JOB DETAILS:

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 has begun ideating and incubating several strategic initiatives aimed at ensuring UNDP as ‘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 Accelerator Lab Network. UNDP is building the largest and fastest learning global network of Accelerator Labs embedded within UNDP’s global presence (91 labs serving 115 countries). The Accelerator Lab Unit works as the key innovation unit by bringing in new and innovative ways of programme/project implementation by UNDP programme units based on inputs from accelerator labs and UNDP offices across geographic boundaries, exchange knowledge and best practices and implement joint pilots. Read the latest Annual Report to learn about the achievements of the network.

The UNDP Accelerator Lab in India is working towards fostering culture of innovations in close partnership with government, private sector, academia and civil society organizations. The lab works at the policy, institutional and technology levels to address complex developmental challenges in India. Some of the successful experiments of the lab that are going to scale include (i) an Artificial Intelligence platform using satellite data to help regulators monitor air pollution along the Indo-Gangetic belt (ii) a National blockchain platform for traceability of Indian spices, to enhance the export potential for spices (iii) a Digital public good to strengthen governance and policymaking for climate resilient agriculture iv) Grassroots innovations and social entrepreneurship initiatives for diverse areas v) Gender and behavioral science based approaches for advancing gender equality vi) Generative AI chatbot to reach out climate resilient agriculture practices to women farmers vii) a digital stack on point sources of air pollution.

UNDP is interested to hire the services of an Innovation Officer under National Personnel Service Agreement (NPSA) modality who can effectively liaise with key stakeholders and partners for these experimental pilots, provide timely inputs, perform monitoring and evaluation of progress related to the pilots and assist the Accelerator Lab in making these innovations reach scale. The person will be reporting to the Deputy Resident Representative.

The Innovation Officer will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative. The candidate will lead planning, budgeting, and result oriented implementation of activities in targeted states/ cities, working in close collaboration with the partners (academia, govt, start-ups). 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. The incumbent will work in close collaboration with the teams for promoting innovation activities and information exchange as more clearly outlined in Duties and Responsibilities.

Reporting To: The Innovation Officer will report directly to the Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP India Country office.

Reportees to this position: Coordination Associate (NPSA 7), Admin and Finance Associate (NPSA 6), Interns (2)

Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Planning, Coordination, and Implementation

• Lead planning, coordination, implementation, and development of interventions within the innovation programme. Take complete responsibility of coordination and management of relevant project activities;
• Track progress related to ongoing experiments such as, Grassroots innovations and social entrepreneurship hub related efforts, Generative AI chatbot on climate resilient agriculture practices for farmers, digital stack on point sources of air pollution;
• Explore, document and increase understanding on emerging methods of tapping into bottom-up solutions, lead users and grassroots innovations related to sustainable development;
• 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 UNDP global and regional team as well as 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;
• 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 experimentations 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;
• Undertake field travel to check and coordinate with local partners (As and when requested by the team).

Partnerships and Stakeholder Management

• Liaise with all relevant stakeholders including the government, private sector, relevant local institutions, academia, start-ups and CSOs to encourage new partnerships, smooth implementation of project activities, improve project’s visibility and strengthen existing relationships;
• Identify and onboard new partners for upcoming and new initiatives such as SDG Entrepreneurship Hub.

Documentation and Knowledge Management

• Assist in maintaining project monitoring and evaluation frameworks and a wide range of project related documentation related to ongoing projects and experiments (Pilot project as well as Scale up phases). This should be done in close coordination with partner organizations, vendors, UNDP programme teams in compliance with CO’s M&E framework;
• Lead overall knowledge management including external communications such as blogs, human interest stories, press releases etc;
• Liaise with the broader Accelerator Lab network and the support team to share learnings and insights from the country-specific experience (for annual reports, global positioning etc.);
• Along with team and project technical partners contribute to roundtables, meetings/workshops, exposure visits, training, and capacity building events for priority themes.

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.

Organizational learning and interface with the core business of UNDP

• Work closely with the portfolio heads and State teams to develop synergy and integrate innovation within the wider country office;
• Design methods for integrating collective intelligence into UNDP programmes and engage with programme and project managers to turn insights into systemic change;
• Help embed solutions mapping and lead user methodology within the CO portfolio, design and provide trainings that include various methodologies and steps to identify and work with lead users;
• 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.

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

• 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

• 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 Competencies:

• 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.

Business Direction & Strategy

• System 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.

• Professional experience in development programming or policy and managing innovation related projects is required.
• Proven professional knowledge and experience in approaches such as Ethnography, Systems Thinking, Behavioral Insights, Co-creation, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Positive Deviance, Community Asset Mapping, Service Design or Human Centered Design is an asset.
• Extensive experience in developing knowledge products, blogs and programme documentation is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in preparing project progress reports, donor reports and monitoring and evaluation reports is required.
• Good programme design skills, including capacity to prepare logical, coherent and consistent documents including log-frames and budgets.
• Good facilitation and communication skills across engagement with government, donor, UNDP team and other partners,
• Ability to carry out and contribute to research and communicate through minutes, concept notes, policy briefs, blogs etc.
• Tailors and presents information to diverse audiences using a variety of communication delivery methods (e.g., written, electronic, oral, interpersonal),
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
• Strong leadership skills,
• Strong teamwork and listening ability,
• Ability to guide the implementing partners in implementing and achieving project outcomes
• Is open to change and ability to manage complex changing environments.
• Desirable to have work experience in public sector/government at National level.
• Work experience in international organizations including the UN is desirable.
• Desirable experience of working in technological areas especially in the context of transfer of innovations to communities at the grassroots level as well as capacity building trainings experience in digital technologies
• Additional years of relevant experience in managing field projects, capacity building/training programs, convening project meetings and ensuring multi-stakeholder consultations at National level in innovations.

Required Languages:

• Fluency in English and Hindi is required.

ABSTRACT:

United Nations Development Programme Innovation Officer India UNDP Jobs 2024

United Nations Development Programme looking for “Innovation Officer”. Applicants with an Advanced degree may apply on or before 25-Jul-24.

The United Nations Development Programme has published a job vacancy announcement on 11/07/2024 for qualified applicants to fill in the vacant post of Innovation Officer to be based in New Delhi , India. For more jobs, please visit https://unjoblink.org

Company Name: United Nations Development Programme

Job Title: Innovation Officer

Duty Station: New Delhi , India

Country: India

Application Deadline: 25-Jul-24