Background

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

As the UN system's development program, the GEF Implementing Agency and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Accredited Entity, UNDP also supports countries in addressing development, climate, and ecosystem sustainability in an integrated manner. UNDP-Global Environmental Finance (GEF) Unit is based in UNDP’s Bureau of Policy and Programme Support and is responsible for providing leadership and technical support to, among other areas, delivery of the Environment and Sustainable Development pillar of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. Its main focus is on helping countries develop the capacity to fully incorporate environmental sustainability and resilience into development at national and local, but also global and regional levels. The principal areas of work are in environmental mainstreaming, environmental finance, adaptation to climate change, and local governance of resources, including energy. The UNDP-GEF team within the BPPS offers UNDP Country Offices and client countries a range of highly specialized technical services that include providing leadership on the formulation process as well as preparation of substantive products that are required in order to complete Board compliant project proposals for submission to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The Programme and Policy consultant is responsible for providing strategic and technical guidance to the UNDP-GEF directorate and programming teams on key GCF policies, Board decisions, strategy papers, and programming guidance. The consultant will contribute to advancing partnerships and communication with the GCF and also with key UN and external partners, funds and donors, to support programming efforts. Working close with UNDP-GEF directorate staff, principal technical advisors, and regional technical advisors on GCF programming, the Programme and Policy consultant will contribute to the drafting of key policy briefs and guidance notes, support corporate policy processes, conduct compliance review and quality assurance of projects, and monitor and report on progress of the pipeline. S/he will also participate in the wider Nature-based Solutions and Climate Action for Sustainable Development Community of Practice and collaborate with other advisors and specialists across UNDP and the UN system to expand partnerships and coordinate efforts for vertical fund programming. S/he will prepare for, participate, and contribute to missions to assess policy contexts, present the UNDP-GEF portfolio and strengthen partnerships related to vertical fund programming. The Programme and Policy consultant will report to the UNDP-GEF Executive Coordinator and the Environmental Policy Specialist, while also being a part of the Global Policy Network (GPN). S/he will be responsible for contributing to the following:

1. Policy Analysis, Research and Knowledge Management
2. Policy Positioning, Coordination and Representation
3. Quality Assurance, Technical Review, and Compliance Review
4. Programming and Project Planning, Training, and Support
5. Partnership Support, Advocacy, and Communications

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected Tasks

1. Policy Analysis, Research, Dialogue and Knowledge Management (30%)

• Conduct in-depth research and analysis of GCF policies, Board decisions, strategy papers and guidance documents and synthesize key information to produce policy briefs for directorate and regional teams;
• Contribute to the development and drafting of briefing notes, policy position papers, technical tools, guidance notes, speeches and other knowledge products;
• Contribute to the process of assessing and adapting policies for different contexts on key emerging policy agendas as appropriate;
• Support the Environmental Policy Specialist on issues related to GCF accreditation upgrade, reaccreditation and Accredited Entity self-assessments;
• Manage and maintain a library of relevant knowledge products, whether at the global, cross-regional or region-specific level to and proactively share documents with team members and respond to their specific requests for information;
• Regularly inform directorate staff, principal technical advisors, and regional teams on Fund requirements, trends and issues related to UNDP-GCF Programming;
• Contribute to the development and review of knowledge products in close coordination with HQ and regional hub teams by analyzing and sharing lessons learnt and programme evaluation results;

2. Quality Assurance, Technical Review and Compliance Review (30%)

• Conduct quality assurance and technical reviews of ideas, concept notes and funding proposals to assess projects and advise principal technical advisors on the eligibility, alignment with policies, quality, and technical soundness of the project before submission;
• Conduct completeness check of funding proposal submission packages and advise principal technical advisors on improving the quality of key annexes and studies and ensuring alignment with Fund requirements and policies;
• Conduct compliance reviews of legally-binding conditions and covenants in the Funded Activity Agreements (FAA) for approved GCF projects;
• Monitor the fulfillment of FAA conditions and covenants to ensure compliance to timelines and hard deadlines and review the reporting of conditions and covenants in Annual Performance Reports (APRs);
• Support the Environmental Policy Specialist, as needed, on the compliance review and negotiation of term sheets and FAAs;
• Review and provide policy-related inputs to corporate-level documents, reports and guidance as requested by directorate staff;
• Prepare material as requested by supervisor to support the application of integrated multi-disciplinary approaches to meet policy and programming needs in line with corporate guidance and standards.

3. Programming Procedures, Training, and Project Support (20%)

• Manage and update the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for UNDP-GCF Programming, in coordination with relevant directorate staff and principal technical advisors, and ensure the quality and coherence of programming procedures with UNDP corporate policies and Fund policies and requirements;
• Maintain and update annotated standard templates and tools for GCF Programming;
• Prepare training materials and contribute to training sessions, webinars and capacity building seminars for country offices and regional hubs on specific topics related to GCF Programming;
• Contribute and participate in global/regional meeting of practitioners, as requested by the supervisor, and present the latest developments in GCF policies, Board decisions, strategies and programming guidance;
• As requested by principal technical advisors, provide technical support to programming teams in the regional hubs, developing new ideas and concepts and/or advancing funding proposals for board approval;
• Respond to country office needs as appropriate, including through the provision of capacity building and backstopping, in close collaboration with GPN teams in the Reginal Hubs.

