Vacant Roles at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of the Nature and Health Unit, and in close coordination with the Nature Frameworks Support unit, the consultant will undertake the following assignments:

• Conduct a review and analysis of the inclusion of Biodiversity and Health into submitted targets and NBSAPs to identify what elements of the GAP are being adopted by countries, to encourage future uptake of biodiversity and health considerations into national biodiversity planning, and to share experiences and lessons learned.
• Support UNEP’s efforts, in collaboration with the CBD Secretariat, the Quadripartite and other partners, to contribute to the development and peer review of integrated science-based indicators, metrics and methodologies for assessing biodiversity and health considerations in national biodiversity planning and policy frameworks.
• Strengthen national, regional, and global capacity to promote the uptake of the Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health and facilitate expert participation in workshops to foster knowledge on the interconnectedness of biodiversity loss and poor health, material development, and the dissemination of good practices and sharing of experiences on biodiversity and health.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or PhD) in One Health, Conservation Biology, Environmental Science, Environment and Health, Environmental Governance or other fields directly relevant to the environmental dimensions of health is required.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience working in integrated, multi-disciplinary or intersectoral approaches to addressing complex challenges at the intersection of nature and health, is required.
• Experience in the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation frameworks is required.
• Demonstrated experience in facilitating workshops, developing presentations, including internal and external stakeholder engagement, and designing and delivering webinars and workshops across digital channels is required.
• Experience in project management, and experience in implementing and overseeing cross-agency programs is required.
• Familiarity working with and conducting critical reviews of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans is desirable.
• Experience in capacity building, technical and scientific cooperation and facilitating dialogues across sectors (e.g., environment, health, agriculture) is desirable.
• Familiarity with UN system operations, procedures, and mandates related to environment and health is desirable.
• Experience working in developing country contexts or support to countries implementing multi-sectoral approaches to complex problems is highly desirable

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Responsibilities

• Provide legal and procedural support to the intersessional INC process
• Provide legal support to the process to INC Secretariat towards preparations and conduct of intergovernmental meetings.
• Conduct research into substantive and procedural legal questions; including advice on rules of procedure.
• Preparation of pre-session documents that address legal questions, including drafts texts of a legal instrument.
• Provides legal and procedural support to the in-session processes of the INC
• Supports the INC Bureau
• Supports the servicing of meetings, for example sessions of the INC, Heads of Delegation meeting
• Supports preparation of procedural advice on the conduct of business of the INC
• Respond to in-session legal questions that may arise
• Undertakes basic or extensive review of legal documents, instruments, or other material; identifies important issues, similarities, and inconsistencies, etc. Prepares or assists in the preparation of drafts of background papers, studies, reports, legislative texts and commentaries on those texts, teaching materials in the field of international trade law and private international law, etc.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of legal opinions/advice on a wide range of international public or private law issues, including the United Nations Charter, General Assembly resolutions and decisions involving, inter alia, issues relating to privileges and immunities, peace and security, criminal prosecutions, institutional questions, treaty law and practice, procedural issues arising during meetings of United Nations organs, constitutional and administrative law of the Organization.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of agreements and contracts with governments, NGOs and other public and private entities, as well as in the negotiation and settlement of claims and disputes and in handling private international law and international trade law matters.
• Reviews, advises on and drafts indictments or legal motions/submissions.
• Assesses evidence for relevance and admissibility.
• Prepares and assesses briefs of evidence.
• Provide legal and technical support in the operations of the INC Secretariat
• Handles a range of issues related to constitutional, international, public, private, administrative, and, for Tribunals, criminal (substantive, procedural and comparative) law, including the interpretation and application of constitutive, legislative and other instruments governing United Nations activities and operations, in consultation with senior Legal Officers or Prosecuting Trial Attorneys.
• Conducts extensive legal research and analysis and prepare studies, comparative studies, briefs, reports and correspondence.
• Services or assists senior colleagues in servicing diplomatic conferences, commissions, committees, task forces, expert groups and other bodies, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues and views of delegations, meeting reports, etc.
• • Assists in representing the Organization before arbitral and other tribunals or administrative proceedings, including disciplinary cases, in Tribunals, acts on behalf of the Prosecutor as junior co-counsel in proceedings before Trial or Appeal Chambers.
• Provides legal advice on human resources matters, and reviews administrative matters.
• Administers programmes of legal technical assistance.
• Prepares or assists with the preparation of international trade law seminars and symposia, lecture on various legal issues at such events.
• Provides guidance to more junior staff.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Performs other duties as may be assigned.

