Vacancy Announcement from UNDP : Experimentation Analyst

Position: Experimentation Analyst

Job ID: 39498
Practice Area – Job Family Youth
Vacancy End Date: 15/09/2021 (Midnight New York, USA)
Duty Station: Kathmandu, Nepal
Languages
Required:
Desired:
English, Nepali
Grade: NOA
Vacancy Type: FTA Local
Posting Type: External
Bureau: Asia & the Pacific
Contract Duration: 1 Year with possibility for extension

Only for Nepalese Nationals

Background

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nepal works with the people and the Government of Nepal, and other development partners to pursue equitable and sustainable human development goals through eradication of poverty, increase in livelihood opportunities, improvement in community resilience against conflict, disasters and impact of climate change, while laying down strong foundations for a society based on rule of law with an inclusive and participatory democracy. In addition to the above-mentioned thematic area, gender equality and social inclusion is core of the work that UNDP does and is mainstreamed and addressed through the specific interventions targeting to the most marginalized and other vulnerable groups.

Job Purpose and Organizational Context

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Nepal works with the people and the Government of Nepal, and other development partners to pursue equitable and sustainable human development goals through eradication of poverty, increase in livelihood opportunities, improvement in community resilience against conflict, disasters and impact of climate change, while laying down strong foundations for a society based on rule of law with an inclusive and participatory democracy. With the above-mentioned hematic area, gender equality and social inclusion is core of the work that UNDP does and is mainstreamed and also addressed through the specific interventions targeting to the most marginalized and other vulnerable groups.

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, growing gender inequality and increasing gender-based violence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and rising inequalities pose significant challenges on our path to achieve the 2030 agenda of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

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 with the emphasis of the intersectionality and work out of the box and tap into local insights and the indigenous 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 tell stories of emergent solutions and you gravitate to solving global development challenges.

You have a natural inclination to interdisciplinarity, cross cultural mindset and cross sectoral 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 bureaucracies to make change, leverage technology to extend, enhance and multiply exploration, discovery and execution. You are digitally savy, you hack tools, and you are keen to be a part of a large global organization exhibiting United Nations values.

Duties and Responsibilities

Experiment portfolio design

Works with UNDP and partners in mapping the context and nature of development challenges, with a particular focus on understanding systemic issues beyond traditional silos and classifications and identifying drivers of change, and levers for intervention;
Mapping systems and assets, identifying levers and logic for intervention, building hypotheses of change that are a fit to the system level challenges identified;
Identify logic against which to asses fit and coherence of the individual portfolios with the frontier challenges on which they are meant to generate learning.

Management of prototype experiments for sustainable development challenges

Collaborate with UNDP colleagues and diverse stakeholders on the design of experiments across to validate the hypotheses and test the effectiveness of identified prototypes, including (but not limit to) defining variables, formulating hypotheses, and coordinating experimental protocols;
Contribute to 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;
Support to provide technical guidance for experiment design, roll-out and validation based on the experiment conditions, resources available, and requirements.
Proactively manage risks within experiments including those related to ethics and privacy;
Examine the results from the testing of prototypes and translate them into proposals informing programmatic decisions on next steps and implications for improvement, spin offs and scaling-up, where warrented.

Working out Loud

Proactively use blog and social media to ahare findings from the portfolio implementation;
Help UNDP and partners disseminate insights from Accelerator lab experiments via social media platforms as a way to regularly reflect and engage with external audiences;
Liaise with UNDP’s global Accelerator Lab network and share learnings and insights from the country-specific experience;
Jointly with the CO, support lab partners to develop an emerging pipeline of new initiatives, support other activities related to the design and operation of the Lab;
Contribute to deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from experiments;
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;
Contribute in other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab.

Organizational learning, working out loud and grafting experimentation onto the core business of UNDP

Help embed a portfolio logic in clients’ work including the existing UNDP Country Programme (as determined and agreed with the senior management);
Working with clients to encourage reflection and capturing of insights from individual experiments, as they related to the overall portfolio logic;
Provide technical consultation and training for national partners and the CO through various phases including asset mapping, developing a strategic portfolio logic, experiment design, prototype testing, and evaluation.

Ensure Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) prioritized in all the interventions

Ensure that GESI is well captured and mainstreamed throughout the experimentation;
Work closely with the GESI team, GESI advisor, MnE and ensure that GESI related results are captured in all reports;
Ensure GESI is reflected in all the blogs and any write ups contributed;
Promote work life balance, prevention of sexual harassment and abuse of authority, ensure gender equality and respect for diversity;
Contribute to the Gender Equality Seal process.

