Policy Specialist, Sustainable Energy for Development

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels offers a spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in its Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in UNDP’s Strategic Plan. 

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS staff provide technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represent UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private, government and civil society dialogues, and engage in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. 

UNDP’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlighting our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP’s Nature, Climate Change, Energy, and Waste (NCE&W) Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.

BPPS’ Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, with the support of  the Vertical Fund Programme Support, Oversight and Compliance unit, work with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate nature, climate, energy and waste related concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies, support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and oversee the implementation of the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste. 

This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses: 

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests.
• Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems.
• Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS.
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.
• Sustainable Energy.
• Extractive Industries.
• Chemicals and Waste Management.
• Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy; and SCP approaches.

This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.

UNDP’s Strategic Plan has embedded our collective UN-Energy ambitious target to contributing to delivering energy access to 500 million more people by 2025 in partnership with others and accelerate a just energy transition with a new type of development policy in mind. UNDP supports countries to realize a just energy transition where the benefits of the transition are distributed evenly across people and society, and the potential negative impacts of the transition are minimized for the poorest and most vulnerable communities. UNDP’s focus is to make the transition more just by assessing the distributional social-economic impacts of energy transition (and access) policies, how to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities and minimize the impact on poor and vulnerable sections of the population that are disproportionately affected.

UNDP through its Sustainable Energy Hub (SEH) is designed to respond to these challenges and to harness networks, experience, and innovation. UNDP will focus on three pillars to guide its “Sustainable Energy for Development” pathway: 

1. Close the gap on energy access so that marginalized people and communities gain access to sustainable, clean, energy and the dignity and opportunities it brings.
2. Accelerate the energy transition through system-changes that support a green recovery and improves the efficiency by bringing together the best ideas from the worlds of government, business, finance, digital, and most importantly from people, communities, and civil societies.
3. Increase energy resilience in crisis and fragile contexts to communities affected by conflict and crises to help them meet basic needs in the short-term and build back better in the long-term.

The Sustainable Energy Hub is a platform to bring together and catalyze UNDP’s work on energy for development. The Hub is a network of partners that work alongside countries to transform energy systems through an integrated agenda focused on the policy, technology and financial shifts that shape sustainable economic development. It helps countries build a net-zero society that puts people first and is driven by a just, sustainable energy transition that leaves no one behind.

In this context, the Sustainable Energy Hub is looking for the qualified candidate for the position of Policy Specialist, Sustainable Energy for Development, to provide relevant expertise to the Sustainable Energy Hub in the thematic area of sustainable energy within the Bureau and UNDP as a whole.

Position Purpose

The Policy Specialist, Sustainable Energy for Development, based in New York is responsible for contributing substantive advice and technical expertise, advocacy, relationship building and knowledge to the thematic area of sustainable energy in line with energy transition strategies within the Bureau and UNDP as a whole. 

The incumbent responds to requests from the field as well as from other parts of HQ under the guidance of the Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub (SHE), and in collaboration with corporate support providers, such as the SDG Integration and Engagement teams, the newly established Climate, Nature and Chemical and Waste hubs, governance, Inclusive Growth, Health and Gender.

Working to ensure quality and coherent policy advisory services, as well as alignment with the Strategic Plan, the Policy Specialist, Sustainable Energy for Development advances the credibility and recognition of UNDP’s capabilities in this knowledge domain and associated community of practice. 

S/he is responsible for performing and contributing to the following: 

• Policy Coherence, Research and Development
• Policy Advice/ Programme and Project Delivery Support
• Policy Positioning and Representation
• Partnerships and Resource Mobilization
• Knowledge Management

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Policy Coherence, Research and Development: 

• Further develops and defines strategic approaches for UNDP’s work on sustainable energy, drawing on UNDP’s existing work under the Sustainable Energy Hub (SEH) as well as an analysis of the global/regional policy context.
• Develops and advances key policy initiatives. This includes the development of complex policy positions at the interface between scientific knowledge and social, political, and economic feasibility and based on UNDP’s integrated agenda and strategic goals. Takes an integrated approach on sustainable energy underpinning economic development in a wide range of sectors including energy-intensive, transportation, agriculture, and health. Wide ranging consultation with key players and the development of strategic partnerships around these positions and initiatives to further the implementation of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and the ambitious goal of bringing energy access to 500 Mln more people by 2025.
• Provides the technical/substantive input on energy transition and systems change into UNDP’s strategic plan through collaboration and coordination within the wider BPPS and GPN to ensure alignment with the broader UN system on energy.
• Executes policy and strategy to support key results, outcomes, and outputs of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025.
• Supports UNDP’s work to assist countries, regional bureaus, and regional hubs in designing energy policies to foster low carbon growth in the context of their sustainable development efforts.
• Coordinates closely with the Sustainable Finance Hub on any relevant initiatives at the interface of energy and finance.
• Collaborates substantively with COs and Regional Programmes to achieve regional/CO strategic goals and plans by supporting relevant regional initiatives and promoting synergies with the regional programmes including the climate promise with an integrated portfolio approach.
• Develops guidance in the specific thematic area, and related tools for the implementation of global policy standards, including testing and roll out of tools and methodologies.
• Develops policy initiatives for different contexts on key emerging energy policy agendas, in collaboration with policy teams in the Regional Hubs bringing in perspectives and knowledge from Country Offices and the regions.
• Coordinates and conducts analysis of data, case evidence and research findings to distill relevant lessons from projects and programmes to inform policy formulation and guidance.
• Develops relevant analysis on issues related to energy in close collaboration with BPPS strategic positioning team, on emerging issues of global significance and contribute to new research, including through working with the Global Policy Centers.
• Guides the policy teams in the Regional Hubs in applying policy and tools to crisis context to make them relevant for specific situations.

