Call for UNDP GPN ExpRes ONE Roster – Legal Identity Specialist

UNDP’s ‘Legal Identity for All’ project is part of UNDP’s contribution to the UN Legal Identity Agenda (UN LIA), jointly implemented by the UN departments and agencies active in the area of civil registration, vital statistics and identity management, under mandate from the Deputy-Secretary-General. UNDP is co-chair, along with UNICEF and UNDESA, of the UN Legal Identity Agenda Task Force, mandated by the DSG to assist in implementation of the UN LIA. In close cooperation with the World Bank and other identity providers, the goal of ‘Legal Identity for All’ is to assist UN Member States achieve SDG Target 16.9 – “Legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030.” Technical assistance will be provided to UN Member States in order to strengthen their capacity to develop comprehensive, holistic, birth-to-death civil registry, vital statistics and identity management systems (including, where relevant, support to national population registers/national identity card schemes).

UNDP’s project, as part of the larger UN LIA, encompasses both global, regional and country-level components, namely:

[Global Level]

Outcome 1: The civil registration, vital statistics and identity management interventions of both the UN and the wider international community are coordinated, complementary, and informed by best practice policy development and data capture;

Outcome 2: Progress in closing the world’s identity gap will be enhanced by high-level advocacy and engagement;

[Regional/Country Level]

Outcome 3: Implementation of the UN Legal Identity Agenda at the country and regional levels is coordinated, financed and supported on a ‘One UN’ basis.

Legal Identity specialists are required to support regional and country level initiatives primarily under Outcome 3, whose outputs are as follows:

Output 3.1 – World Bank-UN collaboration is achieved in the implementation of legal identity programmes in pilot countries identified for holistic civil registration, vital statistics and identity management support; Output 3.2: The legal identity gap is reduced in requesting Member States via holistic civil registration and identity management programme support;

Output 3.3: Regional harmonisation of CRVS and identity management is facilitated via the UN LIA.

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to establish a pool of pre-vetted international experts that may be called upon as International Consultants (ICs) to provide provide high quality technical advice and support to the relevant Ministries of the Member States, international partners, the UN Resident Coordinator system and UN Country Teams in developing and strengthening comprehensive, holistic, birth-to-death civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems (national population registers/national ID card schemes).

Successful applicants will be invited to join the Global Policy Network Experts Roster for Rapid Response (GPN ExpRes) under the Legal Identity profile. The GPN ExpRes Roster is a recruitment and deployment mechanism which maintains pre-vetted consultants and offers the ability to contract them quickly for support by UNDP offices worldwide. It currently provides pre-selected and technically vetted consultants across 28 profiles and 144 sub-profiles across all technical areas supported by the Global Policy Network of UNDP. Following the successful review for the roster, candidates may be considered for various short-term assignments with UNDP in this technical area. Retention on the Roster of selected experts will be contingent on continuous delivery of satisfactory services.

Legal Identity Specialists to be recruited for individual assignments through the GPN ExpRes roster will be responsible for provision of technical advice on various aspects of CRVS and identity management systems to Member States, in order to assist UNDP and other UN agencies, funds and programmes in the implementation of the UN Legal Identity Agenda at the country and regional level. The specialists will be working directly with national and/or regional project partners, including, for example, Ministries of the Interior, Health, Local Government, Justice, border management agencies, National Statistics Institutes and specialist CRVS and identity management authorities such as national registration bureaus/national identity authorities. Support may also be provided to regional organisations (and in particular those interested in developing common technical specifications for identity documents across borders in their respective regions), such as the African Union, the African Regional Economic Communities, etc.

Working under the direct supervision of the on-site UN project manager (e.g. UNDP Resident Representative, Country Director, Head of Governance, etc.), and with a secondary reporting line to the UNDP Policy Advisor for Legal Identity and/or UN agency HQ focal point for legal identity, the legal identity specialists will be responsible for timely implementation of the UN Legal Identity Agenda at the regional and country level, including:

• Upon request from national authorities, assess the CRVS/identity management system in Member States and make appropriate recommendations that can lead to the implementation of sustainable, holistic, comprehensive, birth-to-death legal identity systems, that are interoperable with other national functional registers ;
• Support national governments, UNDP COs, UN Resident Coordinators, and UN Country Teams to formulate new ‘One UN’ project documents that support implementation of the Legal Identity Agenda;
• Assist in the mobilisation of resources for said projects;
• Liaise with the World Bank country representatives, national and international civil society representatives, embassies and other national and international stakeholders on the proposed ‘One UN’ projects;
• Support Member States to draft a ‘National Identity Strategy’ or other such roadmap that proposed integration/rollout of CRVS and new/digitally upgraded identity management systems;
• Support Member States to reform national legal frameworks related to CRVS and identity management, taking account of complex policy issues such as protection of personal data, privacy, appropriate use of biometric technology, prevention of statelessness, etc

The Legal Identity Specialists shall report primarily to the on-site UN project manager (e.g. UNDP Resident Representative, Country Director, Head of Governance, etc.), and with a secondary reporting line to the UNDP Policy Advisor for Legal Identity in the UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, Global Policy Network, based in New York.

