Portfolio Manager

To align the Country Office structure to the UNDP Strategic Plan, as well as respond to the integrated priorities outlined in Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS III), a portfolio approach has been in use over the last five years to drive programmatic coherence, efficiency, and value for money.  The Resilience and Sustainable Growth (RSG) portfolio is one of three programmatic portfolios in the Malawi CO, aligned to the Responsive Institutions and Citizen Engagement (RICE) portfolio as well as the Development Impact and Advisory Team (DIAT), all of which are supported by an Operations Team. Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for Malawi, the RSG portfolio aligns directly to Pillar 3: Inclusive and Resilience Growth, while contributing to Pillar 2: Peace, Inclusion and Effective Institutions. Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative for Programmes, the RSG Portfolio Manager provides advice to senior management and leads CO programme coherence and delivery in the areas of: •    Climate Change, Disaster Risk Management and Resilience •    Economic Competitiveness, Inclusive Business, and Entrepreneurship, including Renewable Energy •    Environment and Natural Resources Governance, including Green Economy and Green Jobs The RSG Portfolio Manager analyzes political, social and economic trends and leads formulation, management and evaluation of programme activities within his/her portfolio. He/she contributes to policy dialogue with the government providing advisory services and identifying national and international talent and expertise with whom to complement this advisory role. The Portfolio Manager, RSG has a pivotal role in forging strong alliances with academia, governmental institutions and other national and international partners to support the programme country under her/his thematic oversight.   The Portfolio Manager leads her/his  team in the strategic planning and the identification of new programme opportunities within these three thematic areas with a view to successful resource mobilization outputs while ensuring consistency with UNSDCF and CPD priorities and creative responses to emerging challenges and opportunities as well as mindful of cross cutting considerations. The Portfolio Manager RSG is accountable for the implementation of the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy, particularly with regard to the mainstreaming of HIV and gender equality in all programmes and projects under her/his oversight. The incumbent is responsible for the quality assurance of the programme interventions under her/his oversight. The Portfolio Manager RSG supervises and provides strategic guidance to Programme Analysts and programme support staff in her/his team, as well as oversees the coordination of activities related to the area under his/her responsibility including JPO, UNV, and up to 45 personnel under the RSG portfolio. She/he works in close collaboration with UNDP Regional Service Centre, UNDP´s programme staff, the operations team, and staff in other UN Agencies, UNDP HQs staff and Government officials. The incumbent will also oversee programme activities with technical advisors and experts, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring successful UNDP programme implementation.

Oversight and Management of Resilience and Sustainable Growth Portfolio

• Provide oversight, managerial leadership and strategic direction of the RSG - Programme and Projects;
• Regularly brief and consult Senior Management of developments in RSG and portfolio and provide advice and information as required and contribute to Country Office exercises and initiatives;
• Manage and supervise RSG staff in the Country Office to perform project oversight, quality assurance, monitoring, field missions, reporting, audits, evaluations, formulations and project support services, providing day-to-day guidance and enhancing team work within the unit, with the project/programme team and with other Country Office units;
• Ensure compliance of RSG staff and programme team with security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security-policies" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security policies and procedures and facilitate security risk assessments and relocations in emergencies;
• Undertake performance management of staff including establishment of annual results, ongoing feedback and mid-term/final assessments;
• Ensure staff implementation of mandatory trainings and promote learning and development;
• Lead the development of annual programme/project delivery targets and guide the team to achieve the targets as well as manage the overall programme/project budget;
• Lead the mid-year and annual programme reviews by monitoring the progress of programme implementation, assessing results and identifying areas of weakness to ensure the RSG achieves the planned results in accordance with the Government of Malawi’s (GOM) national priorities as well as UNSDCF and UNDP CPD and Strategic Plan Outcomes/Outputs. Adjust the programme direction when necessary;
• Identify areas of improvement by applying best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools and corporate reports;
• Develop a resource mobilization plan and guide the team in developing project proposals for resource mobilization;
• Guide on ways to incorporate and apply HRB/ RBM/ SDGs as well as addressing cross cutting themes (i.e., gender mainstreaming) in projects design and programming exercises;
• Manage and enhance partnerships with the GOM, the private sector, international development partners, vertical funds, IFIs and non-traditional development partners;
• Develop an overall monitoring and evaluation system of projects in the programme portfolio and put the mechanism in place for proper and timely reporting to the Country Office and donors;
• Monitor the progress on agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and take action/decision and/or provide timely support;
• Set the direction for the team including roles and responsibilities, accountability and reporting;
• Ensure that the work of the team is conducted in accordance with relevant business processes and that high-quality outputs are delivered on time;
• Undertake and supervise financial and administrative tasks including ATLAS transactions.

