Partnerships Advisor

Job Posting Organization:
The UNOPS Africa Regional Office, established to oversee the delivery of over 250 projects across 40 countries, focuses on fragile and conflict-affected settings. With a workforce of more than 1,000 personnel across five multi-country offices in Africa, it aims to advance national priorities through strategic initiatives in various sectors including Climate Action, Health, Infrastructure, and Peace and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">Security. The office promotes excellence in project delivery and contributes to sustainable infrastructure and better quality of life for communities across the continent.

Job Overview:
The Partnerships Advisor will play a crucial role in developing strategic partnerships and ensuring donor coordination as a high-level advisor. This position is designed to provide strategic support to the office in understanding national strategic priorities, facilitating high-level dialogues, identifying partnership opportunities, and guiding advocacy efforts with the Government of Comoros and its technical and financial partners. The advisor will not have direct supervisory responsibilities but will guide and advise the partnerships team and related roles. The role involves close collaboration with the leadership team to support the development and implementation of partnership strategies and coordination activities with the Government and key stakeholders. Additionally, the advisor will provide situational analyses, stakeholder mapping, and technical support for program formulation, enhancing communication between the Government, UNOPS, and other key stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Strategic Planning and Partnership Development: Advise on the development of a comprehensive partnership development strategy aligned with UNOPS's strategic plan, regional strategy, and office plan. Analyze the national context and development landscape, identify key partners, and strategically position UNOPS within high-value intervention sectors to optimize organizational impact on sustainable development in Comoros.
• Communication and Stakeholder Engagement: Support the partnerships team in developing and maintaining strong relationships with key partners, including governments, UN agencies, donors, foundations, NGOs, academia, and the private sector. Collaborate closely with program and support services heads to ensure new projects align with programs and support services.
• Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Participate in inter-organizational planning meetings and sectoral groups for humanitarian and development plans as needed. Contribute to harmonizing policies and practices within the UN system at sub-regional and national levels.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Ensure that developed programs and projects comply with results-based management principles. Collaborate with project managers to formulate project result frameworks and establish measurable objectives for performance monitoring.
• Project Identification and Support: Guide partnership officers in researching and evaluating stakeholder landscapes to identify priority themes and opportunities. Provide contributions and suggestions for project formulation phases, ensuring approaches are robust, sustainable, and financially viable.
• Knowledge Management and Innovation: Implement standards and tools from headquarters to enhance partnership and project development efficiency. Contribute to research and application of best practices that maximize performance and ensure long-term impact in project and partnership development.
• Capacity Building: Strengthen partnership capacity and negotiation skills among project managers to enhance stakeholder engagement. Facilitate knowledge sharing by disseminating lessons learned and best practices in project and partnership development.

Required Qualifications:

• Mandatory: A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 9 years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 7 years of relevant experience.
• Relevant experience includes work in international development, executing partnership development plans and programs, project development, and proposal writing, establishing partnerships with UN agencies, international development organizations, governments, foundations, or private sector organizations.

Educational Background:
A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in any discipline is required, with 9 years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 7 years of relevant experience.

Experience:
Relevant experience is defined as work in international development, involving the execution of partnership development plans and programs, project development, and proposal writing, as well as establishing partnerships with UN agencies, international development organizations, governments, foundations, or private sector organizations. Experience in multicultural environments or within UN system organizations in developing countries is preferred, along with experience in development or humanitarian contexts and project and program management.

Languages:
Fluency in French is required, while fluency in English is desirable.

Additional Notes:
The position is classified as a Senior Level role under the ICA - LICA - Specialist - Retainer contract type, with a contract level of LICA 1

• The posting start date is July 23, 2026, and the end date is August 10, 2026, with a contract duration of one year. UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes and will not request candidates to make payments during the recruitment process. Applications must be submitted before midnight Copenhagen time on the closing date. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next stage of the selection process.