Project Coordinator

UNDP Country Office (CO)  in Lao PDR: Guided by the global UNDP Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025) and UNDP Country Programme for Lao PDR (2022 – 2026), the UNDP CO in Lao PDR works closely with the line Ministries, mass organizations, civil society, development partners, and the private sector at both national and sub-national levels in pursuit of the national socio-economic development priorities defined in Lao PDR’s five-year National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) and localized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNDP CO’s work is strongly focused on the provision of policy advice and technical support to the Government in the design and implementation of national legislation and strategies across four broad Priority Pillars – (1) inclusive growth and reduced inequalities, (2) UXO clearance and risk education, (3) natural resources, climate change, and disaster risk reduction, as well as (4) effective, responsive and accountable governance. 
UNDP Lao PDR, Governance Unit: The UNDP CO’s programming on effective, responsive, and accountable governance, inter alia, focuses on the provision of policy advice and technical support to the Government to (1) enhance the rule of law and access to justice, (2) strengthen the role and capacities of the National Assembly and People’s Provincial Assemblies, (3) streamline the public administration reform and national initiative on decentralization (Sam Sang Directive), as well as to (4) expand public participation in the national policy and decision-making.

The UNDP’s programming on effective, responsive and accountable governance, inter alia, focuses on the provision of policy advice and technical support to the Government of Lao PDR to (1) enhance the rule of law, access to justice, and protection of human rights, (2) strengthen people’s participation in decision-making through increased access to information and political representation, (3) enhance public administration reform through institutional capacity-development and implementation of the Government’s decentralization policy (Sam Sang Directive).

Being the largest global development knowledge network with particular institutional expertise on governance, UNDP in Lao PDR co-chairs the Governance Sector Working Group (along with co-chairing the Public Sector Improvement Sub-Sector Working Group and Legal and Institutional Oversight Sub-Sector Working Group) of the Round Table Process, a national mechanism to coordinate the implementation of the NSEDPs and SDGs across the governmental institutions, development partners, CSOs and the private sector.

Court Project:

The Strengthening Case Management and Court Procedures in the Lao PDR Project, or Court Project, is a 2.5-year initiative, supported by the US State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL). Its objective is to strengthen the court system in Lao PDR to have an effective and accountable case management system that adopts best practices with a focus on the criminal and civil chambers of selected courts. This will be accomplished in close coordination with government partners, the People’s Supreme Court (PSC).

The project will aim to formalize, streamline, and align case management procedures across all court levels with international best practice. Interventions will include mapping of the case management chain and international best practice, developing an action plan to target existing gaps, and the establishment of resources covering pre-trial, in-trial, and post-trial. Alongside this, it will also create sustainable training mechanisms for judges, court officers, prosecutors, and lawyers by developing a training of trainers (ToT) program to master trainers, leveraging the resources produced by the project. These interventions will support the courts to ensure overall improvements in case management of target courts, which will contribute to the effectiveness and accountability of the rule of law in Lao PDR.  

Women Leadership in the Judiciary Project:

Promoting and Supporting Women Leadership in the Judicial System in Southeast Asia, or the Gender Justice Project is a 10-month regional project which will be implemented across three countries, Thailand, Indonesia, and Lao PDR. In Lao PDR, UNDP’s partners will be the PSC, with the project targeting women judges within the court. Its goals are increasing the representation of women in leadership positions, improving institutional support for women judges, and enhancing gender sensitivity in judicial processes. Empowered women judges can advocate for policies that address cultural, social, and institutional barriers facing women, leading to broader empowerment. Accordingly, improved access to justice for women enhances their ability to protect their rights. Multiple targeted activities will be used to achieve this end goal, such as the creation of a women’s judges’ network, regional training workshops for women judges, facilitating a gender improvement plan, and reviewing appointment guidelines from a gendered perspective.  
 

The Project Coordinator works closely with and supports the Head of the Governance Unit and Programme Analyst of the rule of law and access to justice portfolio. She/he will be responsible for the coordination of project activities and will manage the project budgets, work planning and organization of activities across all results of the project. The Project Coordinator will liaise directly with key project partners, government, private sector, and development partners in ensuring the planned outputs and activities of the project are successfully implemented.  

The position will be based in the UNDP Lao PDR Country Office in Vientiane.

UNDP Lao PDR is committed to achieving gender balance in recruitment processes. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for this position. Persons with disabilities, persons from ethnic groups and people from other diverse groups are also encouraged to apply.

Project Coordination, Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring

Ensure coordination of project activities and budget

• Coordinate between Project Partners and the People’s Supreme Court (PSC) management team in line with the project’s workplans, documents, and results frameworks.
  Monitor and report on progress in implementing project activities and achieving targets.
• Oversee project staff and international/national consultants to ensure quality and timely completion of tasks.
• Review and monitor the project budget and expenditures; coordinate financial reporting as per donor requirements.
• Supervise project implementation to ensure outputs meet specified time and cost constraints and adhere to UNDP policy and Government standards.

Planning and reporting

• Lead revisions of the annual work plan (AWP) and develop detailed implementation plans.
• Support the identification of policy/programmatic gaps and opportunities alongside the Head of Governance Unit.
• Ensure timely preparation of donor and government reports, following reporting schedules and requirements.

Effective Project Planning and Partnerships

Develop and maintain strategic partnerships

• Build strong relationships with partners, including the PSC’s Research and Training Institute and Department for International Cooperation.
• Foster partnerships with government officials, NGOs, stakeholders, and beneficiaries to ensure inclusive and quality project implementation.
• Lead communications and visibility efforts, recommending activities for potential scale-up and synergy.

Technical support and capacity development

• Provide technical and advisory support on case management, gender, leadership within the judiciary, and the rule of law.
• Facilitate knowledge building and capacity development, identifying training needs and organizing workshops.

Knowledge sharing and advocacy

• Ensure project reports capture results, lessons learned, and best practices for broader application.
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice on gender, rule of law, and access to justice.
• Promote advocacy for UNDP’s work and encourage collaboration in addressing development trends in coordination with stakeholders and communications staff.

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

Core competencies: 

• 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 

Partnership Management    

• Multi-stakeholder engagement. 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.
• Strategic Engagement. Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives.

Business Management    

• Project Management. Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
• 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. 

Governance

• Inclusion & Participation. Inclusion and participation of Indigenous People 

2030 Agenda; Peace    

• Governance. Core Government Functions. 

Legal     

• Knowledge of applicable legal framework. Understanding of the legal norms as applied to the United Nations in general, and to UNDP in particular. 
  This includes an understanding of the structure, functioning and operations of UNDP within the broader UN system and the application of international treaties, including the UN Charter, GA resolutions, the relevant basic country assistance agreement and UN system-wide legal instruments, as well as an understanding of the internal legal framework (financial regulations and rules, policies,)