Nepal adopted a new Constitution in September 2015, with the intent of transforming the then unitary and centralised system of governance into a federal and decentralised one as a vehicle to ensure equality, equity, and social justice. Nepal’s federal system is characterised by three levels of government (federal, provincial, and local) with non-hierarchical relationships within the levels of government. The Constitution stipulates that the three levels shall be the main structures of the Federal, Democratic and Republican Nepal and all levels shall exercise the power of state of Nepal pursuant to the Constitution and law. The powers of the three levels of government are enshrined in five Schedules of the constitution in the form of exclusive and concurrent powers. The federal system of governance became fully functional in February 2018 after all seven province governments were formed following the general election in November 2017.

With an objective to support on the implementation of federalism in Nepal, the Government of Nepal introduced a flagship programme of Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (2019-2024). Following an initial period of delivery and agreement by GoN, Provinces, stakeholders, and Development Partners that Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme remained necessary and relevant, a decision was taken to extend Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme, with changes necessary to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the needs of Provincial Local Governments (PLG).

The Provincial and Local Governance Strengthening Programme (PLGSP) 2024-2029 is the national framework programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational, and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. It aims to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive, and accountable provincial and local governance. Following an initial period of delivery (2019-2023), and agreed by the GoN, Provinces, Development Partners, and other stakeholders, PLGSP will continue for the next five years, with necessary changes to make the programme more effective, efficient, and responsive to the emerging needs of PLGs in advancing federalism in Nepal.

An extensive stakeholder engagement, consultations and re-programming process was undertaken between July 2023 and June 2024 that resulting in a substantial revision in the PLGSP Programme Document (ProDoc). This reprogrammed ProDoc outlines how re-programmed PLGSP emphasizes building the capacity and capability of PLGs’ to deliver on the institutional and individual capacities for advancing federalism in Nepal over the next 5 years. The ProDoc has focused on three outcomes for Federal, Provincial and LG level impacts, each with three related outputs. Three outcomes include: Outcome 1: Federal level government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms are fully functional in support of federal governance as per the Constitution; Outcome 2: Provincial governments have efficient, effective, inclusive, and accountable institutions and organizations; Outcome 3: Local governments have capacity for Good Governance and for delivering inclusive basic services to all people. Furthermore, there are 9 outputs against the outcome mentioned. Four cross-cutting thematic streams: (i) Inclusive federalism acts, regulations, policies, and strategies; (ii) Collaboration within and across federal institutions and governments, and civic engagement; (iii) Supportive systems and tools for PLG inclusive federalism capacity; (iv) capacity development and transformation (applied to all 3 levels) have also been defined and articulated well. The programme considers the broad principles and approaches including focus on federal devolution, transparency, and accountability, embedding transformative gender and diversity/inclusion agenda, human rights based and participatory approach, devolved, contextual and flexible programme design and implementation and adaptive programming. Further, unpacking structural barriers in political institutions, promoting ownership and trust in provincial and local government system and changing power dynamics in government institutions addressing intersectionality are the expected pathways for Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) transformation in the programme. Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executing agency of the GoN for PLGSP in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Provincial and Local Governments.

UNDP as the partner of PLGSP and Technical Assistance (TA) provider, has been working with the MoFAGA on the implementation of PLGSP since its inception. The TA component of the programme has also been revised accordingly to facilitate the transformation in the behaviours of the authorities towards federalism for inclusive service delivery, it is fully aligned with revised PLGSP incorporating learnings from the earlier TA engagement. The intent of the revised TA is to leverage UNDP’s technical expertise and facilitation role to support positive transformations that enable implementation of federalism in Nepal, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and effective delivery of inclusive services by PLGs to their people especially for the most marginalized and women.

To this effect, TA will support PLGs for their institutional and organizational capacities. The TA support to federal government will help develop and implement necessary laws and policies to strengthen inter-governmental relationships thereby supporting cooperative federalism. To attain the sustainable achievement described above, TA has been categorized into Implementation Support TA (ISTA) and Transformational TA. ISTA focuses more on supporting the governments in the implementation of PLGs thereby building their institutional and individual capacities. Whereas Transformational TA focuses more on supporting behavioural transformation through research and analysis as well as providing high level expertise as needed. Overall, the TA staff (ISTA and Transformational TA) works together in close coordination with each other in overall guidance of respective government and UNDP Country Office.

Position Summary:

The position holder has a key role in devising and demonstrating tools and systems on knowledge management so that PLGs (and all tires of the government) will be able to adopt those practices. The incumbent will also support the governments in adopting and devising those systems and adopt practices that bring all knowledge products in the repository to serve as institutional memory. S/he will also work in developing the communications strategy for PLGSP.