Policy Advice/Programme and Project Delivery Support:

• Provides strategic policy advice, and support on all energy matters to the Director of Sustainable Energy Hub, UNDP central and regional bureaus, and the technical energy teams who will onward disseminate to country offices and country partners.
• Provides substantive contributions to guidance and input on energy in UNDP’s other Thematic Hubs and initiatives like the Climate Promise and UNDP’s Finance Hub.
• Applies integrated multi-disciplinary approaches, including through setting up, coordinating, and engaging with BPPS technical teams, to meet policy and programming needs in line with corporate guidance and standards.

Policy Positioning and Representation:

• Provides substantive and content input to contribute to mobilizing, fostering, and strengthening strategic partnerships with UN entities and other relevant bodies and provides inputs to those partnerships in support of UNDP initiatives in areas of sustainable energy.
• Advocate the application of ground-breaking sustainable energy approaches, especially as an integrated approach to achieving the SDGs, in various regional and country fora, including academia and civil society, with a view to deepen related political commitment and related reforms.
• Represent UNDP on partner engagements and interagency coordination in sustainable energy policy areas.
• Supports UNDP’s engagement in UN interagency coordination, including UN-Energy, in relevant policy areas by drafting briefing, preparing for, and participating in meetings.

Partnerships and Resource Mobilization:

• In collaboration with BERA, supports the engagement with global partners and develop/implement resource mobilization plan under corporate guidelines, including to fulfill corporate and donor reporting, advocacy, and information-sharing requirements in relation to sustainable energy.
• Provide technical advice on relationship management of regional and global partners and resource mobilization in line with UNDP SEH priorities.
• Provides substantive inputs related to global external partnerships in the area of work.
• Develops implementation plan to foster strategic partnerships with UN and external partner institutions, Governments, private sector, academia, NGOs, and CSOs.

Knowledge Management:

• Provides substantive inputs for SEH and HQ policy briefs/position papers, technical notes prepared in collaboration with other practices that address links between energy and development concerns.
• Coordinates team contributions and support to corporate KM activities; coordinates and performs knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned in the specific thematic area, and verify that knowledge sharing, and content management is in line with guidelines and performed using corporate tools.
• Contributes, and coordinates as requested, substantive inputs for energy outputs (e.g. work-plans, project documents, inception missions, workshops, technical working papers, methodologies).
• Provides the relevant conceptual inputs related to the goals and activities of the Sustainable Energy Hub insofar as they relate to accelerating delivery of the wider 2030 Agenda, including the Paris Agreement, based on the UNDP Community of Practice and Knowledge Management efforts as outlined in the Strategic Plan

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Competencies

Core:
Achieve Results:

• Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively:

• Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Learn Continuously:

• Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

Adapt with Agility: 

• Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

Act with Determination:               

• Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

Engage and Partner:

• Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

• Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional & Technical: 
Nature, Climate, Energy: Energy               

• Energy Efficiency Concepts, Renewable Energy, Access to Energy, Technologies, and Practical Applications.

Nature, Climate, Energy: Energy                

• Market-based energy financing and practical application.

Business Development: Knowledge Generation                

• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant to context, or responsive to a stated need.

Business Direction and Strategy: System Thinking              

• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Management: Portfolio Management   

• Ability to select, prioritise and control the organizations programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimising return on investment.

Business Development: Integration within the UN           

• Ability to identity, and integrate capacity and assets of the UN system, and engage in joint work; knowledge of the UN System and ability to apply this knowledge to strategic and/or practical situations.

Business Management: Communication               

• Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and other appropriate channels.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Environment, Energy, Economics, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or related disciplines is required. OR
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s or equivalent) in the above-mentioned fields of study, in combination of two additional years of relevant work experience in lieu of the advanced university degree.

 Experience:

• Minimum of Seven (7) years (with master’s degree) or Nine (9) years (with bachelor’s degree) of professional work experience providing policy advice and programme support in the general area of sustainable energy and/or sustainable development in different development contexts is required.
• At least two (2) years of experience working in developing country settings is required.
• Demonstrated excellent negotiating skills and ability to mobilize support from a wide range of partners (public, private, academic, civil society, business community leaders) desired.
• Technical/advisory experience in the UN System related to sustainable energy for development desirable.
• Experience in partnership management is desired.
• Experience in resource mobilization is desired.

Language:

• Fluency in English, both written and oral.
• Working knowledge of another UN language is highly desirable.