Background

The “Empowering Youth for a Peaceful, Prosperous, and Sustainable Future in Kosova” (EYPPSFK) project, funded by the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, is an 18-month joint initiative implemented by UNDP-UNV, UNICEF and UN Women, under the strategic guidance of the UN Development Coordinator in Kosova, that will directly engage positive influencers of a shared future, namely young women and men from communities divided by perpetuation of conflict dynamics, who have been under-represented in leadership to work together on issues of shared interest and concern and become more active changemakers who will catalyze peace and trust-building efforts in Kosova.

Building upon the success of existing youth-led initiatives in Kosova supported by United Nations and its partners, this project is also an effort to catalyze the United Nations trust-building framework for Kosova. In doing so, the project will focus on establishing and consolidating a “habit” of cooperation, providing empirical challenge to divisive narratives. The project is time-sensitive, targeting the rising dissatisfaction, frustration and anxiety that results from stalled political process and a noted increase in community-level distrust in public institutions in both majority and non-majority communities. Moreover, the project is innovative and human-centered because it focuses on direct community mobilization and facilitated cooperation between people and institutions. Its modular design allows for easy scale-up, and where appropriate replication across different geographical target areas. Finally, the project will be catalytic, because it results in the participants themselves being empowered as advocates for positive change, embedded at community level.

The project theory of change is that if young women and men can be brought together to work jointly on issues of shared concern and implement their efforts in cooperation with the institutions of service delivery, and if their capacity and influence to be more active changemakers, in particular that of young women, can be enhanced, then persistent prejudices between communities and mistrust between communities and the institutions will be challenged and diminished by empirical observation, and those young women and men will become effective advocates for a shared future.

The outcome of this project will be that the influence of conflict narratives and prejudice has decreased through improved social cohesion resulting from local populations working together and with local institutions on contemporary issues of shared interest to jointly develop solutions for a common future. The joint project will implement activities under three core outputs:

Output 1: Young women and men from communities polarized in the current political environment have established the practice of jointly addressing issues of shared interest and concern.

Output 2: Trust in public institutions/service providers and confidence in gaining employment opportunities has improved through direct engagement based on responsive, transparent and participatory interaction.

Output 3: Leadership capacity and influence of women and young girls to engage in peacebuilding has been increased.

The Chief Technical Advisor is an integral part of the Joint Project Team, including the Joint Project Coordinator and the Joint Project Associate, implementing UN Agencies in the EYPPSFK project and the Joint Project Steering Committee.

Objectives of Assignment
The objective of the assignment is to provide subject matter expertise which ensures qualitative delivery of project activities and outputs, in cooperation and coordination with participating UN Agencies.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the UNDP Resident Representative and day-to-day supervision by her delegated representative, and in close cooperation with the EYPPSFK joint project team, including participating UN Agencies and the Development Coordinator’s Office, and the UNDP Programme team, the CTA is required to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Capacity-building, subject-matter expertise delivery, and knowledge management

• Provide subject matter expertise to the joint project in the domain of social cohesion, dialogue, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding;
• Advise the team on issues that would benefit from high-level advocacy efforts, on Programme development and delivery, including alerts on potential project risks;
• Support the Joint Project to ensure the overall direction and integrity of the project, streamlining social, gender, and human rights considerations, as well as to ensure that the project is well-placed strategically within the UNKT’s overall programmatic priorities and in synergy with work by other United Nations entities on community trust building;
• Collect and analyze lessons learned throughout the project implementation as well as from other interventions in Kosova and beyond, distil them into recommendations, follow-up actions, and knowledge tools and products for more effective and efficient project implementation;
• Facilitate the transfer of knowledge through delivering trainings or other forms of developing capacities of the joint project coordination team, participating Agencies, as well as relevant partners in the field of peacebuilding, trust-building, social cohesion and dialogue.

