Project Officer

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

UNDP India’s new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

• Strong, accountable and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
• Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
• Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.

South-South cooperation, gender equality and social inclusion are promoted across the pillars. The programme is supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, strategic innovation and accelerator labs, and data and digital architecture.

You are invited to join a team of future-smart development professionals to support India in achieving the national and globally agreed goals. As part of the UNDP team, your focus will be to work with diverse stakeholders to find country-specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and reach those furthest behind first.

UNDP’s Country Programme Document (2023-2027) intended outcome 2 states that “By 2027, people will benefit from and contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth through higher productivity, competitiveness and diversification in economic activities that create decent work, livelihoods, and income particularly for youth and women”.

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), UNDP is starting a new pilot programme on “Boosting Female Labour Force Participation through Strengthened Urban Childcare” . Current planned duration of the project is three years, and it is planned to be implemented in collaboration with the DAY-NULM, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs The programme aims to contributes towards the overall goal of “Increased opportunities for urban poor women to participate in paid workforce, driven by the availability of accessible and affordable quality childcare services in their community/vicinity of workplaces.” The key planned outputs of the programme are:

Economically viable and scalable childcare models are available for adoption and replication by the public and private sector institutional actors as well as potential women entrepreneurs. Increased availability and uptake of childcare provision services for urban poor women by enhancing the capacities of service providers, facilitating collaboration amongst relevant critical actors (service providers, industry associations, government stakeholders, and communities), and rolling out childcare services.

Investment in childcare provision is recognized as a critical policy tool for inclusive urban development with available data and evidence on the positive impact of childcare services on women’s participation in paid work.

This position reports to National Programme Manager, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (NPSA 10) and has 2 Project Analyst NPSA 8 - Project Analyst: Gender Equality and Care Economy, reportees. 

The Project Officer will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the Head, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (SIG) in the project “Boosting Female Labor Force Participation through Strengthened Urban Care Ecosystem”. S/he will lead planning, budgeting, and result oriented implementation of activities in targeted states/ cities, working in close collaboration with the Central and state governments and BMGF. S/he will closely oversee and manage the project team and partners and ensure overall project management including achievement of results. S/he will also lead project’s knowledge management and partnerships building with key ecosystem stakeholders.

Programme Planning, Coordination, and Implementation

• Lead planning, implementation, and development of specific interventions within the childcare and care economy programme and take complete responsibility of coordination and management of relevant project activities.
• S/he will be responsible for overall monitoring of the project’s activities in project locations, provide expertise and technical assistance, and ensure timely achievement of project targets (both quantitative and qualitative) as per project plan.
• S/he will identify appropriate local partners, technical support agency/s, government departments etc. and foster partnership for project implementation as per UNDP processes.
• S/he will lead co-ordination and regular communication on project issues and progress with BMGF, other donors, state and central government and on-ground partners involved in the project for ensuring timely and good quality deliverables. S/he will conduct regular capacity building and review meetings as may be required.
• Identify and onboard new partners and provide technical and management support to Care Entrepreneurs.
• Ensure proper operational management including procurement related to project and production of its outputs in accordance with UNDP Programme Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP) and project strategy document/guidelines.
• Coordinate and support roll out and implementation of the childcare pilots, liaising with partners on the ground and monitor delivery of outputs as per project timelines.
• Put in place a Results Based Monitoring System, day-to-day coordination with the partner/s, weekly monitoring meetings with partner agency/s to monitor progress, preparation of monthly and quarterly reports, quality check of all reports submitted and continuous data capturing as per UNDP guidelines.
• Manage quality assurance of the curriculum and overall training/s.
• Manage the financial resources of the project/s, including budgeting and budget revisions, as well as expenditure tracking and reporting.
• Ensure effective risk management for the project/s.
• Work closely with the UN agencies (UN Women, ILO, UNICEF) and other UNDP Units / team to develop synergy and integrate it within the wider one UN Care economy Strategy.
• Complete any other tasks, or project related work that is provided by the Head (SIG) including requirements related to UNDP’s compliance and institutional building.

Partnerships and Stakeholder Management

• Liaise with all relevant stakeholders including the government, private sector, relevant local institutions, academia and CSOs to encourage new partnerships, smooth implementation of project activities, improve project’s visibility and strengthen existing relationships.
• Contribute to smooth functioning of care coalition/network and regular meetings and convenings.

Documentation and Knowledge Management

• Lead project documentation, review, donor reporting and monthly updates along with preparation for steering committee meetings, overall knowledge management including external communications such as blogs, human interest stories, press releases etc.
• Along with team and project technical partners contribute to roundtables, meetings/workshops, exposure visits, training, and capacity building events around childcare, care economy and livelihoods opportunities for women.

Team Management

• Manage team and identify priorities and capacity development needs in the design of team’s workplans and establish a timely and participatory work planning process along with timely performance appraisal.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization 

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process.
• Act with Determination:   LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion:   LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making.

People Management competencies:

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site..

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies: 

Business Management   

• Results-based Management: Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus on improved performance and demonstrable results.          
• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.   
• Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.            
• Monitoring: Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results.        

Partnership management           

• CSO engagement: Knowledge and understanding of CSOs and the ability to engage with CSOs.  

Business Direction and Strategy

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP's objectives, based on 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 to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.