Background

UNDP’s development efforts are defined by the Strategic Plan: 2008-2011, where four areas of development have been established:
  • poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
  • democratic governance,
  • crisis prevention and post-conflict recovery, and
  • environment and sustainable development.

The latter development focus area, “Environment and Sustainable Development”, has established four key result areas, which are:

  • mainstreaming environment and energy,
  • catalyzing environmental finance,
  • adapting to climate change, and
  • expanding access to environmental and energy services for the poor.
 
The Global Programme 2009-2011 provides the operational framework for the entire work of UNDP Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) in which the Sustainable Energy Programme resides. The 2009-2011 UNDP Global Programme is essential for building communities of practice; facilitating effective networking and learning within and across those communities; deploying integrated teams of staff across country, regional and global unites for specific interventions and knowledge generation. It will provide resources to (a) support consistent implementation of the key results areas of the strategic plan, and (b) respond to targeted needs through the practice approach. The resources are applied to realise development results and serve primarily to provide functional services that generate knowledge and policy experience, enhancing the development effectiveness of UNDP work at the regional and country levels in particular.[1]
 
Access to modern energy services is fundamental for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Living without modern energy services will significantly compromise progress towards MDGs and basic human development, including those relating to child and maternal survival, education, poverty reduction, gender equality and environmental sustainability. Indeed, none of the MDGs can be reached without increasing access to energy services in developing countries. Yet, to-date, there are 2.4 billion people who are still dependant on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, while 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity.
 
Climate change impacts every strata of the society, and if left unaddressed, decades of development efforts to reduce poverty and promote human development will be put in jeopardy, if not reversed. Climate change will have a direct effect on many of the poorest people in the world, including those least able to recover from climate stresses like droughts, floods, and changing conditions for crops and livestock. Reducing poverty and promoting human development will urgently require measures both to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
 
Responding to climate change at the local, national or regional levels cannot be done without developing, deploying and diffusing appropriate technology options, whether for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or adapting to different practices to cope with changing climate. It is estimated that additional financing needs for mitigation technologies alone would be in the order of hundreds of billions dollars annually. Technology challenges are well recognised in the COP discussions, and have now become one of the most important negotiation topics.

[1] UNDP Global Programme 2009-2011, DP/GP/2, paragraph 34

Duties and Responsibilities

Integration of a multi-criteria decision modeling analysis (MCDA) tool with TechWiki and methodology to assess technology needs for climate change mitigation in order to  prioritize mitigation technologies within sectors for country stakeholders while undertaking Technical Needs Assessments
  • Output 1.The development, testing and delivery of a software based MCDA decision modeling aid that will deliver technology option prioritization to include criteria assessment, scoring and weighting tools and sensitivity analysis. It will have clear graphics and other visual aids.
  • Output 2. Overall User Guide with clearly defined step by step instructions (in software and hard reports) on how to go through the MCDA decision modeling process
 Timeline and Payment Arrangement
  • Output 1: By 8 Jan 10
  • Output 2: By 5 Feb 10
Payments will be tied to the submission and acceptance of the cluster of outputs according to the above schedules.

Competencies

  • Excellent communication skills
  • Excellent demonstrated ability in developing and supporting MCDA systems and approaches
  • Excellent demonstrated ability to facilitate and train in MCDA processes at different levels
  • Excellent demonstrated skills in strategic planning
  • Excellent demonstrated ability to be flexible and work under tight deadlines in an independent working environment.
  • Familiarity with web research, data manipulation and graphical presentation and PowerPoint presentation design.
  • Excellent demonstrated fluency in English, both written and oral, is required.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic
  • An degree is required in one of the following areas: Engineering, Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Economics
Professional
  • Minimum 15 years experience of strategic management in business and technical environments
  • Previous professional experience with a range of organizations (public, private, academic) at strategic level
  • Previous professional experience with innovation systems, and market development