Background

Communities Programme

Communities Programme (CP) is a multi-year initiative of UNDP in Tajikistan that builds on the previous achievements of UNDP from 1996 and supports working toward the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the implementation of Tajikistan’s Living Standards Improvement Strategy for 2013-2015 (LSIS). The Programme operates at the local level through its five area offices in Sughd and Khatlon regions, and Rasht Valley.

The new phase of CP commenced in 2010 aims at applying a more programmatic approach and strengthening its focus on sustainability. At the local level, CP aims at strengthening local governance systems by adopting a two-fold strategy: a) to build capacity of national and sub-national governments to plan, budget and monitor development on their territories in a participatory and inclusive way and in line with the LSIS targets, as well to secure investments and provide public services, support rural economic development, natural resources management, health and disaster risk management, and b) enhance capacities of private sector and civil society to develop, participate in decision-making, exercise influence and hold governments accountable. The Programme intends to build strong linkages between its local level interventions and policy making at the national level by supporting national institutions to enact key policies, reforms, and regulations relevant in the areas of CP intervention, which embody various projects and programmes, including Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI).
 
Poverty-Environment Initiative

The joint UNDP- UNEP PEI is a global programme that supports country-led efforts to mainstream poverty and environment (PE) linkages into national development policy, planning and budgeting processes. PE mainstreaming involves establishing the links between environment and poverty, and then identifying which policies, planning and budgeting processes can bring about better pro-poor environmental management in order to help achieve development goals such as MDGs and future Sustainable Development Goals. PEI provides an important example of UN reform that has demonstrated an integrated, programmatic approach to support countries. The focus of PEI work is on capacity development to ‘operationalize’ mainstreaming in development policy frameworks and their implementation. UNDP and UNEP believe there is now a unique opportunity to strengthen and consolidate the PEI partnership to effectively address increasing demand resulting from the important achievements made so far.

In Tajikistan, the PEI Phase I throughout 2010-2013 demonstrated economic, social and environmental results from integrating poverty and environmental linkages in development policy, planning and budget processes. The process however requires a sustained engagement over time in order to gain direct economic, social and environmental gains.
Hence, Tajikistan PEI Phase II has been approved earlier this year to run throughout 2014-2017 with an overall goal to support improved governance and trickle-down effect of sustainable development agenda within national and sectoral development strategies as a result of PE mainstreaming, thus ensuring better management of natural resources, and enhancement of regional cooperation and knowledge sharing on P-E mainstreaming. The project will be implemented via three components: a) P-E approaches and tools for integrated development policies, plans and coordination mechanisms applied; b) Knowledge base built for institutionalization of cross-sectoral budget and expenditure frameworks and environment-economic accounting systems; and c) Regional cooperation and knowledge sharing facilitated to integrate pro-poor environmental outcomes into regional institutions and sustainable development.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Technical Advisor will provide technical advisory support for the Poverty-Environment Initiative in implementing PEI Phase II.

She/He will directly be providing technical support to the PEI Coordinator, and Senior CP Officers on Local Governance and Economic Development. The Technical Advisor will be responsible for providing policy advisory support, technical assistance and inputs into reviews, policy documents, terms of references and reports produced within the project.

Missions:

It is anticipated that the Technical Advisor will undertake missions to Tajikistan several times within the contract duration, based on the inputs and needs, as required. She/He is expected to be available for on-line feedback, review and consultations throughout the whole period of the contract.

Reporting:

The Technical Advisor will work under the direct supervision of PEI Coordinator with overall supervision from the CP Manager and oversight of UNDP CO Programme Analyst. This position will provide direct advisory support to CP Senior Local Governance Officer on PEI Phase II implementation, as needed.

