Sustainable Blue Economy Expert for Development of Integrated, Ecosystem-based Land-Sea Planning Guidelines for Kenyan Coast at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities

• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. Its mandate is tcoordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues tthe attention of governments and the international community for action.
• UNEP's Ecosystems Division works with international and national partners, providing technical assistance and capacity development for the implementation of environmental policy, and strengthening the environmental management capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. This post is in UNEP, Ecosystems Division at Marine and Freshwater Branch, under the direct supervision of Programme Management Officer.

Background:

• Kenya’s coast is endowed with rich natural resources, which drive the local and national economy besides supporting the livelihoods of local communities through provision of various ecosystem goods and services. These resources include coral reefs, seagrass beds, forests (both mangroves and terrestrial), fisheries, freshwater bodies, extractives among others. These resources are crucial in the development and achievement of Kenya’s Blue Economy ambitions. However, these resources which have supported community livelihoods for millennia with about 60% contribution tthe national economy are being degraded thus diminishing their inherent potential tprovide the much-needed goods and services.
• Integrated land sea planning proposed in the Go-Blue project as an approach treconcile sectoral conflicts, offers a great opportunity tengender sustainable management of the country’s coastal and marine resources. Under the County Government Act 2012, each county is by law required tdevelop their County Spatial Plan. What has not been deliberately factored intthis planning, is the fact that share trans-county resources mentioned above, making it necessary that from a planning perspective, counties must think beyond their geographical boundaries and work on mechanisms for integrated management of shared resources. This makes the integrated ecosystem-based land-sea planning framework guidelines under the Go-blue critical and timely as well.

Objective:

• Tprovide technical expertise tdevelop a consultative Integrated, Ecosystem-based land-sea Regional Planning guidelines enabling sustainable blue economies in the JKP region (GBlue Output 2.1) in order tharmonize and integrate land-based spatial planning and marine spatial planning approaches and practices at a national and regional county-level for sustainable development of Kenya’s blue economy.
• The addd-value of such Regional Planning guidelines will be:
• Enhanced knowledge and awareness of shared marine and coastal natural resources/blue economy assets across JKP counties at County and National scale.
• Enhanced information and scenarios on environmental and socio-economic impacts of maritime and land-based human activities on marine and coastal ecosystem services/blue economy assets across JKP counties at County and National scale.
• Enhanced capacity of counties and national government in policy-making and planning enabling sustainable management, use and protection of transboundary coastal and marine ecosystems and natural resources via integrated, ecosystem-based land-sea planning.

Scope of Work

• The development of the integrated land-sea guidelines must be tailored tthe environmental, social and economic domains within the specific Kenyan and counties contexts and be closely aligned with the national Marine Spatial Planning Framework under preparation. The guidelines will support the national government and the 6 counties of the JKP region intidentifying local synergies that need tbe prioritized in order tsupport a SBE. Treach this point, a shared regional vision/strategy/blueprint needs tbe developed together with the National Agencies (e.g. KMFRI, other) and the 6 counties of the region, ensuing transboundary marine and terrestrial ecosystems and natural resources are at the core of integrated land-sea policy-making, planning and management. A well-informed regional vision and strategy, requires a participatory process and the integration of the Spatial multicriteria analysis (MCA) and Capital Investment Planning (CIP) from UN-Habitat with UNEP’s Ecosystem-based Management Framework and Sustainable Blue Economy Transition Framework (SBE-TF). This will require the building of a team of three (3) experts in the domains of Marine, Land-use planning and Sustainable Blue Economy policy and economics, supported by twlocal experts in the fields of Kenyan sectoral legislations and governance and Kenyan marine protection.
• The Integrated, Ecosystem-based land-sea Regional planning guidelines aim tsupport the development of a Sustainable Blue Economy by considering and outlining relevant policy and governance arrangements and blue economy activities affecting the marine and coastal area across county jurisdictions, and how tdevelop these in an integrated way. These guidelines must be tailored tthe environmental, social and economic within the specific Kenyan and counties contexts.

Assignment tbe undertaken by the consultant

• The expert will, in close collaboration with the team of experts, and under the supervision of UN-Habitat and UNEP GBlue Planning Coordinators:
• Review key global, policies, legislation, strategies, guidelines and best practices relevant tSustainable Blue Economy planning in JKP region;
• Review Kenyan national policies, legislations and practices in the application of SBE-TF in ecosystem-based land-sea planning guidelines design, e.g. reflect system links, integrated policy framework, resource governance, spatial planning;
• Analyze national capacity and gaps as well as opportunities, including partnerships and collaborations in SBE, MSP and LSP in Kenya;
• Identify gaps and opportunities for integrating SBE, MSP with LSP and management in the Kenya Coast and propose strategies for overcoming challenges in terms of:
• Working across different counties and administrative levels with different approaches tmarine space; and
• Linking SBE, LSP and MSP processes that might be at different stages across the land-sea interface.
• Preparations of scenarios for transboundary resource use/impacts – blue economy sector strategies/opportunity
• Conduct interviews and meetings with selected stakeholders aimed thighlight interests and opportunities in SBE and better understand the context for the guidelines application and its application in the Regional Vision and Strategy;

Develop Integrated SBE spatial vision:

• Develop theory of change for SBE development across JKP region
• Strategic SBE spatial objectives (aligned with national marine spatial planning framework, climate change, etc.)
• Blue economy transition readiness assessment for JKP counties, including identifying enabling environment for implementation, capital investment planning and sustainable blue economy financing options.
• Conduct regular meetings with UN-Habitat and UNEP GBlue Planning Coordinators regarding the status of advancement of the work;
• Present the draft Strategy for technical review tthe JKP and GBlue team.
• Conduct twvirtual Expert Group Meetings with selected experts in order tvalidate the first draft of the guidelines and the final draft. The EGMs will be either online and/or in presence;
• Draft the Integrated, Ecosystem-based land-sea Regional Planning guidelines that will detail:
• Methodology tunderstand the system, and analyses the environmental, social economic baseline conditions and policy/institutional baseline within and across JKP counties tunderstand the starting point, including gaps and opportunities for a regional transition ta Sustainable Blue Economy;
• Methodology trealize the Strategic Vision development, including Policy analysis and assessment; realization of the strategic visioning process (with counties and national stakeholders) setting goals, operational objectives, targets and indicators for SBE at county/regional scale, development of the Integrated SBE spatial vision; development of Policy coherence analysis for JKP region; identification of blue economy sector strategies/opportunities; development integrated policy framework for sustainable blue economic development across JKP region.
• Methodology for the Integrated Ecosystem-based land-sea Regional Planning guidelines development, analysing existing/evolving spatial planning framework across the counties and identifying synergies that may support inter-county and ecosystem-based land-sea planning and prioritisation. It will include guidance for the analysis of existing/evolving marine and terrestrial policies, plans, and projects, for the gap analysis of counties/areas without existing and/or current plans and policies, for the implementation of validation workshops with key stakeholders, and application of multi-criteria analysis against vision objectives.
• Overall Implementation strategy for the Regional Vision, explaining how Operationalise/pilot Regional Ecosystem-based land-sea planning guidelines at county-level, incl. monitoring and evaluation system/metrics.
• Develop a SBE Action Plan for JKP Counties aligned tthe national BE Strategy and building on the completed BE sectors assessment report.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree (Masters or PhD) in subjects related tenvironmental or marine science, aquatic sciences, coastal development, urbanization, natural resource management, or related field of studies is required.
• Must have at least 7 years of work experience related tthe study priorities is required.
• Familiarity with Sustainable Development Goals in relation tSDG 14 on Life Below Water is desirable.
• Demonstrate previous experience conducting similar assignments at regional or global level is desirable.
• Excellent writing, communication, and presentation skills preferably with proven experience working in subjects related tSustainable Blue Economy.
• Publications. researchers whhave published in peer-reviewed journals will be given preference.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in excellent oral and written communication skills in English is required. 
• Fluency in other United Nations language is an advantage.

Ref: 08th August 2023