Global Lead, Public Goods and Services [Open to Tier 0, 1 & 2 applicants]

Better Than Cash
Better Than Cash

Bonn, Germany

Posted on Aug 21, 2026
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Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

  • Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
  • Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
  • Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
  • Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

UNDP provides integrated programmatic, policy and financing solutions to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, UNDP has created a Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Crisis Bureau (CB) are the two anchor Bureaux of the GPN.

The Bureau for Programme and Policy Support (BPPS) plays a central role in developing relevant policies and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS designs and implements global projects and provides technical expertise and advisory services to countries and engage in global policy processes across a wide range of thematic and cross-cutting issues, including poverty and inequality, governance, climate change, environment, energy, sustainable finance while ensuring that human rights, gender equality, and social inclusion as central to its approach.

The Crisis Bureau (CB) spearheads UNDP’s efforts to support countries on a key challenge: how to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from fragility and crisis. CB addresses the risks that precipitate crises, prevent early exit from them, and perpetuate long-term dependency on humanitarian assistance. Guided by UNDP’s Crisis Offer (2022), CB works within the GPN and with Regional Bureaux (RBx) and Country Offices (COs) to implement solutions across prevention, response and recovery that help break the cycle of protracted fragility and crisis.

The Governance, Rule of Law, and Peacebuilding Hub, a joint endeavour of the Crisis Bureau (CB) and the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), integrates work across governance, rule of law and peacebuilding (GRP) to substantially improve UNDP positioning and resource mobilisation, global advocacy; advance principled and effective solutions that support accountable, inclusive and effective governance and prevent and respond crisis , and enable peacebuilding and early recovery from crisis, whilst addressing underlying risks.

The Hub supports integrated policy and programming and thematic and operational partnerships with key stakeholders including the UN System, IFIs, donors, civil society, and the private sector. The Hub’s functions involve providing leadership, advising on strategic positioning, managing global programmes, developing GRP solutions, supporting country office programming, and leading crisis response and recovery support on GRP. The Hub also focuses on knowledge management, monitoring, evaluation and learning, and resource mobilisation.

Its work is organised according to the following thematic areas: governance of public goods and services; rule of law and security; human rights; business, human rights, and peace; democratic institutions and processes; peacebuilding; local action; and open and inclusive public sphere. The issues of digital transformation, data for SDG16+, and gender equality are cross-cutting.

Position Purpose

Reporting to the Co-Director, GRP at UNDP HQ, the Global Policy Advisor, based in Bonn is UNDP’s global lead on Public Goods & Services that include, inclusive digital transformation, including the use of artificial intelligence; public sector capacities; legal identity; transparency, integrity and anti-corruption, in support of the integrated governance, rule of law and peacebuilding offer to deliver the effective governance goal in the Strategic Plan (2026-2030). The Global Policy Advisor will lead UNDP’s policy and programme support to scale innovative tools and approaches to enhance governance of public goods and services. Under delegated authorities, s/he is responsible for:

  • Strategic and policy advice
  • Support for programme development and implementation
  • Management, Staff supervision and Resource Mobilization
  • Partnerships, Representation and Advocacy
  • Knowledge management

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic and Policy Advice

  • Lead UNDP’s global policy development on Public Goods & Services.
  • As part of UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN), contribute to UNDP’s thought leadership on Public Goods & Services,); monitor trends, support research and foster social and digital innovation.
  • Co-develop strategies with governments, institutional partners, UNDP (global and regional bureaus, other BPPS Hubs) and other relevant institutions.
  • Recommend options to integrate Public Goods & Services priorities in BPPS and Crisis Bureau’s portfolios and across UNDP Flagships.

Programme Development and Implementation

  • Encourage integrated approaches and joint-programmes across BPPS and with the Crisis Bureau to maximize impact, ensure complementarity and sustainability and/or reduce transaction costs.
  • Ensure Program Development and Implementation is gender responsive.
  • Support UNDP Bureaux, Hubs and Country Offices deliver programmes related to Public Goods & Services.
  • Foster policy innovation and support UNDP to innovate, co-create with relevant public and private partners, with a particular focus on the FutureGov High Impact Initiative.
  • Support South-South and Triangular Cooperation with Governments, Public and Private organizations, Development partners, IFIs, NGOs and CBOs.
  • Critically assess programme development in the thematic area and recommend alignment options.

