UNDP works to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities through the sustainable development of nations, in more than 170 countries and territories. The Regional Bureau of Asia has the responsibility to guide and support 24 Country Offices in achieving the objectives of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  RBAP staff provides technical advice to Country Offices, governments and other relevant stakeholders; advocates for UNDP corporate messages and represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

Rapid and continued economic dynamism has translated into growth and reduced poverty levels in several countries in Asia and the Pacific. Greater foreign direct investments and capital movements, accentuated by higher regional mobility, are reasons for further optimism for future regional growth. This progress has often come at the expense of the human rights of minorities, marginalized and disadvantaged and at-risk groups in the interest of investments and financial gains.

The UNDP Asia-Pacific, Governance and Peacebuilding Team, Business and Human Rights Unit, is currently engaged in promoting the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). The UNGP clarifies states’ duty and businesses’ responsibility to uphold international norms and treaties on human rights. These Guiding Principles rest on three pillars: 1) the State’s duty to protect human rights; 2) the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and; 3) the joint responsibility of both the State and businesses sector to provide access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses.

Momentum supporting the implementation of the UNGPs through National Action Plans (NAPs) is developing quickly in the region. Nurturing this, an already well-developed community of industry advocates, human rights activists, and development practitioners are deepening their work on a wide variety of thematic area or industry-specific BHR activities. While leading national and multi-national corporations are embedding human rights due diligence approaches into their operational policies and corporate communication profiles.

The project Business and Human Rights in Asia – Promoting Responsible Business Practices through Regional Partnerships (B+HR Asia) aims at strengthening the regional momentum on business and human rights in Asia. The regional project is focused on seven Asian countries; Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam and implements a broad range of activities targeting a variety of stakeholders, including governments, state officials, members of the business sector, Civil Society Organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, UN entities and international organizations, and influencers in the area of business, human rights and economic policy with funding from the Government of Sweden.

The Project Manager, Business and Human Rights, based in Bangkok, is responsible for contributing to policy and project support in Asia and the targeted countries of the project and beyond. The incumbent will provide day-to-day management for Business, and Human Rights project planning, administration, final closure and reporting while ensuring project outputs are delivered. In doing so, the incumbent will undertake policy research, develop knowledge products, and support communication, partnership-building and resource mobilization. The incumbent will also lead in developing a potential new phase of the project and managing donor communications for the same. S/he will be contributing as part of the B+HR Portfolio at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

S/he acts under the guidance of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Regional Advisor in response to requests from country offices and in collaboration with the Governance and Peacebuilding team. S/he works with teams across the Regional Hub, Country Offices, Global Policy Centers and the UN system to ensure the execution of quality and coherent policy and project advisory services within their region as well as alignment with the Strategic Plan. S/he is responsible for performing and contributing to the following:

• Project Management (including the closure of the project)
• Research, Knowledge Management, and Technical Support
• Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Resource Mobilization
• Supervision of Staff

Lead and Advise on Project Management

• Leads project management through effective planning, administration, monitoring and coordination with partners and country offices;
• Lead implementation of the monitoring, evaluation, and results framework to identify plan deviations, underperformance, and other problems. Support diagnosing problems and ensure accountability for corrective actions within agreed upon tolerances to achieve results.
• Provide leadership and technical advice to the project in developing baselines and indicators for project monitoring and evaluation, and coordinate the finalization of detailed results framework.
• Manage the delivery of the Annual Work Plan and day-to-day project activities to ensure prompt and adequate result achievement and to ensure 100% delivery of the project outputs.
• Provide oversight and guidance for the final project closure including final evaluation of the project and prepare management’s response to the final evaluation; Conduct field visits as required to verify project activities relative to stated targets and provide regular field updates to UNDP/BRH management as required.
• Ensure strategies, processes, systems, and mechanisms are in place to effectively fulfill programme and financial monitoring, evaluation, quality assurance and reporting requirements.
• Proactively perform risk assessments to identify and document risks related to the project, including operational, financial, legal, contractual, social, environmental, reputation and safety risks. Design mitigation measures and keep appropriate project governing bodies informed.
• Coordinate the preparation of corporate, donor and government reports in line with the reporting schedule and UNDP and donor requirements. Ensure provision of ad hoc reports and information requested by relevant entities, including highlighting key issues, trends, emerging opportunities, risks, potential project partners, and entry points for the regional programme in focus countries;
• Establish continuous liaison and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective relationships, monitor project results and highlight potential risks to project delivery;
• Engage and coordinate closely as part of the regional Business and Human Rights portfolio at the Bangkok Regional Hub.

