Guinea-Bissau nationals: Programme Analyst (Sustainable Development)

Guinea-Bissau is a small country wedged between the sub-Saharan arid ecosystems and the Guinean moist forest ecoregion. The resulting combination creates majestic terrestrial landscapes and a patchy mosaic of dense and open forests, gallery forests and woodland savannah that are rich in significant plant and animal life and a refuge for many migratory species that move across the West-African savannahs. In addition, it is one of Africa’s richest countries in terms of natural resources endowment. Beyond having great biodiversity, its soil is fertile and hosts a multitude of minerals. Despite this obvious will and the constant efforts of the Government, the sustainable management of the environment, notably the destruction of biodiversity and poor management of natural resources, remain a major challenge. These challenges derive from various causes, including the impacts of climate change and weakness of environmental governance due to low capacities of the State for the effective application of the international conventions and the national laws governing management of the environment and natural resources, risk management, and disaster prevention.

The rich natural endowment of the country has not benefited the population so far. The recurrent structural fragility of the economy has left the population with few meaningful opportunities, especially in rural areas. The population continues to be poor and confined to subsistence activities and informal trade. This situation is a source of discontent amongst the population, a serious threat to the livelihood of households, especially in terms of food and social security, and particularly to women and youth, posing extra strain to an already precarious condition. To build the interest of the population in the affairs of the state, a first step is to restore its confidence through investments in local governance for local economic development to create conditions for the population to benefit from the local economic opportunities and natural resources endowment in a participatory and inclusive approach.

The UNDP Country Office (CO) in Guinea-Bissau, as a key government partner in the area of environment and sustainable development, seeks to reposition itself strategically and realign its human resources to better respond to the new Country Programme Document (CPD) 2021-2025, articulating the need to work in a more integrated and collaborative manner to help Guinea-Bissau address interrelated development challenges and achieve sustainable development goals.

In line with the UNDP Strategic Plan Signature solution 1: Keeping people out of poverty, the programme in Guinea-Bissau will continue flagship programmes including improving rural and urban livelihoods, strengthening gender equality, ensuring access to clean and alternative energy and strengthening financial inclusion, in order to help build resilience to economic, environmental or health shocks. It will also focus of interventions that assist with transitions and structural shifts including economic diversification, redressing widening inequalities including gender inequalities, technology and skills alignment, etc.

The program will also continue in line with the Signature solution 3: Enhance national prevention and recovery capacities for resilient societies, with a focus on the issues of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation in a vulnerable environment  and crisis response. The programme will also respond to UNDP’s Blue SIDS offer and to the Blue Economy initiative.

Summary of Key Functions

Provide :

1. Programme Strategies and Development Support  
2. Substantive Management Support and Quality Assurance and Oversight:
3. Substantive Support to Advocacy, Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization
4. Policy Advisory services and Knowledge Building Facilitation;  

1.Ensures implementation of programme strategies focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Thorough analysis and research of the political, social, economic and environmental situation in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to strategic documents for the sector;
• Analysis and synthesis of proposals on the areas of support and interventions related to creation of sustainable livelihoods,  to environment and within the other thematic/sectoral areas assigned;
• Innovation promotion and testing of new social, digital and AI solutions in the sustainable development portfolio;
• Application of behavior change models and strategies for social change;
• As part of the UN coherence process, development and consolidation of relevant thematic/sector related policy interventions by participating in discussions with other UN agencies.

2. Substantive management support to quality assurance and oversight of Country Office assigned programme components, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Designing and implementing projects relating to governance and cross-cluster if applicable, translating UNDP’s priorities into local interventions;
• Initiating projects, ensuring project approval, registering projects in Atlas, preparing and finalizing project annual work plans and project documents, contributing in budgetary monitoring and follow-up, and ensure closure of completed projects;
• The programme analyst performs functions of Manager Level 1 in Atlas for POs and vouchers approval;
• Financial and substantive monitoring and evaluation of the projects in ATLAS, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions;
• Follow up on audit recommendations. All exceptions are timely reported;
• Preparation of inputs for reporting, including donor reporting;
• Contribution to application of RBM tools and monitoring achievement of results.

3. Provides substantive Support to Advocacy, Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for initiation of new projects and writing of project proposals in English, active contribution to the overall office effort in resource mobilization;
• Analysis and exploration of new non-traditional partners to activate innovative collaborations, projects or solutions.
• Develop and strengthen strategic partnerships with traditional and non- traditional donors including NGOs, CSO’s and grass roots organization;
• Develop, disseminate and market new practices in the thematic area as well as in the use of social media tools that enhance the visibility of UNDP and its value-added proposition.

4. Ensures provision of top-quality advisory services and facilitation of knowledge building and management, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme country policy goals;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Organization of trainings for the operations/ projects staff on programme and quality assurance issues;
• Professional growth through active learning.

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Environmental Sciences, Rural Development, Social Sciences or related;
• Prince2 training and certification, RMG are desirable.
• Design thinking and system thinking desirable.

Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years of experience in the management or substantive support of sustainable development programme/projects  with a clear focus on environmental, energy and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies;
• Experience in programme and project management;  
• Proven ability to work effectively in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams.
• Sound understanding and capability to empower and develop the capacity of national staff.
• Proven programmatic implementation experience with sound knowledge of all aspects of the project cycle (design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation).
• Excellent skills in fundraising, resources mobilization and donor relations would be an asset.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Strong strive for innovative ideas and practices.

Language requirements:

• Proficiency in oral and written English, Portuguese. Working knowledge of French would be an asset.