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The Youth Environment Living Labs (YELL) was jointly ideated by UNDP and UNICEF in Malaysia to reimagine youth participation in climate and environmental action in the country in February 2020. The project received support from the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Environment and Water; whereby YELL’s concept is anchored on the Living Labs model that promotes sustainability through action learning. In July 2021, YELL was piloted after it received UNDP-UNICEF regional seed funding through the “Investing in 21st Century Skills, Engagement and Entrepreneurship for Young People across Asia Pacific” initiative. Through this seed-funding, YELL initiated its work focusing on building the YELL network and resource hub, developing local narratives for climate and environmental action, and organized a series of extensive stakeholder engagements that provided insights with regards to the development challenges and inputs of the current model of YELL.

In effort to attain the 2030 Agenda,  any transformation in the way communities live and work should be mindful of the attendant social impacts, including ensuring the delivery of equitable outcomes and sustainable livelihoods, especially for disadvantaged communities such as rural communities. YELL’s focus is on moving youth from awareness to action, empowering young people with the knowledge, skills, and networks to address sustainability issues. YELL prioritizes supporting youth that face barriers in taking their first steps and initiation into environmental action by providing them with structured entry points. This also includes a focus on youth from low-income backgrounds, or who are otherwise marginalized.

YELL has two objectives, to:

• Address the knowledge and resource gaps among local youth from diverse background, and motivate them to take action to tackle the environmental and climate threats affecting their community; and
• Strengthen the ecosystem of actors to support and hold the space for youth to engage as agents of change in environmental policy-and decision-making and in environmental actions.

UNDP and UNICEF seek to engage a qualified and experienced Project Manager who will be responsible for the overall YELL project management and managing donor/partner relationships. S/he is expected to communicate objectively, able to initiate strategic conversation and partnerships with senior levels of the partners’ organizations and able to provide leadership for its resource mobilization strategy in response to emerging opportunities and challenges related to YELL. The Project Manager will be reporting to both the Head of Inclusive Growth & Prosperity and UNICEF’s Climate & Environment Specialist, and work closely with the YELL Project Coordinator to strengthen the execution and coordination of YELL’s activities and contribute to the objectives of this project.

The Project Manager will be under joint supervision and will report to both the UNDP Head of Inclusive Growth & Prosperity and the UNICEF Climate & Environment Specialist. The person will also work closely with the YELL Coordinator, and YELL focal points for UNDP (Youth Engagement Analyst) & UNICEF (Climate & Environment Officer). The position will be based in Putrajaya and is expected to report to the respective supervisors once a week, or when the assignment necessitates more regular check-ins on progress updates of consultancy deliverables.

The main duties of the Project Manager are:

Project Management and Reporting

Overall lead for the Project Management Unit consisting of the YELL Coordinator, Youth    Environment Community Facilitators, Communications Officer and Interns (collectively referred to as YELL team members).

• Provide strategic guidance and overall management of the project output and activities;
• Work closely with the YELL team members to develop relevant strategic documents concerning programme planning and implementation, such as policy papers, concept notes, etc;
• Provide oversight and management of project consultants/experts hired on a short-term basis including the Terms of References, as subject matter technical advisor and ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget and specified constraints, and to high-quality standards;
• Work closely with UNDP and UNICEF’s focal points in periodic reporting, in line with UNDP, UNICEF, and donors’ reporting requirements and timelines. These include:
• Preparation and submission of Annual Work Plan, Quarterly Progress Reports, Mid-year Progress Report, Annual Project Report, Project Implementation Review, and Final Project Report to UNDP;
• Final Project Report to UNICEF and associated funders;
• Supervision of all project documentation and record keeping for procurement, Midterm Review, Terminal Evaluation, audit, project assurance activities, and knowledge management;
• Supervise the overall financial management and financial reporting of the project to attain the annual delivery target. These include:
• Manage the project budget and facilitate budget approvals and revision processes as per UNDP & UNICEF policies, rules and procedures, ensuring full compliance in accordance with set deadlines;
• Preparation of overall and annual project procurement plan, timely procurement of goods, services and/or infrastructure (as relevant), effective management of human, technical and financial resources, etc;
• Supervise the appropriate recording and accounting documentation as required by UNDP and UNICEF, and the preparation of required financial reports to partners/funders;
• Oversee compliance with the monitoring and evaluation plan of the project. This include:
• Review the results framework and update the indicators, baselines, and targets in line with clear strategies and effective system for data collection, means of verification, and information sharing and reporting.
• Monitor and manage project risks, and apply adaptive management including corrective and adaptive measures in project implementation.

Partnerships Management and Resource Mobilization

Functions as the focal point for YELL partnerships with existing partner/donors, and potential stakeholders, including to:

• Establish and maintain partnerships with stakeholders (government, private sectors, UN agencies) to support key objectives and ensure inclusive implementation and participation of key stakeholders within the project’s parameters, objectives and activities. Analyse and identify stakeholder needs and how best to leverage their participation and/or strengthen their engagement;
• Prepare and develop substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation and opportunities for joint initiatives and make recommendations on activities with potential for scale-up, replicability and synergies, in coordination with the UNDP and UNICEF Partnership focal point, and senior management team; and provide inputs for YELL’s partnership and resource mobilisation strategies and action plans that include securing new, diverse and additional resources for YELL’s needs.

Technical Review and Knowledge Exchange

Provide technical support and expertise in the development of outputs/knowledge products and design of project activities, including:

• Review the results framework and update the indicators, baselines, and targets of the assigned portfolio. Develop clear strategies and an effective system for monitoring and evaluation, data collection, means of verification, and information sharing and reporting, including ensure technical soundness and cost-effectiveness of project activities;
• Monitor implementation and progress in achieving goals and targets in accordance with the established quality criteria and UNDP (and donors’) rules, regulations, and standards. Identify, analyze, and take adequate measures to manage emerging issues, problems, and risk
• Provide insights into the drafting of policy-centric communications products, policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/ materials for use in the development and presentation of YELL impacts and results, including drafting corporate, donor and government reports in line with the reporting schedule and UNDP and donor requirements.
• Provide strategic advice, direction and direct technical input to the UNDP & UNICEF senior management on youth in climate and environmental strategy in Malaysia while keeping them informed of emerging issues;
• Extract lessons learned to support programme improvement and feed into UNDP and UNICEF climate and environmental solutions policies and programming knowledge globally (Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing); and
• Support an environment of learning for staff within the programme.

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

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination:  LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making.

People Management competencies

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Partnership management

• Multi-stakeholder engagement and funding: Knowledge and ability to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships, and remove any obstacles to resource mobilization and multi-stakeholder funding platforms
• Strategic engagement: Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives

Business Direction & 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 Development

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

Business Management

• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Risk Management: Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating  and proactively managing risks.
• Change Management: Ability to prepare, support and help individuals and teams in designing and implementing organizational change.