Senior Partnerships Advisor

Africa Region

AFR helps ensure that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between projects across the entire region.

• Partnerships development, business acquisition and growth
• Knowledge management, innovation and technical support
• Efficient partner relationships and organizational work ethics and culture

• Coordinate implementation of AFR business plan 2018 - 2021 and lead the annual updates of AFR as well as hubs and offices business plans;
• Coordinate donor and partner mapping exercise covering both the development and humanitarian landscape;
• Advise the AFR RD and Senior Management Team on the possibilities for UNOPS strategic positioning, vis-à-vis the potential partners;
• Coordinate preparation of substantive briefs on specific partners, UNOPS strategic positioning, and partnership opportunities;
• Establish working relationships with key potential partners and attend relevant meetings in an effort to position UNOPS as a partner of choice;
• Lead, manage and coordinate agreement negotiations, drafting of project proposals, budget and other partnership and programme development communication;
• Coordinate and maintain regular communication with the Corporate Partnership Group (PLG) in UNOPS HQ in Copenhagen;
• Coordinate and collaborate with relevant partnerships and programme personnel at the country, regional and UNOPS HQ level, to ensure aligned and coherent interactions with partners.

• An Advanced University Degree (Master's or equivalent) in Business Administration, Political Science, International Relations, International Development, Social Sciences or a related discipline is required;
• A First-Level University Degree (Bachelor's) in combination with 2 years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in an international development context combining the following: 

• In-depth knowledge of development issues and current donor and sectoral trends, with emphasis on deep understanding of Africa partner / donor landscape as well as Africa’s humanitarian and development challenges is required; 
• Knowledge / experience  of Development Finance Institutions particularly of the Africa Development Bank is required
• Experience in dealing and negotiating with external stakeholders is required;

• Demonstrated experience working in project and programme management, international development, post-disaster and/or emergency contexts;
• Experience in the private sector and/or social impact investing ;
• Experience in International Organizations is an asset, particularly current and targeted partners for AFR (e.g., donor governments, African regional entities, UN);
• PRINCE2® Foundation Certification and PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification
• Experience with SharePoint, PowerBi, Outlook, and Microsoft Office suite. Strong Excel skills 

• Excellent writing and oral skills in English and French are required.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.