Manager (Trust Fund Risk Management, UN MPTF)

Background

The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) decided in 2013 to adopt the New Deal as the overarching framework to enable this transition, and structure international engagement in Somalia. As part of the New Deal, a Compact was developed and approved, with milestones and coordination structures around five Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals (PSG), and a Somalia Development and Reconstruction Facility (SDRF) as the main vehicle for collective decision making, policy dialogue and the channeling of international funds to Somalia. Within the SDRF, three trusts funds have been established, by the AfDB, the WB and the UN respectively, to pool donor resources in support of the New Deal. For the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund (UN MPTF), a first pipeline of programs was approved by the SDRF in March 2015, and approximately $100 million of donor resources have been secured to launch these programs in the coming months.

As the centerpiece of the UN’s contribution to the Somalia Compact and a source of funding for the UN’s work across all five PSGs, the UN MPTF’s success will to a large extent contribute to the success of the UN as a whole in Somalia. With its governance structure firmly embedded in the SDRF, and with a national window set up side by side with a more traditional UN window, the MPTF represents a very visible and concrete commitment to supporting the FGS, and translating New Deal principles of national ownership into daily practice. As such, it also harbors a number of risks (security, fiduciary, etc.), with implications for the reputation and relevance of the UN and of the government.

This recognition of the multiple ways in which the UN MPTF, along with the other two trust funds, can either strengthen or undermine the Somalia peacebuilding process led to the design of a comprehensive risk management strategy common to all three funds.

The purpose of this risk management strategy is to support the delivery of the SDRF strategic objectives, within the risk context in which the funds operate. It was designed jointly the UN Risk Management Unit (RMU) and the World Bank Somalia team, the AfDB and the Somali government, with ODI external support between December 2014 and April 2015. As part of the institutional arrangements, it was agreed that each Fund Administrator would provide dedicated Trust Fund risk management expertise to support implementation of the strategy. While the RMU will continue to play a role in support of the UN MPTF, the implementation of the risk management strategy requires dedicated full time capacity, in the form of a UN MPTF Trust Fund Risk Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

• SDRF Trust Fund risk management strategy implemented, with government, contributing donors and other Fund Administrators;


• Risk management training and technical assistance provided to government and Trust Fund recipients;


• UN and National Funding Stream programs equipped with robust risk management approaches, and increased donor funding to both UN MPTF streams;


• Guidance and best practice knowledge products developed;


• Global and UNDG policies on risk management enhanced.

The UN MPTF Trust Fund Risk Manager will support the United Nations, Government, and contributing donors to the UN MPTF in the following functions:

• Implementation of the SDRF / UN MPTF Risk Management Strategy;


• Support to the Risk Management Group;


• Capacity building of Trust Fund recipients and government counterparts;


• Build a body of lessons learned and best practices to support global policy on risk management.

Implementation of the SDRF / UN MPTF Risk Management Strategy:

• Support the implementation of the SDRF Trust Fund risk management strategy, including through the management of the risk management dashboard (see strategy), with other Fund Administrator and government counterparts, including regular review of risks (nature, likelihood, impact on fund);


• Propose, in collaboration with the other Fund Administrators and government counterparts, additional treatment measures for SDRF Steering Committee consideration.

Support to the Risk Management Group:

• Convene and co-chair, with the World Bank and government counterparts, the Risk Management Group, which brings together the Fund Administrators, the government, and donor representatives to review the strategy, share information, and explore additional risk management outputs (treatment measures, technical tools, guidance, etc.) that may benefit the operations of the SDRF trust Funds and the programs/projects funded by the SDRF trust Funds;


• Draft risk management strategy reports to the SDRF Steering Committee, to the Fund Administrators, and to the UNCT.

Capacity building of and Trust Fund recipients and government counterparts:

• Develop general risk management trainings and other technical assistance products (guidance notes, etc.) to support Trust Fund recipient entities;


• Provide tailored risk management related technical assistance, upon request, to Trust Fund recipient entities, during the design phase and/or during the implementation phase;


• Provide other risk management related technical assistance to the UN and Government, as required, and in collaboration with the RMU.

