Openings at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of Frontier in Environment Law Unit and Head of the Environmental Rule of Law Branch, the consultant will:

• Finalize the draft human rights principles for conservation funding reflecting feedback received on the draft from various stakeholders.
• Develop political strategies aimed at the endorsement of the human rights principles for conservation funding by conservation organizations, conservation funders as well as Indigenous Peoples organizations and other rights holder groups.
• Develop an options paper for a forum on human rights and conservation.

Qualifications/special skills

• An advanced level law degree from a university or institution of equivalent status with specialization in environmental and human rights related field, including natural resources management, environmental assessment, environmental policy, or law is required.
• A minimum of seven years of experience working on the intersection between human rights law and environmental law is required.
• Prior experience working on conservation and human rights is required.
• Prior experience working with intergovernmental bodies and international organizations, including United Nations agencies is required.
• Prior experience in analyzing information and drafting recommendations is required. Special skills:
• Direct working experience in environmental law or environmental policy is required.
• Excellent writing and communications skills are required.
• Excellent research and analytical skills, in particular in legal analysis, and expertise in independent research and review are required.
• Results focused is desirable.
• Clear and concise communication is desirable.
• Demonstrated capacity to work in a consultative manner, good networking and good inter-personal skills is desirable.
• Excellent organization and partnership management skills are desirable.

Deadline : Jul 11, 2024

go to method of application »

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Task Manager, (based in Geneva, Switzerland) and the overall guidance of the Portfolio Manager of the GEF Biodiversity and Land Degradation Unit based in Nairobi. Duties and Responsibilities The project “Low Carbon Solutions through Nature Based Urban Development for Kutaisi City” has been designed as a package of technical and institutional capacity building measures at city level leading to policies to improve service quality for public transport and to develop integrated land-use/transport plans for the city of Kutaisi. The project is intended to develop plans and policies which lead to new investment decisions which significantly entail improvement of the transport management infrastructure in Kutaisi. Broad involvement of stakeholders in consultations as part of the project means that the project involves civil society organizations and allows for a participatory approach to the solution of the problems related to the sustainable management of transport. The project enables Georgia to mainstream environmental issues into its transport management infrastructure and assists the country to meet its commitments to UNFCCC through the reduction of GHG emissions due to the fact that the project is expected to lead to the increased use of sustainable transport modes. The SLM component provides best practices on how land degradation challenges could be addressed at city scale. The project’s objective is to enable a transformative shift towards sustainable urban development within and outside of Kutaisi City of Georgia by strengthening planning and institutional frameworks, demonstrating and scaling-up investment in integrated low-carbon electric solutions in transport and sustainable land management practices. Achieving these objectives requires collaboration with a wide range of stakeholder.

Three components are being implemented:

Component 1 – Strengthening planning and institutional frameworks enabling sustainable development in the City of Kutaisi. This component supports Kutaisi City authorities and relevant national agencies to prepare and adopt applicable spatial and urban development planning documents to establish legal planning basis to foster low emission development, low-carbon electric public transport and sustainable land management within and around Kutaisi in line with the newly adopted Spatial Planning, Architectural and Building Code (2018) and Rules for Development of Spatial and Urban Plans (2019), relevant provisions of the national climate and land degradation strategies, as well as priorities set-up in the SEAP, as described in the baseline section.

Component 2 - Facilitating investment in low emission electric public transportation and green city development. Main objective of this component is to support low emission development and LDN through demonstration of economic and technical feasibility of integrated municipal pilot projects. This component supports identification and demonstration of financial and technical feasibility of integrated low emission electric urban transport and SLM solutions. As part of this component financial needs assessment for achieving low emission urban transportation and green city development have been undertaken and resource mobilization strategy/plan has been prepared.

