Crisis Prevention and Recovery Advisor at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations’ global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life for themselves. It provides expert advice, training and grants support to developing countries, with increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. It promotes technical and investment cooperation among nations.

Headquartered in New York City, the status of UNDP is that of an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly. The UNDP is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states. The organization operates in 177 countries, where it works with local governments to meet development challenges and develop local capacity.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Crisis Prevention and Recovery Advisor

Job ID: 30040
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Practice Area – Job Family: Crisis Prevention and Recovery – CRISIS PREVENTION
Grade: P5
Vacancy Type: FTA International
Posting Type: Common System
Contract Duration: 1 Year with possibility for extension

Background

Nigeria is a country with enormous potential: it is endowed with a population of 200 million, relatively good access to skills, capital and technology, fertile land, mineral resources and a favorable geographic location. With an abundance of resources, it is Africa’s biggest oil exporter, and has the largest natural gas reserves on the continent. It is the largest economy in Africa and constitutes 17% of African GDP, accounts 13% of African export, and about 47% of West Africa’s population.
Nigeria is a key regional player in West Africa and is a member the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), and the renewed engagement and interest in the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel.

Political governance situation:

Nigeria held national elections in 2019, for the sixth consecutive time since its return to democracy in 1999. To a large extent the elections ushered in a new cohort of political leaders from the subnational to the federal level although the President retained power. In addition, the National Assembly (the Senate and the House of Representatives), as well as, the State Houses of Assembly have been inaugurated and elected their principal officers. Since the inauguration and swearing, the political environment has been stable and there has been unprecedented level of subnational engagement with state governors seeking support to develop subnational sustainable development plans and financing frameworks.
On the other hand, although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was able to organize broadly credible elections, the elections exposed cracks in Nigeria’s nascent electoral democracy. This will likely bring additional challenges as new political actors, networks and centres of power emerge. Public confidence in INEC is mixed and this needs to be addressed to restore faith in the electoral governance process.

Socio-economic situation:

Nigeria came out of an economic recession in 2016 but the economy remains sluggish with growth rate since the recession averaging 1.3%. The economy is expected to recover somewhat in 2019 and 2010 with growth rate of around 3% and 2.9%, respectively. In per capita terms improvements in social welfare will be limited with a growth rate of around 3 per cent and a population growth rate of around 2.6%. As a result of slow growth and limited livelihood and employment opportunities, income poverty remains high at 46% while multi-dimensional poverty is even higher at 50%. As a result of these developments, Nigeria now has the largest number of poor people in the world with an estimated 87 million people living in extreme poverty.
Meanwhile, the number of people multidimensionally poor has increased from 86 million to 98 million in 2018. With unemployment at 23%, Nigeria has one of the highest unemployment rates in Africa. A high underemployment rate of 20% adds further pressure as a sizeable share of the population is not being productively utilized. Youth unemployment rate of 38% in 2018 indicates the challenges faced by the young people in securing jobs after school and graduation. A large informal economy (65% according to IMF), sluggish growth and an ever-increasing population make finding jobs by the youth a daunting task and a serious development challenge, including crimes and violence, for Nigeria in the years to come, unless steps are taken urgently to provide employment and livelihood opportunities.

Conflict and Insecurity situation:

One key factor that has had its dent on the development in Nigeria is incessant violent conflicts and criminalities. The once widely regarded as one of the most peaceful countries in the world, Nigeria is currently ranked 148 out of 163 countries in the 2019 Global Peace Index, only just ahead of Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Libya in Africa. The festering Boko Haram insurgency and its concomitant growing humanitarian needs and development gaps; the farmer-herders crisis in the middle-belt and other parts of Nigeria, widespread criminalities, such as, kidnapping, robbery, militancy and proliferation of small arms that negatively affect business environment and scare off investors; and the increasing rate of violent extremism, have all hold back economic growth and development and severely impacted delivery of basic and social services to and the livelihoods of the citizens. Violence has resulted into increasing rate of human displacement in most parts of the country particularly in the north east and the north central.
The UN Resident Coordinator put the number of IDPs in the north east alone at 1.8 million, as at June 2019, 80% of which are women and children. From 2015-2019, Nigeria witnessed over 34,000 fatalities from violence. While the government is doing its best to address the menace based on a three-pronged military, humanitarian and development response approach, development partners are also supporting the government’s effort, through intervention in the areas of stabilization, livelihoods, social cohesion and reconciliation community security and support to victims in line with priorities of the government.