    2. Partnership coordination and horizon scanning

• Analyze emerging social, political, and economic trends and factors which would affect the project and identifies measures to ensure smooth implementation;
• In collaboration with the Joint Project Coordinator and the project team maintain excellent working relations and effective dialogue with relevant institutional and organizational partners (e.g. local authorities, international organizations and donors, civil society, youth and women groups, media, UNMIK and other UN bodies, etc.);
• Support identification of linkages among related UN system and other international partners’ active projects in Kosova, maximizing efficient and effective use of resources, streamlining mutual learning, reducing potential overlap and leveraging synergies;
• Provide expertise and inputs into the joint project Stakeholder Platform as a coordination, knowledge management and exchange, advocacy, and scale-up mechanism;
• Formulate ideas and concepts for further resource mobilization and scaling-up of successful approaches, collect and share best practices;
• Provide quality assurance, support wide dissemination, and ensure visibility of achievements of the joint project, and support awareness raising on the topics tackled by the joint project including on cross-cutting areas (gender, human rights, etc.);

    3. Results-based management, reporting, monitoring

• Provide technical inputs into the Quarterly/Progress/Annual Narrative and other reports as required by the UN PBF / MPTFO, the Joint Project Steering Committee for review and approval;
• Support the joint project coordination team with reviewing and providing technical advice to improve the quality of results-based management, including planning, monitoring and reporting on annual work plan;
• Provide technical expertise into the identification and monitoring of project risks and issues;
• Deliver technical expertise into the monitoring and evaluation framework of the joint project in line with the overall M&E framework.

Expected Outputs

• Capacity-building, subject-matter expertise delivery, and knowledge management
• Partnership coordination and horizon scanning
• Results-based management, reporting, monitoring
• Bi-monthly progress reports and a Final Report

Remuneration
The Contract is based on a daily, all-inclusive fee, subject to submitting a progress report every four weeks, summarizing the work done, cleared by EYPPSFK Project Coordinator. The report of implemented activities must be aligned with the CTA’s approved work plan. The payment is to be released upon acceptance of the progress reports and IC Time Sheet.

Required Presentation of Offer:
The following documents must be submitted:

• Duly completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV and P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
• Technical proposal indicating a methodology for approaching the required tasks;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, (including professional fees, travel costs, living allowance, communications, consumables, etc) supported by a breakdown of costs. 

Criteria for selection of the Best Offer
Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications will be weighted a max. of 20%, the technical proposal (methodology) which will be weighted a max. of 20%, the interview which will be weighted a max. of 30% and combined with the financial proposal which will be weighted 30%.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Proficiency in collaboration and partnership development;
• Strategic thinking/visioning;
• Excellent analytical skills (trends and emerging areas), able to exercise sound judgement;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Stakeholder engagement and management;
• Knowledge management;
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills;
• Computer literacy in Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point;

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication and creates synergies;
• Displayed cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Demonstrates substantial experience in gender equality. Actively promotes gender equality in all activities;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in peace and development studies, conflict studies, international relations;

Experience

• Minimum 7 years of relevant work experience in related fields and demonstrated knowledge of peacebuilding/conflict resolution;
• Previous strong experience in programming of local, national and regional projects in the domains of peacebuilding, reconciliation, trust-building, dialogue, youth engagement, social inclusion, governance, human rights and/or other development sphere;
• Knowledge and practical experience in strategic planning, stakeholder cooperation, multi-partner coordination, knowledge management;
• Experience with and sound understanding of project cycle management and results-based management;
• Thorough understanding of conflict/post-conflict dynamics in Kosova and the Western Balkans in general;
• Familiarity with the UN system and previous experience of working for or with the UN is considered a distinct asset;

Language skills

• Fluency in both verbal and written English. Fluency in verbal and written Albanian and/or Serbian is a distinct asset.

Application Instructions:

• Click on the "Apply now" button;
• Input your information in the appropriate sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation; you can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box;
• Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload your Resume;
• System will only allow one attachment. All docs (CV; P11; financial offer; list of similar profiles should be included as one attachment).
• Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete.