Antecedentes
- Development schemes run the risk of sacrificing longer term environmental sustainability for short term economic and job creation benefits;
- Over-exploitation of natural resources adversely effects ecosystem health, and in time reduces economic output;
- The rural poor disproportionately depend on the availability of natural resources for their subsistence livelihoods;
- Efforts to reduce pollution, and conserve natural resources, are unlikely to achieve success if the majority of citizens view them as unfairly restricting opportunities for people to work and feed their families, and
- Integrated programmes can improve the livelihoods of the poor while protecting the environment
- Phase I – a systematic review of past and recent literature on the poverty-environment nexus and the implications it has for development programming in terms of new analysis and emerging issues. This review has been conducted by the Swedish Environment Institute and has been completed at the end of July 2011. This report will be made available to the consultant for Phase III.
- Phase II – is focused on the lessons learnt from the perspective of programming within UNDP. It examines the work of the Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI). The PEI is a global UN-led programme that supports country-led efforts to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national development planning. The PEI provides financial, technical and capacity support to partner countries to set up an integrated decision-making framework that allows for institutional arrangements, integrated assessment, policy and financing and monitoring and evaluation to address the particular poverty-environment context. The lessons learnt exercise is being undertaken internally to reflect on what drives success and why focusing on the tools and approaches that have been used. This assignment commenced in August 2011 and will be undertaken in conjunction with Phase III – the subject of this assignment. It is envisaged the Phase III consultant will work closely with staff from UNDP.
- Phase III – will result in an analytical synthesis report based on the information previously collected from academic literature knowledge and practice as detailed in Phases I and II. The report will propose a policy and practice perspective for UNDP with a clear focus on integrating poverty reduction and environment-related issues within the framework of multi-dimensional poverty and human development. It will provide the basis for a guidance note on poverty-environment programming at the country level. In addition there will be a need to reflect on other information which is available and pertinent to UNDP’s role in environmental management and poverty reduction. This would include, for example, the evaluation on the Poverty-Environment Nexus conducted by UNDP (2010), the Mid-Term Review of the PEI Scale-up Phase which is currently underway and other evaluations conducted by Norway and Belgium on the PEI Pilot Phase (both 2009). Other material may need to be reviewed and brought into the synthesis as required such as evaluations of country projects.
Deberes y responsabilidades
- Draw out and examine key existing and emerging issues from the literature review that have implications for poverty-environment programming, including where UNDP is likely to add most value;
- Draw out and analyze the key factors that drive or trigger success in poverty-environment mainstreaming through an examination of whether these can be traced back to the set-up of an integrated decision-making framework;
- If integrated decision-making frameworks were the triggers of success, trace back further to find out the factors that allowed for success, or in case integrated frameworks did not clearly emerge what were the factors that led to lack of success of these frameworks, including:
- An assessment of institutional approaches and drivers and how focusing on the poverty-environment nexus can assist institutions to focus on sustainability of resources and livelihoods with a direct bearing on economic social and environmental progress. This will include focusing on the role of capacity development and the main drivers which lead to a range of institutional actors coming together to improve public policy in this area.
- An assessment of the economic tools and approaches which have been applied for poverty-environment mainstreaming – recognizing potential gaps and weaknesses in these tools and providing recommendations on applicability and consistency for the range of tools available across a range of contexts and entry points. Through this approach it would be suitable to perhaps focus on quality of tools and making them more robust rather than breadth of tools available. This section of the consultancy would also provide the basis of a UN forum on economic tools for sustainable development in the context of poverty environment mainstreaming. Therefore, it should identify the basis of what has worked and what needs to be improved;
- An analysis of the qualitative and quantitative indicators that have been developed for assessing change processes (mainstreaming) and outcome change in poverty and environmental conditions. This will include recommendations for usefulness of a range of indicators specifically for application at the country level.
- Annotated outline of report;
- Preliminary Draft;
- Final Draft;
- Final report.
Competencias
- Strong organizational and management skills;
- Strong interpersonal skills with ability to multi-task and establish effective work relationships with people of broad cultural backgrounds;
- Ability to work as part of a team as well as take initiative to work independently where necessary;
- Excellent communication skills with ability to express ideas clearly, concisely and effectively, both orally and in writing;
- Have a history of ability to deliver high-quality outputs on schedule.
Habilidades y experiencia requeridas
- Master's Degree in Economics, International Development, Public Administration, Environment or a relevant technical field;
- A minimum of 15 years of relevant work experience in the fields of environment and development;
- Some familiarity with UNDP operations and programmes at the country level would be beneficial;
- Research experience and collaboration with a university or technical institution would be considered an advantage;
- Fluency in written and spoken English, including excellent report-writing skills; knowledge of Spanish or French would be an advantage;
- Proficiency in the use of computers and office software packages (word processing, e-mail, presentations, spreadsheets, etc).