UNDP Jobs - 50243- Project Consultant for the SPO Platform

Project Consultant for the SPO Platform

Location :

Jakarta, INDONESIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

22-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

Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil, and has received much attention in recent years particularly from the global community concerned about the sustainability of palm oil production. In response, the Government of Indonesia is taking steps towards building a greener economy that promotes growth, equity, improved livelihood and environmental integrity. In order to promote sustainable palm oil production and operation in Indonesia, the Ministry of Agriculture, UNDP and several multinational companies have launched the Sustainable Palm Oil (SPO) Initiative.

The SPO initiative aims to improve the capacity of palm oil smallholders and conserve natural resources together with the Government of Indonesia’s Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) system, a mandatory national sustainable palm oil certification scheme managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, and through working with the Ministry of Forestry and relevant Government of Indonesia institutions.

UNDP has been working together with the Ministry of Agriculture to develop and organize around five (5) key components to achieve the country’s goals on sustainable palm oil. These key components include: (1) Strengthening smallholders focused on productivity and environmental management, (2) Strengthening ISPO to protect forests, enhance biodiversity conservation and mitigate and monitor GHG emissions, (3) Facilitate social responsibility, empowering related communities and mediation systems, (4) Reinforce ISPO framework
and clarify ISPO standards for wider acceptance and create access to markets, and (5) Establish SPO national and provincial multi-stakeholder platforms to facilitate sustainable palm oil forum in Indonesia. These 5 key components together with a multi-stakeholder approach towards issues and action plans, the government is confident to achieve their sustainable palm oil goals. For the past 2 years, the Ministry of Agriculture and UNDP have been developing a project document that focuses on these components and have designed activities to support the achievement of the components’ targets.

Great detail has been put into the design of the national platform. Aligning issues, programs, policies and actions requires the ability to obtain and coordinate a wide range of information from various stakeholders and provide in-depth analysis which will then be recommended to the Government of Indonesia represented by the Ministry of Agriculture. In order to obtain pertinent information and develop national action plans, the project requires a framework that is relevant and can be easily adopted and used by all stakeholders.

At the upcoming UN Climate Summit in September 23 2014, it is expected that various global commitments on global climate change initiatives will be made. This summit will catalyse action plans declared by various stakeholders, including governments and the private sector at the highest level. These action plans will include Indonesia’s commitment to achieve global goals. It will also be a projection and guide to form national action plans, and thus, national and provincial commitments on how to achieve outcomes. Given that Indonesia is
prepared to announce its action plans at the summit, it is imperative that work plans, supporting information,speeches, and other preparations are ready for the Government of Indonesia. Declarations on the platform are also planned and therefore close coordination with the launch, the climate summit, and follow up actions are
critical.

In the above context, a consultant is being sought to support the SPO team on the SPO National Platform Launch, facilitate discussions to develop action plans at the national and provincial level and monitor the implementation of these action plans.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be working under the UNDP Indonesia Environment Unit programme manager for climate change. S/he will be required to support the SPO team and its stakeholders, particularly from the Ministry of Agriculture, ISPO commission, Ministry of Forestry, and UNDP.

The scope of work and the responsibility of the consultant will include:

Facilitate multi-stakeholder meetings and discussions in order to obtain, gather and collate inputs and information from various stakeholders to form recommendations for the SPO Platform;
Working together with the SPO Team and the Ministry of Agriculture, develop frameworks on the national and provincial platform mechanisms;
Develop a work plan and execute the launch of the SPO Platform, within expected results and expected outputs;
Develop the SPO AWP by assisting the SPO Team, including finalizing project work plans for 2014, and drafting work plans for 2015-2018;
Develop standard operating procedures including for the SPO project and support the development of standard operating procedures for the SPO national platform and associated technical working groups;
Develop necessary programmatic material (project documents, concept notes, factsheets, communication drafts);
Design and implement knowledge system to centralize all key information and documents;
Supporting the preparation of project progress reports for UNDP and donors.

Competencies

Have good interpersonal and communications skills;
Good coordination ability and team working spirit;
Proficient with the usage of Microsoft Office applications, such as MS Words, MS Excel, MS and Power Point;
Ability to work independently and in a group;
Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills and ability to build strong relationships with government, private sector, CSOs and UNDP staff.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Minimum Bachelor degree or higher in areas relevant to management of complex projects.

Experience:

A minimum of 10 years professional experience in management or related area, with experience in project proposal development and implementation/work plan;
A minimum of 5 years experience working with Government and in interdepartmental procedures preferred, especially the ability to understand political/sensitive issues and act accordingly;
Proven ability to work with and establish working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders (government, private sector, financial institutions, civil society, etc);
Good organizational skills, with strong experience in organizing and facilitating meetings, workshops and writing reports;
Proven excellent ability to write project reports particularly for internationally funded project and deliver presentations to wide audiences such as Quarterly Monitoring Report and Donor Report;
Project management experiences in international organization highly preferred.

Language:

Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and proficient in English language, both spoken and written.