Programme Analyst

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Job Description

UNCDF makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. This last mile is where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded.

UNCDF’s vision is to help mobilize and catalyze an increase of capital flows for SDG impactful investments to Member States, especially LDCs, to address the most pressing development challenges facing vulnerable communities in these countries and thereby contribute to sustainable economic growth and equitable prosperity.

UNCDF’s mission is to support market development by enabling access to finance in high-risk environments for impactful investments by providing financial instruments, financial mechanisms, and financial advisory. In partnership with United Nation agencies and other Development Partners, UNCDF will use these tools with speed and agility to deliver scalable blended finance solutions to pave the way for commercial finance, drive systemic change and thereby contribute to the SDGs.

In Tanzania, UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economy (IDE) programming includes the ongoing Tanzania Inclusive Digital Economy (TIDE) project, the Kigoma Joint Programme (KJP) Phase 2 and the newly approved Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation (D4DAT) project.

The TIDE project, supports digital financial innovation through the development of the fintech sector and innovation ecosystem in Tanzania while also contributing to the building of national digital financial infrastructure through its championing of digital financial services and digitalization of financial service providers.

The UN area-based Kigoma Joint Programme recently launched its second phase wherein UNCDF continues to focus on strengthening farmer groups and digitizing value chains to improve agricultural livelihoods (with a focus on women and youth) in partnership with other UN agencies and in cooperation with local government authorities.

The recently launched Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation (D4DAT) is a joint programme funded by the SDG fund and in partnership with FAO and IFAD. It aims to enhance public and private sector collaboration around access to and sharing of data to improve agricultural efficiency and digital transformation in the agricultural sector for smallholder farmers, leveraging technology-driven agricultural solutions to address challenges in productivity, access to finance, inputs, markets, and managing the impacts of climate change. The D4DAT project is designed to foster digital transformation within Tanzania’s agricultural sector aiming to enhance job creation, income generation, and livelihood resilience of smallholder farmers, especially women and youth. The program will support the refinement of regulatory frameworks related to data governance, management, and interoperability, while enforcing rigorous data security, protection standards, and privacy norms.

UNCDF in Tanzania seeks a Tanzanian national with experience in access to finance programming in rural settings, program management and excellent government relationship building skills to provide support in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the Kigoma Joint Programme 2 as well as the new Joint Programme on Data for Digital Agricultural Transformation project.

Duties and Responsibilities

Ensure Effective Programme Management and Coordination:

Ensure programme management, quality control and supervision;
Contributes to programme delivery and achievement of objectives by working with and supporting implementing partners;
Identifies areas of weak performance and works with the partners to find a solution;
Ensures effective programme coordination between the implementing partners and joint programme partners, and ensures that all stakeholders are communicating with each other to enhance synergies;
Supervise sub-contracted consultants (if any) in their work and ensures they have access to required resources and data;
Facilitate effective transfer of knowledge from UNCDF team to consultants and partners;
Contributes to the creation and sharing of lessons learned and good practices gleaned from the implementation of the projects;
Participates actively in meetings and reviews;
Guide the UNCDF team with programme-related tasks and missions related to the projects in Kigoma and Dodoma, including facilitating logistics.

Provision of Technical Support and Capacity Building:

Provides technical assistance support to implementing partners when necessary;
Facilitate in capacity building and refresher trainings for implementing partners;
Provides informational sessions on the projects to stakeholders;
Drafts case studies and briefs on project highlights.

Ensure Programme Monitoring & Evaluation:

Guide partners and consultants in the scheduling of M&E activities and the collecting and analysis of key performance indicators;
Ensures that partners are correctly and accurately collecting data based on UNCDF data needs and reporting as required;
Measures project targets and activity progress, including social and gender dimensions and indicators of progress on a quarterly basis;
Provides bi-weekly project progress updates to project team;
Supports the collection and reporting of data to the RCO and the Prosperity Outcome group and UNSDCF;
Facilitates M&E related missions.

Build Strategic Partnerships and Stakeholder Relationship:

Builds and maintains effective relationships with public project stakeholders i.e. local government authorities, responsible parties in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance etc;
Strengthens relationships with UN agencies working on the KJP but also UN agencies based in Dodoma;
Identifies common areas of interest, leveraging tools and intelligence of the projects, to build and maintain technical and strategic partnerships and identify new opportunities for partenership aligned with UNCDF strategy;
Identifies and attends project-relevant meetings with government, development partners and UN agencies.

Guide the Programme Team on Policy Advocacy & Resource Mobilization:

Supports policy development in the area of access to finance, savings groups, women’s economic empowerment, digital finance, data governance and digital transformation drawing on the latest research and substantive dialogue with key practitioners and major international institutions;
Contributes to regional debates and consultation processes related to UNCDF (and other UN Agencies where applicable);
Organizes workshops for sharing of lessons and experiences;
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The Programme Analyst works with the UNCDF IDE team and reports to the UNCDF IDE Country Lead (Programme Specialist).
The Programme Analyst will be based in Dodoma, Tanzania, reporting to the UNCDF Programme Specialist based in Dar es Salaam, with punctual travel to the Kigoma region and Dar es Salaam.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Economics, International Relation or related field is required. Or
A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

A minimum of 2 years ( with masters degree) or 4 years (with bachelors degree) of progressively responsible and relevant work experience in programme/project development and management with some field experience is required;
Experience, understanding & knowledge of financial inclusion, rural, youth and women’s economic empowerment issues in Tanzania;
Hands-on experience in working with local governments and grassroots organizations on improving access to finance;
Solid record of managing complex and challenging partnerships with governments and international partners;
Experience in working with a multi-disciplinary team and respectful relations with all UN partner agencies and staff;
Experience working on agricultural value chains with smallholder farmers;
Familiarity with digital financial services;
Demonstrated ability to collect, organize and analyse data in excel and proficient with Microsoft Office Suite – including Excel and PowerPoint;
Experience in overseeing timely project implementation and to provide necessary troubleshooting to keep project implementation on schedule;
Proven track record of strong communication and writing skills;
Demonstrated experience in organizing and leading workshops;
Demonstrated ability to undertake results-based management and reporting;
Strong expertise in programme support coordination, monitoring, donor reporting and capacity building
At least two years working within or closely with the UN system;
Experience in Monitoring and Evaluation;
Familiarity with digital financial services;
Experience in UN Coordination with UN Joint programmes.