Academic Coordinator

UNDP works with the Government and people of Pakistan to develop local solutions to development challenges. In an evolving development context, we support Pakistan’s efforts to build a more equitable, prosperous, peaceful and resilient society, and to achieve its SDGs and COP25 targets. UNDP promotes transformational change by fostering strategic partnerships with national counterparts in the federal, provincial and regional governments, civil society, the private sector and the local and international community. UNDP supports transformational change by providing technical assistance focusing on developing capacity within national and local authorities, providing solutions with strong monitoring and evaluation tools, and delivering programmes with maximum efficiency, transparency and accountability.

UNDP’s ultimate goal is to improve the lives of the people of Pakistan through keeping people out of poverty; governance for peaceful, just and inclusive societies; crisis prevention and increased resilience; nature-based solutions for development; clean affordable energy; and women's empowerment and gender equality.

UNDP works to improve the lives of vulnerable communities, with the overarching objective of preventing loss of development gains, promoting human rights, and finding sustainable pathways to development. UNDP projects under the democratic governance portfolio aims to strengthen state institutions, support democratic development and the rule of law, ensure crisis prevention, support policy development, and integrate gender equality into all areas of work. UNDP works to support the human rights ecosystem by strengthening human rights institutions to promote and protect human rights for all.

This UNV assignment is part of UNDP Pakistan’s Decentralization, Human Rights and Local Governance (DHL) project. The DHL project is a multi-sector project aimed at strengthening rights-based development, community stabilization, gender equality, and social inclusion across all regions and provinces of Pakistan. The core objective of the project is to ensure inclusive and equitable service delivery by providing technical assistance and capacity development support to relevant federal ministries, provincial line departments, statutory bodies, civil society, and private sector organizations. A key aim is to support the creation of an enabling environment for accelerated access to rights, people-centered justice, and people-centered security. The project focuses on institution building while connecting with vulnerable and at-risk communities to build trust between rights.

Under the European Union supported Huqooq-e-Pakistan II programme, UNDP-DHL is engaged with institutes of higher education to design curricula and knowledge materials that are predicated on respect for human rights, tolerance and inclusivity. This also entails the facilitation of an exchange of best practices between academic stakeholders in Pakistan and international partners, primarily through the platform of a human rights education centre. The centre will act as a resource hub for key partners such as academia, students, NHRIs, CSOs and government stakeholders by providing technical support such as academic advisory services, advocacy support, training workshops and by facilitating access to knowledge materials. The incumbent will be based at the University of Peshawar to facilitate the exchange of best practices between the centre and the university.

Provide coordination and logistical support for promoting human rights education at the University of Peshawar
• Lead coordination of UNDP-DHL’s human rights education activities on campus, including but not limited to the organization of engaging advocacy events, the provision of technical and logistical support to academia, and awareness-raising regarding internship and exchange opportunities.
• Provide coordination support to the members of the Academic Task Force to survey the curriculum at the University of Peshawar, through the provision of monitoring support and facilitating an exchange of information
• Coordinate with the staff of the University of Peshawar and UNDP-DHL’s communications focal point to ensure that all advocacy events align with the University of Peshawar and UNDP’s standards and regulations.
• Provide coordination support to the faculty and academic leadership of the University of Peshawar to engage with key stakeholders such as the academic task force, national universities, the human rights education centre and international partners, and for facilitating the integration of key recommendations.
• Provide support to students participating in the supported academic exchanges and internship opportunities by facilitating access to necessary information and capacity-building tools in coordination with the human rights education centre.
• Maintain a repository of key documents, concept notes and briefs to facilitate the exchange of information between UNDP-DHL and the University of Peshawar.

Facilitate the expansion of UNDP-DHL and the University of Peshawar’s human rights academic network in Pakistan by forging fruitful partnerships and conducting advocacy for the promotion of human rights education.
• Provide support to the University of Peshawar and UNDP-DHL to engage with the wider academic community in the country to raise awareness regarding the university’s efforts to promote human rights education.
• Identify relevant academic and human rights stakeholders for developing collaborative research and advocacy initiatives between the University of Peshawar and external stakeholders.
• Develop and disseminate briefs and concept notes for engaging collaborative academic conferences and workshops.
• Facilitate the university and UNDP-DHL to conduct external advocacy events at various relevant universities, CSOs and research centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.