UNOPS –Somalia Country Office (SOCO) is recruiting this position through an Emergency Recruitment process (EPP).

This is an exciting and rewarding opportunity to help shape UNOPS’ efforts to support the expansion of affordable, accountable and effective policing in Somalia.

Somalia is undergoing a significant phase in its political and security development – one that offers opportunities as well as challenges to efforts to secure the foundations of longer-term stabilisation and peace. The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), established in 2012, is set to hold their second landmark Presidential and Parliamentary elections in late 2020/early 2021. Recent high-level political dialogues present some hope for a Somali path to peace. Power relations between the country’s centre and periphery remain at the centre of the Somali crisis, however, and significant questions regarding Somalia’s national security architecture are yet to be adequately negotiated and resolved. Against this backdrop, expansion and development of professional and accountable civilian policing is both a critical precursor to peace-building efforts, and a point of significant political contestation. To that end, Somali authorities have developed a New Policing Model (NPM), which codifies a two-tier federated policing structure.

International funding has been crucial in sustaining the Somali Federal and Federal Member States (FMS) Police in returning a degree of security and rule of law to the country. The continuation and expansion of these efforts are crucial over the coming years. To enable this, the Joint Policing Programme (JPP) supports the Federal and FMS police to implement the country’s two-tier federated New Policing Model (NPM). The JPP takes advantage of the current situational opportunity to enhance collaboration in support of specific and realistic activities aimed at increasing the number of police officers operating across the country and their effectiveness in providing critical basic policing services to communities. By bringing together donor funding for the Police into one programme, the JPP enables the efficient and effective allocation of resources and fosters stronger strategic partnerships between Somali and international actors.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The successful applicant will demonstrate strong programme management experience gained through work on substantial and multi-donor-funded development programmes. The Programme Management Specialist will be experienced working in fragile contexts and with a variety of international donors, ideally in Somalia. She/he demonstrates strong interpersonal and stakeholder engagement skills, both with national and international counterparts. Above all, she/he will be proactive, comfortable delivering at pace and very organised.

The Programme Management Specialist will report directly to the Head of Joint Police Programme and form a critical part of the Secretariat team, which includes talented technical, programme and fund management staff.

Programme management support. Ensure effective implementation and performance of the JPP. Establish and oversee systems to monitor timelines, scope and programme delivery rates.

1. Maintain JPP calendar and ensure necessary communications, including relevant documentation, are prepared in advance of key meetings. Provide oversight of outstanding issues and risks, as well as agreed decisions and actions, and support colleagues to address these in a timely and effective manner. Report accurately on the status of agreed work requests, identifying and raising critical issues or concerns with senior management and colleagues to support timely resolution.
2. Knowledge and Information Management. Ensure relevant programme documents are maintained and up to date for knowledge management, compliance to internal and donor requirements, and ensure programme records are complete for internal and external review purposes. Establish and/or maintain an electronic knowledge and information management system with due consideration for front-end and back-end users. Ensure OneUNOPS Projects have adequate and complete documentation.
3. Stakeholder engagement. Support Head of JPP and other colleagues to establish solid working relationships with a wide range of Somali and international actors, including members of the Federal and Federal Member State (FMS) governments, JPP donors (EU, Germany, UK), UN and AU missions. Facilitate information sharing and collaboration with other actors supporting security sector governance and police development in Somalia.
4. Reporting. Support Head of JPP to prepare regular and high-quality narrative reports on progress towards JPP outcomes and agreed work requests.

Core Values and Principles:

• Understand and respect UNOPS sustainability principles.
• Look for ways to embed UNOPS sustainability principles in day to day project management.
• Seek opportunities to champion gender equality at the workplace.
• Champion and communicate the project’s sustainability aspects with key stakeholders.
• Understand and Respect National ownership and capacity.
• Understand the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and mainstream them into the project plans.
• Seek opportunities to recruit qualified local staff.
• Look for ways to build the capacity of local counterparts.

Partnerships and Coordination.

• Understand the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and UNOPS, the project’s place in the UN system.
• Know the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and seek to contribute to the deliverables of the project.
• Strive to build strong partnerships and effective coordination among relevant project actors (e.g. United Nations, governments, and non-governmental organisations or other relevant partners.

Accountability for results and the use of resources.

• The project/programme management processes are designed to deliver maximum accountability, transparency and results. If a project or processes is not in line with this, it is the responsibility of the Head of JPP to raise the issue to a supervisor.

Excellence

• Contribute to innovation and the adaptation of best practice standards of sustainability and quality.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Ensure that the project produces the required products within the specified tolerance of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits.

Qualifications and Experience.

A. Education

• Master’s Degree in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science/Security Management/Development Studies, Education, Information Technology (ICT), Law or other relevant discipline is required.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations, Political Science/Security Management/Development Studies, Education, Information Technology (ICT), Law with a combination of two (2) additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree.

B: Work Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years’ work experience in programme management experience gained from working on substantial development programmes (including, for example, implementation of programmes and logical frameworks) is required;
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple, competing priorities and to establish effective systems to support teams to deliver at pace.
• Experienced and resilient working in fragile contexts, with an understanding of wider conflict, peace and security issues in Africa.
• Successful track record working on security and justice development in fragile and/or conflict-affected environments in Africa.
• Experience at successfully working for/with international development agencies overseas, and of successfully engaging and managing multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to apply political and institutional analysis and use this to influence strategic planning and programming decisions.
• Experience working with multilateral, other development partners and civil society organisations.
• Experience/knowledge of Google Suite products, especially google forms, sheets, docs and slides is an asset.

Certifications:

• PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification is an asset.
• Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner Certification is a preferred asset

C: Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English Language is required.

D. Contract type, level and duration

Contract type: International Individual Contract Agreement (IICA)

Contract level: IICA 2 /ICS 10

Contract duration: EPP Recruitment under approved duration

E. Additional Considerations

Applications received after the deadline date will not be considered.

• Only those candidates that are short-listed for the Desk Review process/interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Work-Life Harmonization – UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types.
• Mogadishu is a Non-Family Duty Station
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.