Component 3 - Capacity development, knowledge management and M&E for integrated low carbon city development. Objective of the Component 3 is that City of Kutaisi demonstrates improved capacities for low-carbon electric public transport and sustainable land management. The component will focus on capacity building, knowledge sharing and dissemination. It will start with capacity needs assessment and preparation of capacity building plan for the city administration. The GEF-Biodiversity and Land Degradation unit is seeking to recruit a consultant to conduct the Mid Term Review of the project to assess the achievements of the project to date, the challenges faced and engage with project counterparts to overcome the issues. Specifically,

The consultant will be required to complete the following tasks:

Inception phase:

• Preliminary desk review and introductory interviews with project staff.
• Prepare the review framework in line with UNEP's evaluation guidelines.
• Identify stakeholders.
• Develop the interview/questions matrix.
• Plan the review schedule.
• Prepare the Inception Report. Data collection and analysis phase of the review, including:
• Conduct further desk review and in-depth interviews with project implementing and executing agencies, project partners and project stakeholders.
• Regularly report back to the Task Manager on progress and inform of any possible problems or issues encountered. Reporting phase, including:
• Draft the Review Report, ensuring that the review report is complete, coherent and consistent with the Task Manager guidelines both in substance and style.
• Liaise with the Task Manager on comments received and finalize the Review Report, ensuring that comments are considered until approved by the Task Manager.
• Prepare a Response to Comments annex for the main report, listing those comments not accepted indicating the reason for the rejection. Managing relations, including:
• Maintain a positive relationship with stakeholders, ensuring that the review process is as participatory as possible but at the same time maintains its independence.
• Communicate in a timely manner with the Task Manager on any issues requiring its attention and intervention.

The consultant will prepare the following documents, in consultation and collaboration with the Project team:

• Inception Report: containing an assessment of project, project stakeholder analysis, review framework and a tentative review schedule.
• Preliminary Findings Note: typically, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, the sharing of preliminary findings is intended to support the participation of the project team, act to ensure all information sources have been accessed and provide an opportunity to verify emerging findings.
• Draft and Final Review Report: containing an executive summary that can act as a stand- alone document; detailed analysis of the review findings organized by review criteria and supported with evidence; lessons learned and recommendations and an annotated ratings table.

Qualifications/Special Skills

• An Advanced degree in environmental sciences, international development or other relevant political or social sciences area is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience in the required field may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• A minimum of 7 years of technical / evaluation experience, including of evaluating large, global programmes, including overseeing project teams, managing complex budgets, interacting with oversight personnel or committees, and demonstrating adaptive management when necessary is required.
• Hands-on experience in managing national and international projects concerning GHG emissions, carbon reduction with electric public transportation and sustainable urban transportation planning, sustainable transportation etc. is highly desirable.
• Working experience in an international environment is desirable.
• Experience in the project target area in Georgia and Caucasus region is an asset.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
• For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required.

Deadline : Jul 11, 2024

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Task Manager, (based in Geneva, Switzerland) and the overall guidance of the Portfolio Manager of the GEF Biodiversity and Land Degradation Unit based in Nairobi. Duties and Responsibilities The project “Low Carbon Solutions through Nature Based Urban Development for Kutaisi City” has been designed as a package of technical and institutional capacity building measures at city level leading to policies to improve service quality for public transport and to develop integrated land-use/transport plans for the city of Kutaisi. The project is intended to develop plans and policies which lead to new investment decisions which significantly entail improvement of the transport management infrastructure in Kutaisi. Broad involvement of stakeholders in consultations as part of the project means that the project involves civil society organizations and allows for a participatory approach to the solution of the problems related to the sustainable management of transport. The project enables Georgia to mainstream environmental issues into its transport management infrastructure and assists the country to meet its commitments to UNFCCC through the reduction of GHG emissions due to the fact that the project is expected to lead to the increased use of sustainable transport modes. The SLM component provides best practices on how land degradation challenges could be addressed at city scale. The project’s objective is to enable a transformative shift towards sustainable urban development within and outside of Kutaisi City of Georgia by strengthening planning and institutional frameworks, demonstrating and scaling-up investment in integrated low-carbon electric solutions in transport and sustainable land management practices. Achieving these objectives requires collaboration with a wide range of stakeholder.

Three components are being implemented:

Component 1 – Strengthening planning and institutional frameworks enabling sustainable development in the City of Kutaisi. This component supports Kutaisi City authorities and relevant national agencies to prepare and adopt applicable spatial and urban development planning documents to establish legal planning basis to foster low emission development, low-carbon electric public transport and sustainable land management within and around Kutaisi in line with the newly adopted Spatial Planning, Architectural and Building Code (2018) and Rules for Development of Spatial and Urban Plans (2019), relevant provisions of the national climate and land degradation strategies, as well as priorities set-up in the SEAP, as described in the baseline section.

