Local Governance Analyst (LGA)

Better Than Cash; Pluit; On-site; IDR 50,000,000 - 80,000,000; Full time

Job summary

UNDP Indonesia seeks a Local Governance Analyst to provide policy and technical advisory support on decentralization, local governance, and sub-national development. You will translate national directions into practical options, lead project design, and foster partnerships with government and development partners.

You will contribute to capacity development, knowledge management, and evidence-based policy advice to strengthen governance at sub-national levels across Indonesia.

Qualifications

• Experience in local governance or sub-national development.
• Policy analysis, advisory support, and programme design.
• Experience with government and development partners.
• Fluency in English and Bahasa Indonesia (working level).

Responsibilities

• Provide policy and technical advisory support on decentralization, multi-level governance, and local governance.
• Translate national policy directions and sub-national priorities into practical programme options and scalable solutions.
• Lead or contribute to concept notes, project documents, and monitoring frameworks.
• Establish strong partnerships with government, development partners, civil society, and private sector actors.
• Support knowledge management, capacity development, and learning for sustainable local development.

Skills

Local governance

Policy analysis

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Advanced university degree in public administration/public policy/governance/development studies

Bachelor's degree + 5 years of relevant experience

Job description

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

UNDP is the United Nations’ lead agency on international development, working in 170 countries and territories to help people build better lives while protecting the planet. For 60 years, UNDP has supported countries to make progress on the issues that matter most, with human development at the core of its mandate. Our work is built on trust and long-term partnerships with governments, communities and organizations at every level.

Operating in a Middle-Income Country brings its own set of complexities and opportunities. With 70% of the Indonesian economy directly or indirectly reliant on its natural resources, the link between nature, climate, jobs, and economic empowerment become critical. UNDP Indonesia works with Indonesian partners to deliver an ambitious programme, fully aligned to the national priorities of Indonesia. UNDP’s past experiences and support include innovative sustainable financing, digital health, energy transition and climate policies, improved service delivery that leaves no one behind. Enablers and multipliers such as digitalization and Artificial Intelligence are at the core of its efforts. Building on its vast and long experiences, and the knowledge of its entire team of professionals, UNDP Indonesia demonstrate its thought-leadership and translate knowledge into policy advice, investment opportunities and scalable solutions for Indonesia’s critical development priorities.

The strategic priorities of UNDP Indonesia for its current Country Programme 2026 -2030 are encapsulated under three outcome areas:

1. Human Development
2. Nature, Decarbonisation and Resilience
3. Economic and Digital Transformation

The Human Development and Responsive Governance (HDRG) portfolio supports governance institutions and development actors to strengthen public-sector effectiveness, local governance and capacity building, promoting transparency and accountability, and building resilience towards climate change and other development risks. The portfolio promotes collaboration across levels of government and locally driven solutions that translate national priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals into measurable results for communities.

The Local Governance Analysist provides substantive technical, analytical and programmatic support across the HDRG portfolio, with emphasis on local governance, local economic development, sub-national institutional capacity building, municipal planning and budgeting, and quality public service delivery, inclusive participation, development financing, evidence and data, partnerships, quality assurance, and knowledge management.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Local governance policy and technical advisory support

• Lead the local governance pillar for UNDP Indonesia by providing applied policy and technical advice on decentralization, multi-level governance, local public administration, digitalised public service delivery and innovations, and national and sub-national institutional capacity.
• Assess and translate national policy directions and sub-national priorities into practical programme options, technical recommendations, implementation pathways and scalable solutions.
• Conduct political-economy, institutional, stakeholder, capacity and policy analyses, combining quantitative and qualitative evidence and clearly identifying implementation constraints, incentives, risks and opportunities.
• Integrate human rights, gender equality, disability inclusion, Leaving No One Behind, conflict sensitivity, social and environmental standards, and digital and data considerations into technical analysis and advice.
• Prepare high-quality technical briefs, policy notes, issue papers, talking points and presentations for engagement with government at national and subnational levels, as well as development partners to strengthen local governance and local development .

2. Programme and project design

• Lead or substantively contribute to concept notes, project documents, theories of change, result frameworks, workplans, budgets, risk registers, monitoring frameworks, implementation arrangements and sustainability strategies.
• Develop options for piloting, testing, adapting and scaling local governance interventions, including digital or data-enabled approaches where suitable and responsible.
• Apply results-based management principles and ensure clear causal logic, measurable indicators, baselines, targets, assumptions, evidence sources and learning mechanisms.
• Ensure alignment of local governance and local development opporunities with UNDP strategic priorities, the Country Programme, national and sub-national development plans and priorty works streams of UNDP Indonesia across the three clusters
• Ensure programme designs are operationally feasible, risk-informed and supported by credible stakeholder ownership and institutional arrangements.

3. Partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement

• Establish strong partnerships with public sector actors who have a role in enabling strong local governance and local development by engaging with regional governments, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bappenas, Ministry of Finance, sectoral ministries and agencies, provincial and district/municipal governments, universities, think tanks, civil society, private-sector actors and development partners.
• Design and facilitate inclusive policy dialogues, consultations, technical working groups, missions, workshops and peer-learning processes involving stakeholders with different interests and levels of technical expertise.
• Identify opportunities for diversified partnerships to unlock public financing to strengthen local development and local governance with clear entry points for UNDP
• Identify opportunities for joint programming, knowledge exchange, and capacity development while promoting complementarity with government and partner initiatives.

4. Resource mobilization and development finance

• Identify and assess funding and co-financing opportunities linked to local governance and sustainable human development, including public finance, private-sector participation, philanthropy and development-partner funding.
• Prepare donor intelligence, funding maps, partnership pipelines, investment cases, pitch materials, proposal narratives and substantive inputs to financing strategies.
• Develop technically credible options for blended finance, public-private collaboration, pooled or catalytic funding and other financing approaches, with explicit attention to feasibility, additionality, safeguards and risk.
• Coordinate substantive follow-up on partnership and funding opportunities, maintaining clear ownership, decision points, documentation and next steps.
• Support due diligence and risk analysis for proposed partnerships and financing arrangements in coordination with relevant UNDP functions.

5. Knowledge management and capacity development

• Generate and curate knowledge from programme implementation, field engagement, peer exchange and research, including lessons, good practices, innovations and evidence of results and convert learning into recommendations for programme adjustments and scale
• Produce or coordinate policy briefs, case studies, guidance notes, analytical products, presentations, learning materials and data-informed narratives for policy and programme audiences.
• Design and facilitate communities of practice, peer exchanges and capacity-development activities for national and sub-national stakeholders.
• Ensure knowledge products are technically accurate, accessible, inclusive, appropriately sourced and responsive to the needs of intended users.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: N/A

Institutional Arrangement

The Local Governance Analyst (LGA) will work under the overall supervision of the Team Leader HDRG, providing policy, analytical and technical advisory support on local governance, decentralization and sub-national development. The incumbent will work closely with HDRG programme and other units to translate policy priorities, institutional analysis and evidence into practical programme solutions, technical recommendations, partnership opportunities and knowledge products. The LGA will also provide substantive inputs to programme and project design, stakeholder engagement, resource mobilization and capacity development, and may coordinate technical contributors supporting relevant workstreams.

Competencies

Core
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

• 2030 Agenda : Peace – Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Responsive Institutions – Local Governance Innovations
• 2030 Agenda : Peace – Governance – Public Administration Reform
• 2030 Agenda : Peace – Governance – Local governance and sustaining peace
• 2030 Agenda : Peace – Governance – Local Governance for Crisis and Peacebuilding
• Partnership management – Emerging partnerships – Ability to engage with emerging partners, develop and manage a strategy and developapproaches to developing and managing these new strategic partnerships
• 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

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Academic Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in public administration, public policy, political science, governance, development studies, economics, public finance, international development, law, social sciences or another closely relevant field is required; OR
• a first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the above fields, in combination with an additional five years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Min. years of relevant Work experience

Minimum 2 years with a Master’s degree, or 4 years with a Bachelor’s degree, of progressively responsible professional experience in governance or public policy or public administration or development programmes or institutional development, or another relevant field.

Required skills

• Proven experience and engagment working on local governance and/or sub-national level programming and development
• Experience in policy analysis, technical advisory support, programme development, or implementation support in a development or public-sector context.
• Experience working with government, development partners, civil society, or other relevant stakeholders.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section

• Experience working on local governance, decentralization, municipal or sub-national development, public administration reform, public service delivery, and/or institutional capacity development.
• Ability to engage, and proven experience with senipr policmakers, public servants at national and/or sub-national government institutions in Indonesia, including ministries, provincial governments, and/or district/municipal governments.
• Experience conducting political-economy, institutional, stakeholder, or capacity analysis and translating findings into practical policy or programme recommendations.
• Experience facilitating policy dialogue, technical working groups, consultations, workshops, peer-learning, or capacity-development activities.
• Experience developing concept notes, project documents, theories of change, results frameworks, workplans, risk frameworks, monitoring frameworks, or other programme design products.
• Experience in partnership development, donor engagement, proposal development, resource mobilization, public finance, and/or innovative development financing.
• Familiarity with UNDP or UN or other international development programme and project management frameworks, including quality assurance, social and environmental safeguards, gender equality, disability inclusion, and Leaving No One Behind principles.
• Experience producing policy briefs, analytical reports, knowledge products, dashboards, or data-informed presentations for policy or programme decision-making.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

Fluency in English and Bahasa Indonesia in both writing and speaking is required.

Professional Certificates

N/A

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.