4. Pipeline and Portfolio Monitoring and Reporting (5%)

• Manage the UNDP-GCF Entity Work Programme (EWP), in consultation with directorate staff and principal technical advisors;
• Oversee the management and monitoring of the global GCF pipeline and approved portfolio;
• Regularly monitor and report to senior management on the progress of the global GCF pipeline and the approved portfolio;
• Develop external global reports on the GCF pipeline and approved portfolio;
• Contribute to the effective data collection, information sharing and reporting in the corporate project information management system (PIMS+).

5. Partnership Support, Advocacy, and Communications (15%)

• Facilitate communication, engagement and partnership of UNDP-GEF with the GCF Secretariat on technical and strategic topics including (but not limited to), programming issues, pipeline discussions, corporate level agreements, standard templates, data management, and etc.;
• Liaise with the GCF entity relations team for UNDP to maintain regular discussions on key matters and facilitate virtual and in-person meetings between UNDP and GCF;
• Participate in global and regional programming conferences/structured dialogues and Board meetings, as requested by the supervisor;
• Coordinate ongoing partnership efforts with UN entities, academic partners and relevant alliances on relevant thematic areas;
• Conduct research and analysis and draft materials to support mobilizing, fostering and strengthening of strategic partnerships and advocacy activities with UN entities and other relevant bodies, including permanent missions, NGOs, civil society, academic partners, and other stakeholders;
• Prepare communication and advocacy materials on UNDP-GCF Programming.

Deliverables, estimated duration, fee percentage

Information on Working Arrangements

• Estimated level of effort including travel: approximately 260 working days over 12 months;
• The consultant will report to daily, and be directly supervised by, the UNDP-GEF Executive Coordinator;
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop, and mobile phone and service plan.  UNDP-GEF will provide a working station, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.;
• The consultant shall submit to the Supervisor a monthly progress report on the status of the implementation of tasks;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;
• Payments will be made monthly upon submission of a detailed time sheet (including deliverables and their timely execution) and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the supervisor on days worked (with “a day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and outputs delivered.

Travel

• International travel will be required. An estimated 5-6 missions during the first year (destinations to be identified) with expected total travel duration of approximately 4-8 days per mission. Expected mission travel would be discussed upon commencement of assignment and updated quarterly;
• Any necessary mission travel must be approved in writing and advance by the UNDP-GEF Executive Coordinator and/or the Environmental Policy Specialist;
• BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
• Consultants are responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
• Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
• Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/;
• The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
• All related travel expenses will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F-10 claim form and supporting documents. Costs for mission travel (including air tickets, living allowances) should not be included in the financial proposal.

Competencies

Corporate

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Technical/Functional

Project and Programme management

• Ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
• Ability to make new and useful ideas work.

Research

• Knowledge of various programme information for research to provide recommendations and guidance to management.

Partnerships

• Ability to engage with other agencies, donors, and other development stakeholders and forge productive working relationships;
• Exercise the highest level of responsibility and be able to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.

Knowledge Management

• Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge.

Communications

• Ability to effectively communicate intentions and requirements to internal and external stakeholders;
• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform.

Coordination

• Ability to manage complex relationships through pathways of knowledge exchange, capacity development, funding relationships and strategic engagement;
• Ability to persuade others to follow.

Negotiation

• Ability to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue.

Report and Brief Writing

• Ability to prepare quality reports and briefs.

Respect for Diversity

• Knowledge of diversity issues, concepts, principles and policies and the ability to apply in strategic and/or practical situations.

Client Orientation

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction.
• ProfessionalismCapable of working in a high-pressure environment with sharp deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or higher in environmental management, climate change policy and finance, sustainable development, natural resources management, environmental economics, environmental law, international development with a specialization in climate change adaptation/mitigation, environment or development, or related disciplines. (Max 15 points)

Experience

• A minimum of 3 years of professional work experience in the area of environment and climate finance at the global and/or regional levels (Max 15 points);
• Experience working with environmental vertical funds like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) (Max 10 points);
• Knowledge and expertise in GCF policies, programming, and processes is an advantage (Max 5 points);
• Experience working with developing countries on climate change adaptation and/or mitigation programming (Max 10 points);
• Demonstrated ability to translate policy research, analysis and evidence into well-written, policy relevant communications, for example: briefing notes, guidance notes, policy briefs, academic papers, and other guidance documents (15 Points);
• Experience working in UNDP/UN or an international organization and knowledge of UNDP policies, procedures and practices is an advantage (Max 5 points);
• Experience working in at least one of the following regions: Asia and the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Africa, or Latin America and the Caribbean (Max 5 Points).

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English, both written and oral, is required for this position. (Pass/Fail)

Evaluation Method:

• Only those applications, which are responsive and compliant, will be evaluated.  Incomplete applications will not be considered;
• Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
• The technical criteria (education, experience, language [max. 80 points] and interview [max. 20 points]) will be based on a maximum 100 points;
• Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 56 points from the review of education, experience and language will be considered for the interview;
• Candidates obtaining 14 points or higher in the interview will be deemed technically compliant and considered for financial evaluation;
• Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive lump sum fee. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
• Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.

Documentation to be submitted:

• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) and/or CV including Education/Qualification, Professional Certification, Employment Records /Experience;
• Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment to be downloaded from the UNDP procurement site.

Kindly note you can upload only ONE document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).

UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants:

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.

General Conditions of Contract for the ICs:

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.

Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm (Reference  61079)