Location : Home-based / New York
Application Deadline : 15-Oct-10
Type of Contract : SSA
Post Level : International Consultant
Languages Required : English
Starting Date :(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 20-Oct-2010
Duration of Initial Contract : 2 months
Expected Duration of Assignment : 2 months
UNDP’s Democratic Governance Practice Area focuses on fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and promoting democratic principles. Inclusive participation expands equal opportunities for engagement by the poor, women, youth, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups who are excluded from power. Strengthening responsive governing institutions entails promoting the core channels of representation and accountability in the state at the national, regional and local levels. Responsive institutions mean that the state reflects and serves the needs, priorities, and interests of all people, including women, the poor, youth, and minorities. Supporting national partners to strengthen democratic practices grounded in human rights, anti-corruption and gender equality require UNDP leadership in promoting integration, coordination and information-sharing of policies, practices, and strategies strengthening democratic governance within and outside of the UN family.
Human Rights:
UNDP issued its policy of “Integrating Human Rights with Human Development” in January 1998. Since then human rights have emerged as a key area of the organisations’s development activities. In 2008, more than 94 COs reported activities in supporting national human rights institutions, 69 COs reported activities that explicitly supported the rights of discriminated, vulnerable and/or marginalized groups, and 51 COs reported activities in support of the harmonization of national legislation with internationally ratified human rights law.
UNDP efforts to operationalise human rights in its programming were notably enhanced through the implementation of the joint UNDP/OHCHR global Human Rights Strengthening Programme (HURIST; 1999-2006), in line with the 1998 MoU between UNDP and OHCHR. Based on this experience and lessons learned, UNDP, in 2005, adopted a new Practice Note - Human Rights in UNDP, which in turn has identified three strategic areas of interventions for UNDP in the future.
* Supporting the strengthening of national human rights systems
* Promoting the application of a human rights-based approach to development programming; and
* Greater Engagement with the international human rights machinery
UNDP has been active in these areas including through the Global Human Rights Strengthening Programme (GHRSP), launched in 2008 to contribute to the UNDP corporate strategy to fully integrate human rights into UNDP policies, programmes and provide appropriate practical (and integrated) tools, good practices, and other guidance material on human rights mainstreaming to programming and national human rights promotion and protection systems.
Duties and Responsibilities
Required Research
In the strive to strengthen UNDP’s interventions in the area of human rights and to better connect the global, regional and country programming for more in depth mainstreaming, compiling and analyzing the baseline information of the UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF), related UNDP Country Programmes (CPD), Country Programme Action Plans (CPAP), UNDP country and regional reports, integrated within the Result-oriented Annual Reports[1] (ROARs), as well as (ROARs), as well as Enhanced Results Based Management Platform (ERBM) for more in depth policy intervention and recommendation will be conducted. The analysis will focus on strengthening National Human Rights systems, engagement with human rights machinery and application of the rights based approach to development programming.
Under direct guidance and supervision of the Policy Advisor on Human Rights (Democratic Governance Group/Bureau for Development Policy DGG/BDP) the researcher will
* Study the compilation and content of UNDAFs, CPDs, CPAPs, ROARs and ERBMs; and
* Develop a baseline report, analyse trends and propose relevant recommendations
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[1] The ROAR (as per the decision of the UNDP Executive Board) is a systematic analysis of theresults achieved and shows how these results relate to the goals and sub-goals of the organization. In thisprocess, the strategic results frameworks (SRFs) have emerged as a key management tool for UNDP to report and improve on results. ROAR is a country- and regionally led process
Competencies
* Strong knowledge of the concepts of human rights mainstreaming and the Human Rights Based Approach to Programming;
* Strong knowledge with the UN human rights machinery;
* Prior experience applying the human rights based approach;
* Familiarity with UN Coordination and systems;
Corporate competencies:
* Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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;
Functional Competencies:
* Ability to apply various governance related development theories to the specific context, including translating democratic governance principles into effective policy and programme interventions in the field;
* Strong analytical, negotiation and communications skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
* Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Democratic Governance Practice;
Leadership and Teamwork
* Excellent negotiating and networking skills;
* Demonstrates flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment;
* Demonstrates the ability to work well in a team;
Communications and Advocacy:
* Ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and to speak clearly and convincingly;
* Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences;
* Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;
* Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly;
* Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.
Required Skills and Experience
* Postgraduate degree in international law/international human rights law, or social science or other relevant discipline;
* Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in the area of human rights/political science;
* Experience in data collection/statistical analysis
* Relevant work experience in the field of human rights.
* Experience in the work with the UN(DP) on similar type of assignment would be an asset.
Apply Now at https://jobs.undp.org/cj_apply.cfm?job_id=19454