The Knowledge Management Analyst will report to and work under the direct supervision of the Federal Governance Specialist (International) and under the overall guidance of the National Programme Director (NPD) and the National Programme Manager (NPM). The position contributes to all outputs of the programme.

Design and implement of the Knowledge Management (KM) strategy:

• Develop strategy for PLGs to document learnings and good practices support in its implementation so that PLGSP, Federal and PLGs have effective and sustainable systems to maintain and share knowledge and experience.
• Support PLGSP management in the development of a communications strategy/guideline for PLGSP that will be applied across all units.
• Identify new areas and analyze existing knowledge management support in activities.
• Provide advice to PLGSP team in integrating knowledge management into their programme activities, including programme strategies, expert exchanges and communication.
• Facilitate the development and dissemination of knowledge and experience through enhanced communication, strengthened knowledge products and publications.
• Propose and promote creative solutions for knowledge management in the organization.
• Support the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) in integrating KM in all aspects of their operations.
• Develop a system of a repository of information, knowledge and learning to track and systematically use the data.
• Conduct peer-to-peer Learning (exchange, analysis and adaptation of knowledge/lessons learned/good practices) through dialogues, study visits, communities of practice.
• Develop and maintain partnerships with external partners on their KM strategies.
• Development of communication and visibility as well as KM tools and products

Strengthen a practice of knowledge exchange and sharing:

• Identify knowledge management priorities related to products and media for dissemination, in coordination with government stakeholders.
• Propose different modalities for peer-to-peer learning within the sector (webinar series, newsletter, communities of practice, collaboration tools, etc.) and elaborate formats for knowledge management products for e.g. the documentation of best practices and lessons learned in close coordination with the team.
• Develop guidelines on community of practices and support to implement it.
• Conduct numbers of community of practices on diverse areas of federalism, governance and accountability.
• Support Community of Practice (CoP) facilitators with skills building and with conceptual planning and implementation (as demanded) to ensure successful CoP.
• Document the outcomes of the practices and share among wide range of stakeholders.

Ensure monitoring and reporting on knowledge management:

• Review and monitor the KM budget and project in the concept of project management cycle.
• Prepare KM and management analytical reports (including annual KM report and analyses).
• Prepare and monitor web analytics of online tools.
• Work with other members of the TA team to ensure high quality knowledge content is fed into these networks/events.
• Produce radio programs on PBF projects/missions on various local and community radio stations for visibility and outreach.
• Contribute to the analysis of technical information provided by the projects and synthesize it for the quarterly and annual reports, particularly regarding communication.

Introducing online knowledge management system:

• Coordinate with IT and e-Governance Analyst on development of KM issues and online tools monitoring.
• Identify, plan and organize training for PLGSP team on online tools usage to map and produce KM products.
• Support capacity at all three tiers of government to design and implement effective communication and knowledge management strategies, contributing to increased participation, inclusion, engagement and awareness of PLGSP-supported processes.
• Support to enhance PLGs capacities and support PLGs in producing high quality audio visuals and managing social media effectively for better visibility and engagement.
• Strengthening outreach, communication and visibility of the programme.
• Develop communication strategy of the programme, to ensure visibility of the programme activities at wider stakeholder level.
• Document all the communication products and support to disseminate widely among the stakeholders.
• Develop indicators to monitor and evaluate the progress of communications activities, to measure the impact on achieving the overall objectives (support the process of learning and innovation).
• Monitor public perception, mass media and reports, at sector level and project level.
• Produce newsletters and brochures on the various achievements, considering GESI based on lessons learned and success.
• Support the design and operationalization of a website that will serve as the main information medium for the portfolio and as a forum for exchanging experiences between the various projects.

Ensuring strengthening GESI work through programme interventions:

• Ensure transformative (GESI) approaches are integrated into the communications and knowledge management strategies and material.
• Coordinate with GESI expert to produce GESI focused documentary, case studies etc.
• Provide inputs on research and studies for mapping KM in GESI and in all three tiers of the government.
• Provide advice to strengthen production of KM products in gender & social inclusion initiatives in the programme plan and implementation strategy.

Other:

• Strictly Comply with the policies, strategies, code of conduct, guidelines on Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
• Strict compliance with the UNDP applicable rules, regulations and policies related to ethics and integrity.

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

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Management

• Results-based Management: Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at 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.
• 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; Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and another appropriate channel.
• 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.

2030 Agenda: People

• Gender: Gender Mainstreaming.

2030 Agenda: Peace

• Governance: Inclusion and Participation.

Required Skills and Experience