Strategic Communications, Advocacy and Partnerships Specialist [Open to Internal & External applicants]

Responsibilities

The Specialist will lead strategic communications, advocacy, and partnership engagement to advance responsible digital payments, with a focus on Africa and the Arab States. They will coordinate thought leadership, policy dialogue, and high-level stakeholder engagement to support the Better Than Cash Alliance Strategy 2030.

Requirements

Candidates must hold an advanced university degree in Communications, International Relations, or a related field, or a Bachelor's degree with at least seven years of relevant experience. Proven expertise in strategic communications, advocacy, and partnership building within international development is required, along with fluency in English and French.

Skills

• Strategic communications
• Advocacy
• Partnership management
• Digital financial inclusion
• Policy engagement
• Stakeholder engagement
• Public relations
• Media relations
• Campaign management
• Knowledge management
• International development
• Executive positioning
• Digital payments
• Policy dialogue
• Strategic messaging

About this role

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

As the lead United Nations agency on international development, UNDP works in
170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. We
help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnerships and
institutional capabilities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. 

As outlined in the UNDP Strategic Plan 2026-2029, UNDP’s work is guided by four
strategic objectives that together define our contribution to human development:
expanding prosperity for all, strengthening effective governance, safeguarding a
healthy planet and building crisis resilience. These objectives are enabled by
three accelerators that drive transformative impact across our portfolio:
digital and AI innovation, gender equality and sustainable finance. Through this
integrated approach, UNDP supports countries to deliver tangible improvements in
people’s lives and to advance sustainable development at scale. 

UNDP, through its Sustainable Finance Hub (https://sdgfinance.undp.org/),
supports partners in promoting financing for the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). As an accelerator of the UNDP Strategic Plan, sustainable finance
strengthens countries’ ability to mobilize, align and deploy finance at scale
for national priorities. UNDP supports international and country level policy
reform as a catalyst for system-wide change, stronger policy environments,
better-functioning markets and more coherent financing strategies for
sustainable development. 

Based in UNDP, the Better Than Cash Alliance
[https://www.betterthancash.org/] (BTCA) is a partnership of over 80
governments, companies and international organizations that accelerates the
transition from cash to digital payments in order to reduce poverty and drive
inclusive growth by:

* Advocating for the transition from cash to responsible digital payments in a
way that advances financial inclusion and promotes responsible digital
finance.
* Catalyzing the development of inclusive digital payments ecosystems in member
countries to reduce costs, increase transparency, advance financial
inclusion-- particularly for women-- and drive inclusive growth; and
* Conducting action research and sharing the knowledge and experiences of our
members to inform strategies for making the transition.

Billions of dollars in cash payments and transfers are made daily in emerging
and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and
relief, payments to suppliers, remittances, etc. The problems with these cash
payments include a lack of transparency, accountability and security, as well as
inefficiency. Individuals who receive cash payments are often part of the 1.7
billion excluded from the formal financial sector.  This means they are excluded
from access to a range of appropriate and affordable financial services to help
them save safely take advantage of economic opportunities and reduce their
vulnerability to risk.

Shifting these payments from cash to digital has the potential to improve the
lives of low-income people,  particularly women, while giving governments, the
development community and the private sector a more transparent, time and cost
efficient, and often-safer means of disbursing payments. 

From a corporate perspective, payments completed in the value chain of
businesses represent some of the most significant payment flows of national
economies. To highlight this impact, the Alliance published a report on “The
Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies are Digitizing Payments"
[https://www.betterthancash.org/tools-research/reports/the-future-of-supply-chains-why-companies-are-digitizing-payments] showcasing
how companies in different business sectors have benefited from digital payments
in their supply chains and play an important role in building an inclusive
digital payment ecosystem. Thus, the Better Than Cash Alliance is committed to
supporting digitization of companies' payment flows in different business
sectors across the corporate payment grid (B2B, B2P, B2G, and P2B). 

The Better Than Cash Alliance Team’s Core Values are the following: 

* Achieving together
* Striving for excellence
* Service oriented 
* Results oriented 

Through its Strategy 2030, the Alliance seeks to ensure that 100 million more
women, young people, micro and small businesses, and displaced and marginalized
communities have the choice to use responsible digital payments that improve
livelihoods, strengthen resilience and expand economic opportunities. Achieving
this ambition requires strong strategic communications, advocacy and
partnerships to position responsible digital payments as a development priority,
strengthen collaboration with governments, development partners, Alliance
members and UNDP Country Offices, and translate evidence into policy dialogue
and action. 

Under the overall supervision of the Global Advocacy and Communications
Specialist, and in close collaboration with programme, partnerships and
communications colleagues, the Strategic Communications, Advocacy and
Partnerships Specialist will...

About UNDP

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