Sustainable Development Officer, Regional Liaison, Africa Region
Organizational Context
The UN Secretariat's Development Operations Coordination Office (DCO), now recalibrated to support the 2030 Agenda and UN 2.0, oversees the Resident Coordinator system. This role is within the Regional Office for Africa, performing liaison functions from New York. It supports the acceleration of sustainable development and operates under the oversight of the Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group.
Job Purpose
This role serves as a crucial liaison between the UN Secretariat's Regional Office for Africa and Headquarters, based in New York. The primary purpose is to provide substantive analysis, briefings, and support to senior leadership, particularly concerning sustainable development in Africa. It involves monitoring regional and global developments, identifying emerging risks and opportunities, and maintaining situational awareness. The position also supports intergovernmental processes and senior management engagement, ensuring effective communication and coordination between Headquarters and the Africa Region to advance the 2030 Agenda and UN 2.0 initiatives. This includes facilitating information flow, supporting work plans, and contributing to knowledge sharing.
Responsibilities
The Sustainable Development Officer is responsible for providing substantive analysis, briefings, and support to senior leadership, particularly in complex development, crisis, and transition settings. This includes preparing briefing notes, key messages, and meeting readouts. The role involves collecting, analyzing, and visualizing quantitative and qualitative data on regional and country-level sustainable development trends, cross-border dynamics, and emerging risks to inform planning and decision-making. Additionally, the officer supports intergovernmental processes by conducting horizon scanning, monitoring relevant activities, and providing technical support for senior leadership engagements. A key function is facilitating two-way information flow between Headquarters and the Africa Region, supporting work plans, and contributing to knowledge management and best practice sharing across UN offices.
Work Experience
A minimum of five years of progressive experience in sustainable development, public policy, or development cooperation is required. Experience with inter-agency or intergovernmental collaboration within the development sector is also necessary. Desirable experience includes partnership development, knowledge of Africa's sustainable development issues, integrating gender equality, UN system experience, field experience, and data analytics.
Skills
Professionalism, teamwork, and communication are core competencies. Specific skills include applying sustainable development theories, conducting independent research and analysis, data collection and interpretation, data visualization, supporting decision-making, collaborating effectively, valuing diverse input, and clear verbal and written communication.