Competencies

Core Competencies- Level 2: Supervisor Associate/ Analyst

Achieve Results

Demonstrates focus on achieving quality results and impact
Consistently strives to meet or exceed excellent standards
Holds self and others accountable for results
Efficiently establishes appropriate plans and resources for self and others to accomplish goals
Think Innovatively
Looks beyond conventional approaches and established methods
Proposes new ideas, approaches and solutions to problems
Seeks patterns and clarity outside, across and beyond boxes and categories, resists false certainty and simplistic binary choices

Learn Continuously

Actively pursues opportunities for learning and self-development, professionally and personally
Keep abreast of new developments in one’s professional area
Proactively seeks feedback, demonstrates a desire to learn from others as well as from experience, both positive and negative
Contributes to the learning of others

Adapt with Agility

Be flexible in handling change, and adopt new ideas, approaches and ways of working
Seamlessly adapt to working within new situations or contexts, with new people, and in different ways
Participate in, support, contribute to or drive meaningful change in UNDP
Be comfortable with ambiguity and effectively managing multiple demands

Act with Determination

Pursue everything with motivation and drive
Not give up in the face of adversity and setbacks; demonstrate resilience and composure Demonstrate courage, self-motivation and initiative to act on opportunities without being prompted by others
Be authentic and modest, get things done without unnecessary noise

Engage and Partner

Acts in a way that demonstrates empathy and emotional intelligence, showing consideration for the needs and feelings of others
Demonstrates and encourages teamwork and co-creation, internally and externally, to achieve joint objectives and results
Establishes and develops networks that deliver powerful collaborations
Encourage and respect the views of others; accept views and ideas other than one’s own

Gender

Knowledge of systems for gender mainstreaming and capacity development and interagency collaboration and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

Understands and appreciates issues from the perspective of others
Treats all individuals with respect, considers ethical implications and responds sensitively to all differences among people
Fully accepts and values all people, creating an inclusive environment
Understands that inclusion is multi-faceted (e.g. race, gender, age, disability, culture, etc.) and treats everyone fairly and equally
Demonstrates honesty and transparency

Technical Competencies

Effectiveness

Programmatic Risk Management and Analysis

Innovation

Placeholder for the various Accelerator Lab competencies
Technology and Innovation

SDG Integration

SDG Acceleration and Bottleneck Assessment

Strategic Policy Engagement

Identifying SDG accelerators

Inclusive Growth

Addressing developmental impacts of COVID 19 and safeguarding progress towards the SDGs

Project Management

Ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Social Media Management

Ability to represent and promote the UNDP brand in virtual communities and networks

Relationship Management

Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding

Strategic Management

Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives

Gender

Knowledge of gender, inclusion and overall diversity issues in the context of Nepal and proactiveness to learn.

UN Policy Knowledge-ethics

Knowledge and understanding of the UN Staff Regulations and Rules and other policies relating to ethics and integrity.

Cross Functional Competencies

I. Business direction and strategy

Strategic Thinking

Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Business Acumen and Commercial Thinking

Knowledge and understanding of the work of the UNDP and wider UN system; ability to take a multi-sector perspective, benchmarking externally and understanding the UNDP comparative Advantage
Ability to create clarity of UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners; to develop new service offers responding to client needs

Effective Decision Making

Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources

II. Business Development

Knowledge Generation

Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need

Knowledge Facilitation

Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally

Collective Intelligence Design

Ability to bring together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions

Integration within the UN

Ability to identity, and integrate capacity and assets of the UN system, and engage in joint work; knowledge of the UN System and ability to apply this knowledge to strategic and/or practical situations

UNDP Representation

Ability to represent UNDP and productively share UNDP knowledge and activities; ability to advocate for UNDP, its values, mission and work with various constituencies

III. Business Management

Results-based Management

Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus on improved performance and demonstrable results

Partnerships Management

Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies

Risk Management

Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks

Communication

Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience

Digital Awareness and Literacy

Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed

Working with Evidence and Data

Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in Social Science, International Development, Science, Engineering, Design (eg. industrial or architecture), Human Rights, Women’s Studies, Psychology or a related area with relevant professional experience in development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization. At least two year of relevant experience is desirable.
OR
Bachelor’s degree in Social Science, International Development, Human Rights, Women’s Studies, Science, Engineering, Design (eg. industrial or architecture), Psychology or related area 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:

Demonstrate ability to design experiments, validate hypotheses and test prototypes;
Professional experience in development programming or policy and social innovation.
Experience and knowledge on gender equality and social inclusion in Nepal’s context is must.

Experience in following areas is desirable but not necessary:

Proven professional knowledge and experience in social innovation approaches such as Design Thinking, behavioral insights, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Experiment Design & Validation, data empowerment, and collective intelligence
Demonstrated ability to work with clients to help surface unarticulated needs
Demonstrated ability to apply a portfolio logic to experiments
Demonstrated ability in running co-design sessions and capacity-building in experimental design, lean iteration and impact evaluation.

Language Requirements:

Proficiency in written and spoken English and Nepali.

Other:

- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).
  * The Accelerator Labs will be comprised of a core team with niche capabilities that focus on exploration, experimentation and ethnography. Within the first 6-8 months of the Lab fully functioning, each member of the Core team will take the lead on one of the following functions:

1) Coordination
2) Training
3) Communications

The Core team of the Accelerator lab will have capabilities in:

Experimentation (instituting rapid learning about emerging challenges through design and running of a portfolio of experiments that is coherent with the type of challenges that are part of UNDP’s strategic plan, 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 sensemaking 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.

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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.

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