UNDP Jobs - 61826- International Technical Specialist on Biodiversity

International Technical Specialist on Biodiversity and Natural Resources – Wetland Habitats

Location :

Hanoi, VIET NAM

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

01-Feb-2016

Application Deadline :

05-Dec-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1-year with possibility of extension subject to resource mobilization

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

In Viet Nam, over the past decade, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and increased exploitation of natural resources, particularly finite fossil fuels, have driven high rates of economic growth. However, these drivers, aided by climate change, have also put increasing pressures on natural resources and the environment, leading to the downward spiralling deterioration in environmental conditions. Environmental degradation and inefficient resource use are becoming major barriers to achieve sustainable development in Viet Nam. Recognizing these challenges, the 10-year national Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2011-2020) charts a new model of “sustainable growth based on higher productivity and better balance between economic, social and environmental protection priorities." In 2012, the government introduced a “Master plan on economic restructuring in association with conversion of the growth model towards improving quality, efficiency and competitiveness during the 2013-2020 period”, which calls for “harmoniously settling important and urgent issues and long-term fundamental ones for the sake of sustainable development.”

In 1989, Viet Nam became a signatory of the Ramsar Convention on Wetland, an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for international cooperation for the conservation of wetland habitats. Viet Nam’s exceptionally diverse inland and coastal wetlands contribute significantly to its biological richness. Wetlands cover an estimated 30% of Viet Nam’s total land area (around 10 million hectares), at least 39 types of wetland among 42 types globally classified in the Ramer Convention, are found in Viet Nam. Viet Nam internalizes international obligation for wetland ecosystem and its services through legal framework, including the Law on Fisheries (2003), and the Biodiversity Law (2000), and regulations and programme such as the government Decree 109/2003/ND-CP “The Conservation and Sustainable Development of Wetlands”. Viet Nam’s wetland systems have contributed greatly to this recent economic development, both directly and indirectly, as they underpin numerous economic activities, mainly in agriculture, fisheries and other rural livelihood provisions.

Under the programme cycle 2012-2016, UNDP Viet Nam continues providing support to the Government of Viet Nam to enhance institutional capacity, technologies, application of innovative tools for biodiversity conservation and environmental protection through the implementation of the following key (group) projects: (i) Developing National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation into Provincial Planning; (ii) Removing Barriers Hindering Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Viet Nam, aiming at developing a sustainable financing to support long-term systematic, institutional and individual capacities in order to reverse the loss of natural ecosystems and degradation of natural ecosystems; (iii) UN REDD Viet Nam Phase II Programme with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, aiming to prepare Viet Nam’s readiness to benefits future REDD+; (iv) a group of projects on management and treatments of persistent organic pollutions (POPs), including dioxin/Agent Orange, and POP pesticides, and mercury; and (v) Conservation of critical wetland PAs and linked landscapes (the Project). This project aims to establish two new wetland protected areas in different ecosystems and to create capacities for their effective management to mitigate existing and emerging threats from connected landscapes.

The International Technical Specialist (ITS) on Biodiversity and Natural Resources – Wetland Habitats is recruited to work mainly with the Project, will be based in the Project Management Unit (PMU). The ITS is a key advisor to the project partner – Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE/MONRE) and Co-implementing Partner – Biodiversity Conservation Agency/MONRE, on technical and policy aspects of critical wetland and linked landscape conservation. In exercising his/her role, the ITS supports the planning, technical reviews and quality assurance, monitoring and reporting of the project; plays a leading role in formulation of research and ensures highest quality policy products; and makes quality inputs to the advocacy, communications efforts, coordination and to the development of the UNDP Viet Nam’s Sustainable Development Programme;

The International Technical Specialist (ITS) will implement his/her functions under the supervision and guidance of the Deputy Country Director (DCD) through the Head of Sustainable Development Cluster. The ITS will agree with the National Project Director (NPD) on specific tasks. The ITS works in close collaboration with the programme staff at the UNDP Country Office and Regional Bangkok Hub (RBH) as well as national counterparts for ensuring knowledge sharing and the highest possible quality of project outputs. He/she ensures the alignment of the project outputs with intented outcomes, benefits and impacts of the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Programme in Viet Nam.

