Background

Ministry of Population and Environment (MoPE) is implementing the Nepal Climate Change Support Programme (NCCSP) in collaboration with Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) with the financial assistance of DFID, EU, Cyprus and technical assistance of UNDP.  The programme has a goal to contribute in ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable communities in Nepal are able to adapt to the negative effects of climate change.  The programme is underway in 14 districts of mid and far-western region.

The Programme consists of 3 key outputs (i) implementing 100 Local Adaptation Plan of Actions (LAPAs) in 90 VDCs and 7 municipalities in 14 districts  (ii) putting in place local and sub-national mechanisms to implement and promote scalable adaptation actions and people’s resilience; and (iii) establishing/further developing institutional and funding mechanisms for climate change adaptation actions.

Duties and Responsibilities

This position has been envisaged to be a highly qualified senior professional position having strong technical competency in providing strategic guidance to the NCCSP management and implementing partner for building sustained national capacity for climate change adaptation and resource mobilization in the long run. The key output expected from this position is that national capacity for climate change adaptation planning and implementation will be built within Nepal and a mechanism for climate change financing established leading to a significant amount of resource flow coming to Nepal for climate change adaptation.

This having envisaged as a strategic technical position will not be engaged in day-to-day managerial functions.

The incumbent will be stationed at the NCCSP’s Programme Central Office at MoPE, however, s/he will also technically support the Ministry of Local Development (MoFALD) as deemed necessary.

The incumbent is expected to provide strategic advices to development partners including DFID, EU and UNDP and as appropriate on climate change programming issues related to NCCSP and beyond.

While the incumbent will work under the direct supervision of NPD and NPM, s/he will work closely with NCCSP Deputy Programme Manager and other team members at central, regional and district level including GoN officials.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific activities under each of the above roles may be described as below;

1. Providing technical advises in ensuring implementation of climate change policy and strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation activities.

• Undertake close review, assessment and evaluation of the initiation, implementation and progress on the implementation of the climate change policy and strategies of the government of Nepal;

• Facilitate conducting climate change policy dialogues, orientation, and sensitization among stakeholders within and beyond the government bodies including private sector and civil societies;

• Facilitate bringing technical expertise and knowledge on climate change matters from both within and outside of the country for optimum utilization of their expertise on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

2. Providing technical advises in ensuring coordination and building collaborative ownership of stakeholders on climate change initiatives.

• Provide technical advices to the NPD, NPM and concerned officials of the MoFALD and MoPE for coordination and collaborative actions among all concerned stakeholders;
• Facilitate coordination with all other climate change related projects, poverty reduction projects, governance projects, etc. in order to build synergies to help produce desired results;
• Facilitate MoPE and MoFALD in spearheading harmonization of climate change and disaster related intervention at different levels.
• Provide constant drive to the multi-stakeholders climate change implementation and coordination committee (MCCICC);

3.Spearheading in developing a resource mobilization strategy and climate change financing mechanism for sustained climate change initiatives in the long run including provision of assistance to MoPE and concerned stakeholders in implementing and/or reporting on climate change related multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

• Assist MoPE and MoFALD to design a strategy and mechanism that will encourage in-flow of external resources for climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives as well as generate internal resources;
• Develop procedures and guidelines as well as capacity of MoPE and concerned stakeholders for encouraging and negotiating skills with donors and international communities;
• Develop strategies, mechanisms, procedures and guideline or establishment of climate change financing mechanism at central and district levels and, provide necessary guidance to programme management team for implementation;
• Build strong linkages with the bilateral and multilateral agencies for bringing in resources in the country in the area of climate change;
• Undertake all necessary activities in building capacity of GoN in ensuring that the climate finance benefits Nepal at the optimum level;
• Provide support to MoPE in timely fulfillment of obligations related to climate change MEAs to ensure benefits arising from such agreements;
• Provide inputs towards conceptualization, design and establishment of a climate change fund structure;

4. Providing advices for proper implementation of NCCSP

• Coordinate with the National Programme Director (NPD), National Programme Manager (NPM) and Deputy Programme Manager (DPM) of NCCSP and concerned Joint/Under Secretary of MoFALD and provide strategic advices in planning and budgeting of annual and quarterly activities;
• Identification and prioritization of activities proposed in the Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) and spearhead the LAPA implementation in close coordination with NPD and NPM at the central level and with Regional/District coordinators at sub-national level;
• Collaborate with NPD, NPM and DPM in ensuring timely monitoring of the field activities and reporting;
• Provide technical support to the sub-national and local level climate change officials and the service providers, primarily through Regional Climate Change Coordinators;
• Assist as well as build capacity of NPD and NPM in proper reporting of progress and accomplishments in a timely manner;

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and follows zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
• Respects UN’s anti-corruption norms.

 Technical Competencies:

• Knowledge Management and Learning..
• Knowledge of international climate change negotiations and experience of conducting climate change policy dialogues.
• Experience on resource mobilization.
• Ability to provide top quality policy and technical advises on climate change issues, especially on adaptation programming.
• In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to provide broader context and positioning for Nepal in internal climate regimes.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting.
• Ability to go beyond established procedures and models, propose new approaches which expand the range of projects.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to lead formulation and evaluation of development projects.

Management and Leadership:

• Promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, and actively works towards continued personal learning and development.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Encourages risk-taking in the pursuit of creativity and innovative solutions.
• Leads teams effectively and shows conflict resolutions skills.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills.
• Proven networking, team building, organizational and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Completion of Master's Degree (preferably PhD) in Environment Science, Climate Change, Agriculture, Forestry, Management, Social Science, International Development or any other relevant field.

Experience:

• 8 years of relevant work experience in programme and policy development in developemnt sector at national and/or international levels.
• Experience of working with government (esp. MoPE, MoFALD), donors or the UN previously is an asset.
• Experience of working on climate change issues.
• Experience of working in a multi-cultural setting.
• Proven experience in partnership building and networking.
• Excellent knowledge and experience of report writing, RBM methodologies and tools (project and programme management, design, monitoring and evaluation).
• Experience in usage of computers and offices software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.)

Language requirement:

• Strong command of written and spoken Nepali and English languages.