Nature4Cities Technical Consultant

Result of Service

The position's main objective is to help the National Coordinator of Nature4Cities in Guatemala with technical tasks and to ensure effective operations for the implementation of project activities.

The Nature4Cities local Technical Consultant will report directly to the UNEP Programme Manager Officer for Climate Change Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean Office and will collaborate closely with the National Coordinator to achieve deliverables.

The main duties and responsibilities will include:

a. Review regulatory framework (for public and private infrastructure, land use, etc.), key planning policy processes for urban development and all relevant documentation to be considered for the elaboration of adaptation and mitigation plan.
b. Manage spatial data using GIS software and design, feed, and process a database to digitize and geolocalize relevant information from CONRED's incident assessments record.
c. Review technical documents, scientific papers, and other kinds of literature to summarize information into technical sheets of the selected NbS for the city.
d. Work with different municipal directorates to understand how to integrate Nature Based urban adaptation plan into the multiannual planification and the cities long term development policy.
e. Contribute with the National Coordinator in the initial communication process with private sector and then with the Partnerships consultant to develop a private sector engagement plan to attract private sector investment for Nature-based urban planning.
f. Collaborate with the National Coordinator to design methodologies for workshops and other kinds of events and to facilitate participatory activities.
g. Collect data and systematize information about public climate finance and opportunities to provide guidance on investment on nature-based adaptation and mitigation initiatives in public and private sector.
h. Facilitate processes to discuss and identify with key stakeholder opportunities to improve or create suitable regulations, policies, and standards to enlace NbS and city adaptation in general.
i. Help the Municipality of Guatemala to collect and process data to effectively disclose to CDP, to enhance capabilities on managing environmental reporting frameworks and boost reporting efforts.
j. Collaborate all administrative and logistic processes to organize workshops, trainings, meetings, or other kind of national and local events.
k. Work in close collaboration with the National Coordinator in collecting activities’ means of verification, drafting workshop reports and technical report writing in general as described in the project document.
l. Inform the National Coordinator immediately of any issue or risk which might jeopardize the success of the project.


Ultimate result of service
a. A database and maps of relevant information of CONRED’ incident assessments record.
b. Technical information in visually telling technical sheets of the selected NbS for the city.
c. Monitor the elaboration of the city-level Nature based adaptation and mitigation plan and identify mechanisms to integrate the plan into the municipality’s operations and in the local urban development master plan.
d. Technical sheets of the selected NbS to elaborate a city catalogue of options.
e. Provide guidance on the elaboration of the city-level private sector engagement plan.
f. Contribute to the preparation and logistics of workshops and other types of events to ensure project participatory process and the validation of deliverables.
g. Conduct the elaboration of the city-level financial guideline, gather information of local case studies and potential opportunities to finance urban NbS, and help to identify investment of the nature base urban development plan.
h. Collaborate with data collection and disclosure to CDP and boost environmental reporting efforts of local government.
i. Workshops reports, activities’ mean of verification and technical reports.

Outputs/Work Assignment¿
a. Drafting and review technical reports.
b. Liaise different consultants, counterparts’ institution, and stakeholders in general.
c. Contribute with drafting of communication material.
d. Work in close collaboration with the National Coordinator in the coordination of meetings, workshops among other activities.

Work Location

Municipality of Guatemala, Guatemala

Expected duration

12 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system's designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action.¿

The UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office (LACO), located in Panama City, Panama works closely with the 33 countries of the region - including 16 small island developing States - with a population of about 588 million people. The office works to serve the needs of the region and its activities are integrated into the work programs approved by the United Nations Environment Assembly of UNEP (UNEA).¿

UNEP seeks to support countries in Latin America to implement the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new Paris Agreement and the priority actions defined in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of each country.¿

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is the second most urbanized region in the world, with ~80% of its population living in cities. In the case of Guatemala, the ratio is under that mean, but in the last 20 years the share has more than doubled (growing from 24.7% to 53.8%) and this trend still. The rapid urbanization, coupled with limited urban planning and the associated expansion of cities, is degrading urban and peri-urban ecosystems that provide vital ecosystem services for urban communities. Ecosystem degradation poses a threat to urban communities and increases their vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change related impacts.¿
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To address the vulnerability of urban communities, governments in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region need to develop and implement cost-effective, low-risk solutions, such as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to protect, maintain and rehabilitate priority ecosystems in urban areas. With this goal in mind, UNEP is working with the governments of Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, and Uruguay to execute a two-years Readiness project name “Nature4Cities - Increasing resilience through Nature- based Solutions in Latin-American cities” funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
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The aim of the project is to increase the capacity of participating countries to design and implement Nature- based urban development strategies that ensure urban resilience to climate change through five main areas of work: (1) Strengthening the knowledge base of national and local governments to assess the potential for Nature- based Adaptation and Mitigation Solutions in urban areas in the context of broader climate change strategies; (2) Reinforcing enabling policies and institutional frameworks to increase adoption of NbS in urban planning; (3) Strengthening partnerships between key actors to accelerate the adoption of NbS solutions; (4) Defining climate finance strategies through innovative public, private and blended financial mechanisms and facilitating access to climate finance for the sustained implementation of NbS; (5) Accelerating upscaling and replication through a regional Urban NBS platform.¿

The local Technical Consultant will be responsible to support the activities of Nature4Cities National Coordinator and the achievement of planed deliverables for Guatemala. He/She will be supervised by the UNEP Programme Manager Officer for Climate Change Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean Office and will plan his/her activities with Nature4Cities National Coordinator. The local incumbent will work on a schedule of 25 hours per week, from Monday to Friday, and will be located in the Municipality of Guatemala. All duties will be done in close collaboration with Ministry of environment (MARN) and the Municipality of Guatemala, and, in some cases, with the National Agency for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) and the Secretary of Planning and Programming of the Presidency (SEGEPLAN).

Qualifications/special skills

Academic
- Bachelor’s Degree in architecture, environmental engineering, civil engineering, natural resources management, or closely related field is required.
- Master's degree in urban planning, sustainable development, disaster risk management or closely related field is desired.

Professional
- A minimum of 3 years relevant work experience on environmental issues, sustainable development, urban planning, disaster risk management or similar is required.
- Experience and knowledge in Guatemala related to the topics above is an asset.
- At least 2 years of experience in the public sector or proven experience working and collaborating with public institutions in process to design and implement public policies is required.
- Demonstrated knowledge of either ecological restoration, urban and peri-urban natural resources management, and/or climate change adaptation and mitigation measures and policies is desirable.
- Experience working in multi-stakeholder processes, being part of collaborative work of interinstitutional teams or coordinating activities with the private sector, academia, NGOs, and Community Based Organizations (CBO) is desirable.
- Experience organizing workshops, panels and other types of events, and good skills in designing and facilitating activities with participatory methodologies is desirable.
- Experience analyzing, summarizing, and systematizing information and knowledge from various sources and developing structured and visually tell technical documents is desirable.
- Good knowledge of the country’s conditions related to social, economic, and environmental vulnerability is desirable.
- Good skills in designing, feeding, and processing databases and an intermediate level of knowledge to manage, analyze, and visualize spatial data using GIS software is required.
- Experience mainstreaming gender indicators in work programs is desirable.
- Proven experience in M&E is an asset.

Languages
- Fluent in Spanish is required.
- Confident level of English is desirable.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.