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Technical Specialist

Nairobi

  • Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Location: Nairobi
  • Grade: Administrative support - NPSA-5, National Personnel Services Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Environment
    • Project and Programme Management
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

National Personnel Service Agreement
Office/Unit/ProjectUNDP/BPPS/NAP – Global Support Portfolio
Functional TitleTechnical Specialist 
Classified Level NPSA 10
 
Duty station (City and Country)Nairobi, Kenya,with possible travel. Due to COVID 19, the assignment will begin with home-based work and then stationed at the Nairobi Resilience Hub  when the situation eases.
 
Type Regular Office-based
 
 
GENERAL BACKGROUND 
 
In response to a mandate from the African Heads of State and Government, the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), together with the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), developed the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which formally launched in Paris during the 21st Conference of Parties in 2015. 
 
The AAI aims to enhance action on adaptation and to address loss and damage on the continent. The AAI accomplishes this through taking a facilitative role, working closely with partners and African nations and improving coordination and coherence between various efforts. Working via partnerships, AAI helps African nations mobilize and access resources to respond to their adaptation needs. As a continent-wide body, AAI helps facilitate the wide exchange of knowledge, good practice, and lessons learned and enables high level political advocacy to meet the challenges of climate change. 
 
Since its launch in 2015 at COP 21 in Paris, AAI has achieved visibility and reputation as a responsive adaptation initiative for Africa. This is the result of 4 years of strategic consultations, plans and partnerships, which were delivered under AAI Phase 1 (2015-16) and AAI Phase 2 (2017-19). From being a concept developed by the African Group of Negotiators to an African-owned initiative backed by all 54 African countries, the AAI has successfully evolved since 2015 into a promising vehicle for achieving transformative adaptation results for African countries. In 2019, AAI is now ready to scale-up adaptation action for Africa in line with the Global Commission for Adaptation’s “Year of Action” on adaptation.   Through the Resilience and Adaptation Track of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit, the AAI has been included in the list of initiatives presented at the Summit for further support via the coalition facilitating this track.
 
As part of its 2020-2023 Workplan for AAI Phase 3, the AAI has identified four Flagship Programmes of focus: 
•Flagship 1: Expand Climate Information Services
•Flagship 2: Advance Risk Transfer
•Flagship 3: Develop the Lake Chad River Basin Early Warning System
•Flagship 4: Facilitate Knowledge Management for Adaptation Planning 
 
In addition, new areas of work, including on agriculture and climate finance readiness, have also emerged from AAI efforts in partnership with Adaptation of African Agriculture initiative (AAA) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), respectively. 
 
As of early 2020, progress towards the goals articulated under the Flagship programmes identified above has been limited. Both the AAI itself and its partner countries lack the capacity and financing to develop and fund large-scale climate adaptation projects and programmes, and the foundational knowledge and evidence to support risk-informed planning and financing. 
 
Context: 
In order to address this limited progress, UNDP is working to support AAI via a project funded by the European Union titled “Enhancing Knowledge and Evidence to Scale-up Climate Change in Africa via the Africa Adaptation Initiative.” The project’s main objective is to enhance the understanding of, and the capacity to expand, existing climate information, risk and vulnerability studies, and risk transfer options in Africa via strengthening the AAI to scale up climate change adaptation in Africa.
 
Specifically, the project will support the AAI’s 2020-2023 Workplan, helping the AAI advance its flagship programmes and address the identified capacity barriers, building upon the progress already made by the Initiative. The project will develop capacity and mobilize foundational technical work with a particular focus on AAI Flagships 1 & 2 – climate risk transfer and climate risk information - and will contribute to Flagship 4 through the preparation of an African Adaptation Report. The activities will be undertaken in collaboration with AAI partners such as the African Risk Capacity, African Development Bank, African Union Commission, UNDP, UNEP, and others as well as coordinated with other key initiatives and efforts identified under the Global Commission on Adaptation ‘Action Tracks’.
 
The project objective will be met through activities designed around the following three Outcomes: 
•Outcome 1: Expand Capacity to Utilize Climate Risk Information and Assess and Implement Risk Transfer Mechanisms 
•Outcome 2: Strengthen Knowledge and Capacity for CCA Project Development 
•Outcome 3: Develop and Disseminate a State of Adaptation in Africa Report
 
The Outcomes will support countries’ progress towards their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) pledges under the Paris Agreement and enable them to advance multiple SDGs.
 
