UNDP Jobs - 50221- REDD+ Safeguards Senior Specialist

REDD+ Safeguards Senior Specialist - (Open to Indonesian Nationals only) - 1 post

Location :

Jakarta, INDONESIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

29-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

10-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 months

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

Context of the REDD+ initiative:

Indonesia is the third largest emitter of CO2 and the world’s largest emitter from agriculture, forestry and other land use. Over the past five years, Indonesia’s annual deforestation rate has averaged around 1 million hectares, which contributes more than 80 percent of Indonesia’s estimated annual emissions.

In this contexts, on May 26, 2010 the Governments of Indonesia and the Kingdom of Norway signed a Letter of Intent to establish a Partnership for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest and peat land degradation. REDD+ is a global mechanism which provides an opportunity for developing countries like Indonesia to move towards a sustainable green economy. For Indonesia it also offers a way to achieve the Indonesian government’s voluntary commitment to the world to reduce emissions as much as 26 percent or up to 41 percent with international support by 2020.

The first phase of this REDD+ Partnership (Phase 1) was to establish an agency with the capacity to implement and manage REDD+ projects initially in the pilot province Central Kalimantan and progressively in other priority provinces across Indonesia. A Task Force (Satuan Tugas, Satgas) was established to support this initial phase and, as of August 2013 by the Presidential Decree No.62 Year 2013, the Indonesia REDD+ Management Agency (Badan Pengelola REDD+) was established. By its initial establishment, the REDD+ Management Agency has achieved the following:

Finalisation of a REDD+ National Strategy (Stranas) and development of Provincial Strategies and Action Plans (PSAPs) for the eleven priority provinces;
Agreement on, and legal basis for, the structure and operations of a REDD+ Financial Instrument (FREDDI); its implementation awaits the establishment of the REDD+ Agency and the subsequent release of funding for Phase 2 of the LoI;
A methodology, partially trialled, for the structure and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the MRV technical unit; while international standards and an international/national REDD+ registry remain in development, the unit is ready for mobilisation following the establishment of the REDD+ Agency;
Legal review of regulatory requirements related to REDD+ implementation in particular land tenure, forest and peat-land governance, forest monitoring and law enforcement, consolidation of land concessions, and a Moratorium on all new concessions for conversion of peat and natural forest in Indonesia; and
Successful implementation of a wide range of projects by the REDD+ Task Force in the pilot province Central Kalimantan with a focus on developing an operational capacity and an enabling environment for REDD+ projects.

These achievements have prepared a basic foundation for a future REDD+ national programme that aims to address the emission-reduction target for the forestry and peat-land sectors and the national long-term goals associated with sustainable economic development and poverty reduction.

Context of this ToR:

The Funding and Planning Work is responsible for setting-up mechanisms to: (a) mobilize, (b) manage, and (c) disburse financial resources for the implementation of REDD+ in Indonesia. In due time, the scope of these mechanisms will include structures to channel fund through its four funding windows; encompass the disbursement of grant for National Priority Programs, Sub-National Programs and Competitive Proposals as well as Small Grant mechanism. In addition, the mechanism is also envisioned to attract and channel private sector involvement within REDD+ implementation as well as suitable market structures for generated credit. The establishment of fully operational funding instruments is one of the key requirements for REDD+ Indonesia.

A key aspect of the design of these mechanisms is the need for a balance between effective fund disbursements on the one hand and transparent and reliable compliance with social, environmental, and fiduciary safeguards on the other hand. It is crucial that the risks and livelihood implications of these financial mechanisms are well-measured and assessed so that strategic undertaking can be put in place to promote successful outcomes, reduce the risk and manage possible conflicts.

To this end, the REDD+ Management Agency has successfully developed Principle, Criteria and Indicator for REDD+ National Safeguards, which are more commonly known as PRISAI (Principle, Criteria and Indicator Safeguards Indonesia) to answer the demand for transparent and accountable funding mechanism. During its development and trial phases that involved various stakeholders in International, National and Subnational levels, it was concluded that to ensure the success of complex PRISAI implementation, it has to be further equipped with a profound Guideline of PRISAI Implementation as well as PRISAI Monitoring and Information System for project developers and policy makers, especially considering that PRISAI implementation will be streamlined with the implementation of REDD+ Jurisdictional Approach in government administrative set-up. The Guideline and the Operational system development is expected to transform PRISAI from a concept and principles into applicable operational system for REDD+ implementers in National, sub-natinal and site levels as an integrated part of REDD+ monitoring and evaluation tool.

Regarding that target, REDD+ Management Agency through UNDP is seeking to engage a national REDD+ Safeguards Implementation Specialist to ensure that social, environmental and fiduciary safeguard protocols are transformed into applicable guideline and to be developed into safeguards operational system.

Objectives of Assignment:

The objective of this assignment is to ensure that social, environmental and fiduciary safeguard protocols are developed into guideline and operational system within the financial mechanisms for REDD+ implementation in Indonesia. That these safeguards, as a part of monitoring and evaluation tool, among others, protect against corruption and prevent non-desired social and environmental effects. A framework for safeguard protocols has been developed, and the Funding and Planning Deputy of REDD+ management Agency aims to make it operational for REDD+ implementation.

Expected Travels:

During the contract, the incumbent will be expected to travel to certain locations as detailed below:

Trip to Jambi province will be for three times, with each trip lasts for 3 days;
Trip to West Sumatera province for three times, with each trip lasts for 3 days;
Trip to East Kalimantan province for four times, with each trip lasts for 3 days;
Trip to Central Kalimantan province for three times, with each trip lasts for 2 days.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

The scope of work of the Senior Specialist will cover these activities:

Develop PRISAI Implementation Guidelines for each project implementer category which are divided into community, Civil Society organizations, and Private sectors based on the completed draft of recommendations on how to integrate the safeguard protocols into the selected financial mechanisms for REDD+ implementation;
Develop PRISAI integration system with Safeguards Information System (SIS) that is stationed in the Ministry of Forestry;
Develop PRISAI monitoring system in project level, especially for participation that involving communities;
Moderate the process of equal recognition of PRISAI among other similsocial and environment standards that can be referred as substitutiary instruments to PRISAI;
Develop PRISAI operational procedures and mechanism in Provincial and District jurisdictional levels.

Conduct test on the procedures and mechanism in collaboration with the Deputy of Operational and Deputy of Technology, Monitoring and Evaluation of REDD+ Management Agency to the selected areas and report it to the key stakeholders on the trial outcomes.

Other Requirements:

In addition to the scope and output stated above, the incumbent will be required to undertake other ad hoc tasks that may arise during the contract period. These tasks will be delegated by the incumbent’s Work-stream Associate who will ensure that these ad hoc tasks do not impede on the incumbent’s ability to meet contractual obligations/deliverables.

All materials and other intellectual property produced while working under contract including, but not limited to, documents, presentations, white papers, photographs and other media, will remain the property of the REDD+ Management Agency and are required to be submitted to Work-stream Associate for archiving.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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; and
Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies

Technical competencies:

Extensive knowledge on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and concept;
Extensive knowledge of social and environmental safeguards, forest governance;
Demonstrated ability to write guidelines, protocol and operational procedures related to forestry and environment activities.
Excellent knowledge on REDD+ concepts;
Ability to work comfortably at national, sub-national and community levels with diverse range of forestry and environment related- stakeholders; including
Solid knowledge and analytical ability to lead trial/ pilot activities to establish and measure the newly developed protocol/procedure/guideline;
Proven ability to lead negotiations with third parties to establish equal recognition safeguards standards among other social and environment standards.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example; and
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to conceptualise issues and analyse data;
Ability to coordinate the work of others;
Ability to implement new systems (business side), and affect staff behavioural/attitudinal change;
Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit; and
Ability to demonstrate good knowledge on Climate Change and/or REDD+ issues.

Management and Leadership:

Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Leads teams effectively and shows mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills; and
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor degree of Law or of Social Science and other related fields.

Experience:

Possess minimum 7 years of working experience mostly in environment sector;
Possess Experience in legal and advocacy work in relation to environment and forestry sector for minimum 5 years is mandatory.

Language:

Fluent in written and spoken Indonesian and proficient in English.