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

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Viet Nam have formed a strategic partnership to support the government in addressing complex and interconnected challenges related to access, quality, and governance of medical products among other areas. The partnership draws on the two Agencies’ complementary strengths - UNDP’s leadership in governance, digital transformation, and system-wide reform, and WHO’s deep expertise in health systems, regulation, and patient safety

Over the course of 2025 and 2026, the two organisations have developed and implemented a Joint Programme on Improving Access to Quality Medical Products in Viet Nam, an initiative that supports the Government of Viet Nam in strengthening its regulatory and procurement systems, ensuring that medicines, vaccines, and medical devices are safe, affordable, and consistently available. The programme focus is on key areas such as institutional governance, regulatory reform, digital innovation, accountability mechanisms, and capacity development. Building on these initial success, the two Agencies have continued to pursue joint fundraising efforts, leading to the mobilization of new resources for the implementation of a five-year initiative aiming to help Viet Nam build the regulatory, digital, care, and financing systems needed for its next phase of inclusive, investment-ready growth. From the Health Governance perspective, the programme focuses on three key areas: access to quality medical products, digital health transformation, older persons and disability-inclusive care.

The Health Governance Specialist plays a pivotal role in driving forward the UNDP-WHO joint agenda and implementing the joint program of work. Under the strategic guidance of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative but with a dual reporting line to WHO, the role is uniquely positioned to bridge both agencies’ priorities. The contract holder supports joint programme implementation, and strengthens donor and private sector engagement, while also contributing technical inputs to other relevant WHO and UNDP programmes of work. In doing so, the position reinforces coherence, coordination, and shared impact across both agencies – ensuring that support to Viet Nam’s health system is technically robust, institutionally grounded, and strategically aligned with national development goals.

The contract holder will provide high quality strategic and technical leadership for the joint WHO-UNDP programme on improving access to quality medical products, ensuring alignment with national priorities and the shared goals of WHO and UNDP. Through their role, they will assure oversight of planning and design, promote information sharing and communication between the two agencies, and oversee implementation, following a risk-informed results-based management approach. Furthermore, they will engage as necessary in building and fostering partnerships and resource mobilization to foster sustainability and ongoing technical support.

Greater detail on specific functions for each agency is detailed below:

Duties and Responsibilities

This role has a dual reporting structure, via both UNDP and WHO. Administrative management is via UNDP. Technical oversight and management is via both UNDP and WHO.

At UNDP, the contract holder reports to the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative. The contract holder is responsible for the management of all UNDP staff working on the Health Governance Portfolio.

At WHO, the contract holder reports to the WHO Universal Health Coverage & Disease Control Team Coordinator. (matrix reporting)

Perform WHO Responsibilities

The Health Governance Specialist will provide technical expertise to the development and timely implementation of WHO Viet Nam’s health systems strengthening agenda, with a focus on regulatory reform, access to quality medical products, and rational use of medicines. This work will contribute to WHO’s broader efforts to strengthen integrated, people-centered health systems aligned with international standards and national priorities. Responsibilities include:

Lead WHO’s work on access to medical products including the following aspects:

• Support the Development and Implementation of Vaccine and Medicines Regulatory Institutional Development Plans (IDP): Identify strategic priorities within the IDP together with MOH and leverage WHO’s technical experts to support regulatory strengthening as benchmarking follow-up actions;
• Support the Development of Medical Devices Law: Provide technical assistance for the development and review of the Medical Devices Law and related sub-law documents, ensuring consistency with global best practices and WHO recommendations;
• Support the Development of the National Medicines Policy: Provide technical support to the drafting and consultation processes for Viet Nam’s National Medicines Policy, promoting alignment with WHO frameworks and principles of equitable access, quality assurance, and appropriate use;
• Support to Improve Access to Quality Medical Products: Contribute to WHO’s work on improving access to safe, effective, and affordable medical products, with an initial focus on technical inputs to reference pricing, medical product nomenclature, and product categorization;
• Technical Inputs to Other WHO Priorities: Provide technical inputs to other areas of WHO Viet Nam’s work that intersect with health systems governance, clinical governance, digital health innovation, and access to medical products, as needed and in line with evolving country needs and workplans.