Environmental situation:

Primary ecological challenges in Nigeria include land degradation, desertification, coastal erosion, and high rates of deforestation (3.5 per cent per year). Weak environmental governance and inadequate sectoral funding increases climate change vulnerability and environmental degradation in Nigeria and is likely to aggravate biodiversity loss. Natural disasters such as droughts, floods and soil erosion put pressure on economic opportunities and livelihoods, particularly in farming and forest dependent communities, and largely among marginalized populations (women, youth and people with disabilities) in the Niger Delta and Middle Belt.
Another constraining factor to growth and development in Nigeria is limited access to energy. Only 40 per cent of the urban population, and 20 per cent of rural communities, are connected to the national grid. The majority of the population is heavily dependent on wood fuel for household energy. The government response is limited by weak institutional capacity, and inappropriate policies and regulations that do little to promote private sector investment in adaptation and mitigation efforts. Low private sector investment and insufficient market incentives have prevented the people of Nigeria from tapping into the abundant sources of renewable energy for off-grid solutions (solar and wind).
Country Programme Document (CPD 2018-2022): Anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063, the Country Programme Document (CPD) for 2018-2022 represents UNDP’s contribution to the Government of Nigeria’s development efforts and the United Nations Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF) 2018-2022 for Nigeria. In terms of national strategic frameworks, the CPD is aligned to the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017 – 2020), which aims to restore macroeconomic stability, good governance and growth through economic diversification, investing in people and building a globally competitive economy, the Buhari Plan for the northeast, Niger-Delta master plan and the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).

The CPD identified governance deficits as the fundamental root cause impeding the country’s development and set out a strategy for redress through:

governance, peace and security focusing on transparency, access to justice and public service reform, conflict prevention and peacebuilding; and capacities for the humanitarian response,
inclusive growth for economic sustainability and diversification, focusing on livelihoods and youth employment, and
environmental sustainability and resilience focusing on capacities for sound environment management, climate change actions, partnerships and knowledge transfer.
UNDP has completed its CPD Mid-Term Review, which was necessitated by key strategic shifts at the global, regional and national levels, which heavily impact on the operating context in Nigeria
Against this background, UNDP Nigeria is seeking suitable candidates for the position of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR) Advisor (P5). Under the overall guidance of the Resident Representative and the direct supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative (Programme).
The CPR Advisor, acts as a senior advisor to CO Management on all aspects of peace building, democratic governance, and resilience-building. The Advisor leads UNDP’s involvement including via leading strategic and programmatic orientation in the areas of democratic governance (elections), conflict prevention, reconciliation, social cohesion and livelihoods with the overall objective to strengthen resilience of the population and address the drivers of instability.
The Advisor ensures that UNDP plays its integrator role in crisis and fragility. S/he works in close collaboration with Government officials, UN Agencies, UNDP Global Policy Network, development partners, the private sector, and civil society to strategically position UNDP in conflict prevention and resilience.
The Advisor, on behalf of UNDP, will also lead efforts to strengthening the “New Way of Working” in Nigeria, and represent UNDP in related technical groups and coordination bodies.

Duties and Responsibilities

As a senior member of the CO management team, ensures sound strategic direction of UNDP interventions in stabilisation and resilience focusing on the following:

Thorough analysis of the political, social and economic situation in the immediate response context, including a gender analysis and provision of strategic advice to CO Management;
Support joint analysis with the Government and UNDP main partners in fragile and post conflict areas, including but not limited to the EU, World Bank and bilateral partners;
Identification of strategic opportunities and potential conflict prevention (including infrastructure for peace), democratic governance, stabilisation, and resilience areas of cooperation, including opportunities for joint programming with UN agencies and other development partners;
Ensures alignment and coordination of projects related to the crisis with other project activities of the CO as well as those of UN Agencies and capitalizes on synergies where possible;
Ensures mainstreaming of cross-cutting UN/UNDP priorities in conflict prevention, stabilisation, humanitarian and resilience projects, in particular environment, gender, human rights and disaster risk reduction;
Ensure that women’s needs, and priorities are integrated into conflict prevention and resilience programming;
Strengthen and campion the operationalization of the “New Way of Working” it the national and local level through the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus and the localization agenda;

