NATIONLA OPERATIONS OFFICER

The Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business (DTA), headed by a Managing Director, coordinates and mainstreams the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in its technical cooperation, strategic, normative activities aiming at fostering the inclusive and sustainable development in the era of 4IR. The Directorate creates new and innovative technical cooperation deliverables in the areas of trade, investment, technology innovation and agro-industry and agri-business. The Directorate comprises the Department of Digitalization, Technology and Innovation (DTI) and the Department of Agri-Business (AGR).
Responding to the growing demand for supporting inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in the era of the new industrial revolution, the Department of Digitalization, Technology and Innovation (DTA/DTI) leads the way in addressing opportunities, challenges and risks stemming from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and its contribution to sustainable socio-economic progress. The Department is responsible for the strategic coordination of 4IR-related matters with designated focal points in other technical Departments and organizational entities of UNIDO, as appropriate. In consultation with public and private partners, DTI designs and implements holistic interventions that are tailored to specific country needs. The Department’s interventions actively identify and combine complementary services from across three Divisions, namely:
•    Innovation and Digitalization Division (DTA/DTI/IDD)
•    Investment and Technology Promotion Division (DTA/DTI/ITP)
•    Quality Infrastructure and Smart Production Division (DTA/DTI/QIS)
This position is located under the Quality Infrastructure and Smart Production Division (DTA/DTI/QIS), which seeks to build national and regional quality infrastructure systems needed to provide internationally recognized services, including strengthening institutional capacities (i.e. metrology, standardization and accreditation); building conformity assessment capacities (testing, inspection, certification, calibration, etc.); supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of new technologies and standards for smart production and thus participate in global value chains; trade facilitation and promoting quality awareness with the public sector, economic operators and consumers.
PROJECT CONTEXT (ID 200183):
Poverty Alleviation and Inclusive Development Across Rural Sindh (PAIDAR) is a five-year programme funded by the European Union to support the Government of Sindh (GoS), Pakistan in implementation of its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). The long-term objective of PAIDAR is to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods of poor women, men and young people across Sindh province.
The PRS has three pillars: 1) Community Driven Local Development 2) Addressing Urban Poverty including Urban Economic Clusters and 3) Rural Growth Centres.
Purpose of PAIDAR programme is to support the GoS to implement its poverty reduction strategy as a whole and in particular sub-strategies that aim at:
• Fostering economic development, enterprise development and job creation with the objective of increasing income of the poor women, men and young people
• Optimizing public service delivery to enhance access to livelihood improving services such as water, electricity, health services and education with the ultimate objectives of both improving living conditions and quality of life and reducing poor household’ expenditure that arises as a cost resulting from lack of access to such services and poor living conditions.
To this end, the programme will:
• Provide necessary technical assistance, capacity building and financial support to a significant number of micro and small enterprises in target RGCs with the objective to overcome COVID-19 impacts on enterprises, support enterprise development and business development.
• Contribute technically and financially to building and upgrading public infrastructure for improvement in delivery of basic service with direct impact on poor people’s livelihood as well as services to support business development.
• Strengthen capacity of the GoS at provincial and local level for implementation of the PRS and assist the GoS to strengthen internal coordination and monitoring capacity, and to optimize provincial public resources allocation towards meeting PRS objectives.
PAIDAR will deliver on the above objectives through utilization of three key mechanisms:
1. Co-financing public investment projects of the GoS aiming to build and/or upgrade public infrastructure for delivery of basic services with high impact on livelihood improvement and poverty reduction, as well as for delivery of services with high potential to contribute to economic development of the target RGCs and foster enterprise development.
2. Provision of grants to support MSMEs investment projects which demonstrate strong potential for enterprise development, income generation, job retention and creation.
3. Technical assistance to the GoS and the MSMEs to ensure investment projects (both co-financed public infrastructure development projects and financially supported MSME investment projects) are designed, planned and implemented to deliver results in line with the objectives of the PRS; and to strengthen GoS capacity to plan, implement and monitor results PRS.
DUTIES:
Under the overall guidance of the PAIDAR Programme Manager (PM) in Vienna, the National  Operations Officer (NOO) will work under the supervision of and report directly to project National  Technical Advisor (NTA) based in Karachi.
