Over the last years, the Republic of Serbia has stepped up its efforts at closing the digital divide separating it from more advanced EU member states, both through prioritizing the ICT industry as a source of economic growth and through investing more substantial energy into developing a functioning and citizen-oriented system of e-government. The Government of Serbia set digitalization as one of its foremost priorities – a process that should be “the most important catalyst of innovations, competitiveness and growth” for Serbia in the coming years.

With digital transformation of the national economy and public administration high on the government agenda, Serbia has a good chance for future-proofing its administration’s capabilities for rapid deployment of cost-effective, secure and citizen-focused e-services, coordinated implementation of ICT policies, and strategic digital transformation of the economy and society. The trajectory has been set with the establishment of the central Office for IT and e-Government (ITE), strengthening of the Ministerial Council for IT and Innovative Entrepreneurship, launch of the national Center for the 4th Industrial Revolution, establishment of the national AI Institute, as well as significant strides in the digitalization of education, health, and multiple other key areas. 

UNDP Serbia is well equipped to help the Government address the existing development challenges by leveraging cutting-edge global and national expertise, applying digital technologies and solutions, bringing innovation in delivery models, co-creation, collaboration, and advocacy journeys. Globally, UNDP has significant record of achievements in these areas – digital dialogue platforms, personalized communications and engagement at scale solutions. UNDP set out in 2019 to build the world’s largest and fastest learning network on sustainable development challenges, the Accelerator Labs. Serbia was the first country office to host such a lab and today they are present in over 90 countries, creating actionable intelligence and testing solutions with national partners.

UNDP’s portfolio of projects and programs supporting digitalization has likewise grown. The Digital Innovation Portfolio currently includes projects addressing the following areas: 

• Support and capacity development of the Office for IT and e-Government, including support for development of digital services as well as strategic infrastructure such as the National Data Center
• Digital skills development, including the national IT retraining program, future skills in education, and multiple initiatives aimed at closing the digital divide for vulnerable groups
• Governance of emerging technology, including support to the Center for the 4th Industrial Revolution, as well as capacity development of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence
• The national open data initiative and data for development
• Components of various other UNDP projects and pipeline where digital technology plays a strategic role, such as e-health, post-Covid recovery, etc. 

The important pillar of the ITE mandate is open data mainstreaming and building of the open data ecosystem (stimulation of release of machine-readable data). Since 2017, with support of UNDP and donor funds, ITE has built strong open data community, established open data policy and put open data high on the government agenda. ITE aims to continue with support to data stewards and data reuse, with increased presence at the local level. The aim of this initiative is to foster innovation and growth of the Serbian economy, based on open data release and reuse. 

The current portfolio team is seeking to expand with new Project Associate (Open Data), who will be responsible for support to the national open data initiative and data for development, under the guidance of the Portfolio Analyst (Manager).

Under the guidance of the Portfolio Analyst (Manager), the specific responsibilities of the Project Associate will include support to project coordination and implementation with emphasis on the following:

Supporting efficient project implementation 

• Support to capacity building activities offered to the national partner (Office for IT and eGovernment);
• Support to the institutions implementing open data, design of public outreach for open data, training and other capacity building activities as well as development of knowledge products; 
• Contribution to reviewing relevant action plans of institutions participating in project implementation;
• Support ITE in planning of the open data activities;
• Ensure completeness, accuracy and consistency of data on institutions and datasets on the National Open Data Portal, including development and enforcement of the quality standards and rules of user content, in cooperation with state and local institutions providing the data;
• Give inputs for various international open data benchmarks, such as Open Data Maturity Report;
• Support the implementation of the open data programs on the national and sub-national levels;
• Support the effective work of the Open Data Working Group;
• Support to creation of inputs for grants, challenges, and other programs of support to the open data community; 
• Support design and organization of relevant and innovative open data-related events, such as workshops, conferences, or community meetups;
• Perform other duties, as required. 

Support the Office for IT and eGovernment in the partnership building, such as:

• Support to maintenance of good cooperation and coordination between national counterparts, project partners and other relevant stakeholders;
• Support to maintenance of regular contacts with beneficiaries and service providers to ensure relevance and quality of project outputs;
• Support activities related to assessing capacities and needs of government organizations and partners, in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders at both central and local level;
• Support to assurance of the full commitment of project partners to successful implementation of the project; 

Networking, establishment and maintenance of regular dialogue with relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries

• Support to development of communication materials, talking points, and ensuring donor visibility in all project materials;
• Active participation in and support to organization and implementation of meetings, training sessions, conferences, meetups and promotion activities;
• Support to identification of opportunities for project scaling and follow-up; contributing to resource mobilization with inputs for further projects;
• Support to knowledge sharing among project partners. 

Institutional Arrangement

The Project Associate will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the Portfolio Analyst (Manager), Digital & Innovations Portfolio. 

• Proven ability on drafting, presentation and reporting skills; 
• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), and web-based management systems such as ERP.

Desired additional skills and competencies:

• Previous work in the field of open government, e-government, or another related field 
• Understanding and experience of Serbia’s political, institutional and socio-economic situation; 
• Experience in team work and support in implementation of complex projects/processes that included extensive communication, coordination and facilitation requirements;
• Experience in support to partnership building at international, national, regional and local level;
• Experience working in an international organization will be considered as an asset, as well as experience of engagement within the open data community in Serbia or regionally.
• Familiarity/experience with the current policies and legislation on open data and open government; understanding of public administration reform processes and familiarity with the e-government policy framework;
• Familiarity/experience with the open data ecosystem in Serbia; 
• Knowledge and handling of web-based management systems with special focus on visualization and creation of deep dive reporting systems.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability. 
• Experience in Building strong relationships with clients and external actors.  

Required Languages:

• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Serbian and English.

The online application form must be fully completed. Applicants are required to carefully complete their online application form and reflect all of their work experience history in the application. 

Only attaching a CV is not sufficient for applicants to be considered for positions. All applicants have to complete the Experience, Education, Language, and Nationality & Permanent Residence fields fully.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.