Programme Management and Policy Advice on RSG matters:

• Oversee the programme/project team (project managers, programme analysts, technical advisors, project specialists, and support staff) and ensure timely implementation, results-orientation and accountability of programmes and projects;
• Provide intellectual and strategic guidance and advice relating to resilience, inclusive business and entrepreneurship, climate change, green economy, disaster risk management, and recovery operations, with careful regard to integration of social and environmental governance and opportunities to achieve pro-poor outcomes.
• Provide intellectual and strategic guidance and advice in the thematic areas under the portfolio  particularly with regard to women economic empowerment, young people  and private sector development, promoting gender equality and inclusion of vulnerable population groups, ensuring conflict-sensitivity and compliance with social and environmental safeguards and standards;
• Lead the implementation of the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy with a view to mainstream gender, HIV/AIDS, and disability rights into programmes under her/his oversight;
• In close collaboration with the Development Impact Advisory Team, identify and recommend to management new opportunities for policy advisory directions and roles, including green jobs and economic development;
• Ensure proper coordination with the Regional Centre and BPPS HQ;
• Lead the integration of UNDP’s work on economic empowerment into a coherent policy and programming framework in support of the implementation of the UNDP Strategic Plan and the Transition priorities;
• Design policy initiatives for relevant contexts on emerging policy agendas;
• Lead/Contribute UN and UNDP inputs to UNSDCF Outcome Group 9.

Policy, Strategy and Programme Advice to Renewable Energy, Environment and Private Sector Development :

• Advise, guide and provide support to the implementation of Renewable Energy, Resilience and Private Sector Development Programmes.
• Seek engagement to promote social business opportunities and solutions ;
• Develop in consultation with the GoM a plan for engagement in local economic development, including green jobs and green economic recovery;
• Provide inputs to private sector development working groups including those related to business development sub-groups.
• Provide policy advice to the GoM entities and key ministries to enable private sector engagement and Public Private Dialogue;
• Promote the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the UN Global Compact.
• Promote environmental approaches to development with a view to minimize environmental impact of private sector development initiatives.

Partnerships, Resource Mobilization and Advocacy

• Maintain and build a programme portfolio pipeline for three years with a view to mobilize resources in practice areas under incumbent’s oversight.
• Seek and identify partnership and funding opportunities; and oversee the preparation of funding proposals, donor briefings and presentations in support of resource mobilization efforts;
• Mobilize, foster and strengthen strategic partnerships with UN entities and other relevant bodies.
• Foster and enhance collaboration with UN partner agencies. IFIs and RFIs for an effective implementation of country programmes.
• Contribute to global toolkit and support South-South cooperation.
• Strengthen existing partnerships with decentralized authorities.

Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management and Capacity Building:

• Ensure regular assessments of the strategic and implementation plans. Identify areas of emphasis to guide programme improvements and future strategic development plans;
• Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
• Design and implement institutional and individual capacity development activities to enhance skills and knowledge in results based management, results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance;
• Stay abreast of emerging issues and innovation on RSG matters;
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of the programme knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents
• Building support and political acumen
• Building staff competence,  creating an environment of creativity and innovation
• Building and promoting effective teams
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
• Fair and transparent  decision making; calculated risk-taking
• Ability to address gender equality and empowerment of women considerations in strategic and operational activities of UNDP

Functional Competencies: Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda Level 2: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

• Creates effective advocacy strategies
• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses
• Contributes to UNDP practice areas and builds knowledge in at least one practice areas, and shares;

Results-Based Programme Development and Management Level 2: Leading in the Contribution of Results for Programme RSG Team

• Identifies strategic linkages across programme activities to promote critical points of integration
• Identifies opportunities for programme development.
• Provides leadership in the formulation of project proposals ensuring the utilisation of good practices and capitalizing on emerging opportunities in thematic areas.

Building Strategic Partnerships Level 2: Identifying and building partnerships

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda
• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners
• Promotes UNDP’s agenda in inter-agency meetings

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches Level 2: Developing new approaches

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals
• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking
• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor

Resource Mobilization Level 2:  Implementing resource mobilization strategies

• Ability to provide high quality policy advice services on related issues;
• In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues; and,
• Experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing Level 2: Developing tools and mechanisms

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise Level 2: In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments
• Analyzes information on potential bilateral donors and national counterparts to recommend a strategic approach
• Identifies and compiles lessons learned
• Develops a resource mobilization strategy at the country level

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNDP’s Goals Level 2: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

• Performed analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at country level

Client Orientation Level 2: Contributing to positive outcomes for the client

• Anticipates client needs
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality

• Advanced University degree (master’s degree) in Environmental/Natural Resources Management, or a related field (e.g. Social/Political science).
• A minimum of 7 years of professional management experience in the management of large-scale programmes in the area of environment/natural resources and climate change as well as ideally some experience in engaging with the private sector
• Experience with UN or international organization working in economies of transition and/or fragile states would be an advantage;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web based management systems and social knowledge networks.
• English proficiency is required; working knowledge of other UN official language or other language at the duty station is an asset.

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