Job Opening ID: 259427
Job Network : Economic, Social and Development
Job Family : Sustainable Development
Category and Level : Professional and Higher Categories, P-4
Duty Station : NEW YORK
Department/Office : Resident Coordinator System
Date Posted : Jun 9, 2025
Deadline : Jun 23, 2025
In helping countries progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, a critical focus of the UN development system is to support systems transformations in areas of national priority, to accelerate SDG delivery. With countries identifying clear needs as especially important to their development (e.g., food systems, jobs and social protection, energy access and affordability, health, education, digitalisation, and climate/environment, among others), Resident Coordinators (RCs) will need to lead UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in supporting governments to reframe national policies and leverage financing to advance transformative and systemic changes in their priority areas while maximising synergies among SDGs and minimising trade-offs. In a context of polycrisis, countries are also simultaneously experiencing increasing structural risks and vulnerabilities, which are undermining SDGs, and which require anticipatory risk management and the deployment of Foresight methodologies, to be mitigated. RCs need to lead UNCTs in supporting governments to build the capacities and know-how to use Foresight and risk management effectively in their efforts to achieve and sustain their national goals and the breadth of the SDGs. The UN Development Coordination Office (DCO) will need to work across the UN system with relevant partners to support RCs and UNCTs in articulate common messaging, strengthen joint initiatives and help leverage the UN’s assets in these areas, and support the leadership of Resident Coordinators. This position is located in the UN Development Coordination Office (DCO) and reports to the Chief of the Policy Section of the Policy and Programming Branch.
Within delegated authority, the Sustainable Development Officer (SDG Acceleration) will support the work of the Policy Section with emphasis on Digital Transformation. In this role, the incumbent operates under the leadership of the Chief of Policy Section, and: • Supports RCs and UNCTs to advance national priorities of host Governments on pathways for systemic transformation, harnessing science, technology and innovation, on national priorities and for progress across the Sustainable Development Goals. • Supports RCs and UNCTs in countries in diverse contexts to advise national governments or host authorities on pathways to reduce structural risks and vulnerabilities with a view to advancing systemic transformations on national priorities and accelerating the achievement of SDGs while ensuring national capacities to sustain the gains. • Collaborates and forges partnerships with lead UN entities to identify and advance effective avenues of support to governments via RCs and UNCTs. • Supports the Section’s strategic relationships with external actors, such as academia, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and vertical funds, large emerging economies, and the private sector, and identifies the instruments, tools, and resources available for digital transformation prioritized at national level and in alignment with Cooperation Frameworks. • Diagnoses capacity constraints and organizes support to RCOs and UNCTs, focusing on priority thematic areas, in collaboration with lead agencies on these areas. • Champions UN 2.0 approaches, including Foresight, innovation, data, digitalisation (including harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI), and behavioural science, and advances the uptake at national level, via RCs and UNCT, of integrated and anticipatory risk analyses, to identify potential pathways for systems transformations, including via shifts across policy frameworks and scaling up finance, particularly in thematic areas prioritized by the national government. • Supports the Section’s efforts to facilitates close networking and coordination among RCO Economists and Partnerships & Development Finance Officers, as well DCO Regional Offices, on issues of digital transformation, while promoting an effective policy-practice feedback loop between Headquarters and the field. • Engages in and supports relevant working mechanisms, collaborative programmes and communities of practice at global, regional and national level to forge UN system alignment and spur momentum for enhanced capacities to advance systemic policy shifts and leverage finance at scale in support of SDG acceleration. • Reviews and provides feedback on UN Common Country Analyses and Cooperation Frameworks, as required. • Facilitates joined-up technical support to country needs in collaboration with departments and units of the UN Secretariat and UN agencies. • Plans and facilitates workshops and other interactive sessions for RCOs and UNCTs on relevant policy issues. • Monitors and analyzes relevant trends and best practices from the field, presents information gathered from diverse sources and inputs into relevant UN reports. • Supports the work of the Section on knowledge exchange on challenges faced by countries in special situations (such as Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States, among others). • Organizes and prepares written outputs on relevant sustainable development issues, e.g., draft background papers, analysis, sections of reports and studies, and inputs to publications. • Prepares speeches and other inputs for presentations by senior managers on sustainable development and other relevant SDG issues. • Provides substantive support, as required, to the intergovernmental follow-up and review processes of the 2030 Agenda, implementation of the Pact for the Future and its annexes, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development as well as other relevant processes. • Provides substantive backstopping to consultative and other meetings, conferences, etc., including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations on sustainable development issues. • Participates in or take the lead in specific inter-agency or expert task forces or working groups either internally or with outside parties. • Initiates and coordinates outreach activities; designs and conducts training workshops and seminars for RCOs and UNCTs for capacity building; makes presentations on assigned topics/activities. • Performs other related tasks, as required.