In line with UNDP staff rules, the ITS’s annual performance will be measured by a full Performance Management and Development (PMD). The PMD will be done by DCD as the immediate Supervisor, with self-assessment of the ITS and based on inputs from the NPD.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions:

The International Technical Specialist is expected to provide advices to MONRE and UNDP in the areas of biodiversity, natural resources, focusing on wetland habitats. The International Technical Specialist has following main functions, specifically, he/she will:

Provide technical advice and support to MONRE and UNDP in planning, quality assurance, M&E, and reporting of the Project;
Coordinate and ensure technically quality inputs to the revision or/and newly formulation of relevant legislative frameworks and policies supported by the Project; Initiate and provide quality assurance on policy analysis/researches, and ; and contribute to knowledge generation and advocacy;
Contribute to the partnership development and coordination, including support to Viet Nam’s effective contribution to in the international and regional forums, and contribute to the development of the UNDP Viet Nam’s Sustainable Development Progamme;
Provide capacity building and knowledge transfer to the government counterpart and project staff.

Planning, Quality assurance, M&E and Reporting of the Project:

Project planning: Provide advice and assist the NPD, National Project Manager/ Coordinator, and UNDP Programme Officer in charge of the Project to ensure quality and timely preparation and submission of annual and quarterly project work-plans; Identify potential risks and emerging issues that may affect project outputs and outcomes, and initiate the revision of project plans and project’s resource and results framework (RRF);
Technical review and quality assurance: Assume the responsibilities of technical quality assurance of the Project, including quality of job descriptions, terms of references, and bidding requirements/ requests for bidding proposal, and project outputs/products; design and put in place quality control/ peer review mechanisms to ensure highest quality of documents and project outputs/products before review and approval by the NPD and UNDP;
Monitoring, review and evaluation: Lead to prepare, update and revise indicators, baselines, targets, and means of verifications for project outcomes, outputs, and activities; design necessary tools and mechanisms for regular and ad-hoc project progress reviews/ meetings, evaluations, and ensure proper implementation and follow-up of recommendations/actions from such reviews/evaluations;
Reporting and documenting lessons and good practices: Provide inputs to the preparation of progress project reports, including reports to donors (if any), focusing on capturing results and lessons, and undertake necessary reviews to ensure quality reports; initiate and ensure proper documentation of project lessons, experiences, best practices, and human interest stories;
Publishing and disseminating project results/ products: Ensure publication of project products, including policy briefs, research results/ products, and proceedings of policy dialogues/ technical meetings, and wide disseminations of these outputs.

Policy development, researches and knowledge generation, and Advocacy:

Coordinating to the legislative and policy revision and formulation: Thorough reviews to identify gaps and discrepancies among legislative frameworks and policies that need to address, and support UNDP in advocacy for policy changes. Lead in mobilizing inputs and make contribution to the revision of and formulation of new legislation and policies for Biodiversity and Wetland conservation sector,
Initiating researches/ policy analysis and ensuring quality: Identify the needs of policy analysis, and researches on wetland conservation related areas. Formulate research proposals, terms of references, requests for proposals for such policy analysis/ researches, and provide guidance and quality assurance to ensure quality and timely productions of highest quality products; Actively facilitate and participate in research partnerships with relevant institution within MONRE, line ministries, services providers, other UN organizations, relevant donors and NGOs;
Generating knowledge and information: Based on policy analysis and research results in Viet Nam, experiences and practices elsewhere, prepare policy summary papers, focusing on policy recommendations, advocacy messages/ statements, and media information;
Knowledge sharing: Participate in events to share knowledge/information acquired from the Project and join UNDP and other international knowledge networks to extract good practices learned elsewhere in wetland conservation and natural resources management and share those in Viet Nam;
Contributing to advocacy, policy dialogues, and media relations: Identify opportunities for advocacy, policy dialogues, technical discussions; and dissemination through media; Provide substantive inputs to the preparation of advocacy messages/ policy statements for important events, and UNDP’s policy positions on substantive issues for policy dialogues and forums.
Contributing to policy and tools formulation: Provide quality advice and substantive inputs to the formulation of policies for wetland conservation and natural resources management in Viet Nam.

