Date of last update: 24/06/2021 2021-06-24
UNDP is the UN Development Programme and works in some 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. UNDP helps countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results. UNDP supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they help shape global sustainable development for the next 10 years.
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Background
Peace and Development Advisors (hereafter PDA) work with national stakeholders to build, strengthen, and sustain nationally owned and driven efforts to prevent violent conflict and build just and peaceful societies. The range of countries to which PDAs are deployed vary considerably, with some deployed to countries emerging from conflict, others where violence is escalating, and others to countries where there is no violent conflict but underlying structural causes of conflict are present. PDAs are also deployed in countries where political and developmental challenges exist around issues related to elections and constitutional processes, exclusion and inequality, environment, climate change and natural resource management.
PDAs are deployed through a partnership between the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention. PDAs support Resident Coordinators (RC) and UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in their efforts to work with national partners on conflict prevention and sustaining peace. They support early warning and risk management measures, and ensure that UN assessments, frameworks (mainly UN Cooperation Frameworks), strategies and programmes are conflict-sensitive and informed by high quality analysis. They are located in the Resident Coordinators' office, with a direct reporting line to the RC, and a secondary reporting line to the UNDP Resident Representative and DPPA-DPO regional divisions.
In 2021, PDAs will have been deployed to more than 50 countries through the Joint Programme. While most PDAs are deployed at country-level, there are a number of PDAs who cover multiple countries. In some contexts, PDAs are part of a small Peace and Development Advisory team composed of a PDA and a substantive national or international officer/analyst. PDAs also receive additional support from a Joint Programme Secretariat based at UN Headquarters in New York, from UNDP and DPPA technical advisors/specialists globally, and from a cadre of regional programme specialists supporting their regions from Amman, Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Dakar, Istanbul and Panama.
PDAs at the P5 level will be deployed in: a) particularly complex political, conflict and security settings as determined by the Joint Programme criticality assessment and analysis carried out by DPPA and UNDP b) in contexts of UN mission/mission transition settings or with other political presences, c) when regional/sub-regional functions are required, or d) when engagement with high-level officials is expected.
Given the broad range of skills and experience required by PDAs, the Joint Programme encourages applications from individuals with a combination of expertise spanning sustainable development, political affairs, peacebuilding, sustaining peace, conflict prevention/resolution, community engagement, justice, reconciliation, dialogue, mediation, and humanitarian-development-peace nexus among other relevant areas. While UN experience is a major asset, it is not a requirement for this position. Moreover, the skills of diplomacy, dialogue and facilitation, analysis, advocacy, networking, capacity development and coordination are critical elements of a PDA's work.
Country's context
One of the world's most underdeveloped countries, Chad faces significant peacebuilding challenges on all points of the compass, as well as internally. In the north and east, armed groups use the largely ungoverned areas of southern Libya and western Sudan (Darfur) to intermittently launch attacks on the country with a view to overthrowing the government. Conflicts over gold resources in the remote north of the country pit communities and ethnicities against each other and the government. In the east and south, conflicts between farmers and herders recur every year to coincide with transhumance movements, which climate change is making increasingly unpredictable. In the west, Boko Haram continues its campaign of terror around Lake Chad with grim determination, causing massive internal displacement. Across the country, a large youth population is increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of educational and employment opportunities available to them. Despite these challenges, Chad generously hosts nearly half a million refugees from Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria, who compete for the limited natural resources of local populations, increasing tensions and the potential for conflict.
Despite these challenges, Chad makes significant contributions to regional security and counter-terrorism efforts, particularly though its contributions to the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), the G5 Sahel Joint Force and the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA. From this perspective, Chad plays a critical stabilizing role in a highly volatile region that includes Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic.
