Background
In May 2012, UNDP and the Government of Nigeria signed the Project Document for the recently developed ‘Niger Delta Biodiversity Project’. The document engages over a five year period $4,610,000, of which $1,000,000 are core funds from UNDP and $3,610,000 are from the Global Environment Facility. These funds leveraged an additional $9.6 million in commitments from government, Shell Nigeria and the UN through other projects.This project’s goal is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of globally significant biological diversity in the Niger Delta. The project objective is “to mainstream biodiversity management priorities into the Niger Delta oil and gas (O&G) sector development policies and operations.”
The project’s three main outcomes designed to achieve this objective are: 1) Stakeholders strengthen the governance framework of law, policy, and institutional capacity to enable the mainstreaming of biodiversity management into the O&G sector in the Niger Delta; 2) Government, the O&G industry and local communities adopt and pilot new biodiversity action planning tools for proactive biodiversity mainstreaming in the Niger Delta; 3) Stakeholders support long-term biodiversity management and the use of these new tools in the Niger Delta by capitalizing the Niger Delta Biodiversity Trust with a collaborative engagement mechanism for local communities, O&G companies and Government at its core.
Each of the three outcomes of this project reflects the project’s (and UNDP’s) focus on strengthening the governance of biodiversity in the Niger Delta.
By mainstreaming biodiversity into the O&G sector of the Niger Delta, the project is strengthening the governance of those resources.
The geographic focus of the project is on the four core Nigerian States within the Niger Delta (Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers States), which combined encompass an area of 46,420 km2 (the ‘indirect landscape mainstreaming target’). The physical footprint of the O&G company assets within this area is admitted by the industry to be 600 km2, which is considered the project’s initial ‘direct landscape mainstreaming target’
The project will bring improved biodiversity management to these areas indirectly and directly, respectively, as measured by improved state of globally significant species and ecosystems, legal and policy frameworks that incorporate biodiversity objectives, and O&G companies adopting best practice for biodiversity actions.
A key result will be the establishment of a long-term funding mechanism for mainstreaming biodiversity into the O&G sector, called the Niger Delta Biodiversity Trust.
This post is Development Project Funded (DPF).
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Deputy Country Director (Programmes) The Chief Technical Adviser on Mainstreaming (CTAM) will be responsible for managing and for providing operational and strategic leadership to the Project. He will also coordinate the Project with guidance from the Team Leader, Sustainable Development Unit at the Country Office for local contents and strategic operations. The CTAM will oversee the required technical inputs and review the outputs of the projects.- Work closely with the National Coordinator assisting to provide operational, technical and strategic leadership for project activities, including planning, monitoring and site operations, and assuming quality control of interventions;
- Manage project staff and other liaise with government counterparts in the areas of project management and planning, finance raising and project assessment;
- Endorses Terms of Reference for consultants and sub-contractors, and provide oversight in the selection and recruitment process;
- Coordinate with the assistance of the National Coordinator, the work of all consultants and sub-contractors, ensuring the timely delivery of expected outputs, and effective synergy among the various sub-contracted activities;
- Coordinates the preparation and revision of the Management Plan as well as Annual Work Plans;
- Coordinate preparation of the periodic Status Report when called for by the National Team Leader;
- Oversee the preparation of the Combined Project Implementation Review/Annual Project Report (PIR/APR), inception report, technical reports, quarterly financial reports for submission to UNDP, the GEF, other donors and Government Departments, as required;
- Mobilize staff and consultants in the conduct of a mid-term project evaluation, and in undertaking revisions in the implementation program and strategy based on evaluation results;
- Ensure partnership and liaison work with project partners, donor organizations, NGOs and other groups to ensure effective coordination of project activities;
- Document lessons learned from project implementation and make recommendations to the Steering Committee for more effective implementation and coordination of project activities; and
Critical Success Factors
It is important that the project and its potential results continue to be fully supported by the national leadership on both biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation. Success factors that depend directly on the CTA include whether the incumbent manages to fully use his/her skills and competencies as per the above, including appropriate self management and effective daily work planning as well as the effective use of practical tools including IT (see also Qualifications, below).
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.
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience in working on policy development and capacity building. This includes setting technical methods to maximise performance for the ecosystems and the services that they render.
- Strong knowledge / experience in results based management and results oriented approach to project implementation.
- Strong inter-personal skills, communication, networking and team-building skills; competent in leading teams and creating team spirit, management of inter-group dynamics and conflicting interests of various actors, stimulating team members to produce quality outputs in a timely and transparent fashion.
- Excellent oral communication skills and excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of quality papers and reports.
- Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior and high ranking members of national and international institutions, government and non-government; ability to deal with politically sensitive issues
- Results driven, ability to work under pressure and to meet strict deadlines; remains calm and in control under pressure.
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
- Shares knowledge and experience actively, mentors project staff.
- Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
- Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability..
Required Skills and Experience
Education:- Masters degree with expertise in the area of biodiversity and mainstreaming and the oil and gas sector, or other extractive industries in general;
- 10 years of professional experience, of which at least eight are at international level
- Strong skills in monitoring and evaluation and experience in implementing environmental projects;
- Previous experience with GEF projects, particularly the results-based management approach, is an added plus;
- Ability to effectively coordinate a large, multidisciplinary team of experts and consultants;
- Be an effective negotiator with excellent oral and presentation skills.
- Excellent writing skills in English.
FC: 62000