Technical Support for the Team Leader

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.

 

a)   To provide overall technical support to the Team Leader for the preparation of a politically compelling Report, assisting in data preparation and general planning as well as providing inputs to make sure the Report is completed in a timely and convincing manner.

b)   To edit and review the Report draft submitted by the Team Leader.

c)   To coordinate critical case studies that will feed into the Report to make it a strong and politically appealing document.

 

 

 

 

1.   Provide inputs/suggestions to Team Leader on data and/or case studies (existing or to be commissioned) that could be included to reinforce the intended key messages of the Report and fill-in possible information gaps identified by the Team.

 

2.   Provide inputs/suggestions to Team Leader on the structure of the Reportso it is streamlined and will effectively deliver key messages. 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.

 

3.   Provide support to the Team Leader on the data analysis and write-up process to produce a Report that delivers key messages to decision-makers in a compelling and politically relevant manner, incorporating all national, regional and global case study and literature review findings.

 

4.   Provide inputs/ suggestions to Team Leader on the Report drafts.

 

5.   Provide support to Team Leader by editing and reviewing the finalized Report.

 

6.   Coordinate relevant case studies commissioned by the UNDP for this project and provide inputs/suggestions to Team Leader on how best to use the evidence and findings of these studies to convey the identified key messages. Identify any missing critical case studies that should be undertaken to produce a solid and credible Report.

 

7.   Coordinate the data exchange with partnering organizations that are carrying out or have completed case-studies relevant to the Report. Identify any missing critical case studies that should be considered to feed into the Report.

 

 

Support provided on report structure preparation, planning of data gathering and case study related activities and data preparation.

 

This contract is for 100 working days over a period of 9 months.

 

 

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

 

Communication skills and language(s):

Education:

Experience:

Language requirements: