UN-REDD Management Group Organizational Review Consultant 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.
• The UN-REDD Programme, a joint initiative between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was established to bring together the UN system support for forests and climate. It is the UN joint programme on forest solutions to the climate crisis, building on the convening role and technical expertise the three afore-mentioned agencies.
• Over the past years, UN-REDD has completed a structural transition, becoming a "knowledge and advisory platform" with the overall goal to help countries fully implement forest solutions to the climate emergency and mobilise finance for that. The current UN-REDD offer is to provide technical and policy expertise from the partner agencies to the partner countries under a common UN umbrella, seeking to help the global delivery of 1 Gigatonne CO2e reduction from forests, to help mobilise USD 5 billion in results-based climate finance for forests, and to assist over 15 pioneer forest countries implement and enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) forest commitments, all by 2025. This ambitious agenda requires speed, scale and flexibility – hence the need of revising and streamlining the management and operational modalities.
• In this context, the Programme is seeking to ensure that the Programme's functioning is fit-for-purpose for the decade ahead and that the Management Group as the operational hub for UN-REDD is efficient and employs adequate SOPs. For that, the UN-REDD Management Group is seeking to continue the facilitation support process initiated in 2022, to examine how the internal management systems and processes are implemented, serving the strategic objectives of the partnership, while exploring holistically means of improving efficiencies, inter-agency effectiveness and, ultimately, high-quality country services.
• This internal exercise is focused on and intended for the Management Group (MG), which is made of a total of eight members representing managers from the three UN-REDD agencies (one member and one alternate per UN-REDD agency) and the Secretariat (the Head of the Secretariat and one programme management officer). The MG has played an instrumental role in managing operations of the UN-REDD Programme throughout the years, ensuring effective coordination of the Programme implementation between agencies.
• The objective of this exercise is to support the MG in strengthening its operational practices and processes and ensuring they are fit-for-purpose for the new phase of the UN-REDD Programme. This position is home based, under the administrative supervision of Head of the UN-REDD Secretariat and overall guidance by the UN-REDD Management Group.

Qualifications/special Skills

• An advanced-level university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in International Relations, Environment, or related field is required.
• A minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible working experience in facilitation/ moderation/ negotiation processes, organizational reviews, and other aspects of business processes especially in international organisations is required.
• Skills: Strong facilitation skills, experience with organisational reviews, business processes, knowledge of climate affairs and international partnerships. Strong English writing skills are required.