Job Purpose and Organizational Context
UNDP / UNSOM programmes is part of the overall United Nations support to Somali state building, helping to contribute to the prospects for a negotiated, reconciled and stable Federal State system, one that is supported by all Somalia. This project supports the key strategic priorities of the Somalia NDP, the Political Roadmap, the NPS and the MAF with those issues central to building an effective and efficient federal administrative system. The project also supports MoP to continue to play its vital role in aid coordination and effectiveness through building and consolidating SDRF-NDP linkages. The Project builds on UNDP’s strong partnership with the FGS and the FMS and its experience to date in supporting state formation and administration, where UNDP has been the lead implementing partner on behalf of the international community. Both the FGS and FMS have now requested UNDP and UNSOM support to embed and develop the key state building processes with a focus on core government functions.
The Reconciliation and Federalism Support Project (2018-2021) (hereon referred to as REFS) has been developed by UNDP in response to, and aligned with, the highest priorities of the National Development Plan (NDP), particularly as set out in Chapters II and VI. The REFS Project aims to support the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the Federal State Administrations in achieving the Policy Priorities (PP) of the NDP. The REFS contributes to the goal of Inclusive Politics “Achieve a stable and peaceful federal Somalia through inclusive political processes and effective decentralization”. The project also contributes to NDP(PP) specifically PP11 “Develop a solid federal political and executive framework that empowers the federal member states to deliver services and economic opportunities to the citizens of Somalia in a secure environment”; The current NDP agenda for achieving inclusive politics comprises ‘democratization, finalizing the Constitution, and decentralization’; implementing the federation process. The NDP policy seeks to reach political agreement on the principles that underlie the distribution of roles and responsibilities over the three tiers of government and to translate these political agreements into executive (management) arrangements throughout the government structures. Chapter VI of the NDP is the public-sector management chapter, with a clear focus on the core of government functionalities, including development of the civil service, administrative reforms, human resource management, and improved government coordination mechanisms. The project concurrently supports the priorities identified in the NDP Pillar Working Groups and the recently drafted ‘Political Roadmap for Inclusive Politics’.
The purpose of this project is to support the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the Federal Member States (FMS) to implement their chosen method of State Administration and Federalism process through need based political settlement, boundary delimitation and reconciliation process. The project will consolidate State formation efforts to build and harmonise the emerging federal system in the FGS and the FMS, ensuring alignment with the objectives of the New Partnership for Somalia (NPS) and the NDP. The Project will also cement effective harmonization with other governance and public administration related programmes, specifically those of partner UN organisations working in the political and service delivery fields, the IMF, AfDB, and World Bank and other development partners such as the EU, DFID (PREMIS) and USAID(SSG) supporting elements of public administration at all levels of the administrative hierarchy. Where appropriate links are made to stabilization programmes.
The Chief Technical Specialist under the direct supervision of Portfolio Manager Inclusive Politics Portfolio will be responsible for the effective delivery of the Reconciliation and Federalism Support project. S/he will provide support to Federal Government of Somalia and Federal Member States in planning and implementation of scheduled reconciliation and federalism support related events, Conceptualize, plan, design and oversee implementation of Reconciliation and Federalism process and capacity development initiatives in line with the political road map and reform agenda of the Federal Government of Somalia, Provide strategic policy and technical advice to the counterpart government institutions to help them develop federalism and capacity building initiatives, partnership and coordination of reconciliation and federalism support with UN agencies, donor community and national institutions.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the direct supervision of the Inclusive Politics Portfolio Manager, the CTS is responsible
to undertake the following functions:
Summary of Key functions:
Conceptualize, plan, design and oversee implementation of Reconciliation and Federalism process and capacity development initiatives in line with the political road map and reform agenda of the Federal Government of Somalia; Provide strategic policy and technical advice to the counterpart government institutions to help them develop federalism and capacity building initiatives; Support to Reconciliation and Federalism; Effectively coordinate with donors and development partners working in the area of federalism & Reconciliation and promote networking and knowledge sharing within UNDP, in particular and with UN System, in general; Overall management and oversight of the Project.
Conceptualize, plan, design and oversee implementation of Reconciliation and Federalism process and capacity development initiatives in line with the political road map and reform agenda of the Federal Government of Somalia;
- Plan, and design reconciliation and federalism initiatives in consultation with counterpart government institutions and in consonance with broad thematic areas of the inclusive politics portfolia;
- Oversee implementation of project activities and consultant’s work deployed within the project;
- Monitor and evaluate the ongoing project activities and suggest course corrections, where needed; Prepare and oversee implementation of annual and quarterly budgets and work plans.
