Sustainable Development Officer, Regional Liaison, Africa Region, P3

The Sustainable Development Officer supports substantive analysis, briefings, and liaison functions between the Regional Office for Africa and Headquarters. The role involves supporting senior leadership, intergovernmental processes, and coordination to accelerate the 2030 Agenda within the UN Development Operations Coordination Office.

Responsibilities

• Prepares drafts of briefing notes, key messages, mission packs, and meeting readouts for senior leadership, including for complex development, crisis and transition settings.
• Collects, maintains, and analyzes quantitative and qualitative information on regional and country-level sustainable development trends, cross-border dynamics and emerging risks, required for recurrent and ad/hoc assignments.
• Identifies regional trends or patterns and provides insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization and other UN 2.0 approaches to support anticipatory evidence-informed planning, decision-making, and reporting.
• Prepares inputs for reports to High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and other intergovernmental bodies, inter-agency or expert groups on issues relating to sustainable development fora.
• Conducts horizon scanning to identify emerging risks, opportunities and cross-border implications for the Africa Region, and maintains situational awareness of relevant regional and global developments.
• Monitors intergovernmental and inter-agency processes, Member States and supports the work of the intergovernmental team.
• Participates in meetings and provides substantive and technical support for the preparation of senior leadership visits and engagements related to the region.
• Facilitates timely two-way information flow between Headquarters and the Africa Region, including the communication of country demand, regional perspectives, corporate guidance, and agreed follow-up.
• Supports the implementation and monitoring of the work plan of the Regional Office, as needed.
• Supports selected Resident Coordinators Office and UN country team processes, including retreats and strategic planning exercises, as defined by the Regional Office.
• Contributes to efforts to systematize and share knowledge, lessons learned and good practices among Regional Offices and Resident Coordinator Offices on sustainable development and integrated policy support.
• Undertakes on-the-job and other training activities both internally and externally.
• Performs other duties as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in sustainable development, economics, public policy, public administration, finance, natural resources management, engineering, law, 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 five years of progressively responsible experience in sustainable development, public policy, development cooperation, policy analysis or related area is required.
• Experience with inter-agency and/or intergovernmental collaboration in the development sector is required.
• Experience of initiating and developing partnerships is desirable.
• Experience in sustainable development issues of the Africa region is desirable.
• Experience of integrating gender equality and other inclusion dimensions (youth, disability) is desirable.
• Experience in the United Nations system or a comparable international organization is desirable.
• Field experience in development cooperation is desirable.
• Two years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.
• English language proficiency at UN Level III is required.
• French language proficiency at UN Level II is desirable.

Skills

• Sustainable Development
• Policy Analysis
• Development Cooperation
• Interagency Collaboration
• Inter-governmental Collaboration
• Partnership Development
• Data Analytics
• Business Analytics
• Data Science
• Gender Equality Integration
• Inclusion Strategies Design
• Field Experience in Development
• UN System Experience
• Economic Analysis
• Natural Resource Management
• Public Administration
• Finance
• Social Sciences
• Legal Frameworks Knowledge

Languages

English, French