Partnership development, coordination; and development of the UNDP Viet Nam’s Sustainable Development Progamme:

Supporting coordination and partnership development: The ITS is expected to assist UNDP and MONRE to enhance partnership with development partners (notably the GIZ, ADB, the World Bank), businesses and international and national NGOs for better information sharing, to ensure synergies, coherence and complementarities of programme/project activities; advise the Government and UNDP on areas of possible cooperation with development partners in the areas of wetland and natural resources management;
Contributing to UNDP Programme: Actively contribute to the development and implementation of biodiversity and natural resource portfolio of the UNDP Viet Nam’s Sustainable Development Programme; Ensure synergies and coherence between the responsible project and other projects and related activities in order to materialize benefits and impacts of the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Programme in Viet Nam.

Capacity building and knowledge transfer to the government counterpart and project staff:

Capacity assessment and capacity building: Provide advice in assessing capacity needs in the wetland conservation sector and of project staff. Develop plans and terms of references for capacity development, curricula of trainings; and assist in identifying appropriate training partners/organizations.
Transfer of technical knowledge and experiences: Identify knowledge gaps that exist in MONRE, related ministries and local agencies and suggest necessary measures for addressing such gaps, including suggestions for policy research and data survey; the ITS is expected to transfer and dynamically apply technical knowledge and experiences from his/her academic background and professional experiences to enhance technical knowledge at ISPONRE, BCA and participating departments in MONRE for sustainable management, efficient uses, and increased investment for natural resources, and environmentally sustainable economic growth.
Coaching and on-the-job training: Mainstream lessons and best practices learned elsewhere into capacity building activities for the PMU, staff at ISPONRE participating departments in MONRE; Lead, deliver and provide on-the-job training on low carbon development relevant aspects, research methodology, and writing and publication of results

Impact of Results:

Overall performance/impact of the ITS will be assessed based on the following criteria:

High quality project work-plans (annual and quarterly), M&E tools, technical assurance/review mechanisms, and project reports;
High quality guidance to international and national consultants, contractors/ service providers, research-partners; and technical inputs and reviews to ensure high quality project outputs;
High quality research proposals and policy dialogues; quality outputs, and publications of research results, policy briefs, focusing on recommendations; and documentation of lesson learns and human-interest stories;
Quality inputs to the preparation of advocacy messages, policy development media information;
Quality inputs to the devlopment and operation of the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Programme in Viet Nam;
Quality advice and facilitation for capacity building of the government counterparts, related authorities, and project staff;
Effective and active (knowledge, coordination relevant) networking;
High quality advice on capacity building needs and plans.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda

Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;
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 UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
Sensitizes UN Partners, donors and other international organizations to the UNDP’s strategic agenda, identifying areas for joint efforts;
Develops positive ties with civil society to build/strengthen UNDP’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.

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/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
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.

Creating Visibility for UN/Supporting UN Capacity to Advocate

Developing promotional projects and organizational messages

Develops promotional activities based on monitoring/evaluation information identifying areas requiring higher visibility;
Develops messages for use by UN staff when working with partners, internationally and nationally;
Reviews documents and materials intended for use within and outside the organization in order to ensure consistency and validity of messages;
Creates and cultivates networks of partners to promote UNDP’s image.

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UN Goals

Analysis and creation of messages and strategies

Performed 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.

Conceptual Innovation in the Provision of Technical Expertise

Developing innovative and creative approaches

Leverages different experiences and expertise of team members to achieve better and more innovative outcomes;
Leverages multi disciplinary, institutional knowledge and experience of other countries and regions to promote UNDP’s development agenda;
Participates in dialogue about conceptual innovation at the country and regional levels.

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.

Core 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 UN & setting standards;
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master or PhD degree in environmental sciences, biodiversity conservation, natural resources and environment management or related fields.

Experience:

At least seven (7) years working experience in conducting policy analysis and providing policy advice to the government agencies to enhance national and sub-national policies and implement actions in practice, in relevant topics;
Proven knowledge in biodiversity conservation, preferably in wetland habitat protection and conservation;
Excellent conceptualization and analytical skills and proven experience in leading policy researches in relevant topics;
Proven advocacy and communications skills, able to take a forward looking strategic views;
Proven good interpersonal skills and teamwork to work in a multi-cultural environment;
Prior experience with UNDP or another UN or international organizations will be an asset
Relevant experience of Viet Nam or South East Asia countries is an advantage.

IT requirements:

Good skills in standard software (Word processing, spreadsheets) are expected
Experience with the use of databases is an important asset

Language Requirements:

Strong written and spoken skill of English is a must.