Expected Deliverables:
  • All key documents are reviewed - this, among others, includes the National Development Strategy, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper-4, District Development Plans (DDP)guidelines, finalized DDPs, project documents of those initiatives with which close collaboration is expected, monitoring frameworks at the national, sector and sub national levels;
  • The aim of the secondary review will be to examine how national commitment to environmental protection is prioritized within the planning and budget allocation process;
  • Based on the review, the report is produced with gaps identified in relation to what is required for environmental mainstreaming as per PEI objective and “where we are” (current institutional and policy set up for sustainable use of natural resources) in fulfilling those;
  • Terms of references are developed for key local and international consultants, especially focusing on Output 3 of PEI Phase II.
Technical advice, recommendations and inputs are provided in integrating P-E issues into: 
  • United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF);
  • UNDP Country Programme Document (CPD);
  • UNDP Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP).
Advisory support is provided to local consultants on integrating P-E issues into the next National Development Strategy 2016-2030 and mid-term development strategy 2016-2020.
Baseline gender analysis report on P-E issues with focus on identifying gender gaps in access to economic, climate risks and natural resources management, decision making with policy recommendations developed to address gender gaps in formulating gender indicators relevant for P-E mainstreaming into long-term development planning at the national level. The findings of this baseline analysis will feed into follow up project activities on capacity development, strategic documents development and scaling up support.
Trainings are conducted for national, province and district policymakers on integrated, gender responsive and cross-sectoral strategic planning and follow-up supervision by the team of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT).

A national workshop is organized involving international and national experts to support the MEDT and other related state agencies and CSOs on the integration of P-E issues and opportunities into the new long-term National Development Strategy for the period 2016-2030.

A method is elaborated for the preparation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and training(s) are provided to decision-makers in order to improve their capacity to effectively assess economic, social and environmental impacts of national development policy and resulting investments, or, more generally, economic activities. The method is expected to build on best practices and lessons learnt from other countries, in particular EU member states, which highlighted the benefits of SEA in increasing transparency, mainstreaming environmental issues into national policies, and strengthening collaboration among different authorities. A variety of demo pilot SEAs on upcoming projects is initiated in year 2 (2015) to showcase the relevance of the SEA methodology to P-E mainstreaming objectives. Pilot SEAs will be possibly conducted in areas affected by specific poverty and environment concerns.
Continuous support and advice is provided to the national PEI Coordinator in all technical aspects of project implementation.
PEI Phase II exit strategy is developed to ensure sustainability of results achieved within the framework of this initiative.

 

Competencies

Functional Competencies:
  • Professionalism;
  • Communication;
  • Teamwork;
  • Planning &Organization;
  • Accountability.
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;
  • Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • A post-graduate university degree, masters or above, in any of the following disciplines, Environmental Sciences, Environment Management, Environmental Policy, Natural Resources Management, etc.
Experience:
  • Experience of at least (3) three years of working with ministries of planning and/or environment is highly desirable, especially knowledge of leading policy frameworks and new directions; 
  • Extensive expertise, knowledge, and experience of not less than ten (10) years in development programming and related issues in various developing country contexts, including thorough understanding of participatory approaches and their application in several countries;
  • Well conversant with Strategic Environmental Assessment and extensive experience in related fields such as national development policies and strategies, poverty reduction strategies, policies, monitoring and evaluation and strategic planning, including considerable experience dealing with policy makers at senior level;  
  • Excellent understanding of the socio-economic policy, development issues and the environment of Tajikistan and the Central Asian region, or relevant related experience in a similar context;
  • Experience of working in Central Asia would be an added advantage;
  • Knowledge and understanding of international and country-level implementation of small and large development projects and their relation to environment preservation and poverty reduction;
  • Extensive experience in scenario development and analysis, including gender equality considerations;
  • Extensive experience in developing training modules and facilitating training events;
  • Thorough knowledge on development processes, green economy and green accounting concepts, environmental conservation, results-based management and logical framework analysis;  
  • Experience in institutional coordination and harmonization;
  • Relevant experience in skills transfer and building local capacity;
  • Excellent presentation and report writing skills.
Language:
  • Excellent command of spoken and written English;
  • Knowledge of Russian or any other local languages is an asset.