Job - Specific Qualification

• Admission to the practice of law in the Member State of the candidate's nationality or in another Member State of the United Nations is required.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in law, including legal analysis, research and writing including at least two (2) years of service with the legal office of a government department or ministry or of the secretariat of an international organization with a specialization in international law, procedures of intergovernmental meetings and governance, is required.
• Experience in professional legal work relating to the rules of procedure and institutional questions of intergovernmental bodies administered by the United Nations that focus on the environment is required.
• Experience with Staff Regulations and Rules, policies, procedures and operations of the United Nations or other similar international organization is desirable.
• A minimum of two (2) years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.

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Responsibilities

• Provide legal and procedural support to the intersessional INC process
• Provide legal support to the process to INC Secretariat towards preparations and conduct of intergovernmental meetings.
• Conduct research into substantive and procedural legal questions; including advice on rules of procedure.
• Preparation of pre-session documents that address legal questions, including drafts texts of a legal instrument.
• Provides legal and procedural support to the in-session processes of the INC
• Supports the INC Bureau
• Supports the servicing of meetings, for example sessions of the INC, Heads of Delegation meeting
• Supports preparation of procedural advice on the conduct of business of the INC
• Respond to in-session legal questions that may arise
• Undertakes basic or extensive review of legal documents, instruments, or other material; identifies important issues, similarities, and inconsistencies, etc. Prepares or assists in the preparation of drafts of background papers, studies, reports, legislative texts and commentaries on those texts, teaching materials in the field of international trade law and private international law, etc.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of legal opinions/advice on a wide range of international public or private law issues, including the United Nations Charter, General Assembly resolutions and decisions involving, inter alia, issues relating to privileges and immunities, peace and security, criminal prosecutions, institutional questions, treaty law and practice, procedural issues arising during meetings of United Nations organs, constitutional and administrative law of the Organization.
• Prepares or assists in the preparation of agreements and contracts with governments, NGOs and other public and private entities, as well as in the negotiation and settlement of claims and disputes and in handling private international law and international trade law matters.
• Reviews, advises on and drafts indictments or legal motions/submissions.
• Assesses evidence for relevance and admissibility.
• Prepares and assesses briefs of evidence.
• Provide legal and technical support in the operations of the INC Secretariat
• Handles a range of issues related to constitutional, international, public, private, administrative, and, for Tribunals, criminal (substantive, procedural and comparative) law, including the interpretation and application of constitutive, legislative and other instruments governing United Nations activities and operations, in consultation with senior Legal Officers or Prosecuting Trial Attorneys.
• Conducts extensive legal research and analysis and prepare studies, comparative studies, briefs, reports and correspondence.
• Services or assists senior colleagues in servicing diplomatic conferences, commissions, committees, task forces, expert groups and other bodies, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues and views of delegations, meeting reports, etc.
• Assists in representing the Organization before arbitral and other tribunals or administrative proceedings, including disciplinary cases, in Tribunals, acts on behalf of the Prosecutor as junior co-counsel in proceedings before Trial or Appeal Chambers.
• Provides legal advice on human resources matters, and reviews administrative matters.
• Administers programmes of legal technical assistance.
• Prepares or assists with the preparation of international trade law seminars and symposia, lecture on various legal issues at such events.
• Provides guidance to more junior staff.
• Collects and analyzes data to identify trends or patterns and provide insights through graphs, charts, tables and reports using data visualization methods to enable data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting.
• Performs other duties as may be assigned.

