Coordination and Development planning specialist

Update

The DCO Regional Office for Africa (DCO-Africa) was established in July 2019 in Addis Ababa to provide the new empowered UN Resident Coordinators – the designated representatives of the United Nations Secretary-General – with strategic support in the integrated implementation at the country level of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDGs; as well as the African Union’s Agenda 2063 – The Africa we Want.

In this regard, the Regional office provides day-to-day support to 53 resident coordinators and their offices in Africa. Its overall function is focused on overseeing and supporting coherent and effective delivery of operational activities for sustainable development by UN resident coordinators and UNCTs in Africa through integrated policy, programming and operational support together with the new Regional Collaborative Framework (RCP).

The UNV will be assigned to DCO sub office based in Dakar, which covers West and Central Africa (23 RC Offices) and will performs the following activities under the guidance of the Senior Regional Coordination Officer.

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Senior Regional Coordinator Officer or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UN Volunteer will:

1. Assist the Resident Coordinator’s Offices (RCOs) to design and implement new generation Cooperation Frameworks, in line with the UN development system reform;
2. Provide substantive and quality advice on Country Analyses (CAs) and Cooperation Frameworks while facilitating substantive contributions from a regional and global perspective;
3. Coordinate the Regional Peer Support Group to provide technical support to UN Country Teams in strategic planning and lead quality assurance reviews of Country Analyses and Cooperation Framework products;
4. Keep abreast of the latest emerging trends in Africa, contribute to the quarterly subregional socio-economic reports, and drafts analyses/policy recommendations/background paper on sustainable development issues and trends;
5. Contribute to sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, such as UNOWAS, UNOCA SG’s reports, UNISS Newsletters or other research activities and studies;
6. Facilitate knowledge management and exchange of good practices amongst RCO economists and assist on the preparation and servicing of RCO Economists’ events and analyses;
7. Assist the Resident Coordinator’s Offices (RCOs) with advice on the monitoring and reporting on the SDGs, such as trough the UNINFO platform;
8. Provide support to consultative and other meetings, workshops, etc., including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations on sustainable development issues;
9. Assist in producing DCO Africa briefing documents to inform headquarters-level processes such as RMRs, EC/DCs, ETF, IATFs, ITFs, and assist in following up implementation of EC/DC Decisions at country and regional levels;
10. Assist in the preparation and servicing of HQ and Special Coordinator events on Sahel, including through the provision of background materials and key messages;
11. Contribute to the preparation of DCO Africa engagements with Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams and RCO core functions, including in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin (LCB);
12. Assist in the preparation of background materials (KMs/BNs) to inform field visits by UN principals and engagements by the Regional Director and draft meeting minutes.

Results/expected outputs
• As an active DCO Regional Office team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to sub office in Dakar and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including:

• Written outputs, e.g. background documentation, talking points, proposals, concept notes, socio-economic analysis, reports, inputs to DCO Africa Annual reports, UNOCA, UNOWAS’s SG report, UNISS Newsletter etc. are produced;
• Quarterly sub regional socio economic reports, including country profiles in the three sub regions;
• A compilation of PSG inputs to Country Analyses and Cooperation Frameworks and reporting on lessons learned and challenges;
• Regular monitoring of the knowledge management database on socioeconomic situation in Africa;
• Semestrial Report on DCO Africa achievements;
• Contribution to the onboarding exercise of new staff in RCOs;
• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment;
• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.