Historique

The economy of Malawi is substantively dependent on natural resources such as land and water. Therefore the sustainable management of these resources is necessary to maintain or increase the economic benefits generated from these resources. Thus, the Government of Malawi has taken a number of policy and programme initiatives to ensure the country’s improved management of the environment and natural resources (ENR) sector.

This includes the successful Government of Malawi – UNDP-UNEP supported Poverty- Environment Initiative (PEI) Malawi Project. The project aims to increase the contribution of environment and natural resources to national development goals, including poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth and the broader achievement of MDGs.

The first phase of the PEI Programme in Malawi commenced implementation in 2009 and led to the inclusion of Climate Change, Natural Resources and Environmental Management as Key Priority Area in the Malawi Growth Development Strategy (MDGS), production of the Malawi State of Environment Outlook Report 2010, the Decentralized Environmental Management Guidelines, Budget Guidelines on ENR, inclusion of ENR in the Executive Guide for Decision makers, and inclusion of sustainability indicators in the Agricultural Sector Wide Approach (A-SWAp). The next phase of PEI Malawi runs from January 2014 to December 2017 and will focus on supporting the GoM to implement sustainable ENR objectives in national, sector and district plans and budgets, with an improved focus on achieving sustained increases in budgetary and donor allocations for pro-poor sustainable economic growth, and with more attention to gender aspects. The PEI Phase 2 falls under the overarching UNDP supported Environment & Natural Resources Management Programme which is embedded in the United National Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2012-2016 for Malawi.

The incumbent will be based in the Ministry of Economic Development & Planning (MEPD) and will be under the direct supervision of the Director of Planning at MEPD, in close co-operation with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management (MECCM), under the overall supervision of the UNDP Malawi Country Office and PEI Africa. The International Technical Advisor (ITA) will be responsible for the provision of guidance, advisory and technical support for the implementation of the PEI programme for 2014-2017, in coordination with the overarching Environment & Natural Resources Management Programme. The objective is to ensure implementation is consistent with the PEI Malawi project document, international good practice for poverty-environment mainstreaming, plus timely and results focused monitoring of progress.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Provides technical advisory support to ensure that the project implementation is consistent with the PEI Malawi project document with a prime objective to implement poverty-environment objectives in sector and district plans and budgets:
  • Leads on the technical design of activities - including methodology - and for the preparation of Terms of Reference for consultancies, plus lead in the assessment of consultancy applications;
  • Leads in the technical review of consultancy and other outputs;
  • Provides pro-active technical advisory support consistent with poverty-environment mainstreaming best practice, with a strong focus on the use of ENR to reduce poverty, particularly gender related poverty;
  • Provides support to the project team in strategic planning, preparation and execution of work plans and budgets and the improvement of procurement process;
  • Improve the effectiveness of the PEI Malawi implementation through quality control and advice for the best use of PEI resources and technical reports, studies and achievements;
  • Improves co-operation with UNDP CO staff including the UNDP economist and poverty related staff plus other UNDP advisors to support and deepen the inclusion of poverty-environment issues in other UNDP supported programmes and projects;
  • Supports the project team in results-based M&E and Reporting to comply with Government, UNDP CO and PEI Africa M&E and Reporting requirements to track progress and demonstrate results.
Provides substantive technical advisory support to MEPD, OPC, MECCM and key sector ministries for institutional capacity development to improve mainstreaming of pro-poor environment and natural resource linkages in policies, plans and programmes at national, sector and district level, as well as cross-sector coordination:
  • Provides support to the MEPD and OPC for the inclusion of P-E linkages into national development strategies, executive decision making processes and M&E frameworks;
  • Provides support for improving cross-sector co-ordination mechanisms relevant to p-e mainstreaming;
  • Engages with relevant sectors to accelerate implementation of p-e objectives at sector and district level;
  • Engagement to include participation in government and donor sector working groups;
  • Provides technical poverty-environment capacity building support for key sector Ministries (MECCM, Fisheries, Forestry, Agriculture, Land, Mining, Local Government and Rural Development) plus with the Private Sector, NGOs and CBOs and other national bodies. 
Provides substantive technical advisory support to Ministry of Finance(MoF) for institutional capacity development to improve budgetary and other investment allocations for the implementation of poverty-environment objectives:
  • Strengthens the capacity of MoF to integrate pro-poor ENR sustainability and climate change resilience in planning, budgeting and national monitoring systems;
  • Supports the inclusion of p-e objectives in all steps of the annual and medium-term budgeting processes;
  • Supports development and implementation of pro-poor sustainable investment frameworks for ENR and CC, including possible Funds;
  • Supports the design of specific assessments of proposals to increase MoF allocations for pro-poor ENR investments–for example through cost benefit analysis;
  • Supports the implementation of the recommendations from the ENRM/CC/DRR Expenditure Review;
  • Collaborates with the UNDP Climate Change and Sustainable Land Management Advisers in attaining above tasks.

