Job Vacancies United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), February 2012

Job Vacancies  United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Position: Knowledge Management Specialist
Location: United States of America ( The )
Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Background
UNDP’s Environment and Energy Group (EEG) is based in the Bureau for Development Policy and is responsible for providing leadership and technical support to delivery of the Environment and Sustainable Development pillar of UNDP’s 2008-11 Strategic Plan. EEG’s main focus is helping countries develop capacity to fully incorporate environmental sustainability into development at national and local, but also global and regional, levels. The four principal areas of work are environmental mainstreaming, environmental finance, adaptation to climate change, and local governance of resources, including energy.
There is increasing concern that climate change, including variability, could undermine the achievement of a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), most notably in poverty reduction. This is particularly true for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which are most likely to bear the brunt of climate change, yet are least equipped to adapt. Consequently, developing countries are increasingly turning their attention to the formulation of comprehensive approaches to address climate change, in particular the human development and economic implications, and the investment decisions that need to be made to implement these.
UNDP Country Offices are, in consequence, receiving an increasing number of national requests for assistance with understanding the implications of climate change on national development and preparing integrated strategies and plans to manage anticipated challenges and opportunities. UNDP has played an important role assisting countries to access and deliver climate change financing, as implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), joint manager of the National Communications Support Programme, and by delivering initiatives like MDG Carbon, Capacity Development for Policy Makers, the MDG Achievement Fund, Africa Adaptation Programme, CC-DARE, UN REDD, and Carbon Neutral and Climate Resilient Territories. Yet at the same time, UNDP must further strengthen its climate change policy advisory capacity – particularly to support LDCs.

Acknowledging the need to incorporate climate change concerns into the design and implementation of its core development assistance at the national, regional and global levels, UNDP approved a $5.6 million strategic initiative to provide climate change capacity building to LDCs over 2010-11, termed “Boots on the Ground”. The purpose of the Boots programme is to support selected LDCs with a package of focused climate change services. Under the programme, National Officers will be hired in 24 Country Offices to support governments by:
providing policy support on specific climate change areas;
helping coordinate and integrate UN/DP and other relevant climate change programming at the national level, including GEF projects;
ensuring climate change considerations are fully integrated into UN programming instruments (such as UN Development Assistance Frameworks) and national strategic planning documents, such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers;
promoting cross-practice collaboration on climate change within UNDP (poverty, governance, capacity development, gender) and across the UN system.

The National Officers will be supported by four regional policy specialists on climate change, based in UNDP Regional Service Centres and Sub-Centres. The Policy Specialists will complement and strengthen a team of Policy Advisors already active in the regions – particularly the five undertaking complementary work programme s under the EEG project, Integrating Climate Change Risks into Development Planning and Programming (ICCPP).

At the HQ level, a Global Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating and disseminating the policy, technical, and methodological guidance to the Boots cohort, ensuring consistent and coherent application at the regional and country levels. The Global Coordinator will be supported by a Knowledge Management Specialist who will provide technical backstopping and training services.

Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of Key Functions:
The Knowledge Management Specialist will report to the Global Coordinator. His/her primary roles are to support policy coherence between HQ, the regional specialists and Country Offices, and lead knowledge management, communications, and training functions.
Policy Coherence and Programme Support
Supports timely guidance from HQ to Regional Policy Specialists as they engage in the climate change policy dialogues at the national level with key partners such as governments, donors, civil society, ensuring adherence with, and consistent and integrated application of, HQ/global approaches, methodologies, and strategies;
Coordinates and drafts  HQ briefings on specific climate change policy issues related to preparing for a post-2012 institutional and financial regime, ensuring consistency with international climate policy guidance provided by HQ;
Contributes to  HQ briefings on guidance to build capacity of governments in programming climate change related resources and provide advice on the effective use and management of different climate financing mechanisms, including national multi-donor climate funds
Contributes to HQ briefings on guidance on cross-practice pilot initiatives that can maximize synergies between climate change, gender, poverty, and MDG-related activities, including south-south cooperation schemes and innovative clean technology options for energy access.
Supports HQ briefings regarding the formulation of national low carbon and climate resilient development strategies and plans, building on the methodologies developed by EEG;
Establishes and oversees programme budget for global, regional and national components
Manages the recruitment process for national and regional officers
Responds to requests from COs and RSCs on human resource and financial queries

