Jobs at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations System and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment UNEP’s 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 Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted in January 2013 and will come into force once the required number of countries ratifies the Convention. The GEF project “Development of Minamata Convention on Mercury Initial Assessment in Africa (MIA)” is aimed at facilitating the ratification and early implementation of the Minamata Convention by providing key national stakeholders in participating countries with the scientific and technical knowledge and tools needed for that purpose. Participating countries will benefit from new and updated information about the mercury situation in the country and from increased capacity in managing the risks of mercury. The sharing of experiences and lessons learned throughout the project is also expected to be an important contribution to other similar countries.
UNEP’s Africa Office is the Executing Agency of the MIA regional project for Angola, Malawi, and Zimbabwe (MIA II).

An international consultant will be hired to carry out the activities under the project component 3 “Development of a mercury inventory using the UNEP mercury tool kit and strategies to identify and assess mercury contaminated sites” related to execution of the project in Angola

The requirements of the Job Opening will be carried out online thus home-based. The Consultant will provide operational support and will play a critical role in the implementation of UN Environment Programme related activities.

The Consultant shall work under the direct supervision of the Acting Regional Sub-programme Coordinator for Chemicals, Waste and Air Quality of UNEP Africa Office (UNEP ODED ROA).
Specific tasks and responsibilities of the consultant include the following:

• Conduct an inventory of mercury in Angola utilizing the most current Level II version of the UNEP Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Mercury Releases, which is a comprehensive description of all mercury sources, as well as a quantitative analysis of mercury;
• Prepare a the Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA) for Angola following the most recent guidance;
• Coordinate all activities with the Ministry of Environment and the UNEP Regional Office for Africa;
• Provide an advanced draft of the inventory and MIA to the Global Mercury Partnership for final checks;
• Integrate the comments received from the Global Mercury Partnership;
• Draft, review, finalize and submit to UNEP the of MIA Report and inventory for Angola;

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: A Master’s degree in environmental protection or another field is required. A degree in Health and Environment Science will be an asset
• Experience: A minimum of 5 year of experience in the field of environment and health and/or other relevant disciplines, preferably in governmental institutions, NGOs or the United Nations, is required. Specific experience in mercury or other pollutant inventories is also required. Knowledge of the UNEP Mercury Inventory Toolkit is desirable. The candidate should have excellent analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in written and oral English is required. Working knowledge of Portuguese is desirable

Closing Date 30 March 2022

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Duties and Responsibilities

Org. Setting

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations systems 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. This consultancy is located at Headquarters in the Evaluation Office which reports directly to the Executive Director. The consultant reports to the Evaluation Officer managing the project and the Director of the Evaluation Office (EO).

The Project

The Terminal Evaluation is undertaken at operational completion of the project to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency), and determine outcomes and impacts (actual and potential) stemming from the project, including their sustainability. The Evaluation has two primary purposes: (i) to provide evidence of results to meet accountability requirements, and (ii) to promote operational improvement, learning and knowledge sharing through results and lessons learned among UNEP and PERSGA, WECF, NBA, WCMC, GRID-Arendal, SEI, WSA, GW²I members. Therefore, the Evaluation will identify lessons of operational relevance for future project formulation and implementation, especially where a second phase of the project is being considered. Recommendations relevant to the whole house may also be identified during the evaluation process.

In close consultation with the Evaluation Manager, the Principal Evaluator 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 country and/or 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;
• (where appropriate and agreed) conduct an evaluation mission(s) to selected countries, visit the project locations, interview project partners and stakeholders, including a good representation of local communities. 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 Principal Evaluator 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)

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: A university (Bachelor's) degree in environmental sciences, international development or other relevant political or social sciences area is required and an advanced (Master's) degree in the same areas is desirable.
• Experience: A minimum of 6 years of technical / evaluation experience is required, preferably including evaluating large, regional or global programmes and using a Theory of Change approach; and a good/broad understanding of Wastewater Management or global development initiatives is desired.
• Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is a requirement. Working knowledge of the UN system and specifically the work of UNEP is an added advantage.

Closing Date 30 March 2022

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Expected duration

• The consultant will be hired for 40 days spread over a period 5 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. For countries to be able to achieve the ambitious results of the 2030 Agenda, transformational changes in the way national institutions make decisions, devise policies, legislate and report on sustainable development issues are needed. Access to accurate information and knowledge, cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination both within and across institutions, as well as more inclusive mechanism are necessary. The attainment of environmental goals is a pre-condition to achieving the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Therefore, countries need to be well equipped in understanding the environmental dimension of the goals and their linkages with other commitments; they also need to be able to translate this understanding into concrete measures to realize environmental objectives in an integrated manner.

The African Elephant Action Plan (AEAP), developed under the auspices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), was agreed upon by African elephant range States during a meeting held in the margins of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (CITES CoP15) in 2010 in Doha, Qatar.

