Recovery Programme Specialist

Background

Like most African commodity-dependent countries, Cameroon has experienced the paradox of growth. Over the past decade, Cameroon’s economic growth has been dynamic but has not benefited the population equally. The economy grew by an average of 4,7% per year between 2010 and 2018. This good performance was initially achieved thanks to the increase in oil production, and to public investments program in major infrastructure projects designed to make Cameroon an upper-tier middle-income country under the implementation of the Cameroon "Vision 2035" since 2010. Despite this positive economic performance, the poverty reduction rate has lagged behind the population growth rate and the overall number of poor in the country increased by 12% to 8.1 million between 2007 and 2014. Poverty is increasingly concentrated in the country's northern regions, where 56% of the poor live.[1]

Moreover, although Cameroon enjoyed several decades of stability, in recent years it has been grappling with security, governance and political challenges, which include consequences of Boko-Haram’s activism in the Far North and the deep-rooted socio-political crisis in the North-West and South-West anglophone regions, as well as major governance-related issues[2]. Overall, 6 of 10 regions in the country are affected by socio-political and security crises. This includes 1) violent extremist armed groups in the Far-North (Cameroon is the second most affected country in the Lake Chad Basin in terms of displacement, number of people in hunger and children suffering from acute malnutrition); 2) the impact of the Central African crisis in the East and Adamawa, resulting in a protracted refugee situation, insecurity and kidnapping; and 3) violent insurrection in the North-West and South-West regions, which has resulted in significant numbers of displacement, damages of public infrastructures, the breaking up of social cohesion and slowing down of economic growth.

In response to these challenges, for the last 3 years, UNDP Cameroon has been directly supporting the government and local communities to cope with and respond to the various crises. This implied involvement in several strategic processes, with subsequent implementation of relevant response programmes. This includes: 1) supporting the development of the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPBA) that covered the North, North-East, East and Adamawa regions; 2) UNDP Cameroon has contributed to the development of the Lake Chad Basin Regional Stabilization Facility, which is being implemented in the Far-North; 3) UNDP collaborated to the formulation of the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD) of the North West and South West regions for which it is the implementing partner and fund manager. The three core pillars of the PPRD are a) Restoring social cohesion; b) Reconstruction and rehabilitating basic infrastructure; and c) Revitalizing the local economy.

As such, UNDP will build on its extensive experience to develop and implement innovative and tailored Recovery and Reconstruction large-scale programs. Therefore, UNDP Cameroon is recruiting a Recovery Programme Specialist to promote UNDP’s position in recovery and resilience building in Cameroon. The Recovery Programme Specialist will facilitate the Country Office programme expansion, resource mobilization as well as monitoring and evaluation and reporting requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary key of duties

Under the direct supervision of the Resident Representative and in close collaboration with the DRR and the ARR Governance & crises and the PPRD regional coordinators, the Program Specialist provides direct support to recovery need assessment and analysis, recovery programme development and expansion through proposal development, new concepts exploration, donors and corporate reporting in addition to contribution to monitoring and evaluation processes. The Program Specialist will be responsible for the following:

1. Ensure effective support to recovery needs assessment and analysis;

2. Support recovery programme development and expansion;

3. Support the RR in the inter-agency coordination, partnership development and resource mobilization;

4. Ensure quality assurance, reporting, impact monitoring and communication;

5. Provision of top-quality policy advice and facilitation of knowledge building and management.

1. Ensure effective support to recovery needs assessment and analysis:

Provide support to the DRR for the coordination of field offices including with their needs assessment exercises and the prioritization of Recovery needs;
Participate in Needs Assessment exercises when required.

2. Support recovery programme development and expansion :

Provide clarity on Recovery concept and roles and responsibilities at field level;
Provide support to the CO on setting up a Recovery coordination structure;
Ensure the development of Recovery frameworks and plans at national level;
Develop a national recovery strategy programme.

3. Support the RR in the inter-agency coordination, partnership development and resource mobilization:

Support the RR in advocacy and partnership work, particularly in the areas mentioned above;
Participate in strategic meetings with donors, partners and UN agencies;
Perform any other duties that the Resident Representative would assign as needed;
Work closely with national counterparts, donors and other stakeholders aiming for common strategies/ensuring linkages and compatibilities/complementarities with Recovery efforts;
Support the development of specific communication tools needed for partnership and resource mobilization.

4. Ensure quality assurance, reporting, impact monitoring and communication:

Ensure high quality reporting to the recovery program for both technical and financial reports;
Participate in all monitoring and implementation activities of the recovery program;
Coordinate the Recovery M&E strategy;
Contribute to the development of a database of potential partners (who does what, in which sector, their priorities, time to engage contacts, resource person, perception of UNDP, what are their needs ...) in the area of stabilization, ER & Reconstruction;
Support the quality control mechanism;
Prepare minutes of high-level meetings with donors, government and other key stakeholders;
Produce analytical notes as required.

5. Provision of top-quality policy advice and facilitation of knowledge building and management.

Provide clarity on Recovery concept and roles and responsibilities at field level;
Provide support to the CO on setting up a Recovery coordination structure;
Produce high quality concept notes and proposal to donors.

Impact of Results

The key results have an impact on the success of both CO and PPRD implementation. In particular, the key results have an impact on the design, operation and programming of activities, creation of strategic partnerships as well as reaching resource mobilization targets.

Competencies

Core

Innovation
Leadership
People Management
Communication
Delivery

Technical/Functional

Building Strategic Partnerships

• Builds solid relationships with key State level partners and identifies institutional development and capacity development opportunities and priorities where relevant;

• Contribute to resource mobilization in close consultation with Senior Management;

• Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments;

Takes responsibility for achieving agreed outputs within set deadlines and strives until successful outputs are achieved.

Rule of Law, Justice and Security:

Knowledge of Rule of law, Justice and Citizen Security concepts and principles and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations

Disaster, Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding :

Recovery Support and Implementation Ability to support and implement mechanisms, processes, resources in response to disaster/crisis

Disaster; Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding

Recovery Policy and Planning - Ability to establish mechanisms, processes, resources in readiness to disaster/crisis response

Economic Recovery

Economic Recovery - Knowledge of Economic Recovery concepts and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations

Client Orientation

• 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;

• Keeps the client informed of problems or delays in the provision of services;

• Uses discretion and flexibility in interpreting rules in order to meet client needs and achieve organizational goals more effectively;

Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

Economic Recovery

Economic Planning - Knowledge of Economic Planning concepts and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
At least a Master’s degree in international development, economics, public administration or other relevant social sciences

Experience:

At least 5 years of relevant professional work experience in one or some of the areas below: - Stabilization – Rule of law/Screening Prosecution Rehabilitation and Reintegration (SPRR) - Early Recovery & Reconstruction – Reporting & M&E-.
Extensive experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
Experience in crisis and/or recovery settings at the field level and working with donors and NGOs
Strong skills and experience in communication and visibility of UNDP interventions in the field
Strong skills and experience in writing high quality proposals and donor reports
Good knowledge of UNDP procedures on PPM is an asset - Good knowledge in the analysis and mainstreaming of the gender and other cross-cutting approaches.

Language Requirements:

Fluent in both English and French.