Knowledge Management , Research, and Training
Disseminates substantive background and briefings to regional Policy Specialists on the status of international climate change negotiations and other global and regional events and initiatives of strategic importance being implemented by UNDP and other UN organizations;
Ensures a flow of information between EEG HQ, Regional Service Centres, and Country Offices by putting in place mechanisms to ensure the region and Country Offices know about climate change related activities undertaken by EEG as well as by other UN bodies and major global and regional actors; while also delivering information on national needs for policy support to RSC Senior Management and EEG HQ;
Promotes the use and improvement of knowledge management mechanisms put in place by BDP/EEG to share information about climate change related initiatives (e.g. the CC Map, Teamworks);
Disseminates and provides briefings on HQ technical and strategic position papers, presentations, advisory and briefing notes;
Disseminates briefings on HQ policy briefs/position papers prepared in collaboration with other practices that address links between climate change and other development concerns such as governance, private sector, poverty alleviation , gender, crisis prevention and recovery, and capacity development;
Identifies relevant lessons learnt to be disseminated between countries and identifies and develops linkages between countries in the region as appropriate;
Proposes value-added project activities based upon internal discussions and identification of in-house best practices and capacities;
Prepares and moderates regular knowledge topics  on emerging climate change issues, using a range of modalities;
Conducts inventory of existing UNDP (and flagship non-UNDP) knowledge and learning resources on climate change and identifies critical knowledge gaps.
Ensures editorial management and content of online/webspaces (internet, intranet, etc) for the Boots programme
Expands the knowledge base by joining other climate change global or regional networks and researching information from other communities of practice .  Shares relevant developments, innovations, best practices, lessons learnt and content developed with Boots programme when relevant.
Designs and implements global/regional workshops/trainings for Boots cohort

Communications and Reporting
Periodically prepares communications materials that promote UNDP’s work on the ground and innovative best practices in the field of climate change;
Conducts analyses of UNDP climate change portfolio to identify best practices and policy impacts, particularly with respect to poverty reduction;
Supports the development of indicators and results-based frameworks to report achievements of programme.

Competencies
Corporate Competencies
Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies
Good oral communication skills and conflict resolution competency to manage inter-group dynamics and mediate conflicting interests of varied actors.
Good written communication skills, with demonstrated analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project portfolios against specific indicators.
Demonstrated solid knowledge on climate change and international climate negotiation processes.
Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior and high ranking members of national institutions, government and non-government.
Ability to judge multiple tasks and manage priority setting.

Knowledge Management and Learning
Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example.
Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNDP.

Leadership and Self-Management
Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
Good team player, self starter, has ability to work under minimum supervision and maintain good relationships.

Required Skills and Experience
Masters degree in environment, energy, or a closely related field.
5 years of relevant work experience on climate change activities, including from the knowledge management perspective.
Sound knowledge of all thematic areas of climate change (adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer , and financing).
Experience in working and collaborating with governments on climate change issues, particularly in developing countries.
Work experience within UNDP at the global, regional and national levels is highly desirable.
Excellent knowledge of UNDP rules, regulations, policies and procedures is an asset.
Demonstrated experience in knowledge management and communications functions.
Research, quantitative analysis and report writing skills highly desired.
High level of computer literacy including spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software
Excellent knowledge of English, as well as writing, presentation and communication skills.
Fluency in other UN languages is an asset

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

United Nations Development Programme 304 East 45th Street New York Telephone: (212) 909-7940




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