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HEAD OF EXPLORATION |
UNDP |
Advert
Posted 2019-02-11 00:47:20
Background
The
UNDP Strategic Plan 2018-2021 embraces the complexity of development and
commits the organization to helping countries find faster, more durable
solutions to achieve Agenda 2030. Important development trends like
urbanization, climate change, and inequality pose significant challenges on our
path to achieve the 2030 agenda of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
UNDP
has begun incubating a number of strategic initiatives aimed at ensuring UNDP
is ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver a new generation of solutions in line with the
challenges the world faces. One such key strategic initiatives is the
Country Accelerator Lab Network. The initiative is a recognition that
increasingly interrelated development challenges require going beyond business
as usual and single point, linear and silver bullet responses in
development. Instead, they call for an interdisciplinary approaches and
non-linear solutions that crowd in the collective efforts of variety of
partners and tap into local insights and the knowledge of people closest to the
problem and the solutions. The initiative is also a recognition and an
investment in the emerging momentum among a growing number of UNDP Country
Offices around joining together disruptive, cutting edge methodologies with
contextual, country-based insights and expertise to accelerate impact and
progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
US:
We
are building the largest and fastest learning global network of Accelerator
Labs (initially setting up 60 labs in 60 countries) embedded within UNDP’s
global architecture and country platforms. The new offering builds on the
latest thinking from the fields of complexity science, lead user
innovation and collective intelligence to accelerate development
impact.
Our
network will surface and reinforce locally sourced solutions at scale while
mobilizing a wide and dynamic partnership of actors contributing knowledge,
resources and experience. The idea is to transform our collective
approach by introducing new protocols, backed by evidence and practice, which
accelerate the testing and dissemination of solutions within and across
countries. This will enable the global community to collectively learn from
local knowledge and ingenuity at a speed and at a scale that our societies and
planet require. This will be achieved by:
Building
on locally-sourced solutions, finding things that work and expanding on them;
Rapid testing and iteration to implement what works and go beyond the obvious
solutions;
Combining the best understanding, ideas and expertise to generate collective
knowledge;
Accelerating progress by bringing expertise, creativity and collective
intelligence to bear. The Accelerator Lab will undertake i) external facing
interventions addressing priority development challenges, and ii) internally
facing experiments to embed new ways of doing development within the existing
UNDP portfolio.
You:
You
are capable and excited about starting, design and managing activities, direct
engagement with local communities and collaboration across global
networks. You are driven by learning new things, figuring out how they
work and translating them across sectors.
You
have a natural inclination to interdisciplinary, cross cultural mindset and
cross sectorial experience with the cosmopolitan attraction for
diversity. You are driven by a strong sense of purpose and commitment to
make change happen and a keen eye to identify emerging opportunities and ‘at
the edge’ trends. You are open to discovery and exploration, capable of
articulating insights and ideas through visual thinking, open to serendipity
and discovery yet are pragmatic and constructive working with public sector
authorities. You are comfortable with ambiguity, capable of zooming out for
context and zooming in for content and execution- sharp in pursuit of
objectives, fast at adapting and changing course when needed. You have
superb competencies in program and portfolio management, are at ease with
decision-making processes and dynamics of different models of governance.
You
are curious, quirky and fun, natural strategic thinkers and talented
designers. You understand systems, the good, the bad and the ugly, and
are capable of working within them to make change, leverage technology to
extend, enhance and multiply exploration, discovery and execution. You
are digitally savvy, you hack tools, and you are keen to be a part of a large
global organization exhibiting United Nations values.
Duties
and Responsibilities
Horizon
scanning and market intelligence for the Zambia Accelerator Lab
Identify,
visualize and communicate emerging development trends, data, technologies and
issues with a particular focus on the edges and “below the radar screenâ€
events, opportunities and players, and systemically map their impacts on
economy, environment, society, and livelihoods of the poorest.