Build a body of lessons learned and best practices to support global policy on risk management:

• Develop lessons learned and best practice knowledge products, based on the implementation of the risk management strategy;


• Seek feedback, experiences and inputs from a wide range of stakeholders on the strategy’s impact and value added;


• Liaise with the UNDG Task Force on Trust Funds and Risk Management to inform policy development and UNDG procedures;


• Represent RMU, and the UN more generally, in Risk Management and Trust Fund related policy discussions and fora;


• Support, as requested, other areas of work in the RMU.

With the support of the RMU, the Risk Manager will work closely with the RCO, which oversees the secretariat functions for the UN MPTF (note that since March 2015, the Head of RMU and Head of RCO functions have been merged).

In all of these tasks, the incumbent will work closely with a number of actors currently engaged in the SDRF Trust Fund risk management process, including the MoF and MoPIC, and the World Bank and the AfDB.

The Trust Fund Risk Manager will be based in Nairobi with travel as needed throughout Somalia. S/he will report directly to the Head of the RC Office / RMU for work planning, reporting and administrative requirements.

Impact of Results

Dedicated Risk Management capacity for the UN MPTF in particular, and the SDRF Trust Funds overall, will support the implementation of the SDRF Trust Funds risk management strategy. Effective implementation of the strategy will reduce the occurrence of risks, and/or impact of realized risks on the Trust Funds. Reduced risk occurrence and/or reduced risk impact will contribute to the Trust Funds’ effectiveness and the achievement of results on the ground, including ‘do no harm’ imperatives and gender inclusion. These results in turn should support the realization of Somalia’s peacebuilding and state building objectives.

In addition, the process of implementing the risk management strategy is done jointly with government counterparts. It offers many entry points for knowledge transfer on risk management approaches and tools.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda:

• Creates effective advocacy strategies;


• Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;


• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;


• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work.

Results-Based Programme Development and Management:

• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;


• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;


• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;


• Analyzes country situation to identify opportunities for project development;


• Participates in the formulation of project proposals and ensures substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches and drafts proposals accordingly.

Building Strategic Partnerships:

• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UN/UNCT’s strategic agenda;


• Sensitizes UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to the UN/UNCT’sstrategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts;


• Develops positive ties with civil society to build/strengthen UN/UNCT’s mandate;


• Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;


• 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;


• Effectively attentive to programmatic synergies in inter-agency meetings.

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches:

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;


• Generates for regional and innovative ideas and effective solutions to problems;


• Looks at experience critically, drawing lessons, and building them into the design of new approaches;


• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;


• Documents successes and uses them to project a positive image;


• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;


• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

Resource Mobilization:

• Develops detailed knowledge and understanding of key donors, their priorities and areas of interest and adapts content and approach of resource mobilization activities to their requirements;


• Builds and maintains relationships with donors demonstrating professionalism in providing advice and information on UN activities and sensitivity to donor concerns;


• Develops, reviews and monitors agreements and trust funds which reflect the outcomes of negotiations with donors and meet the reporting requirements of UN;


• Uses knowledge of donors and successful programmes and projects to contribute to fund raising and resource mobilization strategies.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;


• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;


• Develops and/or participates in the development of tools and mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;


• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;


• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;


• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;


• Ability to facilitate the implementation of joint UN programme activities and strengthen strategic partnerships for effective implementation;


• Ability to build and sustain effective partnerships with UN Agencies and main constituents, advocate effectively, communicate sensitively across different constituencies;


• In providing advice to the RC, has the capacity to gather comprehensive information on complex problems or situations; evaluates information accurately and identifies key issues required to resolve problems.

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.

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;


• Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;


• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in project management, international affairs, politics, security, economics, management or other social science related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of strategic planning / risk management / security or related work experience;


• Ability to build and sustain effective partnerships within Government entities, UN Agencies and donors;


• Experience in risk management related training and capacity building;


• Experience in data collection, analysis, and management (including relevant software);


• Ability to advocate effectively, communicate sensitively across different constituencies;


• Experience of working in Somalia is desirable;


• Advanced skills in the usage of computer software packages and web based management.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English.