UNDP Jobs - 48847- International Consultant for Legal/Policy Speciali

International Consultant for Legal/Policy Specialist

Location :

Baku, AZERBAIJAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2014

Application Deadline :

20-Aug-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months

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

Azerbaijan belongs to the world’s water stress countries. With current deficit of water resources being about 5 km3, the additional pressures on water resources due to climate change will seriously affect the rural water supply. The region of Greater Caucasus has been identified as particularly vulnerable in this regard.

Despite an overall trend of rainfall reductions in the country, the mountainous regions of Greater Caucasus experience increasingly prolonged inundations and flash floods during the wet season and extended dry spells during the dry seasons. Variation of water flow may reach 30% between the dry and wet seasons. Paradoxically, most of the quality ground waters are formed in foothills of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus and constitute 24 million m3 (8.8.km3) per year. However, currently, only 20% of a total resource has been used.

The project aims to reduce vulnerability of the mountain communities of the Greater Caucasus region of Azerbaijan to climate change induced water stress and flood hazards by improved water and flood management through addressing the management framework at the legislative and policy level, strengthening institutional capacity by introducing new non- structural methods and providing training and empowering communities to actively participate in water and flood management.

Effective management requires a framework of both water policy and water law, or, in the case of Azerbaijan, a Water Code. The existing framework is insufficiently robust to support the type of water management needed in the light of climate change and its impacts on water resources, water and flooding. This is partly due to the fact that there is no National Water Policy in place that defines what specific issues the Government will address in water and flood management, and how they will be addressed. What does exist within the Water Code does not allow for more integrated approaches to water and flood management, which are so necessary to address effectively the seasonal and interannual water stress and flood risk issues.

The project will address the weaknesses in the water and flood management framework through 1) contributing to the National Water Policy Dialogue, 2) making recommendations for modifications to the Water Code and related legislation, 3) modifications to Normative Legal Acts (NLAs) that detail responsibilities and day-to-day competence of relevant organizations and 4) developing practices, such as conjunctive water management that illustrate improved water management

Project has the following Components:

Water and Flood management policy and regulatory frameworks to respond to climate change risks;
Technical capacities to improve climate risk management in the Greater Caucasus;
Water and Flood management practices demonstrated to lead to community resilience;

Expected Outcomes:

Water and Flood management framework is modified to respond to adaptation needs and improve climate risk management on over 22,067 sq. km 3of land in highly vulnerable region of Greater Caucasus;
Key institutions have capacities, technical skills, tools and methods to apply advanced climate risk management practices for water stress and flood mitigation;
Community resilience to floods and water stress improved by introducing locally tailored climate risk management practices benefiting over 1,000,000 people on total land area of 22,067 km2 of the Southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus.

Duties and Responsibilities

Contribution to strategic inputs to the on-going process of elaborating the National Water Policy;
Provide an overview of international legislative and policy best practice in Integrated Water Resources Management, as applicable to Azerbaijan;
Review relevant reports of national legal expert;
Review draft proposed changes to Water Code, Land Code and related legislation to take account of CC Risks;
Review and comment on the draft institutional proposals developed by the Institutional Specialist, particularly from the perspective of conventional wisdom and current best practice internationally;
Review draft outline proposals for introducing the 5 normative legal acts (1. NLA to enable IWRM, 2. NLA to enable relevant organizations at all levels to adapt their activities to address climate change; 3. NLA to elaborate specific flood; 4. NLA to support the introduction of conjunctive water management; 5. NLA to enhance public participation and gender representation in water and flood management policy and practice) and consult widely on the proposed normative legal acts;
Recommend any adjustment on legislation and policies in addition to the 5 normative acts;
Other tasks requested by UNDP.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Functional competencies:

Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams;
Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines;
Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply;
Ability to think strategically;
Computer literacy and good report writing skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A degree in law or relevant;
In-depth knowledge of international legislation and policies related to IWRM, flood risk management and land use;

Experience:

10 years of professional experience;
National and/or international experience in the relevant area of expertise (e.g. participation in policy, legislative or regulatory development);
Experience in drafting and/or reviewing national legislation;
Experience in policy formulation; and experience working in a regulatory agency or agencies;
Charter-ship/accreditation with relevant institution will be desirable.

Language skills:

Full working knowledge of spoken and written English, including the ability to draft and edit project documents.