Perform UNDP Responsibilities

The Health Governance Specialist will provide strategic leadership for the development, resourcing and implementation of a Health Governance Portfolio. The role will position UNDP’s contribution around its comparative advantages in governance, institutional strengthening, accountability, inclusion, digital transformation and development financing, complementing WHO’s specialized health mandate. Responsibilities include:

• Strategic Advisory and Portfolio Leadership: Define the strategic direction and priorities of UNDP Viet Nam’s Health Governance Portfolio, ensuring alignment with national priorities, the UNDP Country Programme and UNDP’s governance mandate, and advise senior management and government counterparts on emerging health-governance challenges and opportunities;
• Programme Development and Oversight: Lead the design and substantive oversight of health-governance programmes and projects, including results frameworks, implementation arrangements, risk-management measures and sustainability strategies, and ensure the quality of key programme deliverables, reports and policy products;
• Partnerships & Policy Engagement: Provide strategic leadership across UNDP’s work on health-sector governance and integrity, access to quality medical products, responsible digital transformation, healthy ageing, disability-inclusive care and the care economy, ensuring coherence across these areas;
• Promote Resource Mobilization: Identify and develop financing and partnership opportunities for the Health Governance Portfolio and lead the substantive preparation of concept notes, in coordination with relevant teams;
• Portfolio and Team Management: Manage personnel assigned to the Health Governance Portfolio and oversee portfolio-level planning, performance, budgeting, reporting and risk management, while promoting collaboration with other UNDP portfolios affecting public-health outcomes.

Facilitate knowledge management

Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned that are generated from the project and implementing partners.

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

Competencies

Core

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

People Management

UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site

Cross-functional & 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.
• Strategic Thinking: Develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s mission and objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, opportunities and potential risks; link the general vision to reality on the ground to create tangible targeted solutions; learn from a variety of sources to anticipate and effectively respond to both current and future trends; demonstrate foresight.

Digital

• Portfolio design & management: Ability to identify leverage points in systems and design interventions that address them. The value of the interventions is determined not in isolation, but as part of the overall portfolio and their coherence; Ability to design processes that extract learning on an ongoing basis from existing portfolios, so that learning accrues over time and new options for action are continuously generated; Build a learning ecosystem around a complex development challenge: being able to mobilize a variety of stakeholders and help them learn and work together; Understand key principles of systems and complexity theory.
• Innovation Management: Being able to create the, strategies, conditions, structures and systems to enable innovation at an organizational level; Ability to navigate uncertainty and ambiguity, is able manage projects based principles of adaptation and emergence; Ability to shape demand for innovation services, navigate political constraints and make the case for allocation of resources to innovation, connect the appropriate innovation approaches based on business needs and make the case for innovation to be integrated at the planning level within their context; Having in-depth theoretical and experiential knowledge of innovation processes, methods, capabilities.

2030 Agenda: Peace

• Governance: Anti-Corruption
• Health: Universal Health Coverage
• Health: Health Resilience and Sustainable Systems for Health

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Public Health, Governance, Health Innovation, or a related field is required. Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years (with master’s degree) or 9 years (with bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible experience in health governance, health-system strengthening, public-sector reform, health policy, regulatory systems or a closely related field is required.

Required skills & experience:

• Demonstrated experience in providing strategic or policy advisory support on health governance, health-system reform or institutional strengthening is required;
• Demonstrated experience in designing, managing or overseeing complex programmes involving government and development partners is required;
• Experience in partnership development, stakeholder coordination and resource mobilization is required;
• Experience in at least one of the following areas is required: governance of medical products, health-sector integrity and accountability, digital health governance, quality of care, or inclusive systems of care.

Desired skills:

• Experience of working in Viet Nam or in a comparable middle-income-country context is an asset;
• Experience of working within the UN system or other international development organizations is an asset;
• Experience in developing successful funding proposals or strategic partnerships is an asset;
• Experience in responsible digital transformation, data governance or regulation of digital health is an asset;
• Experience in managing multidisciplinary teams or cross-agency programmes is an asset;
• Experience and knowledge of health-sector procurement, pharmaceutical regulation or medical-device governance is an asset.

Required Languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Professional Certificates

Project management certification is preferred (PMP, PRINCE2, or other similar).

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.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

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