Together with the Accelerator lab team, map and assess local solutions and
define pathways for their scale up in policies or markets
Identify new sources of evidence and insights, analyze and visualize patterns
in unstructured sources of data, present new insights in accessible and
comprehensive ways to enable sense making and analysis
Proactively explore and identify the new methods/approaches and frontier
knowledge to tackle development challenges, collaborate with the
Experimentation lead to turn these into learning options for addressing
specific policy issues in the country
Contribute to the formulation of the Accelerator Lab service lines to the UNDP
Country Programme based on findings from horizon scanning, systems’ mapping,
and local knowledge
Partnership and resource mobilization
Map
potential partners across the public and private sectors with versatile
expertise to strengthen the Lab’s capacities for acceleration thereby expanding
the Lab’s distributed network both nationally and internationally
Explore the diversification of funding and investment sources through
proactively mapping potential partners and building value proposition for their
investment in the Lab and its portfolio of experiments
Collaborate with programme / project managers and CO senior management to
anticipate the emerging needs, shape the demand from the clients and support
the CO to develop a pipeline of emerging projects responding to those
Contribute insights and provide input to the programme managers and CO senior management
to coordinate targeted partnership and communication activities for relevant
projects / initiatives.
Organizational learning and interface with the core business of UNDP
Support
identification of future skills required for the Accelerator Lab, the Country
Programme and Lab’s clients
Design and deliver horizon scanning trainings for partners and UNDP, help embed
horizon scanning and attention to the ‘edge’ activities in the CO and with the
partners
Organize and implement knowledge sharing and network events;
Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator
Lab
Working out loud
Share
findings from the exploration on future trends, new methodologies/approaches,
potential partnership, funding opportunities, and others within UNDP and with
partners;
Proactively use blog posts and social media to share insights, attract partners
and help position Accelerator Lab at the forefront of the exploration of new
trends.
Competencies
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 judgment
Technical/Functional
Innovation
Ability
to manage organizational resources and deployment in pursuit of innovation
approaches and initiatives
Required
Skills and Experience
Education
Master’s
degree in Social sciences, Data science, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science,
or related field and minimum of 2 years of professional experience in
development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building;
engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization
OR
Bachelor’s
degree in Social sciences, Data science, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science,
or related field and minimum of 4 years of professional experience in
development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building;
engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization
Experience
Professional
experience in development programming or policy and social innovation;
Demonstrated capacity in horizon scanning;
Experience in following areas is desirable but not necessary:
Professional
experience in partnership building and engagement (public and private sector)
and resource mobilization;
Proven professional knowledge and experience in at least one of the following:
Future thinking and Foresight, research, and Systems Mapping;
Key awareness of key global and regional trends;
Demonstrated access to networks of edge innovators.
Language Requirements
Proficiency
in written and spoken English.
Other
The
Accelerator Labs will be comprised of a core team with niche capabilities
around that focus on exploration, experimentation and
ethnography. As such the Accelerator Lab team will report directly
to the UNDP Resident Representative/Deputy Resident Representative.
Within the first 6-8 months of the Lab fully functioning, the core team will be
expected to double up on the functional roles and in consultation with the UNDP
Country Office, manage operations and scale innovations into the UNDP Country
Office, story-telling and communications, and interface with the broader
Accelerator Lab network. Accelerator lab capabilities will cover:
Experimentation (instituting
rapid learning about emerging challenges through design and running of a
portfolio of experiments that is coherent with the type of challenges UNDP COs
are mandated to address), and
Ethnography: deep immersion in community dynamics, identification of and
work with lead users, and implications of bottom up solutions for the policy
design;
Exploration: The exploration function focuses on discovery and sense
making of emerging trends, implications for systemic impacts and risks, and
their potential for accelerating progress toward SDGs. Its work feeds
into the portfolio of experiments ensuring its coherence with the emerging
risks and opportunities (direct collaboration with the Experimentation Lead),
and connects local dynamics and solutions (link with the Ethnography Lead) into
the broader national and international ecosystem of potential funders,
partners, and allies thereby increasing the chances for acceleration.
While critical for the functioning of the Accelerator Lab, the exploration function
will also service the Country Office as determined and agreed with the UNDP
senior management.
Disclaimer
Important
applicant information
All
posts in the GS categories are subject to local recruitment.
Applicant
information about UNDP rosters
Note:
UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy
announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates
applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade
level and with similar job description, experience and educational
requirements.
Workforce
diversity
UNDP
is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all
qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, and
sexual orientation, and culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All
applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.
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