Programme Analyst – Energy

Since the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan in April 2023, the Country Office (CO) has evacuated and relocated staff and gradually adapted its programming, footprint, and operations to respond to the crisis. Despite concerted efforts, including implementing a Crisis Response Programme, UNDP’s operations have been severely hampered by security threats and logistical constraints.

In view of the operational and financial realities as well as the changing partner landscape and growing expectations vis-à-vis UNDP, it became necessary to strategically review and recalibrate UNDP’s structures and capacities in Sudan, ensuring continued agility and fitness for purpose. The office therefore carried out a strategic recalibration and realignment exercise in February and March 2024.  This exercise identified a number of possible scenarios for the coming years. Based on these scenarios, it proposes a business model adapted to the current context and foreseeable future developments aimed to ensure the continued effectiveness, relevance, and financial sustainability of the CO amidst significant shifts in Sudan’s operational and development landscape since April 2023.

Across the different possible scenarios that were identified, there are several commonalities which will need to be addressed.  Most prominent among these are growing community vulnerabilities and dependency on humanitarian aid, the absence of essential services, high levels of displacement, continued conflict between various actors, the lack of the rule of law, and the spreading of violence and criminality.  These commonalities will inform the programmatic core of UNDP’s work in Sudan over the next two or more years. Three pillars of intervention are paramount at this point and will need to be implemented in parallel as part of a single strategy with clear interconnections and synergies: (i) resilience and recovery, (ii) peacebuilding, and (iii) public health systems and capacities, and energy and environment. 

Position Purpose:

Under the guidance of the Deputy Resident Representative Programme and the direct supervision of the Team Leader of Health, Energy & Environment Portfolio, the Programme Analyst supervises on all aspects of the Energy and Climate Change Mitigation (COM) component. The Programme Area portfolio comprising Wind Energy (GEF), Low Emission Climate Resilience Strategy (TRAC), Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), and other Climate Change Mitigation projects funded by bilateral donors. The Programme Analyst leads Climate Change Mitigation component and provides technical assistance on the Environment. Climate Change, Energy and DRR programme team in strategic planning and identifies new programme areas while ensuring consistency with Country Programme Document priorities and creative responses to emerging challenges and opportunities.

The Programme Analyst manages and supervises the Energy and Climate Change Mitigation Programme and works in close collaboration with Regional Center (Regional Bureau for Arab State RBAS), UNDP HQs (RBAS) and Chief Technical Advisors, Consultants, the CO Operations Team, other UN Agencies, Government Officials, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors, and civil society to successfully implement the UNDP programme.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

