Programme Management Officer (Regional Policy Specialist)

The Programme Management Officer (Regional Policy Specialist) is responsible for developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating regional policy and sustainable development programmes to support SDG acceleration. The role involves policy advisory, research, regional coordination, partnership engagement, knowledge product development, and leading field missions.

Responsibilities

• Develops, implements, monitors and evaluates assigned regional policy, sustainable development and SDG financing programmes and activities; analyzes regional and sub-regional SDG acceleration bottlenecks, financing and implementation risks; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed; initiates or supports corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties and ensures follow-up actions.
• Coordinates policy development, including the review and analysis of regional and sub-regional trends, institutional frameworks, financing dynamics and policy developments affecting SDG implementation and economic transformation; develops and supports policy recommendations and analytical products, including work related to Integrated National Financing Frameworks, SDG financing strategies, fiscal space analysis and financing prioritization aligned with Cooperation Frameworks and SDG acceleration pathways.
• Coordinates activities related to programme and resource planning, including programme/project preparation and submissions, workplans, progress reporting and related documentation, and contributes to policy and financing initiatives that support SDG acceleration and implementation.
• Performs policy advisory and consulting assignments, in collaboration with Regional Offices, Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams, Member States and other partners, by facilitating strategic policy dialogue, workshops and other interactive sessions and assisting in developing integrated and actionable responses to sustainable development and SDG-related challenges.
• Researches, analyzes and presents information gathered from diverse sources on sustainable development issues, including integrated policy, cross-border and political economy dimensions, and prepares strategic assessments informed by regional and country-level realities.
• Generates survey and analytical initiatives; designs data collection tools; reviews, analyzes and interprets findings; identifies problems and issues and prepares evidence-based conclusions and recommendations to support data-driven planning and decision-making.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify regional and sub-regional trends or patterns and provides insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization and analytical methods to enable evidence-based planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting; contributes analytical inputs to Cooperation Frameworks, regional horizon scans, strategic foresight and anticipatory analysis in line with the UN 2.0 agenda.
• Provides substantive backstopping to regional consultative processes, inter-agency coordination mechanisms, the Regional Platform for Integration and other policy and financing-related meetings and fora, including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparing analytical materials, documents and presentations, and supporting stakeholder engagement.
• Initiates and coordinates outreach and partnership activities with regional organizations, development partners, International Financial Institutions, Multilateral Development Banks, academia, think tanks, private sector actors and financing coalitions; conducts workshops and seminars and makes presentations on assigned policy, sustainable development and SDG financing topics.
• Organizes and prepares high-quality written outputs on sustainable development and SDG financing issues, including policy briefs, thematic analyses, reports, speeches, presentations, background papers and inputs to regional and corporate analytical products.
• Synthesizes programme, policy and analytical findings into substantive inputs and knowledge products to support regional and country-level planning, decision-making and reporting.
• Leads and/or participates in large, complex field missions, including the provision of guidance to consultants, government counterparts, Resident Coordinator Offices and UN Country Teams, and prepares mission summaries, reports and recommendations.
• Performs other duties as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in sustainable development, political science, economics, public policy, public administration, finance, social sciences, or a related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics, or data science programs is an advantage.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in programme or project management, sustainable development, public policy, economic analysis, development cooperation or a related area is required.
• Two years or more experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.
• Experience in the United Nations system or a comparable international organization is desirable.
• Experience with sustainable development policy in the Arab States region is desirable.
• Experience in the private sector and its engagement for SDG financing and acceleration is desirable.
• Experience of partnerships involving civil society actors is desirable.
• Experience with assessment and reporting in a development context is desirable.
• English is required at UN Level II for reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Arabic is desirable at UN Level I for reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Skills

• Programme Management
• Project Management
• Sustainable Development
• Public Policy
• Economic Analysis
• Development Cooperation
• Data Analytics
• Business Analytics
• Data Science
• Policy Advisory
• Research
• Regional Coordination
• Partnership Engagement
• Knowledge Product Development
• Field Missions
• Assessment and Reporting

Languages

English, Arabic