The NOO will lead the operations of the PAIDAR including coordination and successful technical delivery of the technical outputs and grant scheme of the programme. The NOO is specifically expected to:
Manage day-to-day technical and operational aspects of the programme’s activities
•    Coordinate, monitor the works of the programme’s experts in implementing planned activities based on the work-plan and report the progress to NTA
•    Liaise with main partners and establish a transparent and trusting working relation with GoS, the P&D and the Urban Directorate, local government institutions as well as private sector actors such as industry associations, networks, etc.
•    Work closely with the NTA and all programme stakeholders to understand technical and operational issues as well as challenges as they arise; in cooperation with NTA and expert team translate challenges into potential project interventions.
•    Provide technical inputs associated with planned interventions aimed at enterprise development and MSME upgrading, etc.
•    Revise work plans on a continuous basis, as appropriate, to meet changing needs and requirements to ensure overall compliance with programme milestones and timeline.
•    Prepare detailed Plans of Action based on the Work Plan in respect of the planned interventions on day-to-day basis.
•    Coordinate and work closely with Programme national and international experts to ensure planned activities are carried out toward achieving the targets (output and outcome KPIs)
•    Coordinate and work closely with sectoral and thematic experts to ensure planned activities are carried out toward achieving the targets (output and outcome KPIs).
•    Support the dissemination, up-scaling, mainstreaming of good practices to relevant stakeholders all over Sindh and in particular in target districts in collaboration with experts and partners, both government and private partners
•    Carry out assigned field activities in the context of the two outcomes and provide technical inputs to the designated beneficiaries.
•    Support M&E expert on monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) activities in the field to assess the progress of the Programme and identify critical issues to ensure the desired outcomes of the interventions.
•    Support the preparation of technical reports to UNIDO and the Donor based on required specifications.
•    Support managerial and financial monitoring of the entire programme and its activities and collect relevant information (including a review of technical indicators).
•    Support the organization and delivery of the programme’s capacity building related activities
•    Provide assistance in the preparation of various project related documents, briefs, job descriptions, terms of reference, press releases, keynote addresses, reports and minutes of meetings
•    Provide inputs for communications and visibility related material of the Programme to the communication expert.
•    Any other assignment requested by the PM or NTA concerning the implementation of the PAIDAR.
REQUIRED COMPETENCIES
Core Values
WE LIVE AND ACT WITH INTEGRITY: work honestly, openly and impartially.
WE SHOW PROFESSIONALISM: work hard and competently in a committed and responsible manner.
WE RESPECT DIVERSITY: work together effectively, respectfully and inclusively, regardless of our differences in culture and perspective.
Key Competencies
WE FOCUS ON PEOPLE: cooperate to fully reach our potential –and this is true for our colleagues as well as our clients. Emotional intelligence and receptiveness are vital parts of our UNIDO identity.
WE FOCUS ON RESULTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: focus on planning, organizing and managing our work effectively and efficiently. We are responsible and accountable for achieving our results and meeting our performance standards. This accountability does not end with our colleagues and supervisors, but we also owe it to those we serve and who have trusted us to contribute to a better, safer and healthier world.
WE COMMUNICATE AND EARN TRUST: communicate effectively with one another and build an environment of trust where we can all excel in our work.
WE THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX AND INNOVATE: To stay relevant, we continuously improve, support innovation, share our knowledge and skills, and learn from one another.

MINIMUM ORGANIZATIONAL REQUIREMENTS 
Education: Advanced university level degree in Economics, Business Administration, Sustainable Development, Urban and Rural Economic Development, Environmental Management, Engineering, or in a field of direct relevance to the mandate of the Department, is required.
Technical and Functional Experience: 
At least 5 years of experience in one or more of the intervention areas of the programme including industrial development, sustainable economic development, regional and local economic development, industrial cluster and value chain development, enterprise development and poverty reduction and livelihood development, involving technical cooperation in developing countries, is required. Awareness of the mega trends affecting the economic development and ability to interpret their implication for the poverty reduction across Sindh in terms of development opportunities, challenges and risks is desirable. Proficiency in MS-Word, Excel, MS-PowerPoint and Internet tools is required.
Languages: Fluency in written and spoken English and Urdu is required.