Regional Innovation Analyst at United Nations Development Programme

Position Purpose

• The purpose of this role is to drive UNDP’s efforts to support tech and tech enabled start-ups in Africa, leveraging the organisation’s Strategic Plan and the Timbuktoo initiative. The role focuses on fostering innovation, scaling high-impact ventures, and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem across Africa, with a particular emphasis on youth-led start-ups. This position will contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by advancing technology-based solutions in sectors such as fin-tech, agri-tech, health-tech, and climate action, while addressing key challenges in scaling early-stage ventures. 
• Situated within RBA and focused on the above-outlined initiatives above, the Regional Innovation Analyst will be integrated into UNDP ASFH and will work closely with their teams to leverage on their capacities to use financing as an enabler towards innovation and Africa’s development progress. The position will directly support innovative initiatives by African Startups and SMEs ventures through concerted acceleration programs and matching partnerships with various ecosystem players. 
• UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Drive the establishment of key programmes

• Support the establishment of the African Shapers for Innovation Programme, focusing on amplifying African voices in global innovation trends, including AI, machine learning, and digital governance systems.
• Drive the African Creatives and Creative-tech Support Programme to nurture the African creative economy by supporting creative-tech start-ups with resources for skills development, business growth, and funding.
• Strengthen and scale UNDP’s innovation-entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa, aligning with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) and addressing regional strengths and weaknesses.
• Assist with the establishment and scale up mechanisms to identify, pilot, and expand local innovations that accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.

Ensure programme design, implementation and management

• Embed UNDP’s global strategy and Africa’s priorities into programme design, ensuring relevance to global innovation trends and local development needs.
• Assist UNDP Country Offices and partners in developing and strengthening creative hubs and innovation ecosystems by providing direct support, guidance, and technical expertise.
• Help to oversee the entire programme lifecycle, from design to implementation, monitoring, evidence-based reporting and evaluation, ensuring risk management, stakeholder co-ordination and social/environmental compliance.
• Use cutting-edge research and innovative methods to shape and improve the future of development, including linkages to UNDP ASFH work especially around private sector development, ecosystem support, green financing and inclusive growth.

Ensure partnerships and resource mobilisation

• Develop and execute strategies for partnerships and resource mobilisation to support key programmes, engaging with venture capitalists, local innovators, and development agencies. 
• Expand financial and technical resources by fostering new partnerships and exploring innovative financing mechanisms. 
• Leverage UNDP’s partnership management systems to identify global opportunities that can be applied regionally. 

Ensure knowledge sharing and communication

• Enhance UNDP’s global profile by translating programme results into communication assets such as online articles, media interviews, and international dialogues. 
• Capture and share lessons learned to guide future innovation strategies and contribute to knowledge building within the UNDP community.
• Actively participate in global and regional forums to ensure UNDP remains at the forefront of innovation and development practices.

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

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: not applicable. 

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.  
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross Functional and  Technical Competencies:

• Business Direction & Strategy - System 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 Direction & Strategy - Entrepreneurial Thinking: Ability to identify and seize opportunities to service and add value to clients, create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners, develop clear service offers responding to client needs in line with UNDP’s organizational priorities and mandate.
• Business Development - Knowledge generation: Ability to research information and to turn it into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need. Ability to apply existing concepts to new situations, and to develop new concepts to generate workable solutions and new approaches. Knowledge of relevant concepts, conceptual models, and theories that can be useful in addressing new situations.
• 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.
• Digital - Innovation ecosystem curation: Ability to identify key players in an ecosystem, engage with them and mobilise them to build a community and over time a movement around a common mission that can bring about changes at the system level. Ability to give sense of purpose and build trust, develop programmes of activities and platforms to build and strengthen relationships.
• Partnership management - Multi-stakeholder engagement and funding: Knowledge and ability to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships, and remove any obstacles to resource mobilization and multi-stakeholder funding platforms.
• Partnership management - Strategic engagement: Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives.  

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in innovation, business, sustainable development, engineering, or related fields is required. OR
•  A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional 2 years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in  lieu of the advanced university degree
• An additional focus on digital transformation, entrepreneurship or product development is desirable.

Experience:

• A minimum of 2 years (with Master’s degree) or 4 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of experience in innovation ecosystems, supporting entrepreneurship, or working with tech-based start-ups, including hands-on experience with incubators, accelerators, or innovation hubs.
• 2 years of experience managing projects or programmes, with a focus on developing and scaling innovative solutions, and overseeing their implementation, monitoring and evaluation is required.
• Experience working in or supporting creative industries or tech-enabled ventures, with a specific emphasis on African ecosystems and the development of start-ups is desirable.
• Experience in supporting African startups and entrepreneurs with high growth potential and alignment with SDGs is desired; 
• Proven Knowledge about African startup ecosystem development approach and innovation challenges awards processes is desired
• Demonstrated experience in resource mobilisation and building partnerships with public and private sectors, venture capitalists, and other stakeholders to drive innovation at scale is desirable.
• Proven ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multinational teams, with a track record of delivering results in high pressure environments is an added advantage.

Additional skills:

• Knowledge of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and how innovation can accelerate their achievement is desired
• Familiarity with digital innovation and emerging trends in tech for good, including fin-tech, health-tech, agri-tech and climate solutions is desirable
• Strong communication skills and experience, including writing and presenting to diverse audiences.
• Experience within the United Nations system is an advantage but not mandatory.

Language:

• Proficiency in English is required
• Knowledge of an additional UN language, especially French, is desirable