About the position

• Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Deadline: 21-Feb-22 (Midnight New York, USA)
• Language Requirement: Proficient command of English and Khmer
• Contract type: Full-time

Background

Over the past two decades, Cambodia has made significant progress reducing poverty and improving access to quality education, health, and other services. Economic growth and stability can be sustained if they are built on trust, people are able to participate in public life, and their diverse voices are heard by decision-makers. Young people have different views from older generations and their ways of engaging in public life are shaped by new elements of modern-day society, including technology. Women still do not enjoy equal participation in political and economic decision making, regardless of their potential roles. There are groups, e.g. migrant workers, indigenous communities, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQI who have not benefited equally from positive development in Cambodia regardless of the country’s rapid economic growth and improved human development index score. Of the 540 UPR recommendations accepted by Cambodia, 200 can be directly linked to SDG 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The Secretary-General called upon the Royal Government of Cambodia to strengthen civic and democratic space, including through guarantees for the unhindered work of human rights and other civil society organizations and community groups by broadening their space to operate.The evolving situation demonstrates the need to consider a new model of social contract among government authorities, citizens, civil society, academia, the private sector based on inclusive and equal participation and opportunities. In this context, UNDP has launched a project “Building Capacities for Civic Engagement, Peacebuilding and Inclusive Dialogue: Towards Inclusive and Participatory Governance” (Civic Engagement Project). The overall objective of the civic engagement project  is to promote  democratic governance initiatives and a peaceful, inclusive, and equitable society through expanding opportunities for inclusive civic engagement using dialogue in Cambodia. In line with the overall objective, the project proposes to achieve three related outputs: 

• Output 1 – Capacity development: CSOs and governmental authorities (both national and sub-national) will be able to engage each other better in responding to citizens’ interests and in recognizing different voices of men and women, with particular attention to marginalized groups.
• Output 2 – Supporting Dialogue: Existing infrastructure for civic engagement (mechanisms, processes, and policies) will be more constructive, inclusive, and open to diverse opinions.  
• Output 3 – Enhancing Government-CSO relations: Partnership among citizens, CSOs and government institutions (both national and sub-national) will be strengthened through identifying more benefits of civic engagement. 

Given the challenges and opportunities in engagement between the Government and CSOs, the project will try different approaches e.g. empathizing, co-designing and testing solutions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Technical Coordinator will be supervised by the Governance Chief Technical Advisor and will work closely with project team members, consultants, partners, Program Analyst, and other colleagues within the Country Office.

The Technical Coordinator will perform assignments under the overall guidance of Governance Chief Technical Advisor and ensure successful and effective implementation of projects’ activities in coordination with UNDP CO staff and civil society organizations, Government officials, and development partners.

The Technical Coordinator will perform the following key functions:

• Ensure delivery of project results with the required standard of quality and within the specified constraints of time and cost according to UNDP Programmes and Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP);
• Scan trend and opportunity, experiment design and testing in implementing and coordinating project activities focusing on empathy building, co-design, prototyping and testing in closely working with Accelerator Lab in UNDP Cambodia;
• Provide guidance to project team and responsible parties; and
• Facilitate knowledge building and sharing.

Ensure delivery of project results with the required standard of quality and within the specified constraints of time and cost according to UNDP POPP:

• Prepare the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and quarterly work plans based on the reviews of the previous years and quarters including identification of relevant implementation modalities and responsible parties.
• Work with the Result-Based Management (RBM) unit to prepare letter of agreements and responsible party agreement in line with UNDP Programme Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP) in implementing the work plan.
• Mobilize goods and services to initiate activities including drafting terms of reference and work specifications and actively participate in the recruitment process as required.
• Provide guidance and manage works of service providers including individual consultants with Governance Chief Technical Advisor.
• Work with the Result-Based Management (RBM) unit to coordinate project audit and spot-checking exercises, prepare management responses to the comments and follow up the audit recommendations.
• Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports.
• Manage requests for the provision of financial resources by UNDP using advance of funds, direct payments, or reimbursement.
• Develop and update any communication materials with support from Governance Chief Technical Advisor and M&E, Reporting and Communication focal persons.
• Prepare project board meetings and documentation with Governance Chief Technical Advisor.
• Support maintaining and updating issue logs in coordination with Governance Chief Technical Advisor who manages and monitors the project risks and submit new risks to the Project Board based on discussions in the technical committee.
• Provide guidance and assurance of works by M&E, Reporting and Communication focal persons who will prepare the project quarterly progress report, annual report, develop a M&E plan, implementation of the M&E plan, data collection.
• Conduct regular field visits with stakeholders and Project Board members to monitor field activities and supervise the implementation of the missions with support from M&E, Reporting and Communication officer. 
• Provide guidance to Project Admin/Finance Assistant to ensure effective management of physical assets of the projects and assurance of project administration works in line with UNDP POPP.
• Ensure full compliance with the implementing rules, regulations, policies, and strategies including gender equality measures.