Management, Staff supervision and Resource Mobilization

  • Manage and supervise the Public Goods & Services team (including project staffs) and ensure that the work of the team is conducted in accordance with relevant business processes and that high-quality outputs are delivered on time.
  • Establish and maintain an enabling environment for harmonious working relationships and team building, by promoting consistent and constructive communication, open information sharing, and staff coordination; Encourage team members to seek new client opportunities and amplify the value and reputation of BPPS in the thematic areas.
  • Manage workplans, budgets, recruitments and procurements according to UNDP rules and regulations and within delegated level of authority.
  • Maintain high quality external relations and contribute to mobilizing resources with Governments, public and private organizations, development partners, IFIs, academia, NGOs, CSOs and relevant private sector institutions.

Partnerships, Representation and Advocacy

  • Maintain and develop relations with Governments, Multilateral and Bilateral Organizations, IFIs, academia, NGOs, CSO, private sector institutions and other institutional partners according to delegation of authority.
  • Mobilize, foster and strengthen strategic partnerships with UN entities and other relevant regional bodies and provide substantive inputs to those partnerships in support of UNDP initiatives.
  • Represent UNDP and engage in UN interagency coordination as well as in other fora with the aim to advance UNDP’s strategic agenda in the thematic area.
  • Advocate and represent UNDP in the thematic area in various professional and/or public fora and events, including with academia and civil society.

Knowledge Management

  • Oversee thought leadership and knowledge management activities on relevant thematic areas, including overseeing the knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned, ensuring that knowledge sharing and content management is in line with guidelines and performed using corporate tools.
  • Support Governments, UNDP Bureaux and Country Offices access methodologies and tools to enhance GPGS.
  • Guide and coordinate global and cross-regional exchange of knowledge by collaborating with other policy teams in HQ to research, develop and share knowledge-based tools and guidance to help influence/advance policy dialogue in the thematic area and present such material at various fora.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

The Global Lead, Public Goods & Services supervises the professional staff and consultants working at a global level on relevant aspects of the Effective Governance goal in the Strategic Plan (2026-2030) and the Governance for People and Planet Global Programme and reports to the Co-Director, GRP Hub.

Competencies

  • Core Competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

  • People Management

UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

  • Cross Functional and Technical Competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy - Strategic Thinking: Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

Business Direction and Strategy - Systems 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.

Business Management - Portfolio Management:

  • Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization's programmes and projects in line with its strategic objectives and capacity.
  • Ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives with regular activities for optimal return on investment.
  • Knowledge and understanding of key principles of project, programme, and portfolio management.

Business Development - UNDP Representation: Effectively represent and advocate for UNDP, its values, mission, work, and positions with various constituencies/audiences, shares UNDP knowledge and activities.

2030 Agenda: Peace - Governance:

  • Public Administration Reform, digital transformation, Integrity
  • Public Sector Innovation

2030 Agenda: Peace - Governance: SDGs/National Development Strategy, Planning and Budgeting.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in development economics, business administration, political or social sciences or related disciplines OR
  • A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) 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:

  • Minimum 10 years (with master’s degree) or 12 years (with bachelor’s degree) of professional work experience leading teams, providing policy and programme advice and pioneering innovative approaches for public administration, public sector innovation, digital transformation of government, and service delivery in different development contexts.
  • Demonstrated leadership in policy development including leading the development and delivery of high-quality policy advice and programmatic guidance.
  • Experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder and consultative processes.
  • Sound understanding of the UN system and of UNDP’s mandate and role in all country contexts including crisis contexts.
  • Experience working in developing country settings is required and experience in crisis contexts is an asset.

Language

  • Fluency in English, both written and oral.
  • Working knowledge of another UN language would be an advantage.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.

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