Mission and objectives

UNDP works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty while protecting the planet. We help countries develop strong policies, skills, partnerships and institutions so they can sustain their progress The primary and overarching objective of United Nations Development Programme in Kenya is the eradication of poverty in the context of sustainable development, including the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, and promotion of United Nations fundamental principles. A core dimension to the work of UNDP in Kenya is on Democratic Governance given the national focus on governance reforms. UNDP supports the country’s efforts towards achieving the Vision 2030 Political Pillar, which envisions a democratic system that is issue-based, people-centered, results oriented and accountable to the public. This Political Pillar gears to transform the country’s political governance across five strategic areas; The Rule of Law, Electoral and Political Processes, Democracy and Public Service Delivery, Transparency and Accountability, Security Peace Building and Conflict Management. These strategic areas are anchored in the Constitution, promulgated in August 2010 marking a major milestone in the democratic journey of Kenya and set a new threshold in terms of people-centred development.

Context

The NextGen platform has established a strong initial foundation. As it moves into its pilot phase and towards sustained operations, it enters a continuous cycle of launching, testing, fixing, improving, and building new features in response to feedback from users, who are the candidates and host companies, and from stakeholders, namely UNDP and KEPSA. A further workstream involves developing a Learning Management System for onboarding and professional development, separate from the main portal. To sustain this rapid evolution and respond to stakeholder needs without compromising existing infrastructure, the programme requires a dedicated, on-site Full-Stack Developer, engaged as a Community UN Volunteer. The objective of the Full-Stack Developer is to build new features, improve existing workflows, resolve issues, and keep the platform evolving in line with real user feedback, while ensuring that the system continues to scale efficiently. The volunteer will also play a central role in building the new Learning Management System module.

Task Description

Under the supervision of the NextGen Project Manager, the UN Volunteer will perform the following duties: • Feature Development: Design, build, test, and deploy new features requested by stakeholders, such as location-based candidate filtering, placement-rate reports, and mentorship-hour tracking. • Workflow Improvement: Continuously refine existing user workflows, drawing on real feedback from candidates and companies, to reduce friction and enhance the user experience. • Issue Resolution: Identify, troubleshoot, and promptly fix issues to minimize disruption for live users during the pilot phase and beyond. • Learning Management System: Develop the Learning Management System as a separate module alongside the main platform, incorporating course enrolment, progress tracking, assessments, and intern onboarding content. • Code Quality: Conduct regular code reviews to maintain quality, security, and maintainability as the system grows in complexity. • Performance: Ensure the platform remains fast, scalable, and responsive as the feature set expands and the user base grows. Expected Deliverables • Learning Management System: A fully functional, integrated Learning Management System for candidate onboarding and training. • Feature Releases: Regular deployment of new features and workflow improvements on the main NextGen portal. • Issue Resolution Reports: Timely resolution of identified issues and performance bottlenecks, with supporting documentation. • Technical Documentation: Ongoing code-review logs and technical documentation for newly developed features.

Competencies and values

• Accountability • Adaptability and flexibility • Creativity • Judgement and decision-making • Planning and organising • Professionalism • Self-management

Living conditions and remarks

The contract lasts for the period indicated above with possibility of extensions subject to availability of funding, operational necessity and satisfactory performance. However, there is no expectation of renewal of the assignment. A UN Volunteer receives a Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) per month and is paid at the end of each month to cover housing, utilities, transportation, communications and other basic needs. The VLA can be computed by applying the Post-Adjustment Multiplier (PAM) to the VLA base rate of US$1,602. The VLA base rate is a global rate, while the PAM is country-specific and fluctuates on a monthly basis according to the cost of living. This method ensures that international UN Volunteers have comparable purchasing power at all duty stations irrespective of varying costs of living. The PAM is established by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) and is published at the beginning of every month on the ICSC website http://icsc.un.org. For example, kindly enter the link Calculator. In non-family duty stations that belong to hardship categories D or E, as classified by the ICSC, international UN Volunteers receive a Well-Being Differential (WBD) on a monthly basis. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are provided a settling-in-grant (SIG) at the start of the assignment (if the volunteer did not reside in the duty station for at least 6 months prior to taking up the assignment) and also in the event of a permanent reassignment to another duty station. UNV provides life, health, permanent disability insurances as well as assignment travel, annual leave, full integration in the UN security framework (including residential security reimbursements). UN Volunteers are paid Daily Subsistence Allowance at the UN rate for official travels, flight tickets for the final repatriation travel (if applicable). A resettlement allowance is paid for satisfactory service at the end of the assignment. UNV will provide, together with the offer of assignment, a copy of the Conditions of Service, including Code of conduct, to the successful candidate. Disclaimer The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) is an equal opportunity programme which welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture.