UNDP Jobs - 59455- Technical Specialist Mainstreaming (Mainstreaming

Technical Specialist Mainstreaming (Mainstreaming Sustainable Forest Management)

Location :

Miombo- TABORA, TANZANIA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

01-Oct-2015

Application Deadline :

11-Sep-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-3

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

One Year

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

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP has committed US $2.745 million over a period of 5 years aiming at Mainstreaming Sustainable Forest Management SFM in the Miombo Woodlands of Western Tanzania. This project was launched in 2013 and activities started in the July 2013. The project is focusing on the sustainable management of the Miombo forests of Western Tanzania which are threatened by deforestation and degradation driven by various factors. Among the drivers of deforestation and degradation include settlers, land clearance and burning for agriculture, saw millers, tobacco industry, charcoal producers, and to some extent climate change. The overall Goal of the project is that “Sustainable Forest Management secures ecosystem and biodiversity values while providing a buffer to the Congolian Rain forest, ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods. The objective of the project is “To enable miombo dependent communities to adopt productive practices that are favorable to biodiversity conservation and reduce carbon emissions from land use change and improve livelihoods”. The project’s immediate focus is over an area of 133,400 hectares covering 4 wards (Usinge, Imalamakoye, Mbola, Inyonga) in Urambo, Uyui and Mpanda districts.

The RAS Tabora is the Lead Implementing Partner taking the overall responsibility of the project and will work in close collaboration with RAS Katavi, VPO-DOE and UNDP. Given the scope of the project, the RAS office will facilitate engagement of a number of partners with specific responsibilities either at local LGA level, academic/research Institution or NGOs. Actual field activities will be coordinated by the RAS team in Tabora in collaboration with the Regional Administrative Secretary for Rukwa/Katavi.

An important aspect of the projects is the collection of sufficient data and information for the project to allow the measuring of results and impact of the planned interventions which will be measured over the life span of the project. Considering the need to gather lessons from the field, it is considered prudent to engage a Technical Advisor to coordinate and provide guidance through the ongoing project work, and link the results generated over time to national processes. Many of the project components are innovative in nature and need timely technical support to ensure credible results that the project teams can reliably build on. Such components include support to policy harmonization with a view to making the existing policies more biodiversity and conservation friendly. The project will test sustainable charcoal and carbon finance policies, as well as landscape planning and strengthening of local level implementation of by-laws. This outcome would help build the capacity of civil society and the government agencies and hence they would be able to replicate with enhanced capacity.

Based in the RAS office in Tabora, the Technical Advisor (Mainstreaming SFM) shall be responsible for providing overall technical backstopping for the required technical inputs to the project, reviewing and preparing Terms of Reference for various studies and technical reports, and performing quality assurance on the outputs of consultants and other sub-contractors including ensuring that gender concerns are addressed in all studies and activities commissioned under this project. The Technical Advisor is expected to adopt an on-the-job capacity building approach targeting the National Project Coordinator and the RAS technical team as well as the national counterparts on project site.

Under the direct supervision of the RAS, UNDP CO and RCU; the Technical Advisor (TA) will be responsible for providing technical support to the implementation of activities and achievement of project results, in particular ensuring that all innovative activities are based on good science and draw on lessons from the country and the region, and that the results of testing these innovations in Tabora and Katavi regions is captured, documented and shared widely (through technical publications and other forms of knowledge management). The Technical Advisor (Mainstreaming SFM) will ensure that gender concerns are addressed during activity planning implementation, monitoring and reporting of all project interventions. Working together with the technical officers from relevant ministries, the Technical Advisor will be responsible for the technical implementation as well as the technical quality control of project reports, especially the technical reports. The Technical Advisor (Mainstreaming SFM) will therefore provide sound technical advice to the Project Management Unit and Regional Administrative Secretaries (RAS) Office and teams as the basis for implementing project components. In particular, the Technical Advisor will ensure that the components on policy review and harmonization, energy switch and sustainable charcoal, and, improvement of opportunities for local economic development (markets, NTFPs) and the formulation and implementation of the participatory soil fertility monitoring are based on the best scientific evidence available, and generate lessons for upscaling. The Technical Advisor (Mainstreaming SFM) will therefore undertake extensive search for similar initiatives in the region and globally, and ensure that any emerging lessons are documented and best practices shared to inform the SFM agenda. In this respect, the technical advisor will provide a link (on technical matters) between the project and the National institutions through the Environment department in the Vice-President’s Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

At UNDP, the Technical Advisor (Mainstreaming SFM) shall report to the UNDP Head of Programme on a regular basis through the programme Specialist Environment and Natural Resources. UNDP will assess the performance of the Technical Advisor in consultation with the RAS and the Project Coordinator (PC) including national counterpart staff in relation to the quality and adequacy of technical assistance delivered as per agreed roles and responsibilities. The Technical Advisor will be an experienced specialist on Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and landscape planning; he/she will specifically ensure timely delivery of functions and key results indicated below:

Technical Advice

Ensure development baseline information for the project is in place. In case of any gap, ensure Terms of Reference for consultancies to address the gap are finalized and consultants are recruited to conduct the identified assignments; assist in the selection and recruitment process; take lead in coordination of the consultants work and provide quality assurance for the final product including ensuring timely delivery of expected outputs, and effective synergy among the various sub-contracted activities.

Expected results

Project technical studies – In collaboration with the Project coordinator, the Technical Advisor will ensure that TOR for the technical studies are finalized, consultants are recruited and supervised to undertake the assessments. Specific number of consultancies will be determined at the start of the assignment.

Capacity Development:

Provide technical support to the project team including the National Project Coordinator in the fine-tuning of the project’s Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PAME) Strategy, with a focus on gender sensitive impact indicators, means of verification and risk identification and mitigation;
Assist the National Project Coordinator in liaison work with project partners, donor organizations, NGOs and other groups to ensure effective coordination of project activities in the project area.

Expected results:

All baselines studies and consultant report technically cleared for further processing;
Provide the technical quality control in the implementation of findings of the baseline assessments and the consequent action plans developed to mainstream SFM into local and national policies, the capacity development program and the energy efficiency program; ensuring that such implementation is built on existing government, NGO and other development partners’ initiatives, capitalizing on synergies and avoiding duplication.

Quality assurance support to project work plans, reports, and activities:

Assist the National Project Coordinator in the preparation of result oriented and gender responsive Project Implementation Reports and Annual Project Report (PIR/APR), technical reports for submission to RAS, VPO, UNDP/GEF and Project Steering Committee as required.

Expected results:

Good quality reports with clear and tangible results and integrating gender concerns received from the project in a timely manner.

Partnership management:

In consultation with UNDP CO and RCU support fundraising specifically from the Green Climate Funds (GCF) during the project implementation to upscale/consolidate project interventions; follow up guidance provided to the PC and senior management at UNDP.

Expected results:

Prospective partners and their areas for support identified; fundraising target towards developing a sustainable finance plan demonstrated and documented. Follow up guidance provided to the PC and senior management at UNDP country office.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Take lead in providing technical guidance on collection of gender sensitive data and information (disaggregated by gender where possible) that is required as part of project monitoring. Ensure M&E framework agreed by the project technical committee is in place and operational;
Document lessons from project implementation and make recommendations to the Steering Committee for more effective implementation and coordination of project activities;
Identify opportunities and avenues for technical publications; generation of and quality control of the publications.

Expected results:

A robust participatory ecological monitoring system with clear impact, process and gender indicators linked with implementation action plan, specifying data needs and information management systems;
Technical publications produced using the information generated by the baseline assessments for wider sharing. Information and learning materials produced will include publications on SFM under Government UNDP/GEF knowledge management; newsletter, policy briefs, thematic fact sheets and any summary scientific article that covers SFM and Miombo issues.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Promoting ethics and intergrity, creating orga?nization precedents;
Building staff competence, creating an environemnt of creativity and innovation;
Building and promoting effective teams;
Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly and without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning;
Development and Operational Effectiveness;
Management and Leadership;
Communications and Networking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

At least Masters Degree or equivalent in environment and natural resources management, environmental economics or natural sciences with experience in research, project planning, implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation coupled with vast knowledge and experience in Institution building.

Expereince:

A minimum of five (5) years of post-graduate professional experience in environment/sustainable land/forest management, with knowledge of the developing world including East Africa and preferably Tanzania;
Demonstrated expertise in biodiversity conservation and natural resources management required and knowledge of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies desirable;
Expertise and proven experience in SFM and landscape management approach;
Strong research and analysis skills;
Proven ability to plan, organize and effectively implement activities;
Ability to coordinate and work in teams, as well as in complex environments;
Proven experience in participatory processes, and in facilitating dialogue between Government, Development partners, private sector and civil society;
Strong communication and advocacy skills;
Understanding of landscape conservation and land use planning and management;
Solid experience in Gender mainstreaming and gender analysis, including developing gender sensitive impact indicators.
Substantive knowledge of UNDP/GEF programming tools for planning, monitoring, and general knowledge of the UNDP Practice Areas, particularly Environment and Energy;
Thorough understanding of Landscape planning; forest, wildlife and biodiversity conservation issues including environment policies and governance systems desirable;
Solid experience in Gender mainstreaming and gender analysis, including developing gender sensitive impact indicators;
Given the complexity, technical and innovative nature of the SFM project the incumbent will require
Expertise and proven experience in SFM and landscape management approach;
Strong research and analysis skills;
Proven ability to plan, organize and effectively implement activities;
Ability to coordinate and work in teams, as well as in complex environments;
Proven experience in participatory processes, and in facilitating dialogue between Government, Development partners, private sector and civil society;
Strong communication and advocacy skills;
Understanding of landscape conservation and land use planning and management;
Solid experience in Gender mainstreaming and gender analysis, including developing gender sensitive impact indicators.
Experience in working with government staff, semi-autonomous organizations and private sector;
Prior involvement in implementing UNDP/GEF funded projects in the region including Tanzania would be an advantage.

Language:

Fluency in spoken and written English;
Good communication skills;
Good command of Kiswahili will be an advantage.