Project Management Support - Specialist

Job Description

This role offers a unique opportunity to provide hands-on technical and operational support across a complex, multi-country pooled fund, serving as a key liaison between the Secretariat, UN country and regional programme teams, and MPTFO. The Fund Officer will directly influence programme quality, results monitoring, and the consolidation of narrative reporting, while contributing to the operationalization and strengthening of the Fund’s management and governance processes. This position holder will be expected to be available for duty travel to programme countries, primarily located in Africa but also across other regions. Even though the level of the position is indicated as IICA 2, depending on the incumbent’s personal situation (candidate with national ID or resident permit in duty station), a local fee scale (LICA-10) might be applied in determining the contractor’s fee.

Spotlight Initiative was established by the UN Secretary-General as a flagship initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls (EVAWG). Spotlight Initiative proposed an unprecedented and innovative approach to delivering a comprehensive package of interventions to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls that places women and girls at the center of solutions, demonstrated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) acceleration and localization, and provided a platform for operationalization of the United Nations Development System reforms. The Initiative was launched in 2017 with initial 530+ million USD seed funding from the European Union, as well as complementary contributions from Portugal and Albania.

With the first generation of country and regional programmes having concluded implementation at the end of 2023, the Initiative has proven that a comprehensive theory of change and new way of working with a range of stakeholders, including the central role of civil society, through a coordinated, whole-of-society, whole-of-government, system-wide approach, can achieve transformative results to end violence against women and girls. Having demonstrated transformative impacts and acceleration across the SDGs and given its potential for further scale up, Spotlight Initiative was designated by the United Nations Secretary-General as a High-Impact Initiative during the 2023 SDG Summit–the only cross-cutting initiative.

In 2024, Spotlight Initiative entered its new phase, establishing the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund and launching a new generation of programmes, building on the experiences, applying lessons learned , while opening up space for new partners and donors to join and build on achievements, in the spirit of scaling up impact and results. The Fund’s updated structure and design draw from a number of evaluations and assessments conducted during the first phase of the Spotlight Initiative. It introduces more flexibility, adaptability to allow even more contextualized and impactful programming.

The Initiative presents a true multi-partner effort with built-in incentives for each partner to contribute to the development of the Fund’s vision and strategy. While the 2.0 Fund is constituted “anew”, it is a continuation of the first Spotlight Initiative 1.0 Fund in all key aspects, retaining the principles that made the Initiative a historic and unprecedented effort.

Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund is established as a multi-donor pooled funding instrument (Multi-Partner Trust Fund) and a UN Secretary-General’s fund, anchored in and guided by the leadership of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG) and the UN Development Coordination Office (UNDCO), and administered by the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTFO) as the administrative agent of the Fund. The Fund is guided by the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund Terms of Reference. This Spotlight Initiative Umbrella Framework brings together and connects different elements of the Spotlight Initiative effort under one coherent approach.

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The Fund set up is complemented by the High-Impact Programme for Violence Elimination by 2030 (HIVE UN Joint Programme, 2024-2026) that supports in exploring partnerships with country-based donor funding. This will account for additional programming leveraged by the Initiative’s momentum and ensure a coherent approach to all associated components of Spotlight Initiative.

The Fund Secretariat is in charge of day-to-day management and operations of the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund. The Fund Secretariat provides substantive technical and management support to the Deputy Secretary-General, the Advisory Board and the Operational Steering Committee (OSC). The Fund Secretariat implements the direction and decisions of the Deputy Secretary-General and the OSC. The Fund Secretariat codifies the fund’s policies and rules of procedure into a programme and operations manual, including a Fund Risk Management Strategy. The Fund Secretariat also provides strategic advice and quality control over the fund operations and coordinates the meetings. It facilitates collaboration and communication between the EOSG, DCO, the Recipient UN Organizations, and the Resident Coordinators regarding the Fund operations when necessary. The Fund Secretariat will be responsible for reporting progress of funded projects through periodic progress updates (which will include consolidated narrative reports) received from Recipient UN Organizations and present on overview of the progress to the governance structures of the Fund.

UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations/MPTFO to implement the project activities for Spotlight Initiative 2.0.

The Fund Secretariat Team is administratively hosted by UNOPS.

The Fund Specialist will part of the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund Secretariat, contributing to globally prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. The role is embedded in a multi-agency environment, working closely with country and regional programme teams, governance bodies, and the Administrative Agent, and will contribute to the Fund’s operational efficiency, impactful programme delivery, and timely, results-oriented reporting.

The incumbent of this position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

The Fund Specialist is expected to support the overall coordination and management of the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund, under the supervision and direction of the Senior Programme Manager (Senior Trust Fund Manager). 

The Fund Specialist will support the Fund’s governance and advisory structures, fund processes, and coordination with the Administrative Agent. They will help ensure compliance with the Programme and Operations Manual (POM), oversee the quality of narrative and consolidated reports, and provide technical and operational guidance to country and regional programmes. The role includes support to the fund’s programme portfolio in terms of programme management and coordination, quality-assuring programme documents, budgets, and reports, developing fund-level dashboards and analyses, and ensuring timely, accurate reporting to governance bodies and stakeholders. For this purpose, duty travel may be required from time to time as needs arise.

Support the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund Governance and Management 

• Support the coordination fund management processes, including planning, allocations, disbursements, monitoring, and reporting. 
• Support the coordination and preparation of Operational Steering Committee, Advisory Board and Programme Appraisal Committee proceedings and records the advice, suggestions and decisions through meeting minutes and follow up action plans.
• Aggregates information of the key decisions made by Programme-level National/Regional Steering Committees and consolidates this key information to periodically brief the Fund’s governance bodies.
• Support the development of analytical inputs and documentation on fund results and budget utilization.
• Liaise with the Administrative Agency (MPTFO) on fund operations, reporting as well as contractual and compliance matters. 
• Support the strategic shaping and evolution of the Fund as it adapts to the changing donor funding landscape and seeks stronger coherence with other UN pooled financing mechanisms, particularly within the DCO and UN reforms (including the UN80 Initiative) context.
• Assist in developing country eligibility and prioritization criteria, including the design and issuing of expressions of interest as requested by the Fund Governance Structures.

Programmatic and Operational Support to country and regional programmes of the Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund

• Contribute to the elaboration, periodic review and updates of the Fund’s POM and related operational guidance.
• Provide programmatic and operational support to country and regional programmes throughout all stages of the programme cycle — development, implementation, and closure — ensuring alignment with the POM and the Spotlight Initiative model and principles.
• Support the substantive quality assurance of programme documents and budgets to ensure high-quality submissions to the Fund’s governance bodies for review and approval.
• Liaise with the MPTFO, as the administrative agent of the Fund, to support and quality assuring the execution of allocations to recipient UN organizations, including record-keeping, fund transfers and file management.
• Coordinate targeted technical and management support to UN country and regional teams during the programme design, implementation and closure through regular check-in calls, troubleshooting sessions, capacity development trainings as well as quality assurance of programme budgets, work plans, and narrative reports in alignment with the POM.
• Maintain regular bilateral communication with country and regional teams as the Secretariat focal point for programme management, providing operational guidance, facilitating problem-solving, and promoting consistency across programmes.
  

 c. Fund Performance Monitoring and Reporting

• Support the preparation of Spotlight Initiative’s / Spotlight Initiative 2.0 Fund’s annual and final consolidated global narrative reports, including based on programme-level narrative reports.
• Conduct comprehensive technical reviews and quality assurance of programme-level narrative reports, ensuring compliance with contractual requirements and readiness for aggregation into fund-level results.
• Coordinate with MPTFO on their timely submission of the Fund reports to key stakeholders, including programme-level and global governance bodies and donors, ensuring alignment with contractual and reporting obligations.
• Contribute to the development of content for fund-level dashboards and analytical products, including the MPTFO Gateway, ensuring clear, accurate, and insightful performance data and results

About the Organization

United Nations Office for Project Services