Project Technical Advisor - Integrating Climate Change Risks into Development Planning and Programming (ICCPP)

UNDP’s Environment and Energy Group (EEG) is based in the Bureau for Development Policy and is responsible for providing leadership and technical support to delivery of the Environment and Sustainable Development pillar of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. Its main focus is on helping countries develop the capacity to fully incorporate environmental sustainability into development at national and local, but also global and regional, levels. The principal areas of work are in environmental mainstreaming, environmental finance, adaptation to climate change, and local governance of resources, including energy.

There is increasing concern that climate change, including variability, could undermine the achievement of a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), most notably in poverty reduction. Consequently, developing countries are increasingly turning their attention to the formulation of comprehensive approaches to address climate change, in particular the human development and economic implications, and the investment decisions that need to be made to implement these.

UNDP country offices are, in consequence, receiving an increasing number of national requests for assistance with understanding the implications of climate change on national development and preparing integrated strategies and plans to manage anticipated challenges and opportunities. UNDP has played an important role assisting countries to access and deliver climate change financing, as implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), joint manager of the National Communications Support Programme and by delivering initiatives like MDG Carbon, Capacity Development for Policy Makers, the MDG Achievement Fund, Africa Adaptation Programme, CC-DARE, UN REDD, Carbon Neutral and Climate Resilient Territories, and the 2007 Human Development Report on climate change (activities totaling more than 220 million USD in catalytic funding). Yet at the same time, UNDP must further build its internal capacity and adopt a more strategic, holistic, adaptive and long-term role in the future financing landscape.

Acknowledging the need to incorporate climate change concerns into the design and implementation of its core development assistance at the national, regional and global levels, EEG has developed a Global Project “Integrating climate change risks into development planning and programming (ICCPP)”. This project is directly aligned with the UNDP 2008-2011 Strategic Plan – the Environment and Sustainable Development Focus and will contribute to operationalising pillar 4 in UNDP’s recently approved Climate Change Strategy. Thus, the project’s aim is to strengthen technical capacities of developing countries to integrate climate change risks and opportunities into human development based planning and programming.

This will be achieved through the following two outputs:

Output 1: Support available for designing national climate change strategies, investment plans, programmes and/or related products.

Output 2: Capacities strengthened for integrating climate change risks and opportunities into national development assistance.

To achieve these outputs, the project will place Regional Policy Advisors in UNDP’s Regional Service Centers, which will in turn identify the needs and demands of national governments and the capacity development needs of UNDP country offices in order to guarantee that offices are able to address national and local needs. Support will also be provided through Regional Centers of Excellence hired by the project once needs assessment is completed.

The project Technical Advisor (TA) is responsible for securing an adequate flow of information between the project’s stakeholders at all levels (BDP/EEG at Headquarters, Regional Service Centers, Country Offices). The TA has to ensure that all internal players know about climate change related activities undertaken by BDP/EEG, regional centers and country offices, as well as by other UN bodies and major global and regional actors, in order to create synergies and guarantee coordination and a more efficient use of the resources of this and other projects. He/she has to keep abreast of developments in global climate change negotiations and timely inform the constituents of the project, suggesting ways in which regional centers and country offices could support countries in the negotiation process. By actively interacting with Regional Policy Advisors, the TA will deliver information on national needs for policy support in the regions to the Heads of the Regional Centers, the Project Manager and the Task Manager in EEG, thus supporting strategic planning for the project.

The TA is part of a team of three based in EEG New York that also includes a Project Manager and a Programme Associate. Several Policy Advisors will be placed in the Regional Service Centers of UNDP in Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and CIS, and Africa.

• The Technical Advisor will report to the Project Manager.
• The Project Manager will oversee the work of the Technical Advisor and the Programme Associate.

Summary of Key Functions

• Contribute to strategic planning for activities of the project, identifying and developing opportunities to leverage project activities.
• Keep Regional Service Centers, Regional Policy Advisors and Country Offices informed about the developments of international climate change negotiations, in close coordination with other information and knowledge management networks, both within and outside UNDP, the UN system and the donor and development community, providing policy advice as needed.
• Support the PM in the coordination of activities and initiatives, collaboration and networking with other major global and regional players in the climate change arena both inside and outside the UN system, like (but not limited to) UNITAR, UNDESA, UNEP, World Bank, IADB, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and others.
• Ensure an optimal flow of information about initiatives, projects, international climate negotiations, and related issues between the stakeholders of the project.
• Maintain and improve the knowledge management mechanisms put in place by BDP/EEG to share information about climate change related initiatives.
• Document and analyze the project’s effectiveness, summarizing lessons learned, successful tools and methodologies and ensuring that the information is shared with all relevant partners.

