Technical Specialist for Poverty Environment Initaitive

Lao PDR is situated at the heart of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) bordering all the other five GMS countries (Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam). Although currently classified as a ‘Landlocked and Least Developed Country’ (LLDC), Lao PDR is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia with an estimated per-capita income of US$1010 (2010) and a population of around 6.5 million.

Lao PDR has significant natural resources in minerals, hydropower potential and forestry. At the national scale, the natural resource sectors contribute to three quarters of the per capita GDP, over 80 percent of employment, almost 60 percent of exports and foreign exchange earnings, and account for just under a third of government revenues. The recent rapid influx of Foreign Direct Investment has been an important source of government revenues and a force for accelerating economic growth. The value of approved private domestic and foreign direct investments totaled over 12.5 billion USD over 2006-2010 alone, of which almost 70% are in the mining, hydropower and agriculture sectors. Ambitious goals for continuing high rates of GDP growth and increasing demand from other countries for the country’s abundant land and natural resources is further accelerating the pace of the exploitation of these resources and increasing pressure on the environment and the natural resource base upon which many rural people rely for their livelihoods.

Lao PDR is currently faced with key environmental challenges including deforestation, biodiversity loss, depleting fish stocks, inadequate access to clean water and sanitation to rural populations, inappropriate use of chemicals and climate change and natural disasters. The Millennium Development Goals 2008 Mid-Term Report for Lao PDR indicates that MDG7 is unlikely to be met by 2015 without significant and substantial efforts on behalf of the Government of Lao PDR and donors. Given the close linkages between environmental health and poverty, levels of malnutrition, health, income and others, sustainable growth and natural resource management will be critical for the Lao PDR to achieve the MDGs.

In order to support the efforts of the Government of Lao PDR in addressing these poverty-environmental challenges, the joint UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI) will focus on strengthening capacity of targeted central and provincial authorities to integrate poverty-environment concerns and opportunities in key development planning processes. The Initiative is not one stand-alone project but has been designed primarily to provide targeted support to ongoing programmes. The PEI Framework outlines five outputs to achieve the expected outcome of PEI Lao PDR:

• Output 1: PEI will work with the Department of Planning (DoP) of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to strengthen poverty-environment linkages in the implementation of 7th National Socio Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) and in the overall planning cycle at national and local levels, providing policy relevant information in a manner that places environmental sustainability at the core of the government’s development planning practices.
• Output 2: support is provided to the Investment Promotion Department (IPD) of MPI and provincial authorities to manage investments in a manner that seeks to minimize social and environmental impacts. 
• Output 3: a programme of support to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) seeks to strengthen Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) processes.
• Output 4: PEI targets the National Assembly to enhance their awareness of poverty-environment issues and to actively integrate poverty-environment considerations when reviewing policies and legislation.
• Output 5: PEI supports the National Economic Research Institute (NERI) to carry out environmental economic research to support informed decision-making for sustainability.

The timeframe for PEI Phase II Lao PDR is 44 months: April 2012 to end December 2015.

Under the overall guidance of Director General of the Investment Promotion Department of MPI, the Technical Specialist (TS)will provide technical and managerial input and advice to the effective implementation of the Output 2. The TS will be situated within the Investment Promotion Department (IPD) of MPI to support the day-to-day management of the Output 2 (70% of time).

The Technical Specialist will also be responsible for the effective coordination and delivery of the overall PEI programme, providing leadership and expert inputs to DoP and the ongoing NSEDP project as outlined in Output 1, the Joint UN programme on Support to an Effective Lao PDR National Assembly (SELNA) as defined in Output 4, and NERI on environmental economic research as defined in Output 5 (30% of time).

The day-to-day work of the Technical Specialist will be guided by Director General of IPD to ensure effective implementation of the Output 2 project work plans and enhance national ownership and results.  The Technical Specialist will work closely with the UNDP Environment Unit to ensure cohesiveness of the overall PEI programme. The management of the Technical Specialist performance assessment will be the responsibility of the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative - Programmes, working in consultation with the project stakeholders.

The EE will provide high level advice and guidance to MPI/Government of Lao PDR and UNDP in the following areas:

• Strategic guidance, rigorous analysis and advice to the Government of Lao PDR to effectively consider and develop poverty-environment linkages in national and local planning processes towards green and sustainable growth;
• Provision of technical advice, capacity building and institutional support to the Government to ensure effective and timely delivery of the Poverty-Environment Initiative Framework in Lao PDR, with a particular focus on the Output 2 (investment output);
• Provide leadership on poverty-environment and green growth issues within the UN and strengthen partnerships/coordination with key stakeholders for better coordinated support for pro-poor natural resource management.