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or Doctorate degree, or equivalent) in international law or related field is required.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in the specified fields of studies with two (2) additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in law, including legal analysis, research and writing including at least two (2) years of service with the legal office of a government department or ministry or of the secretariat of an international organization with a specialization in international law, procedures of intergovernmental meetings and governance, is required.
• Experience in professional legal work relating to the rules of procedure and institutional questions of intergovernmental bodies administered by the United Nations that focus on the environment is required.
• Experience with Staff Regulations and Rules, policies, procedures and operations of the United Nations or other similar international organization is desirable.
• A minimum of two (2) years or more of experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.

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Responsibilities

• Strategic Infrastructure and DevOps Leadership:
• Provide authoritative technical and policy advice to senior management, ICT governance bodies and solution working groups on enterprise infrastructure, cloud strategy, platform engineering and DevOps, including implications of alternative architectures (on-premises, cloud, hybrid, edge) for performance, resilience, information security and cost.
• Conceptualize, develop strategies for and oversee the design, build and operation of UNEP-wide infrastructure platforms that support mission-critical applications, enterprise data platforms, environmental information systems and the World Environment Situation Room, in accordance with UNEP’s Digital Transformation strategy and the Organization’s Digital Governance Process.
• Define and promote infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, monitoring/observability, automated testing and CI/CD practices to improve delivery speed, repeatability and service quality across UNEP.
• Prepare and monitor the budget, work programme and spending plan for UNEP-wide infrastructure and DevOps initiatives, ensuring efficient resource utilization and alignment with enterprise architecture.
• Develop and maintain innovative, secure and sustainable infrastructure solutions to resolve problems that impact critical areas of the Organization’s work, particularly those involving large-scale, multi-source data ingestion, high-availability services and geographically distributed users
• Act as Chair of the UNEP-wide ICT Solutions Group within the overall UNEP Digital Governance Process, on behalf of and in close collaboration with the Chief Digital Officer, to drive standards, re-use of components, and alignment with UN Secretariat ICT directions.
• Infrastructure Operations, Cloud and Cybersecurity Oversight:
• Establish, maintain and continuously improve UNEP’s infrastructure standards, procedures and practices to ensure a stable, secure, high-performing and environmentally sustainable ICT environment, including metrics and service-level objectives (SLOs) for availability, latency, capacity, and cost.
• Lead the design and management of hybrid infrastructure topologies, including UN-hosted, partner-hosted, public cloud (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) and on-premises data centre components, ensuring interoperability, identity and access management integration, network security and data protection.
• Oversee information security management and ensure cybersecurity compliance with UN Secretariat policies and international standards; devise policies and technical controls to protect confidentiality, integrity and availability of UNEP’s information assets, including data lakes, analytics platforms and integration services.
• Ensure that infrastructure and platform projects meet established time and cost parameters and standards of technical quality, reflect user needs, and minimize duplication of infrastructure and tooling across the Organization

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or Doctorate degree, or equivalent) in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in planning, design, implementation, operation and lifecycle management of enterprise ICT infrastructure or related area is required.
• Experience leading infrastructure and/or DevOps teams responsible for large-scale, high-availability, secure environments (including hybrid cloud and on-premises data centres) is required.
• Experience in designing, deploying and operating complex data platforms, including data lakes or data warehouses that integrate multi-source, multi-format data with strict performance, quality and security requirements, is required.
• Experience in establishing and running CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code and automated monitoring/observability in an agile development and deployment environment is desirable.
• Experience in developing and implementing ICT strategies and governance frameworks, and familiarity with ERP and UN or similar enterprise systems, is desirable.
• Experience in the United Nations Common System organizations or a comparable international, multi-location organization is desirable. Experience in data science, data analytics or related area is desirable.
• Experience deploying and scaling AI models in production, including Large Language Models (LLMs), predictive, computer vision, and ensemble models, is desirable.