UNDP Jobs - 49786- Re-advertisement - UN-REDD Technical Specialist

Re-advertisement - UN-REDD Technical Specialist

Location :

Nay Pyi Taw (Forest Department), MYANMAR

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

26-Jun-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Candidates who previously applied need not re-apply.

UNDP Country Programme in Myanmar (2013-15) aims to promote poverty reduction and sustainable development that are rights-based, gender-sensitive, inclusive and equitable by strengthening institutional capacity of national and local governments and non-state actors. UNDP’s programme in Myanmar focuses on three areas: local governance, disaster resilience and environmental governance and democratic governance.

Pillar II focuses on strengthening capacities at local, regional and national level to manage and utilize natural resources in a sustainable way, and to enhance resilience and adaptive capacity to long-term climate change including variability impacts and to reduce the associated risk of natural disasters. One of the components of the pillar II is “capacities to sustainably manage natural resources”.

REDD+ is a mechanism proposed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to achieve significant reductions in anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases globally, thus contributing to international efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The UN-REDD Programme was officially launched during the UN General Assembly in September 2008, with the commitment of the three participating Agencies (UNDP, UNEP and FAO) to “Delivering as One”.

With the support of the UN-REDD Programme, the Government of Myanmar (GoM) developed Myanmar REDD+ Readiness Roadmap from July 2012 to August 2013, and prioritized the activities for implementation under the Myanmar REDD+ Readiness Roadmap. With funding support from Norway’s Government through the UN-REDD Programme, the prioritized activities of the Myanmar REDD+ Roadmap will be implemented starting from July 2014. Forestry Department (FD) of the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF) is the Implementing Partner of the UN-REDD Programmatic support to Myanmar.

UNDP is looking for a UN-REDD Technical Specialist to provide technical advice to the government counterparts, facilitate knowledge building in implementation of Myanmar REDD+ Roadmap, and take in charge of day-to-day management of UN-REDD Programmatic support to Myanmar.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the Programme Executive Board, which is co-chaired by Deputy Minister of MoECAF and UN Resident Coordinator, under the close supervision of Country Director of UNDP Country Office in Myanmar and Director General of Forest Department, UN-REDD Technical Specialist will be responsible for overall operational and financial management and reporting on the implementation of Myanmar REDD+ Roadmap through the UN-REDD programmatic support. To achieve this objective, the UN-REDD Technical Specialist will be also guided by the Regional Programme Coordinator of the UN-REDD programme based in Asia-Pacific Regional Centre of UNDP.

Support the REDD+ Taskforce REDD+ Office in the day-to-day management of UN-REDD Programmatic Support including:

Development of annual and quarterly work plans and reports for participating UN agencies;
Provide close and regular technical backstopping to the REDD+ Office Chief, other members of the UN-REDD Team and other implementing entities for the implementation of various components of the UN-REDD Programmatic Support;
Review of relevant policies and development of policy frameworks as well as the institutional arrangements for REDD+ development;
Organisation of and substantive contributions to a high level policy dialogue on development of a National REDD+ Programme;
Support the REDD+ Office Chief and other members of the UN-REDD Team in coordinating and supervising activities of national and international experts /consultants to secure timely production of planned outputs and the review of these outputs;
Assist the REDD+ Office Chief, Deputy and National Programme Director to coordinate and liaise with stakeholders – including line ministries, development partners, civil society, indigenous peoples and the private sector;
Ensure coordination with other REDD+ initiatives;
Ensure communication between different government agencies, national and international initiatives and stakeholders.

Provide advice to Government counterparts and facilitate knowledge building focusing on achievement of the following results:

Provide support and technical advice to the development of policy options and strategy for the design and implementation of Myanmar's National REDD+ Programme to the GoM and other development actors including support on the development of:

Benefit distribution mechanisms;
Strategy development;
Conflict resolution mechanisms;
Other elements of National REDD+ development as required.

Share knowledge on REDD+ by (i) documenting lessons learnt and best practices from the UN-REDD Programmatic Support and contributing to the development of knowledge based tools (including policies, strategies, guidelines, etc);

Provide timely quality information and technical advice to the RGC, UN Country Team, implementing partners, line ministries and other partners to ensure effective development and delivery of the UN-REDD Programmatic Support;

Coordinate institutional capacity assessments of relevant national, provincial and local entities along the REDD+ supply chain;

Assist in the identification of technical expertise and lead on the preparation of TORs, identification and evaluation of experts, and reviewing reports produced; and

Support to UNFCCC negotiations relating to REDD+.

Expected Impact of Results

It is anticipated that the work of the Technical Specialist will have the following impacts:

Increased understanding of National REDD+ Process amongst key stakeholder within government and outside;
UN-REDD contributions to the National REDD+ process are effectively coordinated with work of other programmes and projects working on REDD+ and related issues;
The REDD+ Office is functioning effectively;
Information gained from the development and implementation of the UN-REDD and National REDD+ Programme in Myanmar is shared at, both, country and international levels; and
Enhanced capacity within Myanmar to further develop and implement a national approach to REDD+.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents;
Building support and political acumen;
Building staff competence, Creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
Building and promoting effective teams;
Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy / Advancing Policy Oriented Agenda: analysis and creation of messages and strategies;
Creates effective advocacy strategies;
Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;
Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work.

Building Strategic Partnerships: Identifying and building partnerships:

Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to the UN’s mandate and strategic agenda related to REDD+;
Sensitizes UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to UN-REDD’s strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts;
Develops positive ties with civil society to build/strengthen UN-REDD’s mandate;
Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments;
Takes responsibility for achieving agreed outputs within set deadlines and strives until successful outputs are achieved.

Innovation and Marketing new Approaches: Developing new approaches:

Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;
Generates for regional and innovative ideas and effective solutions to problems;
Looks at experience critically, drawing lessons, and building them into the design of new approaches;
Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;
Documents successes and uses them to project a positive image;
Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

Promoting Organizational learning and Knowledge Sharing: Developing tools and mechanisms:

Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;
Develops and/or participates in the development of tools and mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies

Job Knowledge and Technical Expertise: In-depth knowledge of the subject matter:

Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
Serves as internal consultant in the area of expertise and shares knowledge with staff;
Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit;
Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;
Strong communication, facilitation and coordination skills.

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UN-REDD’s Goals: Analysis and creation of messages and strategies:

Creates effective global advocacy messages/strategies;
Contributes to the elaboration of a global advocacy strategy by identifying and prioritizing audiences and messages;
Performes analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for global advocacy work and adapts it for use at country level.

Client Orientation: Contributing to positive outcomes for the client:

Anticipates client needs;
Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
Keeps the client informed of problems or delays in the provision of services;
Uses discretion and flexibility in interpreting rules in order to meet client needs and achieve organizational goals more effectively;
Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree or higher in Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Economics, Geography or Social Sciences, Forestry or similar.

Experience:

At least 7 years of working experience on REDD+, conservation, resource management, forest economic policy and community development livelihoods with experience in Myanmar preferable;
Experience of working in multinational teams to implement programmes involving different funding and implementing agencies;
Experience of implementing programmes across the UN agencies and across Government are definite advantages;
Experience the REDD+ developments at international, national and local levels;
Knowledge on the UNFCCC negotiations, COP-decisions related to REDD and guidelines for national systems in the context of REDD+, as well as national and international best practices within REDD+ and other natural resource management initiatives.

Language:

Excellent written and spoken English language skills;
Some competencies in spoken Myanmar would be preferable.