Research, Knowledge Management, and Technical Support and Advice

• Provide technical and advisory services to support country offices in developing and implementing country level work-streams on Business and Human Rights and provide any other Technical Assistance in the implementation of the regional programme at country-level;
• Conduct expert visits to focus countries in Asia and the Pacific to provide high-level advice to government agencies, private sector actors, UN system entities, regional organizations, civil society, and National Human Rights Institutions;
• Provide analytical inputs and technical advisory services on Business and Human Rights National Action Plans, legislation, strategies and initiatives, including facilitating discussions on key country-specific issues that can be incorporated into a NAP, providing comments on baseline assessments, and National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights as well as supporting policy coherence among different policy documents.
• Coordinate the production of high-level research and analysis for policy advice and programme support that responds to the region and country office needs and verify that knowledge sharing and content management are in line with guidelines and performed using corporate tools;
• Organize awareness-raising regional events on Business and Human Rights to exchange best practices, encourage a regional race-to-the-top to develop NAPs, and maintain momentum;
• Liaise with relevant project partners to share appropriate resources; lessons learnt, and best practices;
• Conduct training and workshops for governments, businesses, civil society organizations and academia on Business and Human Rights and seize opportunities to use the implementation of the UNGPs as an instrument to strengthen gender equality and promote communities rights.
• Facilitate south-south exchange and peer learning opportunities to share best practices among relevant stakeholders;
• Support UNDP senior management (including at country level) with drafting speeches and talking points on Business and Human Rights, as required.
• Support establishment of knowledge platforms and innovative mechanisms for capturing and disseminating knowledge from the project; and ensure development of knowledge resources and products to share with project partners and to support UNDP’s engagement in this area.
• Actively participate in and make substantive contributions to external networks and communities of practice to promote advocacy for UNDP’s work and opportunities for collaboration in addressing development trends. Represent UNDP in relevant technical meetings and working groups under the direction of CO management.

Ensure and advise on Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Resource Mobilization

• Develop and maintain active relationship and partnerships with the Governments, NGOs, the UN system and development partners, institutes, academia, the media, and private sector on Business and Human Rights to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and/or share ideas and to influence agenda and priority setting.
• Coordinate events with partners and stakeholders to provide high visibility to the thematic area and prepare policy materials, briefing notes and speeches;
•  Cultivate new working relationships with emerging business and human rights partners in the project focus countries.
• Strengthen regional business and human rights architecture among UN agencies and partner organizations.
• Assist with resource mobilization, including through the development of concept notes and project documents;
• Keep up to date with other development partners working in the area of Business and Human Rights;
• Support partnerships, advocacy, and capacity-building activities in the areas covered by the project to all stakeholders;
• Represent UNDP Asia-Pacific Business and Human Rights Portfolio at global, regional and national events on Business and Human Rights.

Supervision of project staff

• The Project Manager will supervise the staff based in Bangkok Regional Hub and national BHR specialists in project countries. In addition, the Project Manager will also supervise consultants and agencies hired to deliver project activities.

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

People Management

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

2030 Agenda: Peace

• Rule of Law, Security and Human Rights.  Human rights/HRBA. Human Rights institutions/compliance
• Gender. Women’s economic empowerment, including labor issues

Business Management

• Results- Based Management. Ability to manage programmes and projects with focus at improved performance and demonstrate result.

External Relations & Advocacy

• Partnerships management. Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and other in-line with UNDP strategy and policies

Business Direction and 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
• Strategic thinking. Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.

Business Development

• UNDP Representation. Ability to represent UNDP and productively share UNDP knowledge and activities; advocate for UNDP, its values, mission and work with various constituencies.