Against this already challenging backdrop, invading rebels killed Chad's President in April 2021, following which the army seized power and installed a transitional administration promising elections within 18 months. The challenge now for the UN is to accompany the Chadian authorities and people back to a civilian-led constitutional order within an agreed timeframe. The PDA for Chad should therefore have experience in working on supporting mediation processes, as well as managing transitions and coordinating with the Government, political parties, electoral management bodies, civil society and other stakeholders on ways to advance institutional reforms and mitigate political and social tensions going forward.
Duties and Responsibilities
There are three broad functions of the position:
PDAs have a primary reporting line to the Resident Coordinator, and secondary reporting lines to the DPPA-DPO regional division and the UNDP Resident Representative. Under their guidance and agreed workplan, and in close collaboration with the Country Team, the PDA will:
1. Undertake conflict analysis and provide strategic advice to the Resident Coordinator in his/her engagement with high-level government officials, academia, civil society including youth and women's networks, UN Country Teams, HQ, and other relevant stakeholders. Submit the analysis and reporting to the RC, UNDP RR and DPPA.
· Provide risk-informed analysis to the RC and the broader UNCT (and in some contexts, the Humanitarian Country Team) as well as the UN Headquarters (and regional level as relevant) on political and socioeconomic developments, and conflict dynamics, particularly as relevant to the transition process. This would also require identifying appropriate ‘entry points' for conflict prevention and sustaining peace, proposing concrete, actionable and timely recommendations for consideration by the UN leadership;
2. Identify opportunities to build national capacities for conflict prevention and with a view towards a renewed social contract, including areas of strategic, programmatic and policy engagement with national stakeholders, and support the RC and the UNCT in areas of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, human rights, humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus, Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) among others.
· Support the RC and UNCT in the context of the political transition in Chad by providing analysis on the process, as well as policy and programmatic advice for potential UN support to an inclusive dialogue process, and the management of the transition process. This might include assistance to UNCT efforts to develop and design technical and programmatic support to the transition process, as well as initiatives for institutional reform/strengthening geared towards social cohesion and renewal of the social contract, and support of RCO and UNDP engagement with the Transition Monitoring Council stakeholders.
In contexts of a UN Mission transition, work closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure that the activities of the UNCT incorporate a conflict prevention dimension to sustain the peacebuilding gains achieved during the mission's presence.
3. Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key national stakeholders, regional and international actors and development partners on issues related to Sustaining Peace and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
· Establish and maintain networks and strategic partnerships for sustaining peace related strategies and initiatives and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and national SDG plans;
Competencies
Core
Innovation
Ability to make new and useful ideas work
Leadership
Ability to persuade others to follow
People Management
Ability to improve performance and satisfaction
Communication
Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform
Delivery
Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement
Technical/Functional
Social Cohesion
Knowledge of methods and experience of supporting communities to achieve greater inclusiveness, more civic participation and creating opportunities for upward mobility
Peacebuilding and Reconciliation
Ability to support peace processes to facilitate recovery and development
Conflict-Sensitive Programming
Ability to use methods and tools to monitor conflict triggers and determine impact of various dynamics in conflict-prone situations
Conflict and Political Economy Analysis
Knowledge of the interaction of political, social and economic processes in a society; including distribution of power and wealth between groups and individuals, and the processes that create, sustain and transform these relationships over time, and how these dynamics both affect, and are affected by the UN's work.
Knowledge Management
Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge
Relationship Management
Ability to engage with other parties and forge productive working relationships
Gender
Knowledge of gender issues and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations, including analysis of projects from a gender perspective
Resource Mobilization
Ability to identify and organize programmes and projects to implement solutions and generate resources
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Advanced university degree (Master's Degree) in conflict resolution, peace studies, political science, sociology, human rights, international relations, economics, law, public administration, or other related social sciences.
Experience:
Language Requirements
Other
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Type of contract: Staff (Permanent and Fixed Term)
Macro-area: Sub-Saharan Africa
Level of experience: Senior Professional, more than 5 years
Area of work Definition: Political Affairs, Conflict and Peacekeeping
Type of organisation: Multilateral Organisations