Ensures poverty elements of poverty-environment mainstreaming are better reflected in the implementation of the PEI Malawi, including poverty-gender aspects:

  • Ensures PEI plans and activities include a clear focus on poverty mainstreaming, including gender elements;
  • Supports enhanced inclusion of poverty assessment in GoM planning, decision-making and M&E processes and tools, including through advice on multi-dimensional poverty indicators;
  • Supports capacity building on inclusion of poverty assessments in sectors.
Ensures effective co-operation with in-country donors, including through participation in donor and government-donor working groups, to establish additional partnerships and mobilize possible further resources for implementing poverty-environment objectives on the ground, in collaboration with the UNDP Country Office:
  • Keeps in-country donors fully briefed on PEI progress, pro-actively identify and pursue potential resource mobilization opportunities for p-e mainstreaming, in collaboration with the UNDP CO;
  • Participates in co-ordination with UNDP CO, in relevant donor and government donor working groups (e.g. Environment, Agriculture, etc.);
  • Interacts with other UN agencies in Malawi and provide technical inputs to the UN and Donor coordination mechanisms in support to the implementation of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2012-2016, and development of new UNDAF post-2016;
  • Facilitates improved coordination of various UNDP and UNEP activities related to environment and natural resources management, green economy and climate change.

Compétences

Core Competencies:
  • Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity; 
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
  • Self-development, initiative-taking;
  • Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
  • Creating synergies through self-control;
  • Managing conflict;
  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
  • Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
  • Informed and transparent decision making.
Functional Competencies:           
 
Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda:
  • Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNDP’s mandate.
Results-Based Programme Development and Management:
  • Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
  • Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
  • Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation.
Building Strategic Partnerships:
  • Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues;
  • Analyses and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders.
Innovation and Marketing New Approaches:
  • Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things.
Resource mobilization:
  • Analyses information/databases on potential and actual donors and shares with Country Office.
Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
  • Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things.
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:
  • Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
  • Possesses knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
  • Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
  • Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
  • Excellent communication skills with ability to express ideas clearly, concisely and effectively, orally and in writing;
  • Strong pro-active leadership skills, including strong interpersonal skills with ability to multi-task and maintain effective work relationships in a multi- cultural environment. 

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UNDP’s Goals:

  • Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for UNDP’s goals for a variety of national and international audiences.
Client Orientation:
  • Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion;
  • Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:
  • Masters degree in development, natural resources, environment, agricultural economics or related development field.
Experience:
  • Minimum 7 years work experience in related fields such as integrating Environment & Natural Resources concerns in poverty reduction strategies and budgets in developing countries;
  • Experience with developing country budget processes, preferably with Ministries of Finance;
  • Demonstrated competence in poverty assessments, which includes gender elements, and incorporation of poverty reduction in programmes and projects;
  • Experience with multi-dimensional poverty indicators preferable;
  • Substantive and proven experience with programme and project design and management;
  • Experience with capacity building in developing countries;
  • Good understanding of the poverty-environment context in Malawi and/or in Africa;
  • Good understanding of international experience and best practices in the mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues into national development processes including budgets;
  • Experience of working with UN systems and/or other development partners an advantage.
 Language:
  • Fluent spoken and written English.