Jobs at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities

• UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that 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 to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action.
• The loss of forest, and the accompanying loss of ecosystems and the services they provide, threatens the security and livelihoods of local communities, reduces access to clean water, decreases soil productivity and accounts for 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, it has become apparent that the most significant threat to the world’s remaining forests is conversion for commercial agriculture – whether from large-scale operations or smallholder farmers – as well as other non-forest use. Many of the environmental benefits of intact forest are unpriced ‘externalities’, resulting in the market mispricing natural forest assets.
• By converting forest to land and then producing tradeable commodities that the market can price, land users are able to take advantage of this perceived arbitrage opportunity. Anticipated global economic growth and changing diets will strengthen the demand for agricultural commodities and place additional pressure on forests in the foreseeable future, meaning that the pressure will get even bigger than it is today without a changing paradigm how land is managed and agricultural commodities are produced. 

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) is required in economics and/or finance, environmental studies, business, or development studies. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• At least five (5) years working experience in knowledge management and/or communications ideally related to agriculture, forestry, land use finance, sustainable finance, or related topics is required. Familiarity and enthusiasm to learn more about the specific challenges of impact investing and nature-based solutions is desirable.
• Proven capacity for analysis and synthesis of complex topics for a broad range of outputs and audiences is required.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills in English is required Proactivity and ability to work independently in a dynamic environment is desirable

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The responsibilities of the consultant will be to:

• Leads the overall development and delivery of the WESR platform, including overall coordination, vendor management, requirements specification and implementation in close collaboration with the product management and DevOps teams.
• Leads the WESR project; monitors and analyzes project development and implementation; reviews relevant documents and reports; identifies problems and issues to be addressed and initiates corrective actions; liaises with relevant parties; ensures follow-up actions.
• Provides support to the WESR road-map implementation, and scoping of new WESR use-cases.
• Manages day-to-day team tasks and assignments and promotes collaboration across the different units within CDO to serve the WESR project.
• Supports resource mobilization and partnership efforts for WESR, including identifying targets, preparing background materials and delivering presentations on the value proposition of the platform.
•  Proposes ways to improve the platform and new features to be added, along with a technical and financial analysis of required resources and preparation and management of an implementation plan.
• Organizes and prepares written outputs, e.g. draft background papers, analysis, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, etc.
• Coordinates all physical, ICT and knowledge products related to the WESR.
• Provides inputs related to WESR budget and funding (project preparation and submissions, progress reports, financial statements, etc.) and prepares related documents/reports (pledging, work programme, programme budget, etc.).
• Collect and analyze 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.
• Oversee all activities within the WESR project management scope, identifies project goals, monitors project progress.

Qualifications/special skills

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in IT, data science, information management, Geographic Information Systems or a related field. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in data related project or programme management, IT, digital transformation or related area is required. Experience leading similar data-intensive platforms is required.
• Experience leading digital and data product development teams is required. Experience of working with international multi-agency projects, ideally in an environmental context, is desirable. Two (2) years or more of experience in data science or analytics is desirable.