Component 2 - Facilitating investment in low emission electric public transportation and green city development. Main objective of this component is to support low emission development and LDN through demonstration of economic and technical feasibility of integrated municipal pilot projects. This component supports identification and demonstration of financial and technical feasibility of integrated low emission electric urban transport and SLM solutions. As part of this component financial needs assessment for achieving low emission urban transportation and green city development have been undertaken and resource mobilization strategy/plan has been prepared.

Component 3 - Capacity development, knowledge management and M&E for integrated low carbon city development. Objective of the Component 3 is that City of Kutaisi demonstrates improved capacities for low-carbon electric public transport and sustainable land management. The component will focus on capacity building, knowledge sharing and dissemination. It will start with capacity needs assessment and preparation of capacity building plan for the city administration. The GEF-Biodiversity and Land Degradation unit is seeking to recruit a consultant to conduct the Mid Term Review of the project to assess the achievements of the project to date, the challenges faced and engage with project counterparts to overcome the issues. Specifically,

The consultant will be required to complete the following tasks:

Inception phase:

• Preliminary desk review and introductory interviews with project staff.
• Prepare the review framework in line with UNEP's evaluation guidelines.
• Identify stakeholders.
• Develop the interview/questions matrix.
• Plan the review schedule.
• Prepare the Inception Report. Data collection and analysis phase of the review, including:
• Conduct further desk review and in-depth interviews with project implementing and executing agencies, project partners and project stakeholders.
• Regularly report back to the Task Manager on progress and inform of any possible problems or issues encountered. Reporting phase, including:
• Draft the Review Report, ensuring that the review report is complete, coherent and consistent with the Task Manager guidelines both in substance and style.
• Liaise with the Task Manager on comments received and finalize the Review Report, ensuring that comments are considered until approved by the Task Manager.
• Prepare a Response to Comments annex for the main report, listing those comments not accepted indicating the reason for the rejection. Managing relations, including:
• Maintain a positive relationship with stakeholders, ensuring that the review process is as participatory as possible but at the same time maintains its independence.
• Communicate in a timely manner with the Task Manager on any issues requiring its attention and intervention.

The consultant will prepare the following documents, in consultation and collaboration with the Project team:

• Inception Report: containing an assessment of project, project stakeholder analysis, review framework and a tentative review schedule.
• Preliminary Findings Note: typically, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, the sharing of preliminary findings is intended to support the participation of the project team, act to ensure all information sources have been accessed and provide an opportunity to verify emerging findings.
• Draft and Final Review Report: containing an executive summary that can act as a stand- alone document; detailed analysis of the review findings organized by review criteria and supported with evidence; lessons learned and recommendations and an annotated ratings table.

Qualifications/Special Skills

• An Advanced degree in environmental sciences, international development or other relevant political or social sciences area is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience in the required field may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• A minimum of 7 years of technical / evaluation experience, including of evaluating large, global programmes, including overseeing project teams, managing complex budgets, interacting with oversight personnel or committees, and demonstrating adaptive management when necessary is required.
• Hands-on experience in managing national and international projects concerning GHG emissions, carbon reduction with electric public transportation and sustainable urban transportation planning, sustainable transportation etc. is highly desirable.
• Working experience in an international environment is desirable.
• Experience in the project target area in Georgia and Caucasus region is an asset.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
• For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required.

Deadline : Jul 11, 2024

go to method of application »

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific tasks and responsibilities:

The consultant will undertake the following duties:

• For the terminal review • Author and lead the terminal review for the aforementioned project in accordance with GEF and UNEP policies.
• Overall responsibility for undertaking the review and preparing the final report in English.
• Evaluation of all elements of the projects in accordance with UNEP evaluation office guidance documents.
• Deliverables are to be prepared in accordance with UNEP evaluation office templates.
• The consultant will develop terminal review findings and recommendations based on sound evidence and analysis, and clearly document these in the final reports.
• Information will be triangulated (i.e. verified from different sources) as far as possible, and when verification is not possible, the single source will be mentioned (whilst anonymity is still protected). Analysis leading to evaluative judgments should always be clearly spelled out.

The consultant shall base the findings of the terminal reviews on the following:

• Desk review of: Relevant background documentation, inter alia:
• Project document and appendices. This includes, among others, relevant work plans, budget and supervision plans, as well as any revisions introduced after approval.
• Theory of change, problem tree, and logical framework.
• Project reports, including half year progress reports, project implementation reports (PIRs), expenditure reports, financial statements, audits, inventory reports, progress reports from collaborating partners, meeting minutes, relevant correspondence, and tracking tools;

Evaluations/Reviews of similar projects.

Interviews (individual or in group) with, including but not limited to:

• UNEP Task Manager (TM) and team members;
• Project Manager (PM) and team members;
• UNEP Administrative Officer (AO);
• Project steering committee
• Identified stakeholders, including governmental agencies and officials, representatives from technology and educational institutions, distribution utilities, banks, associations, and NGOs.
• Other data collection tools: If needed, to be agreed upon between the Task Manager, the Project Manager, and the terminal review consultant at the inception phase.

Qualifications/special skills

ACADEMIC

• Advanced university degree in engineering, economics, environmental sciences, management, or a related discipline is required
• A first-level degree with an additional two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree;
• Minimum of two years of experience in developing, assessing, evaluating or managing projects in the field of climate change, renewable energy, environment or development, is required
• Experience working with GEF or UNEP projects is desirable
• Experience in drafting project proposals and assessing project documents, including concepts, progress reports, work plans, and financial documents (budgets and expenditure reports) is required
• Experience in working for multilateral or bilateral funding entities in the field of climate change, renewable energy environment or development is desirable

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
• For this consultancy, fluency (both oral and written) in English is required.

Deadline : Jul 12, 2024

go to method of application »

Duties and Responsibilities

The Evaluation Consultant will be responsible for the overall management of the Evaluation and timely provision of its outputs, data collection and analysis and report-writing. More specifically: Inception phase of the Evaluation, including:

• Preliminary desk review and introductory interviews with project staff;
• Draft the reconstructed Theory of Change of the project;
• Prepare the evaluation framework;
• Develop the desk review and interview protocols;
• Draft the survey protocols (if relevant);
• Develop and present criteria for site selection for the evaluation mission;
• Plan the evaluation schedule;
• Prepare the Inception Report, incorporating comments until approved by the Evaluation Manager Data collection and analysis phase of the Evaluation, including:
• Conduct further desk review and in-depth interviews with project implementing and executing agencies, project partners and project stakeholders;
• Conduct an evaluation mission to Nigeria to interview project partners and stakeholders, including a good representation of local communities.
• This decision will be made mindful of the prevailing security situation;
• Ensure independence of the Evaluation and confidentiality of evaluation interviews;
• Regularly report back to the Evaluation Manager on progress and inform of any possible problems or issues encountered and;
• Keep the Project Manager informed of the evaluation progress. Reporting phase, including:
• Draft the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that the evaluation report is complete, coherent and consistent with the Evaluation Manager guidelines both in substance and style;
• Liaise with the Evaluation Manager on comments received and finalize the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that comments are taken into account until approved by the Evaluation Manager
• Prepare a Response to Comments annex for the main report, listing those comments not accepted by the Evaluation Consultant and indicating the reason for the rejection; and
• (where agreed with the Evaluation Manager) prepare an Evaluation Brief (2-page summary of the evaluand and the key evaluation findings and lessons) Managing relations, including:
• Maintain a positive relationship with evaluation stakeholders, ensuring that the evaluation process is as participatory as possible but at the same time maintains its independence;
• Communicate in a timely manner with the Evaluation Manager on any issues requiring its attention and intervention.
• The Evaluation Consultant shall have had no prior involvement in the formulation or implementation of the project and will be independent from the participating institutions.
• The consultant will sign the Evaluation Consultant Code of Conduct Agreement Form.
• The Evaluation Consultant will be selected and recruited by the UNEP Evaluation Office through an individual consultancy contract.
• Comprehensive terms of reference will be shared with the consultant separately.

Qualifications/special skills

• A first level university degree in environmental sciences, international development or other relevant political or social sciences area is required and an advanced degree in the same areas is desirable.
• A minimum of 9 years of technical / evaluation experience is required, preferably including evaluating large, regional or global programmes and using a Theory of Change approach;
• A good/broad understanding of environmental pollution and remediation specific to the oil and gas sector, is desired; Working knowledge of the UN system and specifically the work of UNEP is an added advantage.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.
• For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is a requirement.