Biodiversity Technical Specialist

Overview of position

Project description:

The GEF Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support (GBF EAS) project supports developing, middle income & small island nations in their commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), early action on the post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), National Biodiversity Strategies & Action Plans (NBSAPs), national reporting. This project connects biodiversity policymakers, change makers & on the-ground subject matter experts to facilitate the delivery of the CBD’s GBF & the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).

CBD parties are currently being mobilized to take early action on the GBF by focusing on four components namely, national biodiversity planning & alignment, policy frameworks, monitoring & reporting frameworks & biodiversity finance. These components, among others that may emerge, are aimed at ensuring that CBD parties have the technical a& financial support they require to work towards a robust, fully resourced, NBSAP, including a strong monitoring system, that is fully aligned with the GBF.

Financial & technical support is provided through two pathways namely first, grants made to parties to undertake national actions & second, a global coordination grant that will make it possible to provide technical services to ensure national actions are effective, efficient, inclusive & of the highest technical standards.

Scope of work:

Yemen as one of the countries that are very rich in biodiversity, is benefiting from this global GBF EAS project through provision of technical & financial support. The project in Yemen will focus on the following three outcomes:

• Outcome 1: NBSAP are ready to be aligned & national biodiversity targets are aligned with post 2020 GBF & relevant SDG targets. This will be achieved through a rapid review of NBSAP, review & update of the NBSAP national targets & update of the NBSAP through an inclusive whole of government process to be in line with the GBF.
• Outcome 2: Enhanced & improved monitoring, reporting systems & transparency frameworks. This will be achieved through assessing & identifying gaps in the monitoring systems & developing a plan for enhancing the monitoring systems that responds to the updated national targets & GBF.
• Outcome 3: Actions for policy alignment & coherence on nature related sectors Identified. This will be achieved through a rapid review of existing national policies related to biodiversity & their alignment with the GBF, development of an action plan for policy coherence & completion of other early actions related to policy alignment & coherence.

Role objectives

Our client is seeking the support of a Biodiversity Technical Specialist who will also be the Project Coordinator to lead the implementation of the GBF EAS project in Yemen. Responsibilities of the selected candidate include the following:

Project coordination & implementation:

• Support the project launch workshop.
• Support & lead the establishment of the biodiversity working groups / consultants, based on the NBSAP & project’s components.
• Coordinate implementation of the project components.
• Supervise & coordinate the activities of the NBSAP working groups / consultants, ensuring provision of required inputs & outputs.
• Liaise with relevant stakeholders, including group meetings & one to one technical support & guidance.
• Define, gather, organize & analyze key project data.
• Support communication with key project partners, such as the government institution, research, private sector, non state actors & other stakeholders.
• Gather & analyze data from participating stakeholders & use it to support the development of the revised & updated NBSAP, monitoring system & policy review.
• Work closely with the international consultant, ensuring his / her inputs to progress reports, donor reports, trainings & presentations.
• Track project’s progress to achieve desired outputs of all components.
• Support the implementation of additional ongoing or emerging projects as assigned.

Technical services:

• Provide substantive support to the international consultant to prepare technical guidance documents, tools & trainings on biodiversity & policy, including but not limited to NBSAP target alignment, policy review, gender mainstreaming & women’s empowerment & stakeholder engagement.
• Develop reports & policy recommendations related to the targets in the emerging post 2020 GBF.
• Support the development of automated process to develop customized tools.
• Support literature reviews, knowledge management, compilation of information & gathering of data on topics pertinent to the project, such as, but not limited to biodiversity & ecosystem in national, local & zonal contexts, sustainable development, indigenous people & local communities, social entrepreneurship, engagement in policy processes.

Capacity building:

• Ensure engagement & benefit of the working groups from capacity building material, such as webinars, online courses, identifying relevant topics for support by international consultant / global project team.
• Support use of the learning for nature platform & NBSAP forum for the working groups in relevant languages through promotion & access.
• Promote access & use of spatial data, notably via the platform UN biodiversity lab.
• Support the learning through nature platform to ensure the delivery of the technical components of the project.
• Ensure an active & smooth utilization of the NBSAP forum (http://nbsapforum.net) by the working groups, including sharing best practices & resources & learning opportunities & dynamic discussions.
• Administrate the virtual technical program, including a calendar of activity, which will include webinars, release of technical guidance, peer exchange, massive open online courses & self paced online courses, among other opportunities.
• Take lead in identifying the most suitable date, time, language & communication channels.
• Support the preparation of capacity building engagements at our client participating events, such as CBD conferences of parties, open ended working groups, SBSTTAs; virtual events such as the UN nature for life hub & global conferences, among other opportunities.

Communication:

• Share with working group & other stakeholders content for NBSAP forum, including events, publications, job offers & learning opportunities & share all recording of webinars & training sessions organized by our client & CBD on the NBSAP forum.
• Support the drafting of press releases, talking points, Power Point presentation, social media communications, blogs & video messages related to the capacity building materials, text & photos, photo essays for NBSAP forum website.
• Support the translation of communication materials from Arabic into English as needed.
• Develop & document best practices & lessons learned from across our clients portfolio, including on policy review & policy alignment.
• Develop case studies to showcase successful policy alignment examples between national targets & the post 2020 GBF targets.

Project reporting

• Our client will directly supervise the Coordinator & Technical Biodiversity Specialist of the GBF – EAS project. S / he will be directly responsible to, reporting to, seeking approval / acceptance of output from the Deputy Team Leader, Peace Operation Support Unit.
• The frequency of progress reporting is on quarterly basis, on a recommended format to be shared & instructed by our client & deliverables & progress reports must be presented to focal points from our clients side.
• The Consultant is expected to liaise / interact / collaborate / meet with the relevant stakeholders of the assignment.
• Our client will provide travel facilities to the Consultant if & when required & agreed.
• Our client will facilitate the consultant for approval of deliverables & disbursement of payments in a timely manner.

Key competencies

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience on (academic or work) with developing biodiversity plans, strategies, studies & assessments, including working with national & international institutions, civil society, governmental authorities (national, regional, state, local) is desired.
• Experience (academic or work) with international & national institutions, civil society, governmental authorities (national, regional, state, local) is desired.
• Experience (academic or work) in information management, such as through knowledge management platforms, literature reviews, social media & internal / external communications.
• Experience of working for UN & / or public sector donor funded projects.
• Demonstrated ability to plan, organize logically, effectively implement & meet set deadlines.

Team management

• The national consultant will report to the Deputy Team Leader, Peace Operation Support Unit and will work closely with the International Consultant and the Climate Change Specialist at Client Aden.

Further information

• Duration of the contract is 11 months, with a total level of effort of 140 working days.
• Estimated time for our client to review outputs, give comments, certify approval / acceptance of outputs is 10 working days.
• Although this role is homebased, the main duty station is Aden, with possible travel within Yemen.
• Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply for this role.

Payment terms for the contractor is as under:

• The amount of contract is fixed regardless of changes in the cost components.
• Payment will be paid upon receipt of deliverables as under:

Deliverables / outputs

% payment

Deliverable 1: Set up for project implementation with whole society approach in place

10% of total payment

Deliverable 2: Data for updating NBSAP collected & analyzed

20% of total payment

Deliverable 3: Draft NBSAP produced

20% of total payment

Deliverable 4: Review of national policies completed

20% of total payment

Deliverable 5: Action plan for policy coherence is developed

10% of total payment

Deliverable 6: Submission of final documents

20% of total payment