NATIONAL POST: Coordination and Partnership Specialist, Niamey, Niger, NOC

The Position:

The Coordination and Partnership Specialist is responsible for leveraging the Niger country office’s effective management of integrated programmes through a strong institutional framework, to further operationalize and strengthen delivery across all components of the country programme. You will support in optimizing the utilization of technical expertise available at the country offices and allow for better coordination and implementation of expected objectives.

You will report directly to the Deputy Representative, who provides the overall programme leadership under the guidance of the Representative. You will work in close collaboration with programme teams at country and regional levels.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s new strategic plan (2018-2021), focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Job Purpose:

Niger is one of the least advanced countries in the West and Central Africa region that can have an impact on the achievement of UNFPA transformative results. So, it is necessary to put in place innovative mechanisms to anticipate, prevent and resolve bottlenecks and risks that hinder the achievement of results. The Coordination and Partnership Specialist will strengthen the monitoring function of the country office, helping managers to better manage to achieve the expected results as defined in the Country Program Document.

The Coordination and Partnership Specialist works in an integrated and coordinated approach, to help scaling up successful interventions related to Gender issues and Reproductive Health and Rights in Niger. S/he will collaborate with program specialists, partners, UN agencies and donors to provide technical support to increase program performance and to ensure the availability of evidence for quality reports.

The country office currently runs multiple donor-funded programmes in various regions across the country. This portfolio has been expanding and is likely to grow further, thus giving an opportunity to apply invaluable lessons learned from years of experience to maximize return on investments. Therefore, the Coordination and Partnership Specialist will be pivotal in driving and maintaining focus on results delivery as an enabler of partnership and collaboration in order to accelerate and scale-up the delivery of national strategies and initiatives.

You would be responsible for:

A. Operationalizing the country office annual workplan

• In partnership and close collaboration with the M&E specialist, develop and support a substantive framework for monitoring and evaluation, with functionalities for trend monitoring, early warning/alerts and rapid response. This would then feed a mechanism of systematically keeping the country office management abreast of projects and programmes progress status, underlying and prevailing issues; thus allowing him to exercise required leverage for results improvement;
• Along with CO Programme Specialists, support and strengthen planification and programming for a better integration (a) of the various projects and programmes, (b) the country office units; with the aim to allow a seamless operationalization of the annual workplan;
• Apply change, risk and resource management principles when needed and provide advise on how to enhance efficiency and productivity. This is particularly required, given the risk inherent to the influx of new grants and initiative/programmes.

B. Strategic Advisory Support and Guidance

• Formulate guidance and prepare reports to inform decision making by the Representative and the Deputy Representative, and coordinate inputs from various units to inform corporate policies, technical reports and updates for the Regional Office and HQ;
• Support the Representative and Deputy Representative with management plans, annual reports and budgets execution, and oversees the various commitments and deliverables, taking and driving appropriate and timely action on issues and challenges;

C. Programme Management & Research Support

• Analyze existing practices for improvement or enhancement and brainstorm with the management and technical teams to bring up new solutions and approaches to old problems;
• Support country office units leads in their quest for strong and innovative concepts, tools and resources for a more vibrant and innovative approach towards communicating results and achievements;
• Establish planning information and schedules of programme reviews;
• Contribute to ensuring compliance of programmes/projects with organizational guidelines, as well as with audits and evaluation findings, by benchmarking programme and project performance and transmitting this information to the Programme Specialists for corrective actions;
• Design and manage specialized databases on (i) Programme/projects profiles for development, implementation and evaluation purposes; (ii) best practices in programme design/implementation for knowledge sharing;
• Consolidate and maintain the inventory of pipeline projects for submission to donors for financing;
• Research assistance duties including bibliographic and database searches; summarize information and draft contributions to reports, papers, technical notes and publications. 

D. Partnership, Advocacy and Resource Mobilization

• Substantively contribute and support the formulation of communication strategies and events management for an improved advocacy and resource mobilization across the region, in close collaboration with the Regional Communication Adviser; 
• Facilitates strategic linkages with various partners and identify key areas of potential cooperation;
• Foster inter-agency collaboration and support activities related to the UN Common Chapter and the ongoing repositioning of the UN development system, through active participation in initiatives to strengthen UN coherence and by ensuring that joint programming (including joint programmes) are achieved to the best extent possible;  
• In coordination with the Deputy Representative, consult, coordinate and liaise with international, multi and bi-lateral donors and other stakeholders.

E. Carry out any other duties as may be required by UNFPA Country Office leadership.

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

Advanced university degree in Public Health, Medicine, Sociology, Demography, Gender, International Relations, International Development, Economics, Public Administration, Management or other related fields. 

Knowledge and Experience:

• A least 5 years of increasingly responsible relevant professional experience.  
• Knowledge and experience in data collection, analysis and dissemination.  
• Solid understanding of results-based management.  
• Strong communication, and excellent coordination skills.  
• Strong people management skills, ability to develop team commitment, and manage conflict and stress.
• Ability to build alliances and partnership with stakeholders.
• Experience in providing leadership-level advice, and maturity and sensitivity to handle complex stakeholders in difficult environments.
• Knowledge of United Nations development programs and working procedures, in particular UNFPA programming policies and procedures, would be an asset.

Languages:

Fluency in French is required; and working knowledge of English is desirable.