Vacancies 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 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. 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. 
• The consultant shall report to Associate Expert in Marine and Freshwater Branch, Ecosystems Division.

Responsibilities:

The main objective of the consultancy is to lead the formulation of a fully developed proposal for the SIDS Flagship, ensuring cohesion between the 3 project components/outcomes in its design, as well as including experiences of developing project proposals for multilateral funds such as the GEF and GCF. The consultant will be responsible for the preparation of the final project proposal with contribution from the team members from FAO, UNEP, DESA as well as national consultants. Proposal development will be done in consultation with national and international partners to ensure ownership by the Governments of the pilot countries as well as by the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS). National consultants in each of the SIDS countries will be the main focal points for national consultations, and the international consultant will coordinate between them.

Qualifications/special skills

Competency: 

• Strong analytical, reporting, and writing abilities;
• Excellent facilitation skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement, and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• A master's degree (or higher) in environmental sciences, international development, with specific academic or professional background related to climate change adaptation, monitoring and evaluation or other closely related fields is required. A bachelor's degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the master's degree.
• Experience: At least 10 years of experience related to ecosystem management, blue economy and/or blue finance in SIDS is required;
• Experience in technical research and formulation of project proposals is required;
• Experience in working with multi-disciplinary teams, including local and expatriate technical experts is required;
• Demonstrated experience in project development, implementation and management is an asset
• Language: English and French are the working languages of the Authority. For the post advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

Closing date: 13 May 2022

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Duties and Responsibilities

The “Large-scale Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Project in The Gambia: developing a climate-resilient, natural resource-based economy aims to build the climate-resilience of rural Gambian communities and facilitate the development of a sustainable natural resource-based (green) economy by implementing large-scale EbA within and adjacent to agricultural areas, community-managed forest reserves and wildlife conservation areas of The Gambia. The project is funded by the Green Climate Fund and implemented over a six-year period. The Accredited Entity is UNEP and the Executing Entity is the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources. The project is being implemented in Lower, Central and Upper River Regions.

The project has three components, as follows:

• Component 1: Large-scale Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) to build a climate-resilient natural resource base across The Gambia;
• Component 2: Establishment and strengthening of natural resource-based businesses in The Gambia.
• Component 3: Policy support, institutional strengthening and knowledge generation to support large-scale implementation of EbA in The Gambia.

The Mid-term Evaluation (MTE)concluded in April 2021 identified the need for the Project to strengthen its expertise on gender to ensure that a complete line of driving gender benefits exists from the local level to the central level. This includes focusing attention on partnerships with key gender groups that already work in the Gambia and the inclusion of more female decision makers in the PMU and PSC. It also involves engaging regional and community-based women champions that can rally interest and drive action on the ground with the view of ensuring that a complete line of driving gender benefits exists from the local to central level. In line with the recommendation of the ESIA report, additional efforts should entail the potential integration of a gender impact evaluation that not only assesses the potential positive impacts on women, but also clearly assess the potential for negative impacts resulting from the project. To achieve all these recommendations, the project should urgently revise the indicators to mainstream gender better in the result frameworks. It should further increase awareness of the project activities with a focus on the gender benefits and reassess its active engagement and involvement of women in carrying out the activities.

The development of a gender and social inclusion action plan (GAP) is a requirement for the projects funded by the GCF based on an assessment of gender-related risks. This gender-risk assessment was carried out as part of the ESIA, and a GAP developed to provide an opportunity to deepen the gender risk assessment further, making a direct link to priority recommended actions that can take the EbA project from gender-aware to gender sensitive, building on the 32 mitigation actions related to gender and social inclusion. Some elements of high relevance to gender were included in the ESMP, in particular the stakeholder engagement plan and the grievance redress mechanism. When completed, the main safeguard risks to be managed and the management plans established will need to be translated to annual project work plans.

The EbA project has produced four Annual Performance Report (APR) to the GCF each of which contains the list of challenges encountered and the risk mitigation strategies and initial activities to implement the stakeholder and gender action plans. The 2021 is the latest of these APRs and provide a list of priority actions for the EbA project moving forward, and focusing on ESMP/ESMF actions, the stakeholder engagement plan and the Gender Action Plan progress report

The key positions in the Project Management Unit (PMU) comprise the project manager, the finance director, the field operations coordinator, the private sector specialist, the monitoring and evaluation officer, the procurement officer, the national gender and stakeholder engagement specialist and four (4) regional coordinators. The PMU team is technically supported by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and Prime Africa in addition to individual consultants drawn in for specific assignments. As part of its mandate to address the capacity gaps identified by the mid-term evaluation, the ESMP and the GAP, the EbA project is seeking to hire an International Gender and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant to support the National Gender and Stakeholder Engagement Officer (NGSEO) in rolling out the activities recommended in these reports GAP finalized in 2021.

