Indigenous Youth Engagement and Empowerment Coordinator

Details

Mission and objectives

Who we are
UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (RBAP), with 24 Country Offices covering work in 36 countries and decades of experience in the region, is a trusted adviser and a ‘de-velopment partner’ of choice for governments across the region in supporting the localization and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What we do
We help our partners in identifying relevant solutions to today’s complex, trans-boundary de-velopment challenges. We support them to design and implement large scale development initiatives that deliver lasting social, economic and environmental improvements in countries across the region.
Our support to governments, civil society, the private sector and communities is at every level of their organization: we provide legislative and regulatory advice that transforms governance systems; we provide capacity building and trainings that build nations; and we organize em-ployment schemes that bring jobs to the most vulnerable groups.
For every project, we provide our partners with a team of experts who link local challenges to national, regional and global knowledge and resources.
Guided by UNDP’s 2022-25 Strategic Plan, advisory and implementation work focuses on the following areas:
• Structural Transformation
• Leaving No-one Behind
• Building Resilience
In addition to these areas of focus which reflect regional developmental priorities, we emphasize gender, climate change, social protection and inclusive growth, in all aspects of our work.
Recognizing the complexity of development challenges, increasing advances in technology in the region, as well as the call for a data revolution, we have been investing in innovation, using approaches such as design thinking and foresight tools such as games, mobile applications, and big data to challenge business as usual and develop the next generation of development solutions.

Context

The Context of Youth Empowerment
The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 600 million youth aged 15-24 years, facing multifaceted and complex challenges, including armed conflicts, disasters, climate risks, ethnoreligious tensions, socioeconomic inequalities, political instability and governance challenges, transnational issues, historical grievances, and natural resource management.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the important role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and calls for action against the challenges faced by young people that limits their economic, social and political inclusion. Today, young people are more connected, more creative, more informed, and more persuasive than any previous generation. Young people are responding to the challenges of today with innovative approaches, contributing with fresh ideas, creating the world they want, and driving human development for themselves, their communities, and their societies. But at the same time, due to socio-political challenges, many young people are left out of decision-making processes, which further contributes to their marginalization and exclusion.
Evidence shows that even among youth, Indigenous youth, amongst others, disproportionately shoulder the burden of climate change. Of the estimated 476 million indigenous people in the world, around 70 percent live in Asia and the Pacific region. Indigenous people account for about six percent of the global population, but almost 19 percent of the world’s poor. Asia’s large Indigenous population has many distinct groups, each with their own language, culture, customs, land history and social norms.
Young people from Indigenous communities face a range of unique social and cultural challenges. Indigenous communities often live in remote or rural locations with less access to education, health, and other services than other youth; maintenance of culture and identity is often intimately connected to belonging to a community, and decision-making and governance structures are usually conservative and exclude the voices and ideas of young people. Indigenous youth play a challenging, but critical role alongside their communities in defending forests, land and the environment, all of which is threatened by the increasingly extractive industries, development projects and large-scale agribusinesses, putting them at particular risk. This is especially so as Indigenous people are the stewards of the remaining 80% of biodiversity. Their traditional knowledge and experiences are important for effective climate action which also necessitates the recognition of their rights and contributions.
UNDP’s work on inclusion of Indigenous Youth will be implemented via Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP) with support to the LNOB pillar under the Youth Empowerment Portfolio in Asia and the Pacific (YEP-AP).
The UNV will work as part of the Regional Youth Unit, primarily with Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP), supporting cross-cutting Leave No-One Behind (LNOB) activities implemented by the project in nexus with climate action.

Task description

Under the supervision of the Regional Youth Manager, the Indigenous Youth Engagement and Empowerment Coordinator will assist in implementing YECAP work plan, aligned with strategic support to LNOB work plan, via the following activities:
1) Support the implementation of the Bureau of Regional Hub (BRH) YECAP’s work plan:
• Engage youth from Indigenous communities for YECAP for capacity building activities from the Asia-Pacific region
• Assess the needs, expertise of YECAP stakeholders related to Indigenous rights and challenges
• Coordinate the development of training modules in collaboration with partners and youth related to holistic support of Indigenous youth
• Support the development of strategy for meaningful inclusion of Indigenous youth with due considerations to intersectionality from the Asia-Pacific region
• Support the development of brief on contributions of Indigenous youth towards sustainable adaptation practices towards the climate crisis in Asia-Pacific, including the role of Indigenous Knowledge
2) Mobilize and engage Indigenous youth and organizations led by and focused on Indigenous youth:
• Build and expand networks with Indigenous youth in Asia-Pacific for broader and more effective inclusion of Indigenous youth
• Consolidate mapping of Indigenous youth networks operating in Asia-Pacific
• Expand and strengthen partnerships with regional and strategic national civil society organizations focused on and/or led by Indigenous youth
• Build a community of young Indigenous leaders and Indigenous youth organizations
• Establish and strengthen partnerships with UN agencies and relevant stakeholders working on Indigenous issues, including government agencies, civil society organizations, youth networks, and regional organizations
3) Support the Leave No One Behind team to advance the Indigenous agenda:
• Coordinate a community of practice for colleagues working on Indigenous Issues across UNDP in Asia-Pacific, as well as regional exchanges between relevant stakeholders and UNDP country teams for sharing best practice and lessons learned;
• Support in coordination of other Leave No One Behind activities, including programme design, implementation, and evaluation
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute with articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.