Human Resources Expert - CDR

Country: Lebanon Organization: UN Development Programme Closing date: 21 Oct 2026 POSITION INFORMATION • Organization: UNDP Lebanon Through Stars Orbit Consultants and Management Development • VA No.: UNDP/LBN/VA26/199 • Position Title: Human Resources Expert - CDR • Duty Station: Beirut • Duration: 3 months (without exceeding 11 working days per month) • Vacancy Date of Issue: 14 October 2026 • Vacancy Closure Date: 21 October 2026 • National or International consultancy: National consultancy To review the full Terms of Reference (TOR), please follow link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zPWKGabdFSzUtF9pkcm7vR_poJ8-_L84/view?usp=drive_link BACKGROUND For over six years, Lebanon has been facing a prolonged economic, financial, and social crisis. The country experienced multiple shocks, including economic and financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut Port explosion, and, most recently, more than a year-long armed conflict that caused extensive damage and losses. These developments led to a severe economic contraction, depreciation of the Lebanese Pound, soaring inflation, fiscal imbalances, and a sharp decline in the real value of income, particularly affecting public sector employees. As a result, state institutions have been struggling to deliver on their mandates due to lack of financial resources and a significant loss of skilled professionals in the public sector. Against this backdrop, the capacity for evidence-based policymaking, regulation, and the delivery of priorities has been severely constrained by the crises. The state continues to face major resource and capacity constraints in responding to the crisis, supporting post-conflict recovery, and addressing structural challenges. At the same time, there is limited visibility over development aid directed to Lebanon. Since the 2019 collapse, most donors have made funding conditional on broad reforms and progress toward an IMF agreement. As a result, only a small share of aid has been channeled through government systems. Most grants and loans remain off-budget, creating a disconnect between aid inflows and national public finance management. The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), operating under the Council of Ministers, plays a central role in Lebanon’s development planning, infrastructure projects, coordination with development partners, and reconstruction efforts. The prolonged crisis has placed pressure on its human resources and operational capacity, highlighting the need to strengthen its institutional arrangements, organizational structure, and business processes to respond effectively to evolving priorities. In response, a comprehensive Functional and Business Process Review of CDR was undertaken to assess the institution’s existing functions, organizational arrangements, business processes, governance mechanisms, and staffing requirements, and to identify measures to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. The findings and recommendations of the review have been consolidated in an implementation roadmap. The roadmap distinguishes between measures that can be implemented within the existing legal and regulatory framework, referred to as the Interim Arrangements, and reforms that require amendments to Decree No. 10941 of 2003 and Decree No. 10942 of 2003, referred to as the Target Roadmap. The implementation of these reforms is structured in stages, with the present assignment supporting measures identified for implementation under Stage 1. To this end, there is a need to strengthen the human resource function itself, including its organization, processes, policies, systems, and service delivery arrangements. A strengthened HR function is essential to support workforce planning, recruitment, performance management, staff development, career progression, and other core personnel processes, while also providing the institutional capacity required to support the wider CDR reform programme. In this context, the HR function needs to move beyond the administration of personnel matters toward a more structured and integrated approach to workforce management aligned with CDR's functions, organizational structure, and operational priorities. Accordingly, UNDP seeks to recruit a Human Resources Expert to support CDR in implementing the human resource measures under Stage 1 of the reform roadmap. The Expert will review and update the existing and proposed job descriptions against the applicable legislative framework and operational requirements, reassess the HR function identified, and translate the findings into an HR Strategy, HR Policies and Procedures Manual, and target operating model for the Human Resources Department. The assignment will also ensure that the HR Strategy incorporates the human resource requirements arising from other reform areas, including change management and the development and implementation of a Human Resource Information System. Through this assignment, the Expert will contribute to establishing a clearer, more functional, and sustainable human resource framework for CDR, with defined roles and responsibilities, updated job descriptions, appropriate HR policies and procedures, and an operating model capable of supporting both CDR's immediate staffing needs and the longer-term institutional reforms identified in the roadmap. SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK Under the general supervision of the UNDP Senior Economist and LPARD-P Project manager, and in close coordination with the initiative’s team leads from UNDP and CDR, the Human Resources Expert will be responsible for the following: Workstream 1. Assessment of the Human Resource Function and HR Strategy • Review human resource arrangements, relevant institutional findings and proposed reform priorities to establish the baseline for the assessment. • Review the legal and regulatory framework that governs CDR staff, including Decree No. 10941 of 2003, Decree No. 10942 of 2003, Section 54 of the 2004 Budget Law, the Council of Ministers freeze on hiring and promotion, the allowance decrees issued between 2021 and 2025, the Council of Ministers decision of 19 June 2025 and the internal regulations of CDR, and record for each human resource process the rule that governs it and the authority that approves it. • Validate the workforce baseline with the Administrative Affairs Division, covering filled and vacant mandated posts, individual contractors, project implementation unit personnel, projected retirements, resignations and multi-role assignments, and identify any figures that are not substantiated by the available records. • Assess the mandate, organization, staffing and capacity of the Human Resources Department within the Administrative Affairs Division. • Map the human resource processes as they operate today, covering workforce planning, recruitment and onboarding, personnel records, attendance and leave, performance evaluation and promotion, training, discipline, and separation and end-of-service, and record where a process is informal, paper-based or undocumented. • Identify the gaps between current practice, the legal framework and the needs of the reformed structure, and distinguish the gaps that CDR can close within the current legal framework from those that depend on the amendment of Decree No. 10941 and Decree No. 10942. • Establish the baseline and the method of measurement for human resource indicators including the employee-satisfaction baseline survey, coordinated with the staff survey used for the change indicators so that staff are surveyed once. • Prepare the HR Strategy for CDR, setting out its