The consultant is expected to provide timely summary reports, where specified, to the Policy Advisor for Legal Identity and the Secretariat of the UN LIA Task Force on progress in achieving ToR deliverables, highlighting any relevant project implementation challenges, and relevant key recommendations in addressing these issues.

Functional Competencies

1. Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

• Advocates for the inclusion of UNDP’s focus areas in the public policy agenda;
• Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues;
• Builds consensus concerning UNDP’s strategic agenda with partners on joint initiatives;
• Leverages UNDP’s multidisciplinary expertise to influence the shape of policies and programmes;
• Demonstrates political/cultural acumen in proposing technically sound, fact-based approaches/solutions;
• Dialogues with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global perspectives;
• Demonstrates cultural sensitivity.

2. Results-Based Programme Development and Management:

• Identifies country needs and strategies using a fact-based approach;
• Sets performance standards, monitors progress and intervenes at an early stage to ensure results are in accordance with agreed-upon quality and timeframes and reports on it;
• Makes use of a variety of resources within UN system to achieve results, such as cross-functional teams, secondments and developmental assignments, and collaborative funding approaches;
• Oversees and documents the process of strategy formulation for programmes at country level;
• Ensures the integration of UNDP’s strategic concern in interagency, other multilateral initiatives and multi-sectoral development frameworks;

3. Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Identifies and prioritizes opportunities and obstacles in the political scene (government, civil society, parliamentarians, pressure groups) to advance UN agenda; identifies common interests and goals and carries out joint initiatives with partners;
• Makes effective use of UN/UNDP’s resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships;
• Builds partnerships with non-traditional sectors by translating UN/UNDP’s agenda into messages that reflect the pertinence of their values and interests;
• Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
• Leverages the resources of governments and other development partners.

4. Innovation and Marketing New Approaches:

• Develop and implement innovative approaches;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources;
• Leverages resources in support of new approaches;
• Facilitates change and influences senior decision makers to implement change strategies.

5. Resource Mobilization:

• Contributes to the development of resource mobilization strategies;
• Actively develops partnerships with potential donors and government counterparts in all sectors at country level;
• Shares information with country offices and HQ concerning opportunities to tap potential donors;
• Strengthens the capacity of the country office to mobilize resources.

6. Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

• Possesses expert knowledge of advanced concepts in primary discipline, a broad knowledge of related disciplines, as well as an in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures;
• Applies knowledge to support the unit/branch’s objectives and to further the mandate of UN/UNDP;
• Applies a broad knowledge of best management practices; defines objectives and work flows, positions reporting relationships in such a way as to obtain optimum effectiveness for the unit/branch;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself personally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates expert knowledge of the current programme guidelines and project management tools and manages the use of these regularly in work assignments.

7. Client Orientation:

• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
• Consults with clients and ensures their needs are represented in decision-making processes;
• Advises and develops strategic and operational solutions with clients that add value to UNDP programmes and operations.

Core Competencies

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Education:

• A Master’s degree level in political sciences, international relations, IT, law, social sciences, public administration, public management, statistics, health, procurement or in an equivalent area.

Experience:

• Good command of basic computer programmes (MS- Office under Windows: Word, Excel); 
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience including 5 years of experience in the area of civil registration, vital statistics and/or identity management;
• Strong experience in the provision of technical advice, at a senior level, to national and international stakeholders involved in the provision and delivery of CRVS and identity management systems;
• Strong knowledge on legal frameworks related to CRVS and identity management;
• Experience with digital innovations in CRVS and identity management, including with regards to biometric technologies;
• Strong experience in coordinating various partners (especially UN agencies and national counterparts). Experience in managing UN Joint Programmes is an asset.
• Experience in project management and in human resources management.

Languages:

Perfect command of written and oral English and/or French is required. Please indicate in your proposal your fluency level in other UN languages

Application procedure

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain the TWO following documents, ALL IN ONE FILE:

• DOCUMENT 1: Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate
• DOCUMENT 2: Brief description of why the individual considers her/himself suitable for the assignment. Please submit this information in the same file as Document 1.
• All the information requested above must be submitted in the same file. Candidates who fail to submit all the information requested above will be disqualified.
• Please do not include your financial proposal at this stage. Only successful candidates (technically qualified) will be invited to register onto the ExpRes roster platform and indicate a tentative daily fee.
• Once the successful candidates have been invited to join the GPN ExpRes and registered on the dedicated platform, they are considered vetted and may be proposed for assignments with UNDP offices for which specific ToRs will be developed.