The development of the AEAP was owned and managed by the African elephant range States, and as such, represents and seeks to address the real ‘situation on the ground’ in terms of what actions must be taken in order to effectively conserve elephants in Africa across their range. It was not intended to be an exhaustive analysis of the status of elephant populations and their conservation across Africa, but rather a concise and clear statement of those activities which must be implemented and most urgently require funding if Africa’s elephants throughout their range are to be protected from the multiple and serious threats they face.

The goal of the AEAP is to secure and restore where possible sustainable elephant populations throughout their present and potential range in Africa recognizing their potential to provide ecological, social, cultural and economic benefits. The Action Plan lists eight (8) prioritized operational objectives each with clear strategic objectives and activities. Although the goal remains very relevant, the actions required to achieve it could benefit from a review a decade after the approval of the AEAP.

After the adoption of the AEAP by the African elephant range States in 2010, the African Elephant Fund (AEF) and the African Elephant Fund Steering Committee (AEFSC) were established and operationalized in 2011. The AEFSC was established to oversee the implementation of the AEAP through resource mobilization and administration of the AEF, and to support implementation of the activities under the AEAP. The AEF is hosted and administered by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), with the AEFSC making all decisions related to the administration. Various projects have been implemented with funds from the AEF. The projects that have so far been funded have focused mainly on the first three priority objectives of the AEAP:

•  Priority Objective 1: Reduce illegal killing of elephants and illegal trade in elephant products;
•  Priority Objective 2: Maintain elephant habitats and restore connectivity;
•  Priority Objective 3: Reduce human-elephant conflict.

In terms of Objective 8 (African Elephant Action Plan is effectively implemented), Activity 8.2.4 states that the AEAP should be reviewed and, where necessary, updated every three years, to keep abreast with the challenges and dynamics of conserving and managing elephants. The AEAP also included an indicative budget for each of the activities identified and for an initial period of three years of the Action Plan (2009 – 2012). At the third meeting of the AEFSC that took place in September 2014 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the indicative budget was amended after consultation with range States, to reflect the period (2014 – 2024).

The process of reviewing the AEAP was initiated in 2018. A technical report with proposed recommendations for the review was produced in 2019 by the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG). This informed the 2019 meeting of the African elephant range States convened at UNEP, Nairobi to discuss the revision of the AEAP. A report of this meeting was produced.

However, further progress on the review was disrupted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the objective of this consultancy is to support the continuation of the work described above. The consultant will support the review and updating of the AEAP to ensure it remains an adaptive tool that will enable range States to have a comprehensive reference document from which to guide actions to address the multitude of threats elephants face and to ensure the species’ conservation across its range. This will include conducting a review of the reports from the IUCN/SSC AfESG Members meeting and the consultative meeting of the African elephant range States held at UNEP in 2019 as well as other documentation, and consolidating the inputs with a view of incorporating them into a revised AEAP. The consultant will, furthermore, propose the amendments to the AEAP based on the review, present the proposed amendments to the African Elephant Fund Steering Committee and the African elephant range States and finalise a document for adoption.

The consultant will work under the Under the overall guidance of the Chief of the Environmental Governance and Conventions Branch, Law Division, and the direct supervision of the Programme Management Officer.

The specific tasks for the Consultant will include:

• Review the reports from the IUCN/SSC AfESG Members meeting and the African elephant range States consultative meeting on the review of the African Elephant Action Plan (AEAP), as well as records of meetings of the AEF Steering Committee:
• Review the reports produced with inputs from the IUCN/SSC AfESG Members meeting, the 2019 consultative meeting of the African elephant range States, and the AEFSC meeting records in the context of the current African Elephant Action Plan (AEAP).
• Consolidate and incorporate proposed amendments to the AEAP to be presented to the African elephant range States:
• On the basis of the review and the assessment in paragraph (A) above, prepare a draft revised AEAP. All proposed changes should be reflected in track changes, but a clean version of the revised Action Plan should also be delivered. The revised AEAP should incorporate the inputs, comments and recommendations received from the African elephant range States during the consultative meeting held at UNEP in 2019. It should also include an indicative timeline for implementation;
• Present the proposed amendments to the African Elephant Fund Steering Committee (AEFSC);
• Incorporate the comments received from the AEFSC into the draft revised AEAP and submit to the AEFSC and the AEF Secretariat for distribution to the African elephant range States for any additional inputs/comments;
• Present, together with the AEFSC, the draft revised AEAP to the African elephant range States in a meeting to be scheduled physically or virtually.
• Finalise AEAP for adoption by range States:
  • Finalise the AEAP (including a tentative implementation period) on the basis of comments and additional inputs provided by the African elephant range States;
  • Assist the AEFSC and the AEF Secretariat in developing an estimate of resources required to implement the AEAP.

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: Advanced university degree in management, natural resource management, conservation, ecology or a related subject is required. A first level degree with an additional two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.
• Experience: At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience in natural resource management, conservation, with programme/project management, Monitoring and Evaluation in Africa is required.
• Language: Fluency in written and spoken English. Excellent writing skills in English is required.
• French would be an added advantage.

Closing Date 07 April 2022