Background

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP: we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

UNDP India’s new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

Strong, accountable and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.
South-South cooperation, gender equality and social inclusion are promoted across the pillars. The programme is supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, strategic innovation and accelerator labs, and data and digital architecture.

You are invited to join a team of future-smart development professionals to support India in achieving the national and globally agreed goals. As part of the UNDP team, your focus will be to work with diverse stakeholders to find country-specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and reach those furthest behind first.

Office/Unit/Project Description

In India UNDP is a long-standing partner of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and its institutions at the State and District level. Guided by the government, the UNDP India work is fully carried out in close coordination with partner UN agencies and is focusing on better health services provided to population of India.

The overarching goal of UNDP’s work on health system strengthening in India is to facilitate equitable access to basic services by strengthening capacities of communities to demand and access services, and of institutions to deliver quality, timely and stigma free services and LNOB (Leaving no one behind).

The Gavi Alliance co-funded Health System Strengthening (HSS) programme is one of the efforts of the MoHFW to improve the quality and level of immunization coverage in India. UNDP has been a trusted partner of MoHFW and GAVI for many years. UNDP has proven the quality and efficiency of its work by the development of an integrated and innovative solution that provides real time information of vaccine stocks and temperature at the various levels of storage and geographical coverage.

The initially developed solutions ( eVIN and CoWIN) have proven themselves well and now UNDP is given a unique opportunity to develop and integrate a new solution U-Win. The UNDP Health System Strengthening programme supports work in every State and Union Territory of India and has established a network of well skilled and devoted personnel. While large part of this programme is related to digital solutions development, capacity building and implementation, it also includes technical support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, Neglected Tropical diseases and for leveraging technologies to track high risk pregnancies and thereby reduce maternal and child mortalities rates. Working closely with other development partners, the HSS programme also supports the National AIDS Control Organization’s efforts in prevention and control of HIV and AIDS.

The International Project Manager will work under the direct supervision of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and the overall guidance of the UNDP Health Systems Strengthening Programme Specialist on the following:

Ensure successful implementation of the Project.
Provide top-quality policy advice and facilitation of knowledge building and management.
Build strategic partnerships.
Manage and supervise the Project team.

Duties and Responsibilities

The International Project Manager, under the direct supervision of the UNDP India Deputy Resident Representative, and guided by the HSS Programme Specialist, is responsible for the overall coordination and implementation of project planning, ensuring adherence to the UNDP rules and regulations and quality implementation, and timely delivery of all Project activities, maintaining existing and building new partnerships, and ensuring strong operational effectiveness. The incumbent will oversee the overall management of the Project to ensure a high-performance culture, integrity, transparency, and a conducive work environment. S/He will be directly responsible for the achievement of results and impact and ensure coordination with national and international stakeholders. S/He will ensure efficient communications and visibility, overall monitoring and evaluation, and quality reporting to the donors and other stakeholders in accordance with agreed timelines.

Support Efficient and effective planning, management, coordination, implementation and monitoring of project results and activities:

Update, manage and execute the Project work plan in collaboration with partners, and key stakeholders in accordance with Project objectives as set in the Project Document, partners’ expectations, and approved budget.
Oversee the Project budget planning, oversee the financial performance.
Ensure the compliant annual delivery of results, in line with the Project Document, UNDP rules, regulations, and standards of performance.
Regularly review and update risk plans and manage risks, including political, social, environmental, financial, infrastructural, and any other risks.
Liaise with the Government, regional and local authorities, financial institutions, private companies, and international partners to ensure a participatory approach to the development and implementation of Project activities.
Identify and track needed resources to ensure proper management of funds, including financial control and audit procedures in line with UNDP rules, and regulations as well as the procurement of goods, works, and services in accordance with UNDP guidelines.
Ensure efficient operation of the Project, assume full responsibility for and coordinate effectively and efficiently all activities and resources (human, financial, physical/material assets, etc.) under the Project to meet expected results on time and to ensure they comply with the Project requirements.
Capture lessons learned and supervise and coordinate the technical documentation related to the implementation of interventions.
Ensure regular high-quality project implementation reporting (narrative, financial, etc.) in line with the UNDP and the donor’s requirements.

Provision of top-quality policy advice and facilitation of knowledge building and management:

Advise UNDP on all political, technical, and other issues relating to the Project implementation, strategies, and approaches.
Provide strategic guidance and direction on Project implementation process, including the provision of advice on the UNDP activities.
Manage the Communication Strategy in consultation with the UNDP Country Office
Communication team to ensure adequate visibility of Project activities and systematically implement it.
Ensure adequate information flow, discussions, and feedback among the various Project stakeholders communicate findings, progress, issues, and challenges within the Project team and respective UNDP Country Office teams.
Develop a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan that allows periodic monitoring of the Project’s results, performance, achievements, risks, and challenges.
Undertake regular field visits and prepare an assessment of interventions; propose corrective actions as required.

Building strategic partnerships:

Engage, mobilize and coordinate partners at national and local levels, and ensure cooperation and coordination for the effective implementation of the Project.
Maintain and nurture existing partnerships, enhance partnership building efforts to diversify co-financing sources.
Network and develop new partnerships and relationships with the Project partners, including Government, financial institutions, private companies and donor community to ensure required co-financing resources are available to support the project implementation / contributions are provided within the agreed terms.
Coordinate, and lead high-quality technical inputs into progress and other reports, annual and quarterly workplans to be submitted to the Project Board and UNDP

Management and supervision of the Project team

Ensure that clear working arrangements are established for collaborating with the relevant authorities on all management, financial, contracting, and procurement matters.
Develop work packages among the Project staff and experts, and international and national consultants to ensure high performance of the Project team.
Set high attitude and performance standards and lead by example, especially on the most complex activities and tasks.
Lead and guide the Project team in achieving the Project objectives.
Coach the team, and provide regular feedback and performance assessment and evaluation with to enhance the individual and collective capacities.
Act as a collaborative and supportive team member, contributing to the overall effectiveness of the team and organization.

Competencies:

Core competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter- agency collaboration
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy

Strategic Thinking: Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.
System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Management

Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment

Cross- Functional Competencies

Partnerships Management: Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Technical Competencies

Effectiveness: System-wide approaches to strategic planning and results
Regulatory Sandboxes: Ability to extract learnings from previous experiences and posses firm understanding of what rules are essential and why, and which can stand flexibility; Being able to anticipate, assess and manage risks, identify and resolve deficiencies in skills and expertise, set clear boundaries around the scope and duration of the experiment and have a clear exit strategy.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced degree (master’s or higher) in a public administration, management, international affairs/development, social sciences or any other related areas is required
Bachelor’s Degree in similar fields may be considered with additional years of experience

Experience:

Minimum seven (7) years of relevant working experience. OR Nine (9) years with Bachelors degree.
Demonstrated experience and capacity to effectively manage projects financed by international donors
Experience managing large multidisciplinary teams
Experience in dealing with government officials and international donors in strategic and managerial leadership
Practical experience with demonstrated success in planning and building strategic partnerships to generate investment across donors and financing institutions, partner and stakeholder cooperation, multi-partner coordination, and project cycle design and management;
Excellent communication and writing skills
Hands-on experience in design, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects;
Experience in the implementation of large-scale health related programmes or projects will be an asset;
Hands-on experience in design, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects;
Experience in conceptualization and roll-out of innovative tools is an asset.
Experience in strategic foresight is an asset.
Knowledge of the UN system and coordination is desired
Excellent knowledge of information technology, including expert knowledge of Excel

Required Languages:

Excellent oral and written communication skills in English

To apply for this job please visit estm.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com.