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions.
Business Development – Knowledge Generation:    Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.
Digital & Innovation – Digital business analysis:    Ability to support digital business processes across a range of digital projects, programmes and activities.
Partnership management – Relationship Management:     Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding
Business Direction & Strategy – Entrepreneurial Thinking:    Ability to create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners and to develop service offers responding to client needs based on UNDP’s organizational priorities and mandate
Business Development – Knowledge Facilitation:    Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally
2030 Agenda: Peace – Governance:  Youth Socio Economic Empowerment

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements