Strategy and Coordination Advisor

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 peace and 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 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labour force — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage the recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

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

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

 ECR strategy is to:

• Strengthen UNOPS role in operationalizing the Sustainable Development Goals with particular emphasis on health, environment and economic development.
• Position UNOPS in the Balkan sub-region, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Strengthen the implementation of ECR global and regional programmes, with revitalized partnerships in infrastructure, procurement and project management.

ECR operates global portfolios from offices in Geneva, Brussels and New York, and country-specific programmes from its operations and project centres located in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology is a cross-sectoral partnership with the goal of reaching 500 million additional people with assistive technology by 2030 to support them in participating in education, work, and everyday life. ATscale is hosted by UNOPS.

Today, over 2.5 billion people need at least one form of assistive technology (AT), such as wheelchairs, eyeglasses, or hearing aids, but in some countries as little as 3% have access to the assistive technology they require. The number of people who need assistive technology is expected to grow to more than 3.5 billion people by 2050.

Access to appropriate assistive technology enables persons with a loss of function, impairments, non-communicable diseases, and the aging population to participate in education, work, family, and community life. Lack of access to assistive technology has significant consequences for individuals, their families, and the wider society. Without assistive technology, individuals may experience isolation and exclusion from education, the labour market, and civic life. Lack of access to appropriate assistive technology causes poorer health outcomes including premature death, deteriorating mental health, and increased risk of chronic health conditions and secondary complications, all of which lead to a higher burden on health systems. Increasing accessibility and affordability of assistive technology unlocks unrealised economic potential and provides socioeconomic benefit for individuals, families, and countries by increasing productivity and participation in the workforce.

ATscale was developed in response to the need for a new, catalytic approach to overcoming the significant gap in access to appropriate, high-quality, and affordable assistive technology globally. As a cross-sector partnership for assistive technology, ATscale aims to bring greater resources and strategic focus to this significant global challenge.

ATscale has defined a strategy overview (https://ATscalepartnership.org/strategy) in which it describes two strategic objectives: 1) to develop an enabling ecosystem for increased access to AT by galvanizing political will, mobilizing investment, driving policy reform, and strengthening targeted, cross-product systems, particularly at country level; and 2) to build and shape markets for priority products and their related services by identifying and investing in interventions to overcome specific supply and demand-side market barriers.

ATscale has also published an investment case for the sector (https://atscalepartnership.org/investment-case), as well as thorough market analyses and strategies, called Product Narratives, for improving access to its five priority products: wheelchairs, hearing aids, eyeglasses, prostheses, and digital assistive devices and software
ATscale is still in an exciting start-up phase and the Strategy and Coordination Advisor will play an important role in shaping the strategic vision for the organization with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and others in the ATscale Secretariat. The Strategy and Coordination Advisor will manage Board relations and support the CEO in preparing and following up on all Board meetings and its various committees. He/she will also lead ATscale’s partner engagement identifying new and relevant partners, and developing strong collaborative relationships with existing partners. He/she will also support cross-cutting strategic management functions such as planning, monitoring & evaluation, knowledge sharing, etc.

Working closely with the CEO, the Strategy and Coordination Advisor will:

1.   Provide support to ATscale Board and Governance

• Act as the key relationship manager between the Board and the Secretariat and brief colleagues on relevant governance and policy issues;  

• Provide secretariat support ensure day-to-day governance management of Board and its committees including preparing agendas, drafting minutes and other designated assignments;

• Track and evaluate progress on board decisions and ensure appropriate follow-up actions in consultation with CEO;

• Support establishment of ATscale board constituencies and once established be responsible for day-to-day management of constituencies including development of policies, procedures, and communication;

• Be custodian of the board manuals, policies and other guidance material and provide information on past governance decisions and actions;

• Provide support for updating and revisions of all governing documents such as the By-laws, Conflict of interest policy and joint hosting agreement.

Key result: The Board and its Committees are supported to effectively and efficiently discharge its responsibilities.

2.   Provide strategic and policy support to the CEO

• Provide strategic advice to the CEO, including in further defining ATscale’s role, its priorities and strategies;

• Provide guidance and substantive support to the CEO in the identification and development of new programmes or initiatives;

• Support the development of the annual operational plan by coordinating input from the whole ATscale secretariat, requesting further analysis if necessary and suggesting priorities;

• Stay abreast of implementation, ensure follow-up and coordinate reporting;

• Facilitate the establishment of effective mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEAL) and coordinate and if necessary, review their implementation;

• Use information gained from MEAL to inform policy and strategy briefs, current strategy, and to support advocacy;

• Support other roles in the team such as resource mobilization and advocacy.

Key result: ATscale activities are strategically focused and well-coordinated.

3.   Identify, develop and maintain strong partnerships

• Foster and maintain partnerships at both senior leadership and working levels with relevant partners in the assistive technology space including organizations of persons with disabilities, national governments, UN and other multilateral agencies, bi- and multilateral donors, private funders, international NGOs, the private sectors such as manufacturers and suppliers of assistive technology, and technical experts including in academia

• Facilitate at the request of the CEO, consultations with the Government, donors and organizations of the UN system and other partners

• Represent ATscale at meetings and conferences when delegated by senior management and/or the ATscale Board

• Engage with relevant coordination structures

• Feedback to the team on relevant issued covered in meetings with partners

Key result: ATscale is joined up and coherent with the AT sector and other relevant partners.

4.   Miscellaneous

• Ensure all processes above remain aligned with UN host agency requirements;

• Prepare talking points, presentations, and other material to support the CEO;

• Lead special projects and assignments as assigned by the CEO.

Key results: compliance with host agency requirements; contributions to overall efficiency of ATscale Secretariat

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in public health, international development or a related field is required.
• A bachelor’s degree in the preferred discipline combined with two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

• 7 years’ experience in international development, public health or multilateral organizations is required.
• Experience working with development cooperation partners (e.g., bilateral donors, multilateral organizations, international NGOs etc.), host country government officials, key stakeholders, or civil society (preferably in health or another similar area of development) is required
• Demonstrated understanding of assistive technology or a similar field is considered an asset

• An excellent knowledge of English is required. 
• Good working knowledge of other UN languages, especially French or Spanish would be an asset.

• 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
• This position is located in a family duty station
• 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.  
• Geneva is a UN family Duty Station
• Diversity: People self-identifying as living with a disability are strongly encouraged to apply for this position. UNOPS makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If an accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, please make us aware by sending an email to info@atscalepartnership.org

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.