Provide strategic policy and technical advice to the counterpart government institutions to help them develop federalism and capacity building initiatives
- Provide a sound technical advise to Government counterparts, namely, MOIFAR at federal and state level, Office of the Prime Minister and any other relevant institution on federalism and Reconciliation.
- Advise the UNDP Somalia Country Office and the integrated team reconciliation and federalism and state building priorities
- Develop policy briefings and participate in missions undertaken in relation to federalism, governance and related agenda;
- Plan and execute periodic reviews and assessments of project activities implemented under his/her area of supervision;
- Provide technical assistance to the formulation and implementation of National Reconciliation Framework including technical advise on the establishment of the implementation mechanism , and provide technical backstopping to relevant institution.
- Engage and manage high-profile subject experts and resource persons having a demonstrated capacity of facilitating reconciliatory processes and conducting a series of dialogues on contentious issues linked to peace-building and state building-agenda in Somalia.
- Design and deliver capacity building measures to the national and local actors involved in processes and the implementation of reconciliation.
- Identify entry points and strengthen mechanisms for inter-governmental negotiations to help developing a consensus-based culture of dispute resolution between and within Federal Government of Solia and Federal Member States (FMS).
- Develop context-specific instruments strengthening decentralized framework of locally-led dialogues and efforts contributing to negotiated federalization and democratization of Somalia.
Support to Reconciliation and Federalism:
- Design and supervise need-based political economy analyses of conflicts to inform the peace-building and conflict resolution processes involving critical stakeholders;
- Design and implement a comprehensive communication and outreach strategy aimed at building popular support around reconciliatory measures led by involved stakeholders;
- Develop systems and instruments of accountability facilitating better interface between citizens and state structures;
- Develop a citizens’ report card system to provide information on the levels of citizens’ satisfaction about the performance of different state agencies;
- Develop cross sectoral linkages within UN system demonstrating a holistic approach to reconciliation aimed at inclusiveness and aid effectiveness.
Effectively coordinate with donors and development partners working in the area of federalism & Reconciliation and Promote networking and knowledge sharing within UNDP, in particular and with UN System, in general:
- Advise UNDP on preparation of high-level consultation meetings with donors, government departments/ministries to furthering the reform agenda envisaged under Somali Compact;
- Prepare UNDP position papers and UNDP resource mobilization strategy in order to start discussion with relevant stakeholders;
- Regularly interact with development partners and INGOs/NGOs working in the field of public sector and civil service reform and institutional capacity development and advise the UNDP accordingly.
- Ensure that reconciliation and federalism support and capacity development initiatives of UNDP and that of other development agencies are complementary in nature and there is no duplicity and overlapping of efforts resulting in wastage of scarce resources;
- Under the direct supervision of Portfolio Manager identify strategic entry points to improve UNDP interface and linkages with other development partners and counterpart government institutions to help further the inclusive politics agendas.
Overall management and oversight of the Project:
- The CTA has the overall project management responsibility supported on daily basis by the Operations Specialist;
- Oversee the effective administrative and technical management of the Project, in particular, technical management of the Project team for results;
- Provide advice to the Project board good practice;
- Oversee the development and implementation of the Annual Work Plans and Budgets;
- Supervise the UNDP Project team, and oversee drafting of periodic reports on the progress of the Project to UNDP, the Project Board and Donors, including by ensuring top quality analysis and substantive inputs to project documents, reports, concept notes and other strategic documents;
- Supervise plan and coordinate relevant meetings of the Project Boards and other relevant coordination processes), including by producing relevant reporting;
- Oversee the mobilization of additional resources from development partners;
- Perform other relevant duties as required by the UNDP Resident Representative, Deputy Resident Representative (Programme) and Portfolio Manger of Inclusive Politics Portfolio. Ensure in all circumstances that the project upholds the values of the UN System, the country’s interests and partners implicated in the process.
Recruitment Qualifications
Education:
Master’s degree in Political Science, International Relations, Social Sciences, Management, Administration, Law or related fields.
Experience:
§ At least seven years of professional experience in the area of governance with focus on participatory federalism, reconciliation and democratic decentralisation, conflict management and institutional development preferably in a fragile and conflict affected context;
§ Applicant must be able to demonstrate strong silks and substantive experience in consensus-building, ethnic conflict management, inter-governmental relations, fiscal federalism and transition management of regional autonomy. Work experience in conflict or post-conflict settings is an advantage.
§ Strong experience supporting inclusive and consultative public consultation processes;
§ High level representational and advisory experience, ideally in a cross-cultural setting;
§ Experience working with the UN an asset;
§ Relevant experience in Africa an advantage;
§ Previously experience as CTA in the framework multi donor programmes.
§ Demonstrated experience in managing project and team of consultants.
Language Requirements:
Proficiency in English (mandatory). Working knowledge of other UN language desirable
More Information
- Job City Mogadishu
