Background

The Gender Team of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) is the institutional anchor of UNDP’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment.  As the UN’s lead development agency, with extensive field presence, UNDP facilitates the integration of gender equality in the work of its Country Offices through core and non-core fund investments and has initiated and implemented numerous innovative initiatives that support program country work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. UNDP's work on gender is guided by the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the frameworks provided by the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The UNDP Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach:

  • Mainstreaming gender in all core practices;
  • Dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.

Working across a range of advocacy and programming activities at the global, regional, National and community level, UNDP is actively engaged in various gender and climate change issues.  In collaboration with UN agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental and civil society organizations, UNDP has also been working towards ensuring gender equality principles are integrated more fully into the outcome documents of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, as well as the operations of major climate funds. UNDP’s work has included providing technical expertise and recommendations to governments; training national gender and climate change experts; and integrating gender concerns into national climate change policies and programmes across several countries.

The UNDP Gender Team is also supporting and implementing a number of related programmes and projects on energy, women’s green business and related sustainable development themes. As part of this work, the UNDP Gender Team is providing ongoing support and technical inputs to the implementation of the Rio+20 Outcome and the Post-2015 Development Framework.

To support UNDP’s work in these areas of gender equality, climate change, and sustainable development, and achieving the goals of the Gender Equality Strategy, the UNDP Gender Team environment cluster is seeking at least 8 Technical Expert(s) who specialize in the following thematic areas to be retained under a Long Term Agreement (LTA) contract to provide expert inputs as and when required (see below and Annex 2 for more information):

  • Gender, poverty, economic growth and sustainable development (Expert 1);
  • Gender, climate change and natural resource management (Expert 2);
  • Gender and climate finance (Expert 3);
  • Gender, climate change mitigation and technology (Expert 4);
  • Gender, clean energy access and green growth (Expert 5);
  • Gender, climate change, REDD+ and forestry (Expert 6);
  • Gender, climate change adaptation and sustainable agriculture (Expert 7);
  • Gender, health and disaster risk reduction (Expert 8).

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected Deliverables:

  • Briefs, policy notes/issue briefs, project concept notes, and other substantive technical inputs on gender and related issues of climate change, energy and environment, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development, economic growth, and/or poverty, including trends, emerging issues and challenges;
  • Substantive inputs on UNDP project proposals, progress reports on gender and capacity development, and other related initiatives;
  • Recommendations on how to integrate gender perspectives into UNDP strategic and policy documents, programme and projects, such the Human Development Reports, Regional Human Development Reports, MDG Reports, SDG Reports or other relevant documentation produced by UNDP;
  • Trainings and capacity development activities on gender mainstreaming, climate change and sustainable development;
  • Facilitation of critical discussions on gender, climate change, energy and environment, and sustainable development, including UN inter-agency discussions, national/regional events, lecture series and online discussions as required;
  • Knowledge products on cross-cutting gender issues, such as but not limited to: Gender and Sustainable Development, Gender and Climate Change, Gender and Energy; and Gender and the Green Economy.                        

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Excellent analytical, writing, advocacy, presentation, and communications skills;
  • Demonstrated ability to work in an independent manner;
  • Ability to prepare succinct, analytical publications and reports;
  • Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback;
  • Ability to organize work efficiently and deal with multiple tasks.

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong understanding of the links between sustainable development, social and gender issues;
  • Strong familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other multilateral, bilateral and civil society development partners;
  • Demonstrated expertise in training and advocacy work;
  • Experience in producing reports in English.

Technical Competencies:

  • Substantive expertise conducting research and analysis in the area of gender equality and at least one other related theme, including climate change, sustainable development, economic growth, poverty, natural resource management, climate finance, climate change mitigation and technology, clean energy access, green growth, REDD+, forestry, climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture, health and disaster risk reduction;
  • Demonstrated substantive expertise in working with developing countries and undertaking policy and programmatic work in the area of expertise listed above and in Annex 2 below;
  • Demonstrated competencies on policy and programmatic issues with national and local governments and civil society organizations including community organizations;
  • Practical knowledge and experience in preparing instruments for capacity building and providing training for capacity development and institutional strengthening;
  • Knowledge and experience in development of methodologies, tools and manuals, particularly within a UN context.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in gender, economics, environment and sustainable development or related area.

Experience:

  • At least 10 years of experience in mainstreaming Gender into Climate Change and/or Environment policy processes;
  • Familiarity with the UN System and working arrangements. Experience at both HQ and country levels would be desirable;
  • Demonstrated experience in framing macroeconomic policy on environment, poverty reduction and sustainable development;
  • Experience in developing programme documents on sustainable development;
  • Proven knowledge and experience in each Area of expertise for which the expert is applying.

Language:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English, French and Spanish.