Functions and Key Results Expected

I. Project Management

Planning

• Contribute to strategic planning for activities outlined in the Project Document, placing emphasis on ways to leverage project activities.
• Co-organize and participate in planning meetings involving BDP/EEG, Regional Bureaus, Regional Offices and Country Offices, to develop an annual work plan and a corresponding budget plan with clearly stated milestones contributing to the achievement of outputs defined in the Project Document.
• Consolidate and synchronize regional and national activities with project annual work plan and targets, providing advice on the appropriateness and timeliness of activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Contribute to the preparation, and when needed prepare, Terms of Reference (TORs) for inputs (individual and institutional consultancy services, organisation of training, workshops, etc.) with expert technical support as required.
• Report regularly to the PM on progress using UNDP standard practices (ATLAS risk/issue/monitoring logs) and other tools, identify and justify delays and propose new courses of action.

Key result: UNDP has run an effective, high-impact project that has improved national policy decisions regarding climate change.

II. Advocacy and Substantive skills

• Provide advisory services and strategic thinking on the project, particularly with respect to climate change negotiations and the implications for developing countries and UNDP.
• Liaise with national governments and UNDP Country Offices, in collaboration with the project’s Regional Policy Advisors and UNDP Regional Practice Leaders.
• Develop technical and strategic position papers, presentations, advisory and briefing notes, as needed.

Key result: EEG widely recognized in-house, within the UN system and amongst other major partners as the leader in developing capacity for, and support of, climate change policy activities.

III. Technical Assistance

• Support strategic planning on ways to leverage project activities and improve the capacity of UNDP regional and country offices to support national partners in the formulation and implementation of climate change policies.
• Provide substantive support to Regional Policy Advisors, regional centers of excellence and international consultants to ensure timely project implementation.
• Contribute to the development of capacity development materials by providing substantive inputs Support the PM in the coordination of activities and initiatives, collaboration and networking with other major global and regional players in the climate change arena both inside and outside the UN system.
• Ensure an optimal flow of information about initiatives, projects, international climate negotiations, and related issues between the stakeholders of the project.
• Ensure that the project´s activities are synergistic with other initiatives undertaken by UNDP HQ, Regional Centers, Country Offices, other UN bodies, donors and other major players in the CC arena.
• Maintain and improve the knowledge management mechanisms put in place by BDP/EEG to share information about climate change related initiatives.
• Document and analyze the project’s effectiveness, summarizing lessons learned, successful tools and methodologies and ensuring that the information is shared with all relevant partners.

Key result: Approach/processes identified for mainstreaming climate change considerations in the design and implementation of UNDP development assistance at the national, regional and global levels.

REQUIRED SELECTION CRITERIA

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies

• Familiarity with UNDP’s 2008-2011 Strategic Plan, particularly regarding the Environment and Sustainable Development Focus, and with UNDP’s Climate Change Strategy.
• Robust understanding of the needs and realities of developing countries regarding capacity development to tackle climate change.
• Strong strategic and visioning capacity, enabling her/him to understand the needs of developing countries regarding how to mainstream climate change in their development paths, and how UNDP can address these in the most effective and synergistic way.
• Demonstrated solid knowledge and relevant experience in climate change policy.
• Development and operational effectiveness.
• Good written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of quality project reports.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Good team player, self starter, has ability to work under minimum supervision and maintain good relationships

Experience and Education

• Masters degree in environment, energy, economics or a closely related field.
• At least 7 years of experience in all thematic areas of climate change (adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, investments and financing, and land use, land-use change and forestry), preferably with a good understanding of the developing country context with respect to climate change.
• At least 3 years of practical experience with international climate negotiations, particularly from the developing country perspective.
• Background in teaching, knowledge management, and/or training an asset.
• Strong interpersonal skills; commitment to team work and to working across disciplines.
• Excellent knowledge of English, as well as writing, presentation and communication skills. Fluency in other UN languages (French, Spanish or Arabic) is an asset.