Ensures effective management of the conflict prevention and resilience project portfolio and supervision of the project teams achieving the following results:

Oversight of PBF and HSTF programmes and their strategic management to include guidance and management of project team and strategic oversight of planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring of the crisis-related projects in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations
Design and formulation of new stabilisation and resilience projects, in support of the implementation of the Country Programme Document.
Ensure the conflict prevention and resilience portfolio of the CO is coherently aligned on sustaining peace approach and support the priorities outlined in different strategic documents (UNSDPF, UNDP SP, etc.)
Effective response to operational issues, using existing POPP modalities to fast track recruitments and procurements and solving operational bottlenecks in a timely manner.
Effective monitoring continuous analysis of the programme environment.
Ensure regular contact with the Peacebuilding Support Office and Human Security Trust Fund Office on the implementation of PBF-funded projects and provide monthly reports on status of implementation;

Establishes and maintains strategic partnerships and resource mobilization for projects in stabilisation and Resilience:

Development and implementation of partnerships and resources mobilization strategies to achieve stabilisation and resilience outcomes.
Creation and coordination of partnerships with the UN Agencies, development partners, IFI, government institutions, private sector, civil society, women’s civil society groups and national women’s machineries, etc.
Determination of programmatic areas of cooperation, based on the UNSDPF, HRP and UNDP SP;
Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost-sharing.

Ensures provision of top quality and strategic advisory services, capacity building and facilitation of knowledge sharing focusing on achievement of the following results:

Advocacy for and strengthening of national capacity for planning and coordination of stabilisation and resilience effort.
Provision of top-quality policy and strategic advice to Government on development and implementation of conflict prevention and resiliency policies and strategies.
Identification, sharing and application of international best practices and lessons on resilience related issues relevant to the country’s needs and goals.
Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
Capacity building for country office staff (programme and operations).

Competencies
Core
Innovation:

Transforms and Inspires Actions.
Exercises stakeholder-centered design approaches for office / programme / division

Leadership:

Inspires organization to take on new challenges, reach higher performance
Ensures teams are resourced for success and empowered to deliver

People Management:

Creates a culture of ownership Guides substantive specialists.
Guides substantive specialists / teams and expands credibility and innovation capacity

Communication:

Represents organization, inspires, influences and changes intractable position.
Creates confidence among stakeholders by delivering authoritative positions, compelling analysis, and contextual acumen

Delivery:

Creates new opportunities for work.
Accepts accountability for the outcomes of programme delivery and facilitates improvement and innovation in the delivery of products and services

Technical / Functional

Emergency response and coordination:

Ability to lead organizational response to emergency situations.

Recovery support and implementation:

Ability to support and implement mechanisms, processes, resources in response to disaster/crisis.

Crisis Policy and Tools:

Ability to develop and implement methods and tools for crisis situations.

Strategic Planning:

Ability to make decisions that align with strategy, vision, and mission.

Trends and Emerging Areas Analytics:

Ability to scan the horizon and identify approaches and initiatives to bring into policy and programme design.

Partnerships:

Ability to manage engagement with other agencies, donors and other development stakeholders and forge productive working relationships

Representation:

Ability to productively share UNDP knowledge and activities (at UN and other venues).

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A Master’s degree, preferably in International Development, International Affairs, Business Administration, Development Economics, or another relevant field

Experience:

At least 10 years field experience, with a minimum 5 years international experience in countries facing situation of protracted crisis and fragility;
Extensive experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services, hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of prevention and resilience strategies and projects and establishing inter-relationships among international organizations and national governments.
Knowledge and understanding of crisis prevention, preparedness, response and recovery; resilience; stabilisation; transition; etc.); international crisis response architecture (including humanitarian system; peacekeeping operations; special political missions; etc.); gender equality in the context of programming in humanitarian and early recovery settings) and relevant policy and tools
Proven ability to coordinate crisis response with UN entities, including knowledge of UN policies and procedures on crisis response and complex emergencies, as well as related management of information;
Experience in conflict and resilience programming
Experience working in a crisis context as part of UN Management highly desirable.

Language Requirements: