Team Leader, Role of Ecosystems in Growth Strategies for Latin America and Caribbean (Home Based)

The UNDP Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean 2008-2011 has identified as a one strategic area of focus a regional Environment & Energy Programme. A central part of this programme is a major and innovative initiative to promote the Role of Ecosystems in Growth Strategies for Latin America and Caribbean. The objective of this initiative is to inform policy and decision makers in Latin America and the Caribbean of the need to invest in and maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The initiative will be innovative in two ways. Firstly it will work at a senior political level to engage key stakeholders in the region so that they take ownership and drive the initiative and the process to gather and present the information. The initiative will engage with political and economic leaders of the region to produce a Report which highlights the role of biodiversity and ecosystems and their management in the development strategies for the region and that provides key compelling economic messages that will be listened to and acted upon. The political process will drive the economic analysis and the report.

Secondly, the Report is expected to provide the right type of information so that Ministries of Finance will be in a position to take informed planning and investments decisions to maintain and invest on their environmental resources and biodiversity assets. The Report will move beyond traditional total economic valuation and focus on a few key development indicators such as employment, poverty reduction and taxation revenues that will have meaning to economic policy makers. As such UNDP will partner with leading institutions such as CEPAL, UNEP, TNC and others in the region to implement and achieve the aspirations of this new initiative.

1. Bring together team and coordinate their inputs to the Report

The team leader will be supported by a small core team to assist with the Report preparation. This core team can consist of part time experts working on a long term basis as well as necessary researchers and research institutions and short term experts in various relevant fields such as banking, market regulation and investment as well as economists and environmental scientists. It will be the role of the team leader to ensure the highest quality performance of team members and a fully functioning and integrated team, which advances rapidly to prepare the Report within the timeframe agreed by TAC and the Commission, and liaises as appropriate with the Advisory Committee and other institutional partners.

2. Ensure capture of all relevant existing data in the region to feed into the Report

A first step will be to capture data that has already been generated in the region. Therefore all relevant studies for all countries in the region should be compiled, reviewed, classified ready for use and input into the Report. This should include case studies and more meta analysis at all levels. The review and data compilation should focus particularly on national level work as it will be national data that will have the greatest impact on government decision-making. Data at sub-national and ecosystem level can also be gathered. Additionally the most important global studies complete and on-going (such as MEA and the European Commission and German government global BD , Economics and Ecosystems Servces Report) should also be reviewed so that leading methodologies and studies are incorporated into the Report.

Where critical data is missing this should be noted and primary data collection needs should be costed for consideration.

3. Structure the Report and gain agreement on its focus so it is streamlined and will effectively deliver key messages

This will include determining what to focus on and equally important what not to include and to push for innovation and integration between economic, financial and environmental arenas. The proposed methodology for the study is to identify and assess marginal costs and benefits based on scenario analysis (sustainable ecosystem management versus business as usual) at the national level. This methodology should be reviewed and verified or improved. This function will include facilitating agreement on key development indicators for the messaging – employment, tax revenues etc. It will also require facilitating agreement on scale of data presentation focusing on national level and hence which countries to work on and what other levels (regional and local), which will be based in part on the results of the data collection and review. Another area for discussion and focus is messages at the sectoral level – forestry, fisheries, agriculture, tourism etc. The Report cannot cover all sectors in all countries so how this can be handled in a systematic but cost-effective manner also needs to be agreed. Another element which will be key to consider is that of risk and external factors such as commodity prices, natural disasters and conflict, and how these are incorporated into the analysis as they can have a major impact on assessing ecosystem values. The final strategic area for consideration will be on future scenario analysis, its role, time horizons and budgetary needs and partners to do effectively.

This phase should also include strong emphasis on how to incorporate innovative thinking and messaging particularly with regard to markets and financial investments and how best the Report can package messages relevant to different audiences – public sector, private sector and media.

4. Analyze and write up data into a package that delivers key messages to the political decision makers

This should include detailed presentation of data on key indicators and application of scenario analysis and based on the boundaries and approaches agreed in the previous step. As data is put together there will be opportunity to adapt the methodology to ensure it remains practical and effective. This will also be the phase where additional data collection to permit scenario analysis to be done can take place as needed, particularly for key sectors and indicators where such scenario analysis and data is limited or absent and messaging based on existing data will be weak. This step will also be expected to create projections using scenario analysis.

5. Complete the Report and support its dissemination and presentation to key political decision makers

Interact with UNDP ‘s project management, Technical Advisory Committee and Commission to ensure the Report and its analysis and messages are packaged in the most politically relevant manner possible including an impactful executive summary. The Team Leader should be available to accompany Commission members as needed to deliver key findings to high level fora.

1. Draft 1^st stage report
2. Draft final report
3. Final report

Proven track record of excellence in the application of natural resource economics and market based approaches to natural resource management.

Education:

• Over 10 years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in the field of natural resource economics.

• Excellent command in written and spoken Spanish and English is essential.