• Ensures effective integration of Energy Access and Climate Change Mitigation issues in the Country Programme
  • Formulates project proposals, designs projects and produces project documents based on national priorities and in consultation with all stakeholders, including the beneficiaries (men, women and children as well as vulnerable groups) during the project cycle
  • Coordinates with the executing/implementing agencies and partners to monitor project progress, delivery and results to ensure effective programme and project implementation 
  • Prepares policy analyses, technical papers and strategy documents in sustainable energy (energy access, renewable energy, energy efficiency, low emission climate resilience development strategy) and climate change mitigation for internal and external use
  • Keeps record on global development trend particularly in relevant areas of national priorities and UNDP mandates in energy, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation 
  • Provides technical guidance to the UNDP project personnel and consultants for effective day-to-day programme implementation
  • Ensures preparation of annual work plans and budgets of projects, resource tracking, monitoring, reporting in UNDP, in coordination with relevant programmes and projects
  • Keeps on resource mobilization and expenditures mechanisms and provides timely input and guidance in programme delivery on the ground 
  • Uploads and updates development work plan targets and balance scorecard in Quantum, as required by the CO`s RBM System.
• Supervises and monitors implementation of the CO Energy Access and Climate Change Mitigation component and related projects
  • Monitors and ensures smooth implementation of energy access and climate change mitigation projects (including Wind Energy, REDD+, SE4ALL, Low Emission Climate Resilient) to assure results-based targets, including compliance to monitoring and evaluation, and other accountability instruments
  • Prepares management responses to corporate and independent reviews, assessments and inquiries
  • Approves and monitors annual work plans, budgets, and expected results developed by the projects 
  • Assures compliance and reviews the status of project activities and project management on the ground through monitoring field visits, and makes recommendations as required
  • Monitors and identifies operational and financial problems and makes recommendations for solutions 
  • Produces regular and ad-hoc programme and project related reports by coordinating and utilizing existing expertise, knowledge, and experiences acquired from the projects
  • Reviews and identifies resource needs and gaps (human, financial, material) of programme and projects required to meet expected targets
• Ensures coordination with other units and stakeholders and resource mobilization
  • Supports in developing strategic partnerships with various agencies, UN and non-UN system organizations, IFI’s, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society and NGOs to ensure effective management and implementation of the Environment, Energy Access and Climate Change Mitigation component and related initiatives.
  • Prepares project proposals with the technical assistance from Regional Center and briefing documents for donors, organizes donor briefing for resource mobilization
  • Coordinates with the Government counter art and various stakeholders for effective coordination and policy dialogue in the fields of energy access and climate change mitigation.
  • Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for initiation of new projects, active contribution to the overall office effort in resource mobilization
• Coordination and policy dialogue in the fields of energy access and climate change mitigation
  • Promotes linkages of energy access and climate change mitigation with the poverty reduction and rural development programmes in the country o Identifies opportunities for joint project/programme with other units and/or Pillars of UNDP Country Programme, as well as other UN agencies and partners, for ensuring synergies and convergence.
  • Maintains the network of contacts for information sharing on rural energy access and climate change mitigation
  • Leads/engages in and represents UNDP at coordination mechanisms
• Ensures quality management services and facilitates Knowledge Building and Management
  • Identifies and documents best practices and lessons learned linked to Energy Access, Climate Change Mitigation and mainstream result learning into UNDP’s broader corporate knowledge networks
  • Coordinates country-level studies on climate change mitigation, low emission, energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency and the use of the studies in country-level programming
  • Supervises the work of the consultants and provides technical guidance to ensure their reports meets expectations of stakeholders 
  • Monitors national level data on energy, climate change and summarizes the findings and uses findings for the programming purpose 
  • Advocates for the role and impact of energy access in poverty reduction programming within the UN/UNDP
  • Provides substantive inputs to Communication Plans and conducts outreach functions on energy access and climate change mitigation
  • Maintains strategic alliances with partners in government, NGOs, private sector and academia
  • Contributes to CO website and CO publications and public events
  • Identifies and develops suitable media partnerships to increase the visibility of energy access, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation issues in the country
  • Represents UNDP corporate policy in substantive arenas as requested and acts a resource person
  • Supports in enhancing environment, climate change, energy and disasters capacity in the CO and concerned stakeholders.
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

The Programme Analyst will ensure day-to-day supervision of the Environment Programme Associate.
 

• 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 
• People Management: UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

• Business Management: 
  • Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
  • Communication: 
    • Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. 
    • Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
  • Portfolio Management: 
    • Ability to select, prioritise and control the organi ation s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; 
    • ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimising return on investment
• Digital & Innovation:
  • Agile’ methodologies and practices: 
    • Ability to manage projects and processes through continuous iteration, learning and improvement. 
    • Ability to manage a self-organising cross-functional teams, foster a team culture of curiosity and learning. Being nimble and being able to improvise and quickly adjust to unforeseen events or changes in conditions or context.
• 2030 Agenda: Planet 
  • Nature, Climate and Energy: 
    • Climate Change Adaptation: concepts and advancing resilient development 
    • Energy: Energy access 
    • Climate Change Adaptation: Embedding adaptation into development policy/planning/decision making
• Business Direction and Strategy
  • System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system