Policy and Institutions Analyst at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• In this context, the Analyst will build on the progress and achievements in past years and will aim to support policy processes to enable the contribution of forest-based solutions to climate change mitigation. The main objective is to assist government and other national/regional stakeholders to consolidate progress on their processes and initiatives on forest solutions and forest finance instruments such as carbon markets in Kenya, while fostering UNDP synergies and harnessing new finance opportunities in the domain.

Duties And Responsibilities
The Policy and Institutions Analyst will support the UNDP Climate & Forest work in East Africa, with a focus in Kenya, as follows:

• NDC implementation, financing and tracking: Support to the forest pillar of the UNDP Climate Promise initiative in Kenya, notably the effective operationalization and management of the IPLC Community Grants Programme and the development of the NDC implementation plan/roadmap for the LULUCF sector linked to the REDD+ National Strategy and REDD+ Investment Plan;
• National REDD+ process consolidation : Support to UNDP Kenya on the consolidation of national REDD+ outcomes from the REDD+ Readiness Project as follows: 1) finalization of the National REDD+ Investment Plan, and support government and stakeholders to identify 1-2 REDD+ priority interventions in Kenya, aligning and exploring investments through other climate finance instruments such as green bonds; 2) operationalization of the Safeguards Information System, and support with the submission of the Kenya’s first Summary of Information to the UNFCCC Secretariat; and 3) development of a jurisdictional REDD+ concept to accelerate the implementation of forest-based solutions (this will be one of the REDD+ priority interventions defined in (1));
• Carbon markets readiness support: Supportto on-going institutional and regulatory capacity building process for implementing Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, including the finalization of the national Carbon Markets Access Strategy, further engagement into the LEAF, and sumbmission of a TREES document to the ART/TREES Secretariat;
• International Kenya Outreach: Support the engagement and positioning of Kenya on forest and climate solutions in Africa-wide and international processes, including organization of events at the Africa Climate Summit, the Africa Climate Week and the Climate COP28; in collaboration with the the Forest Declaration Platform and the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership;
• Knowledge Management & Regional Cooperation: Support regional knowledge exchanges and south-south experience sharing between Kenya and other developing countries on various thematic areas (such as carbon markets, nesting). Generation and dissemination of knowledge products and communication materials related to the above-mentioned streams, including progress and innovations of Kenya on forest protection/restoration, NDC implementation and financing, Support regional country and stakeholder events in which the UNDP Climate & Forests team engages;
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Policy and Institutions Analyst will report to the Senior Regional Technical Advisor, Climate & Forests (Africa), together with the UNDP/Kenya Environment Team Leader. S/he will be office-based, following arrangements with the UNDP Kenya Country Office, and will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment.

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.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

• 2030 Agenda: Planet: Nature, Climate & Energy : Climate & Forests: National REDD+ Strategies and Processes
• 2030 Agenda: Planet: Nature, Climate & Energy: Climate & Forests: Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
• 2030 Agenda: Planet: Nature, Climate & Energy: Climate Change Policies: Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)

Digital & Innovation: Futures & foresight: Ability to look at information from the past and present, identify patterns and trends and use them to inform decision making with a long-term view.

• Being sensitive and able to scan horizons and pick up weak signals of change, explore their potential implications and assess their impact and urgency.
• Using creativity and imagination to communicate insights in compelling and engaging ways to challenge current mental models; ability to develop scenarios, speculative designs to present future visions or by making it experiential.
• Being able to facilitate debate and discussion about possible futures; help people to feel comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty.

Digital & Innovation: Solutions mapping:Ability to appreciate and integrate various sources of knowledge (academic, experiential, observational, traditional, indigenous) in problem solving processes.

• Having the sensitivity and ability to identify grassroots solutions, capacities, assets, coping strategies that impacted communities have developed or used to address (emerging) development challenges.
• Being able to understand these solutions from a people's perspective and learn about the conditions that enable or prevent communities from developing such grassroots solutions or coping mechanisms.
• Understand how solutions and needs are paired, and how grassroots solutions can be used as an entry point to identify unaddressed or unmet development challenges and how to use these insights to inform policy design.
• Ability to reverse engineer solutions, understanding what aspects (artefactual, principles, conditions, configuration) can be scaled and how, being able to assess their potential to be transferred to other domains, regions or contexts and build a case for that.
• Ability to appreciate and integrate various sources of knowledge (academic, experiential, observational, traditional, indigenous) in problem solving processes. Set up structures and processes to collect ideas, solutions and facilitate matchmaking between supply and demand of solutions."
• Business Direction and 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.
• 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.

Education
Required Skills and Experience

• Master´s degree in environment, agriculture, international development, management, social sciences or other relevant fields;
• Bachelor´s degree in a relevant field with additional 2 years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master´s degree.

Experience

• Minimum of 2 years experience (with master's degree ) or 4 years experience (with bachelor's degree) of progressive work experience in natural resources management and sustainable development.

Required Skills

• Experience in policy work and/or projects/ partnerships for sustainable development in Kenya or East Africa;
• Experience and strong knowledge on climate change mitigation themes.

Desired Skills

• Direct working experience with REDD+ is an advantage;
• Experience in engaging with the multiple sectors, including the agriculture, forest and land use sector is desirable;
• Experience in organizing and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue processes between governments, the private sector and civil society, including building stakeholder consensus is an advantage;
• Experience with UNDP country offices or UNDP projects is an advantage;
• Experience in sustainable agricultural, natural resource management related policies, investments and systems is an advantage.

Required Language(s)

• Fluency in English and the national language of the duty station is required.

Apply Before

06/05/2024