Strategic guidance and advice to the Government of Lao PDR to develop effectively consider poverty-environment in national and local planning processes:

• Provide policy advice, knowledge-sharing and institutional strengthening support to the Government on poverty-environment linkages and the importance of their consideration within national and local planning processes for green and sustainable growth;
• Draft necessary strategic and technical documents on poverty-environment and green growth issues, such as policy papers or other analytical products (in collaboration with Technical Advisor of Environment and Social Assessments in Output 3);
• Ensure the development of cross-project linkages with other relevant UN and development partner projects for mutually reinforcing impact;
• Facilitate information sharing and dialogue within the donor community and prepare briefs and policy papers on poverty-environment linkages and green growth.

Provision of management leadership and coordination support to the Government to implement the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) in Lao PDR, across all outputs (with support from the Technical Advisor in Output 3):

• Ensure the participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders in project activities;
• Ensure delivery of resources and results according to planned targets;
• Ensure the development of linkages across the PEI outputs (in collaboration with Technical Advisor of Environment and Social Assessments in Output 3 and UNDP Environment Unit) and PEI communications;
• Identify and develop synthesis of best practices and lessons learned for organizational sharing and learning (in collaboration with Technical Advisor of Environment and Social Assessments in Output 3).

Key activities to be undertaken by the Technical Specialist under Output 2 of the PEI Framework include, but are not restricted to:

• Provide capacity development for key government staff at the national and provincial levels to support better informed investment management through analysis and research on social and environmental costs and benefits of investment choices;
• Support implementation of the investment strategies at central and provincial level (in selected PEI provinces);
• Identify and support implementation of incentives and options to attract quality investments into Lao PDR;
• Strengthen institutional capacity to screen and negotiate investments and to monitor and enforce investment compliance.

Other key activities to be undertaken under the other outputs of the PEI Framework include:

• Strengthen capacities to integrate key poverty-environmental issues into national and sub-national planning guidelines and support the implementation of planning guidelines in the pilot districts Houphan and Saravan (Output 1);
• Support the inclusion of poverty-environment indicators in the 7^th NSEDP monitoring & evaluation system and the assessment of the indicators (Output 1);
• Undertake awareness raising activities to improve National Assembly members’ awareness and understanding of key poverty-environment linkages in planning, budgeting and legislative processes, and strengthen oversight and monitoring role (Output 4)
• Support the identification and implementation of policy-relevant research with NERI on, e.g. economic valuation of ecosystem services, cost-benefit analyses, economic appraisal of investment options; and support the transfer of research findings into policy decisions (Output 5);
• Guide capacity building in environmental economics and ecosystem service valuation (Output 5);
• Coordinate PEI’s support to the ESIA Department of MONRE, in collaboration with Technical Advisor of Environment and Social Assessments (Output 3)

• Strengthen partnerships/coordination with key stakeholders, particularly the donors, private sector, and the government to identify opportunities, formulate joint initiatives with maximum impacts and efficiency, minimize duplication of efforts and reduce transaction costs;
• Provide leadership on poverty-environment issues within the UN in collaboration with other key UN partners;
• Promote information sharing and facilitate dialogue within the donor community and prepare briefs and policy papers on poverty-environment linkages and green growth;
• Perform other duties related to PEI, as assigned by UNDP Senior Management.

• Achieving the anticipated results of the PEI programme in Lao PDR;
• Strengthening national and local planning capacity and processes on green and sustainable growth;
• Increasing institutional capacity to manage Foreign Direct Investments towards a more sustainable and inclusive trend;
• Creating partnerships within the UNDP Lao PDR towards a green growth and pro-poor natural resource management in a coordinated manner.

• Serves and promotes the vision, mission, values, and strategic goals of UNDP and UNEP People Skills;
• Recognizes and responds appropriately to the ideas, interests, and concerns of others; gives credit to the contributions of others.

• Plans and prioritizes work activities to meet organizational goals.

• Builds and sustains relationships with key constituents (internal/external/ bilateral/ multilateral/public/private; civil society).

• Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
• Generates creative, practical approaches to overcome challenging situations;
• Devises new systems and processes, and modifies existing ones, to support innovative behaviors.

• Demonstrates excellent and effective written and oral communication skills;;
• Demonstrates effective communication skills in a multidisciplinary working environment
• Demonstrate respect to knowledge and culture and religion in a multidisciplinary working environment.

• Applies the required depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise to meet job demands;
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource.

• Master degree or advanced degrees in environmental economics, development economics, environmental management/policy or other related fields. PhD is preferred.

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience working on environment/resources management related to economics;
• Experience in conducting policy and economic analyses and providing policy advice on sustainable development or natural resource management at senior level;
• Expertise in development and environment issues, particularly in developing countries;
• Knowledge and professional experience in national investment management to maximize social benefits and minimize environmental impacts;
• In-depth understanding of environmental sustainability issues, and their practical implications for sustainable development processes;
• Proven record in the writing of research papers, policy analysis and recommendations, reports and publications;
• Previous work experience in South East Asia or developing countries is desirable;
• Excellent computer skills, including full working knowledge of standard word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software packages.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
• Knowledge of Lao language is an asset.