Scan trends and opportunities, experiment design and testing in implementing and coordinating project activities focusing on empathy building, co-design, prototyping and testing closely working with Accelerator Lab in UNDP Cambodia:

• Identify new sources of evidence and insights, analyse and visualize patterns, present new insights in accessible and comprehensive way to enable sensemaking and analysis.
• Map and assess local solutions and define pathways for delivering the project results. 
• Proactively explore and identify the new methods/approaches and frontier knowledge to tackle development challenges anticipated in the project implementation.
• Work with the national and sub-national government institutions and CSOs to co-design and prototyping and testing including preparation (e.g. consultation, briefing, seeking buying-in) and development of any materials that can guide them the experimentation process.
• Design experiments and test relevant prototypes, including (but not limited to) presenting methodological options for experiment design, roll-out and validation based on the experiment conditions, resources available, and requirements.
• Develop a framework to capture the learning from the experiments in such a way that it favours critical reflection and rapid adaptation over static reporting.
• Examine the results from the testing of prototypes and translate them into project decisions on next steps and implications for improvement
• Help stakeholders to develop their own in-house capacity on experimental design if relevant.

Provide guidance to the project team and responsible parties:

• Plan and organize meetings within the project team, stakeholders and responsible parties in engaging Governance Chief Technical Advisor.
• Management day-to-day operation of the project team through circulation of documents, taking of minutes, coordinating meetings, and feedback of information.
• Carry out team members annual goal development and performance review in a timely manner.
• Maintain close contact with the Operation team in UNDP Country Office to ensure coordination on human resources administration of both national and international staff, as well as coordinate the recruitment process.
• Review of reports submitted by responsible parties and provide specific direction and guidance in delivering activity results.
• Coordinate all national and international consultants to ensure that contracting process are in accordance with planned schedules and deliverables.
• Provide support to Governance Chief Technical Advisor in management partnership with the Government institutions, CSOs, any other relevant actors working in the technical committee, project board and any other relevant areas.

Facilitate knowledge building and sharing:

• Provide guidance and assurance of works by M&E, Reporting and Communication focal persons who will prepare the project quarterly progress report, annual report, develop a M&E plan, implementation of the M&E plan, data collection as per UNDP and donors’ requirements.
• Consolidate knowledge, best practices, case studies, and lessons learnt and facilitate the dissemination within and outside UNDP through internal learning sessions, seminars and workshops with partners, or through other means of communication.
• Coordinate the contribution to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• Ensure that experiences and lessons learnt from projects’ implementation are adequately taken into consideration for the ongoing and future programmes.

Impact of Results

It is expected that the work of the Technical Coordinator will have the following impacts:

• Successful implementation of the civic engagement project in accordance with project results and UNDP policies and procedures;
• Openness of stakeholders to new/different ideas and approaches; and Improved relationships among the project stakeholders, i.e. the government institutions, CSOs, development partners and UNDP.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyze and synthesize complex, technical information
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge including different innovation approaches
• Proven experience in design experiments, validate hypotheses and test the prototypes

Results-based management:

• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporate best practices into project work
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration
• Monitors specific stages of project implementation

Innovation:

• Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things and experiment them
• Documents and analyses innovative strategies/best practices/ new approaches
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking

Building Strategic 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

Professionalism: 

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills

Teamwork: 

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks
• Focuses on results for the client
• Welcomes constructive feedback

Communication: 

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Administration, Economics, Social Science, International Relations, Rural Development or related fields.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of professional experience in design, implementation, coordination, monitoring of projects with social innovation approaches such as human-centered design, behaviour insights, experiment design and validation;
• Demonstrated ability to work with multi-stakeholders, and facilitate co-design and test prototyping;
• Demonstrated ability to design experiments, validate hypotheses and test the prototypes;
• Demonstrated ability in running co-design session and capacity building in experimental design;
• Knowledge of governance, civil society and civic engagement in Cambodia is an asset;
• Familiarity with procedure of UN/UNDP and various donor agencies would be an asset.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in Khmer (both spoken and written) and working/good competency in English (both spoken and written).

Travel:

• The Technical Coordinator will be required to travel to provinces for field monitoring, partnership building, and other activities related to the meeting, training, and workshop.

How to apply

Please be informed that UNDP doesn’t accept application submitted via email.

You need to apply online.

For more detail Click here