Senior Advisor – Partnership & Advocacy

Background

The Joint SDG Fund supports countries as they accelerate their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It operates through joint programmes (JPs) that provide the mechanism for transformative solutions implemented by governments and national stakeholders and supported by the UN Country Team led by Resident Coordinators (RCs). Strategic direction for the Fund is provided by the Strategic Advisory Group chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General as the chair of UN Sustainable Development Group, with Fund’s five largest donor countries and seven program countries. The Fund is managed by the Operational Steering Committee, comprised of representatives of UN entities, and with the support from the Secretariat of the Fund. The UN Development Coordination Office (DCO) hosts the Fund and provides for the alignment with the broader UN Development System reforms. The Administrative Agent of the Fund, in charge of financial management, is the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF-O). Official documents (e.g. Terms of Reference and Operational Guidance) of the Fund and information on funding can be found on the Gateway portal.

To advance the dual mandate of supercharging the UN Development System reform to be fit for purpose and, in turn, supporting the acceleration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Fund incentivizes coherent and coordinated joint UN action, anchored in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks at country level under the leadership of Resident Coordinator (RC). Serving as the catalytic funding to piece together emerging policy priorities and financing strategies, the Fund aims to galvanize the UN Country Teams around integrated policies and identify the fiscal space to overcome the political and financial hurdles to scale and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Position Purpose:

The key objective of this position is to support the engagement with Joint SDG Fund donors, including Spain, which aims to increase its budgetary support to funds, programmes, and other UN bodies aligned with the support of the SDG Stimulus package announced by the UN Secretary-General. 

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. This is a recognition of the interconnected nature of development risks & crises that the world is facing and that call for assembling multidisciplinary teams for an integrated & systemic response. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across issues, units, functions, teams and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead on donor relations, resource mobilization and advocacy

• Lead resource mobilization and advocacy efforts for continued and new contributions with Member States, while also engaging with other stakeholders.
• Draft donor-related documents, proposals, correspondence, and reports in coordination with the Head of the Joint SDG Fund and the rest of the team.
• Develop solicitation strategies and maintain relations with Member States to ensure continued engagement and funding.
• Support knowledge management and contributions monitoring.
• Effectively plan and manage the work undertaken by the Resource Mobilization team, ensuring that activities are carried out in a timely fashion with good internal coordination within the group.
• Manage, guide, develop, and train other team members, foster teamwork and communication among team members in the Fund and across organizational boundaries.
• Represent the Joint SDG Fund at meetings, seminars, etc., on resource mobilization with Member States and related partnership initiatives/issues.
• Participate in international, regional, or national meetings and hold discussions with representatives of other institutions on behalf of the team.
• Develop and implement a multi-year resource mobilization strategy, including how the Fund can support strategic goals to achieve sustainable funding targets among other Member States.
• Stay updated on the latest donor and funding trends, actively engage with peers to solicit best practices in fundraising and resource mobilization and adapt these practices for the Joint SDG Fund as appropriate. Adapt the strategy as necessary and monitor and report results against it.
• Map and analyze funding opportunities with current and new public sector donors, including development finance institutions. Identify key milestones and timelines to approach donors and collaborate with the Head of the Joint SDG Fund to develop pitches and key messag