Technical Officer – Environmental – Retainer

Duty station: Home based

Functional responsibilities

The position of Technical Analyst – Environmental [Biodiversity & Capacity Building] – Nature for Development supports the GBF EAS Project. It supports developing, middle income, and small island nations in their commitments to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including early action on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and National Reporting. Working in collaboration with UN Environment (UNEP), the CBD Secretariat, and the GEF Secretariat, this project provides technical and financial support to GEF-eligible Parties to CBD. Depending on the policy cycle, the type of technical support and the amount of financial support delivered to Parties may vary.

CBD Parties are currently being mobilized to take early action on the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
by focusing on four components: national biodiversity planning and alignment, policy frameworks, monitoring and reporting frameworks, and biodiversity finance. These components, among others that may emerge, are aimed at ensuring that CBD Parties have the technical and 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 and technical support is provided through two pathways: first, grants made to Parties to undertake national actions, and second, a global coordination grant that will make it possible to provide technical services to ensure national actions are effective, efficient, inclusive, and of the highest technical standards. The project’s Technical Support Unit (TSU) is being administered in coordination with SCBD and UNEP across 140. The project is additionally responsible for administrating national work for the 69 countries that receive GEF funding, which are primarily located in Latin America and Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Responsibilities include supporting the Senior Project Manager and team to:

Project coordination and implementation

• Support the dissemination of technical guidance and documents produced jointly with partners
• Support the reporting process on both project’s pathways, including for the preparation of the PIR, Terminal Evaluations, project board meetings, and other requested documents.
• Track the project’s implementation and update daily tracking tools
• Collect data from the different project’s surveys, highlighting gaps and difficulties encountered by the countries, and suggest solution accordingly.
• Support communication with key project partners, such as the CBD Secretariat, UNEP, UNEP-WCMC, and non-state actors.
• Assist in tracking of national progress to achieve project components
• Take notes during key meetings, and disseminate them afterward to key partners
• Liaise, on a daily basis, with participating countries to provide technical support, with a priority given to French and English speaking countries

Technical services

• Assist the development of technical guidance documents, tools, and training biodiversity and policy.
• Assist the development of reports and policy recommendations related to the targets in the emerging post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
• Support literature reviews, knowledge management, compilation of information, and gathering of data on topics pertinent to the project.

Capacity building

• Support the development of South-South cooperation and peer-exchange, with a focus on the facilitation of regional working groups
• Assist the development of additional capacity building material, such as online courses and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), supporting the identification of relevant topics, dates and speakers for webinars and online courses.
• Assist, with the support of the project manager, on the EAS Capacity Building Webinar Series, including identifying the topics, liaising with technical partners, managing the Zoom platform and associated logistics, and developing communication pieces.
• Assist the administration of virtual technical programs, including a calendar of activity, which will include webinars, release of technical guidance, peer-exchange, massive open online courses, and self-paced online courses, among other opportunities.

NBSAP Forum moderation

• Monitor NBSAP Forum discussions, acting as the main facilitator, including engaging with users and responding to comments and questions
• Assist with review resources and e-learning opportunities from NBSAP Forum users and partners
• Assist the update of features with the Learning for Nature team
• Assist in incorporation of EAS tools for Parties to CBD to meet the project outcomes around NBSAP target alignment, monitoring, policy mainstreaming, and biodiversity finance.
• Ensure the most recent and updated resources under the GEF EAS Project are readily available to users on the NBSAP Forum.
• Serves as the convening liaison for the NBSAP Forum Steering Committee: convene meetings, participate in strategic discussions
• Support the development of communication and outreach strategies to promote the NBSAP Forum as a tool
• Support, upon request, with the development of communications materials synthesizing lesson learned, best practices and project results under the Nature for Development team

Events

• Support the identification of relevant international events where the EAS project should be represented.
• Support, upon request, with in-person help desk during international conferences.
• Support the identification of key events to promote countries’ best practices and lessons learned, emphasizing the “country-led” aspect of the project.
• Support the development of a calendar summarizing all events at SBSTTA 26 (May 2024) and COP 16 (October 2024)
• Draft communication pieces for relevant events and liaise with partners to obtain approval.

Communication

• Assist in preparation of content for NBSAP Forum, including events, publications, job offers and learning opportunities and share all recording of webinars and training sessions organized by UNDP and CBD on the NBSAP Forum
• Assist the drafting of press releases, talking points, PowerPoint presentation, social media communications, blogs and video messages related to the capacity building materials, text and photos, photo essays for NBSAP Forum website.
• Support the translation of communication materials.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

The assignment is supervised by the Manager of the Global Programme on Nature for Development.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

*FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

*CANDIDATES WITH NO UNITED NATIONS OR UNOPS EXPERIENCE ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

Education

• First-level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) preferably in anthropology, sociology, management of development, environmental management/sciences, conservation biology/ecology geography, natural resource management, or another related field is required.
• Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) will be considered a strong asset.

Required Experience:

• A minimum of two (2) years’ work or academic experience is required, preferably any of the following topics at a conceptual or practical level: international environmental policy, natural resource management, biodiversity/climate change, human/civil/indigenous/women’s rights, social entrepreneurship/impact investing, local economic development, and/or civil society engagement and education.

Desirable experience(the following experienceis optionalcandidates who do not have it are welcome to apply):

• Experience (academic or work) conducting virtual capacity-building activities, facilitation, workshop and/or stakeholder engagement is desired.
• Experience (academic or work) in information management, such as through knowledge management platforms, literature reviews, social media, and internal/external communications is an advantage.

Language:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required.
• Fluency in a second official UN language is desired.