Institutional Reform Officer

Lebanon
Institutional Reform Officer
Organization
UN Development Programme
Posted
27 Jul 2026
Closing date
30 Jul 2026
POSITION INFORMATION
VA No.: UNDP/LBN/VA26/122
Position Title: Institutional Reform Officer
Duty Station: Beirut
Duration: 4 months (without exceeding 14 working days per month)
Vacancy Date of Issue: 23 July 2026
Vacancy Closure Date: 30 July 2026
National or International consultancy: National consultancy
To review the full Terms of Reference (TOR), please follow link:
https: //drive.google.com/file/d/1DAhQggYnP_lR9DO0pmDpGDmkIuaMqDPK/view
BACKGROUND
For over six years, Lebanon has been facing a prolonged economic, financial, and social crisis. The country has experienced multiple shocks, including an economic and financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut Port explosion, and, most recently, an armed conflict lasting more than a year 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 struggled to fulfil their mandates due to a lack of financial resources and a significant loss of skilled public-sector professionals. Against this backdrop, the country’s capacity for evidence-based policymaking, regulation, and the delivery of national priorities has been severely constrained.
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 regarding development aid directed to Lebanon.
Since the economic collapse in 2019, most donors have made funding conditional upon the implementation of broad reforms and progress towards an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Consequently, only a small proportion of aid has been channelled through government systems. Most grants and loans remain off-budget, creating a disconnect between aid inflows and national public financial management systems.
To address the implications of these crises, UNDP has been supporting the Government of Lebanon in restoring its core functions, resuming its role in service delivery, and implementing priority reforms. This support links traditional public administration, civil service, and policy reforms with a digital transformation process, with the ultimate objective of reactivating the social contract.
In response, the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR) launched
Reinventing Government 2030
, one of Lebanon’s most ambitious initiatives to modernize the State and rebuild citizens’ trust in public institutions.
The reform vision is structured around the following three phases:
Phase 1: Stakeholder Aspirations – Listen, Analyse and Prepare
OMSAR engaged thousands of stakeholders, including citizens, young people, members of the diaspora, civil servants, municipalities, civil society organizations, unions, media representatives, and political and religious leaders. Engagement took place through surveys, workshops, town hall meetings, and interviews.
This participatory phase produced a unified vision and validated national reform aspirations.
Phase 2: Blueprint Design for Government Restructuring
This phase aims to reorganize ministries and public agencies by:
Redefining institutional mandates;
Eliminating fragmentation and duplicated functions;
Designing a Target Operating Model tailored to Lebanon;
Benchmarking against international governance models; and
Ensuring alignment with stakeholder aspirations and the future needs of the State.
Phase 3: Full Implementation – 2026–2030
This phase will involve implementing the restructuring plan, introducing digital and process reforms, reskilling human capital, and establishing performance-based management across government institutions.
Following the completion of Phase 1, OMSAR launched Phase 2 of the reform programme. Central to this phase is a baseline assessment of the current state of affairs within the Government of Lebanon.
The reform design is set out in the Conceptual Framework, which provides the basic outline for the baseline assessment. It envisages a functional analysis of the Government of Lebanon across horizontal and vertical axes.
The horizontal axis establishes four universal government functions:
National direction and policy setting;
Licensing and regulation;
Service delivery; and
Delivery oversight and surveillance.
The vertical axis provides a thematic and sectoral classification of the governance model. In particular, it identifies seven clusters, 28 sectors, and approximately 120 subsectors in which the Government of Lebanon has competencies under existing legislation.
This classification represents a consolidated list of sectors derived from six international classification systems, including those of the United Nations Classification of the Functions of Government, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, and S&P Global, as well as governance benchmarks from Rwanda and Singapore.
Following several rounds of consultations with OMSAR, UNDP Lebanon developed and validated a methodology for conducting the baseline assessment in line with the priorities established in the Conceptual Framework.
The methodology is based on a rigorous research design to ensure that data is collected from multiple sources. It includes four research methods, with each method designed to build upon the previous one and move the assessment from theoretical institutional mandates towards operational realities:
Desk research;
Surveys;
Key informant interviews; and
Focus groups and validation workshops.