 
SCOPE OF WORK 
 
To facilitate this project, a Project Technical Support Consultant is needed to provide technical inputs and services into the day-to-day project implementation as well provide technical inputs to the knowledge management and communications activities and deliverables under each Outcome. 
The  the consultant will contribute to specific deliverables outlined in the project document and workplan. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Main responsibilities:
 
(1)Technical Services to support to the overall project work-plan implementation -  in ccordination with the programme assistant for the project
 
  • Develop and/or revise work plans and provide inputs to project budgets according to the decisions of the Project Board 
  • Organize Project Board meetings including preparation of agendas,  presentations, progress updates and overview of delivery and contingency planning
  • Convene Technical Expert Group (TEG)meetings with the development of agendas and coordination with all relevant members and observers
  • Anticipate all technical tasks and undertake for execution of the project to advance the activities of the Africa Adaptation Initiative and in line with the approved project’s workplan;  
  • Prepare the procurement plan and update it quarterly 
  • Draft TORs for all activities, obtain feedback as necessary from TEG as well as UNDP oversight team
  • Prepare regular progress reports for submission to the donor and update reports with feedback received from the oversight team
  • Preparation of PPT, technical notes and any other material to document and report on project progress as requested by the supervisor
  • Preparation of  power-points on project progress for regional and global forums.
  • Prepare project’s progress reports, in line with UNDP and donors’ requirements
  • Prepare project’s briefs and talking points for senior managers, as required;
  • Delivery of  specific training on climate risk information and transfer tools;
  • Complete all the Quality Assurance Process documentation requirements of the State of Climate Change Adaptation in Africa Report
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(2)Technical support towards execution of specific activities
  • Development of agendas, organization, conduction and moderation of at least project regional and training events, in collaboration with partners 
  • Development of a stocktaking report of baseline information on climate risk information and use of risk transfer mechanisms across Africa
  • Development of a report (informed by desk research and interviews) with existing resources on lessons on climate risk information, climate information services, and adaptation planning for inclusion in the African Hub for sharing good practices; 
  • Development of a capacity assessment report with identified gaps and list of training materials
  • Coordinate the assembling and mobilization of the team to prepare the State of Adaptation report; by preparing draft TORs for 4 experts.
  • Delivery of up to 4 trainings on climate risk information and risk transfer mechanisms, and drafting of training reports;
  • Development of TORs for 4 background papers for state of adaptation in Africa report;
  • Oversee the review and QA process of the State of Adaptation in Africa report in line with UNDP QA processes. Convene meetings with partners/collaborators to  contributing to the report. 
  • Provision of substantive support to ensure quality of all comms/knowledge products and technical project outputs in the work-plan, including review of stocktaking report of baseline state of climate risk information; vulnerability, and risk studies; use of climate risk transfer mechanisms; 
  • Identification of best practices for the development of knowledge content, in coordination with the project KM consultant (including online trainings/webinars, policy briefs, press releases and blogs and PPTs), in the areas of (i) climate risk and vulnerability; (ii) climate risk transfer; (iii) adaptation planning and adaptation finance; 
  • Capture lessons-learned and contribute to knowledge products, ensuring wide dissemination and visibility of Project achievements, particularly with regard to local success stories;

Any other related work/task assigned by supervisor(s).

 
 
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT 
 
 
The consultant will have a matrixed reporting line to the Nairobi Resilience Hub and the Nature, Climate and Energy team. Specifically s/he will work under the overall strategic guidance of the Manager of the UNDP Resilience Hub in Nairobi, and under the direct supervision of the Lead Adaptation Planning Specialist,  in the NCE team. Work-plans will be agreed and discussed, jointly with the Nairobi Resilience Hub and the the Lead Adaptation Planning Specialist,  in the NCE team, on a quarterly basis to ensure harmonious working coordination.
 
 
The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment. For the duration of the home-based assignment, the Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, specific software, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection. Payments will be made upon submission of a certification of payment form and acceptance and confirmation by the supervisor, or her/his delegate, on the days worked and the outputs delivered. 
 

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, Public Administration, Political Sciences, or other closely related fields 
 
Min. years of relevant Work experience: Five years of experience in climate change, environment and development research work;
 
  • Proven experience with drafting technical papers/reports on climate change related issues; 
  • Demonstrated experience in knowledge management and production of technical documents and materials, including policy briefs;
  • Sound understanding of sustainable human development, environmental management issues, adaptation, vulnerability and impacts of climate change and other related issues demonstrated through work experience;
  • Familiarity with the UNFCCC processes on adaptation and related issues;
  • Proven experience in project management and management of multi-stakeholder processes;
  • Previous experience working in Africa and familiarity with climate policy and programmes on the continent.
  • Experience or strong familiarity with the work of UN/DP and/or other multilateral, bilateral and civil society development partners.
 
Desired additional skills and competencies: Fluency in another UN Language (especially French) would be an advantage
 
Required Language(s) (at working level)Excellent English communication skills  
 
 
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS 
 
The following documents will be requested: 
 
a)Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
b)A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
c)Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as  reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.
 

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