Policy Lead (Indigenous People and local communities)

Through 2024, FCLP members have agreed to prioritise two outcomes in 2025. The first is to support global ambition on the recognition of land tenure and to work towards a global commitment to recognise a specific metric of land by COP30. The second is to set up a series of convenings to facilitate increased technical, political and financial support for tropical forest countries' national policies which support Indigenous Peoples, and local communities.

To deliver this objective, Norway and Peru set up a multi-stakeholder platform to bring together governments, indigenous leaders, and key donors to support ambition.  

The Policy Lead, under the supervision of the Deputy Director - Policy, will be responsible for supporting the conceptualization and facilitation of this FCLP workstream on Indigenous Peoples, and local communities, specifically:

• Organise the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities of FCLP members (18 governments) to support the design and development of high-impact initiatives to deliver on the objective of “halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030” of the Glasgow Leaders Declaration, liaising with non-state actors and experts as appropriate.
• Organise meetings of the Platform for Indigenous Peoples, and local communities in forest climate action, to build support and agreement for the proposed initiatives and ensure good record keeping.
• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies, especially with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ initiatives, working with partners to provide technical support to tropical forest countries as requested. In particular, this requires sustained dialogues with indigenous leaders to support participation.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications. Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are able to accept handover outputs, especially on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
• Facilitate the formation and management of a team of policy officials (allocated by Member governments), external consultants and experts, as well as non-state actors to deliver the initiatives by COP28 and beyond. 
• Conceptualize, lead and provide inputs to high level events as requested by the Deputy Director, Policy and Co-leads of the IPLC Working Group in FCLP.
• Collaborate with the UNOPS Project Manager to source dedicated communications, logistical, project management and administrative support to policy initiatives as required.
• Contribute effectively to the FCLP Secretariat, actively participating in meetings and workplanning, and providing other core support to the Secretariat as needed.
• Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner. Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice.
• Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.

A work plan will be developed based on the UNOPS PER cycle and serve as the overarching document to monitor progress and record performance. 

*FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

• Relevant experience is defined as experience working on forests and land-use, climate change, REDD+, Indigenous Peoples, and Local Communities rights.
• Experience working with governments, in particular understanding the complexities of forest management in tropical forest countries is required. 
• Experience of working directly with Indigenous Peoples’, and local communities or tropical forest country governments on land tenure issues is required. 
• Experience in supporting liaison with high-level actors, including Ministers and preferably Heads of Government, is required.
• Facilitator and conflict management experience is required
• Experience drafting high-level documents is required.

• Experience of developing a range of innovative financial mechanisms that seek to place a greater value on nature is desirable. For example, working with High Forest Low Deforestation countries to value standing forests; working on forest carbon markets; experience and understanding of debt-for-environment swaps; and/or, understanding of biodiversity credits.
• Experience working with a diverse range of countries on policy related to forests and land-use is an advantage.
• Experience and understanding of all aspects of UNFCCC climate COPs and other high-profile climate and nature processes.

• Fluency in English and Spanish (read, write, speak) is required.
• Proficiency in one of the following languages is an advantage: French or Portuguese.

• It is required to regularly travel internationally and to work outside of typical work hours (i.e. early mornings and/or late evenings) when required to accommodate various time zones.