Climate Change Research Analyst

The Climate Change Research Analyst consultancy is with the BPPS Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Cluster at HQ and is responsible for support to all the functions of the Cluster related to briefings and communications, with a focus on climate change.  S/he will draft and provide inputs to briefs, speeches, presentations, and support the development of substantive knowledge products and communications materials including online content for the Cluster’s webpages. S/he will also be responsible for supporting the various thematic teams in preparation and planning for major events and ensuring fulfilment of all incoming requests.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

Coordinate and provide inputs to corporate policies, strategies and briefs

• Works with the climate change and disaster risk reduction team members prepares inputs for briefings and other materials requested by the Executive Office and BPPS Directorate, including through sourcing, editing and formatting information from available evidence, research and corporate knowledge.
• Supports the compilation of inputs and provides necessary research for completing reports on climate change policy support and programming (as needed – e.g. inter-bureau collaboration for ABP, IWP, ROAR, donor reporting)
• Works with global team leaders to support drafting and ensuring timely response to correspondence received through corporate registry on issues related to climate change, energy, and disaster risk reduction;
• Monitors fulfilment of follow-up on (non-correspondence) action items received through the registry system; and
• Review and provide substantive inputs to corporate strategies and policies related to climate change

Support knowledge management for climate change policy and programming

• Contributes to researching, distilling and codifying knowledge and best practices in climate change, energy, and disaster risk reduction initiatives from UNDP programmes;
• Supports the Cluster global team leaders in the development of advocacy materials relating to UNDP’s priority policy/programming areas in climate change, energy, and disaster risk reduction such as Fast Facts, Results pages, Issue Briefs, media releases, op-eds, brochures, etc.
• Supports in-depth analyses, including for a global report on climate change, Nationally Determined Contributions and the Sustainable Development Goals;
• Liaises with UNDP regional and technical focal points on issues related to climate change, including on Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States;
• Contributes to corporate knowledge campaigns, organization of knowledge events, and knowledge networks and communities of practice; and
• Contribute to, and coordinate as requested, substantive inputs for workshops, methodologies, inception missions and other activities to support climate change policy at the regional and national levels

Coordinate and provide inputs to UNFCCC and other global processes

• Prepare necessary background research and analysis in preparation for UNDP’s participation in relevant UNFCCC related meetings, mechanisms and programmes (e.g. Adaptation Committee, Nairobi Work Programme, LDC Expert Group, Loss and Damage Executive Committee);
• Coordinate and compile inputs, as requested, for submissions to the UNFCCC;
• Supports the planning and preparation for major events, including drafting briefs, speeches, and other relevant materials for senior management;
• Supports UNDP’s engagement with the UNFCCC negotiations, supporting high-level events and overall delegation activities;
• Liaises with participants and speakers and prepares invitations, RSVPs, and follow-up correspondence;
• Supports the rapporteur function through note-taking and drafting of relevant meeting reports;
• Supports UNDP’s follow-up to major meetings and conferences related to the UNFCCC and other global processes.

Institutional Arrangements

The Research Analyst will be under the overall supervision and guidance of the Global
Team Leader for Climate Change. The Research Analyst will also interact with other members of the cluster particularly working closely with the Cluster’s Global Team Leaders on climate change, energy, and disaster risk reduction.

Technical/Functional Competencies

              Primary

• Excellent knowledge of a range of climate change thematic areas, policy issues, and concepts including on adaptation, mitigation, and financing;
• Demonstrated competencies in brief and speech writing, and the ability to prepare quality briefs and/or speeches;
• Proven strong research and analytical skills

              Secondary:

• Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge.
• Ability to turn raw information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to stated need.
• Demonstrated competencies in organization and facilitation of operations and logistics related to major events, workshops, and meetings.

        Core Competencies

Ethics & Values: Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity

• Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status

 Organisational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment

• Understands the structure and hierarchy of UN/UNDP, process flows throughout the organisation, products and services, their measures of effectiveness, and perceptions of clients

    Working in Teams: Acting as a team player and facilitating team work

• Works collaboratively with colleagues inside UN/UNDP as well as its partners and other stakeholders to pursue common goals

 Communicating Information and Ideas: Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the  team, communicating effectively

• Delivers verbal/written information in a timely, clear, organised and easily understood manner

   Conflict Management/Negotiating & Resolving Disagreements: Managing conflict

• Remains calm, composed and patient, regardless of his/her own state of mind in the face of conflict

Academic Qualification

• Master’s degree in climate change, environment, energy, disaster management, or a closely related field.

Experience

• At least 3 years relevant work experience on climate change is required; other environment-related activities an asset
• Work experience in an international organization is required, UNDP experience is an asset;

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.
• At least two samples of related written work or publications through accessible web links (Do not attach whole publications). For each sample, a brief explanation of how the candidate was involved in the development and writing of the publication (i.e. research methodology, stakeholders involved, etc.) needs to be provided – this can be included and attached in the P11 or CV.

Note the above documents needed to be scanned into one file and uploaded to the online application as a single document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7-hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.

• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, before travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel in a higher class, he/she should do so using their own resources.
• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weigh 70%, and Financial criteria/ Proposal weigh 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (700 points):

• Knowledge and experience working on global policy issues related to climate change including climate change adaptation and mitigation (210 points)
• Proven expertise in coordination for international conferences, such as those with the UNFCCC, and high-level meetings and supporting follow-up (140 points)
• Proven experience in researching and writing briefs, speeches, and developing communications and knowledge products (210 points)
• Knowledge and experience of UNDP and UN system policies, rules and regulations, guidelines (140 points)

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (490 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (700 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (300 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Global

Team Leader for Climate Change and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above. The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

•  Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, submission of monthly deliverables report accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org. The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.