In this context, UNDP Lebanon is supporting OMSAR in designing the reform blueprint and seeks to recruit an Institutional Reform Officer.
The Institutional Reform Officer will support OMSAR’s ongoing administrative reform initiatives by contributing to workstream planning, institutional and governance assessments, benchmarking, reform design, and stakeholder engagement across the initiative.
SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK
Under the supervision of the UNDP Senior Economist and L-PARDP Project Manager, and in close coordination with OMSAR, the Institutional Reform Officer will focus on workstream coordination, institutional and governance assessments, benchmarking, reform design, and stakeholder engagement across Phase 2 of the Reinventing Government 2030 agenda.
The Institutional Reform Officer will be responsible for the following:
Strategic Coordination and Workstream Management
Support the planning, coordination, and management of workstreams under the Reinventing Government 2030 Programme.
Provide support regarding governance reform, institutional transformation, and public-sector modernization priorities.
Institutional and Governance Assessment
Review and contribute to assessments of institutional mandates, roles and responsibilities, and governance arrangements, including the identification of governance inefficiencies, gaps, and overlaps across assigned sectors.
Ensure the coherence of comparative analyses and international benchmarking activities to identify good practices, draw lessons learned, and inform sector-specific reform directions.
Reform Design and Cross-Sector Alignment
Contribute to the development and refinement of reform recommendations aimed at strengthening governance, enhancing institutional effectiveness, and modernizing public administration.
Ensure the consistency, coherence, and alignment of institutional assessments, benchmarking analyses, reform recommendations, and Target Operating Models across sectors and clusters.
Stakeholder Engagement, Analytical Consolidation and Reporting
Support the consolidation of inputs received from consultants, sector experts, and ministries into analytical notes and reform summaries.
Support consultations, interviews, and technical engagements with ministers, senior government officials, directors general, regulatory bodies, focal points, and subject-matter experts to gather input, validate findings, and support decision-making.
Contribute to consolidating findings, recommendations, and technical outputs into integrated materials for review by the Minister and senior leadership.
EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES
The Consultant is expected to complete the tasks and activities outlined above. The total duration of the assignment shall not exceed four months, with a total of 14 working days per month.
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
The Consultant will work under the overall guidance of the UNDP Senior Economist and L-PARDP Project Manager and in close coordination with the OMSAR focal point.
UNDP will provide the Consultant with all necessary project-related materials in a timely, thorough, and transparent manner. UNDP will also provide the required clarifications and facilitate the completion of the work.
Daily transportation between the Consultant’s home and office shall be covered by the Consultant’s own means. The Consultant shall rely on their own means of communication and transportation.
DURATION OF WORK
The assigned duration of the consultancy is four months, with 14 working days per month.
The assignment is expected to commence immediately upon signature of the contract and to be completed by the end of December 2026.
The time required to review, comment on, and approve deliverables and outputs is five working days.
DUTY STATION
The duty station is the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform in Beirut, Republic of Lebanon.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education
Master's degree in Public Administration, Public Policy, Business Administration, Economics, Development Studies, or a related field.
At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in project management, consulting, quality assurance, or organizational/institutional reform, including exposure to public sector or governance contexts.
Language: Fluency in Arabic and English (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 choose one of the two options below:
1. Link to Apply:
https: //jobs.my-soc.org/apply/20260723103720/mSQeOhobw34z96qcGi0DV8nlg
2. You can send your CV with the cover letter to this email:
jobs@starsorbit.org
. Please write (UNDP/LBN/VA26/122) in the subject of the email.
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.
Job details
Country
Lebanon
Source
UN Development Programme
Type
Consultancy
Career category
Program/Project Management
Years of experience
5-9 years
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How to apply:
To apply for this position please choose one of the two options below:
1. Link to Apply:
https: //jobs.my-soc.org/apply/20260723103720/mSQeOhobw34z96qcGi0DV8nlg
2. You can send your CV with the cover letter to this email:
jobs@starsorbit.org
. Please write (UNDP/LBN/VA26/122) in the subject of the email.
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.