objectives, priority measures, responsibilities and sequence, aligned with the Target Roadmap and the Interim Arrangements, and addressing the vacancy, multi-role and key-person dependency risks identified. • Set out in the Strategy the recruitment route for the transitional period and the longer-term recruitment model, consistent with the position on the Civil Service Board mandate. • Define the target operating model of the Human Resources Department, comprising its functions, roles, reporting lines and staffing, and its role as business owner of the Human Resource Information System. • Set out in the Strategy the human resource input to the Change Management Committee on the resistance factors linked to restructuring, redeployment and remuneration, and coordinate the staff messages on these matters with the Change Management and Communications Expert. • Set out in the Strategy the business requirements of the Human Resources Department for the Human Resource Information System identified, validating the human resource process definitions, the business rules for attendance, leave and missions, and the employee data structure, and confirming the legal basis of the end-of-service calculation before any procurement. • Prepare the action plan that implements the Strategy, with responsibilities assigned by post and timing reconciled with the master roadmap. Workstream 2. Review and Update of Job Descriptions • Compile the inventory of the job descriptions already prepared, comprising those prepared by the Administrative Affairs Division including identified positions, Terms of Reference, job description summaries and IT Department job descriptions, and identify the existing and new posts for which no description exists. • Review each JD against the applicable legislation, including the ranks, sub-grades and qualification requirements under Decree No. 10942, the divisional and departmental mandates under Decree No. 10941 and the reformed structure, and, for procurement posts, the requirements of Law No. 244 of 2021 on the competencies and career paths of procurement staff. • Review each description against the operational needs of CDR, testing with the Heads of Division whether the scope of work, reporting lines, decision rights and qualifications correspond to the work the role performs under the redesigned business processes. • Harmonize the descriptions into a single template that records, for each post, the interim placement within the current structure and the position under the reformed structure, so that the same document serves recruitment now and redeployment later. • Update the descriptions on the basis of the review, remove overlaps between posts, reflect the segregation of duties required in the financial management, procurement and ICT processes, and complete the descriptions for the posts not yet covered. • Reconcile the rank assigned to each post with the indicative costing identified, and record each discrepancy for the remuneration and financing proposal. • Confirm the updated descriptions with the Heads of Division and prepare the submission through which the Board approves them. • Prepare the procedure through which the Administrative Affairs Division maintains the descriptions as the structure changes, and brief the Division on its application. Workstream 3. HR Policies, Performance Management and Capacity Development • Prepare the HR Policies and Procedures Manual, documenting each human resource process with its steps, responsibilities, approvals, time standards and forms, and removing steps whose risk does not justify them before the process is digitized. • Review the performance-evaluation system for promotion reactivated in 2025, and propose how it draws on the updated job descriptions within the promotion rules of Decree No. 10942. • Prepare the human resource provisions on employee protection, covering discrimination and workplace misconduct, conflict-of-interest declarations for staff holding more than one role, and disciplinary consequences for retaliation, in coordination with the Audit Committee, which owns the whistleblower policy set out, and with the Workplace Integrity and Gender Mainstreaming Expert. • Prepare the competency-based capacity development strategy, consolidating the role-based learning pathways with the identified function-specific training and defining the training-needs assessment method, the format of the annual training plan and the pre- and post-training assessment of competency. EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES The consultant is expected to complete the above tasks and activities within 3 months (without exceeding 11 working days per month). INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS • The consultant shall perform tasks with day-to-day management and the direct supervision of the designated project manager or institutional focal point. • UNDP will be responsible for providing the contractor with all necessary materials related to the project in a timely thorough and transparent manner. UNDP will be also responsible to provide clarifications and facilitation of the work. • Day-to-day transportation from home to office (and vice versa) shall be covered by the consultant’s own means. The Consultant will rely on his own means of communication and transportation. DURATION OF WORK The assigned duration for this consultancy is 3 months without exceeding 11 working days a month. The mission is expected to commence immediately after contract signature and be completed within three months from the contract signature date. The time needed to review/complete/approve deliverables and output is (5) working days. DUTY STATION The consultant will work from home with regular field visits to CDR - Beirut, Republic of Lebanon. STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS • Education: Master’s degree or equivalent in Human Resources Management, Public Administration, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Management, Public Policy, Law, or a related field. • Experience: At least 10 years of combined professional experience in: (i) assessing and strengthening human resource functions and organizational structures, including workforce planning, HR processes, job descriptions, performance management, recruitment, staff development and HR policies; and (ii) designing and implementing HR strategies, operating models, policies and procedures, including HR information systems and competency-based capacity development frameworks. • Language: Fluency in the Arabic and English languages (both written and oral). “The Personnel will be covered with Health insurance and Personal accident insurance; the fees shall be deducted from personnel's monthly payment”. How to apply To apply for this position please follow the link below. Kindly note only CVs received through the link will be considered for this position. Link to Apply: https://vacancies.my-soc.org/apply/20261013101350/VACANCY-6ACE045E0ACEC TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO APPLY • CV or P11 Form including 3 references must be submitted online in PDF along with your Education Graduation Certificate. • Use English language only. • indicate clear years of experience with each job (Month/Year) • If the candidate is currently employed by a government institution, he/she must be able to provide an unpaid leave of absence for the duration of the consultancy. • Only candidates who are short-listed will be contacted. • By submitting your application, you have read the Terms of Reference for this position and agree that any false, wrong, or incomplete information might lead to your disqualification in this recruitment process.