Objective of the assignment:

The overall responsibility of the International Gender and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant is to support the National Gender and Stakeholder Engagement Officer (NGSEO) to mainstream equitable gender access and a gender-responsive strategy throughout the project.

Reporting line:

• The consultancy will be under the supervision of Programme Management Officer, Climate Change Adaptation Unit

Specific duties and responsibilities:

There are three specific tasks related to this assignment, as follows:

Support the implementation of the GAP and stakeholder engagement strategy which will include:

• drafting of TORs for packages of work and developing the workplans of the PMU staff tasked to implementing the GAP and stakeholder engagement strategy in a collaborative process;
• working closely with the Women’s Bureau
• identifying NGOs that can be engaged to support the implementation of the GAP and stakeholder engagement strategy and provide support to establishing the ToRs for the work;
• Develop a Code of Conduct that integrates Global Compact Principle and Women’s Empowerment Principles, with a focus on PS2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8.

Support the implementation of gender-related mitigation actions in the ESMP. This will include inputs to:

• Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice and Behaviour (KAPB) study on EbA to be implemented by the project, related to Component 2;
• develop TORs or inputs into TORs for awareness raising strategies and propose contracting methods and potential partners or contracting entities;
• Ensuring strategies to ensure access to grievance response mechanism by women and men.
• Integrate gender access and benefit sharing considerations in the design and analysis of all M&E for activities including capacity building, training, livelihoods support activities, natural resource enterprises, knowledge management of EbA and best practice, working closely with the M&E officer

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in a field relevant to the assignment, for example in gender studies, public administration, social sciences, social anthropology, rural development, or another relevant field is required.
• A first level degree in combination with two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• A specialization in environmental issues would be highly preferred
• Experience: A least 7 years of relevant experience in analysing and integrating gender dimensions into policy and programme formulation and implementation, especially in the context of land/natural resource use and management, agriculture and climate change is required;
• Experience of working at the project level in Africa would be desirable;
• Language: Fluency in oral and written English is required.

Closing date: 27 May 2022

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Duties and Responsibilities

Organizational Setting:

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 position is in the Policy and Programme Division, under the Strategic Planning Unit. The Strategic Planning unit leads in the development of UNEP’s strategic plans – the medium-term strategy and, programme of work and its overall project portfolio. As a coordination function it works laterally across UNEP’s offices, optimizing resources and synergies among different programme components and responding to national, sub-regional, and regional needs as relevant and appropriate to promote a strategic and results focused approach to planning. The unit also leads and supports organizational transformation and improvement efforts

Following the roll out of the UMOJA Integrated Planning Monitoring and Reporting module (IPMR) in the UN Secretariat, data conversion and project enrichment is the next step to ensure all programmatic information is correctly captured in IPMR. Additional external assistance is needed to support the data conversion process and the forthcoming IPMR reporting functions.

The individual contractor will work under the direct supervision of the Senior Programme Management Officer, Strategic Planning Unit. In addition, the unit may request additional tasks to be performed by the IC.

Specific tasks and Responsibilities:

• Respond to questions raised by IPMR focal points in the Divisions, Offices, and MEAs.
• Provide support to set up and coordinate meetings with the IPMR focal points and project teams.
• Review the converted data enriched through data conversion and liaise with project teams to ensure all necessary data is populated.
• Compile, summarize, and present basic information/data on specific related topics or issues
• Conduct any IPMR testing as requested by UMOJA NY and provide feedback
• Create and review documentation and guidance related to IPMR
• Provide support to project teams on the implementation of IPMR, providing clarifications and guidance in reviewing challenges that arise.

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: High school diploma or equivalent is required. Relevant administrative/programmatic training is desirable.
• Experience: A minimum of five (5) years relevant work experience in data and project management is required. Experience in the use of the United Nations project management/data entry software is required

Closing date; 13 May 2022

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The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system's designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. 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.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Director, Governance Affairs Office,the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Support the work of the Governing Bodies Unit of the UN Environment Programme Governance Affairs Office with a particular focus on the implementation of the resolutions and decisions adopted at the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly;
• Support the work of the International Negotiating Committee on Plastics, as needed, led by the Secretariat of the INC;
• Support the establishment an Open-Ended Working Group on Science Policy on Pollution and subsequent work following its establishment, led by the Economy Division;
• Support the establishment of an expert Group on the 7th edition of the Global Environment Outlook and subsequent work following its establishment, led by the Science Division;
• Support conference servicing of the meetings of the Committee of Permanent Representatives;
• Support actions related to communication and correspondence;
• Perform any other relevant duty, upon request by the Deputy Director.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:

Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);

• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering orencourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Requirements

Required experience

• 2 years of experience in the field of international cooperation

Area(s) of expertise

• Communication
• Driving license

Languages

• English,

Required education level

• Bachelor degree or equivalent in International relations, International law or equivalent

Competencies and values

• Accountability 
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Client Orientation
• Planning and Organizing
• Professionalism
• Working in Teams

Closing date:19 May 2022