Environmental and Social Safeguards Analyst

Background Information - Job-specific

Organisational Context:

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organisations.

Diversity

With over 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

UNOPS in Nigeria

The UNOPS office in Nigeria has been supporting partners and the government of Nigeria to implement several development projects through its expertise to ensure sustainable project management. UNOPS Nigeria is in the process of expanding its area of engagement in cooperation with its development partners, focusing mainly on a portfolio of projects and programs in the infrastructure, environment, climate change, and governance sectors.

Background information about the Projects

NEWMAP

The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) aims to reduce vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-watersheds. The project has been operational in Nigeria since 2013 with funding from The World Bank that ended in June 2022.

The “Nigeria Climate Adaptation – Erosion & Watershed project” represents a scale-up phase of the World Bank-financed NEWMAP, under a loan from the European Development Bank (EIB). The project consists of financing sub-investments (schemes) of sites affected by land degradation in Nigeria, including both gully erosion and degradation of drylands. The project involves two components – 1) Infrastructure, and 2) Technical Assistance.

The scheme selection is based on a multi-criterion ranking system, coupled with assessments on the level of readiness of the schemes and the capacity of the implementing state/s. All 23 states wish to participate in the project and are intended recipients of assistance from the project.

The project is implemented by a Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU), located within the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME), in coordination with the State Project Implementation Units (SPIUs) that are established in each participating state.

RAAMP

The Nigeria Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP and RAAMP-2) is an initiative that has been financed by the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), along with some contribution from the Government of Nigeria (GoN).

The EIB’s “Nigeria Access to Agri-Markets Framework Loan” consists of a framework loan to finance sub-investments proposed under the existing RAAMP. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the infrastructure related to the agriculture sector by (i) improving and expanding the rural roads network connecting farms to markets, whilst (ii) enhancing infrastructure to transform products and support local farmers to increase productivity.

The project has so far been implementing schemes across thirteen Nigerian states. The EIB loan may possibly target the six states that have not received RAAMP funding to date viz, Anambra, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Niger, and Taraba, that will involve the rehabilitation and upgrading of rural roads and agro-logistics centers in these pre-selected participating States.

RAAMP is implemented by a Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU), located within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), in coordination with the SPIUs that are established in each participating state.

Under a Financing Agreement with the Government of Nigeria, UNOPS has been requested by EIB to provide implementation and oversight support to both the projects in the following areas:

Screening and verification of schemes - assist EIB in screening the longlist against the set multi criteria and advise on final approval of shortlists to be financed under EIB loan.

Procurement - assist EIB in ensuring alignment with EIB’s minimum requirements through prior and post reviews.

Environmental and social risk management of proposed schemes – ensure E&S safeguard compliance through clearance of ESMPs and monitoring their implementation.

Implementation Monitoring - oversight of the implementation of schemes and risk mitigating measures in coordination with the FPMU, SPIUs, the EIB, and relevant stakeholders through half-yearly monitoring missions, and Reporting on the implementation of schemes and the overall program performance.

Technical Assistance - provision of technical assistance to the FPMUs/ SPIUs on above areas of intervention, as necessary.

The Role

UNOPS is seeking to engage an Environmental & Social Safeguards Specialist as for the project period. The Specialist will work from the UNOPS Office in Abuja, and should be prepared to travel to any site in or around the Project in Nigeria. She/He will work closely with an Environmental Safeguards Adviser and a Social Safeguards Adviser, and will report to the Project Manager.

Functions/Key Results Expected

Monitoring and Progress Controls

Analytical and technical tasks

Capacity Building

Monitoring and Progress Controls

Assist with monitoring and supervision of compliance with E&S standards.

Participate in bi-annual field monitoring and supervision visits.

Receive reporting on implementation of ESMPs on a monthly basis from the Project team and coordinate the review with the UNOPS E&S Safeguards Advisers. Discuss challenges with PMUs and provide technical support where necessary.

Undertake field trips for monitoring and assistance purposes.

Analytical and technical tasks

Liaise with the Project team on all E&S matters.

Assist with the clearance and quality assurance process of E&S instruments to be prepared for site-specific activities.

Provide support to national and state level PIUs in the implementation of E&S risk mitigation measures, where required.

Provide support to national and state level PIUs in the development and implementation of corrective measures, where necessary.

Received Quarterly Project Progress Report from the Project Team and coordinate the review and clearance of E&S aspects with the UNOPS E&S Advisors.

Provision of technical assistance in E&S matters upon request.

Support that the application of appropriate E&S instruments and tools are applied by all implementers of a project.

Support the proposal of appropriate E&S mitigation measures are proposed and met.

Handle additional assignments as directed by the Project Manager.

Liaise on E&S safeguards related matters with other relevant government departments.

Capacity Building;

Support training and capacity building on E&S standards, especially for new staff in the UNOPS office and the project teams.

Impact of Results

All project activities are successfully supervised and monitored against the respective E&S frameworks, including understanding of the risks and impacts and implementation of mitigation measures.

Successful correction measures are undertaken by the Project teams and all partners where mitigation measures have failed.

High quality reporting against the E&S instruments, as defined in the project tools.

Improved staff capacity on E&S standards.

A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience in Environmental or Social safeguards is required.

Out of the 2 years relevant experience above;

At least 1 year must be in the implementation of environmental and/or social safeguards tools.

At least 1 year with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) or the European Investment Bank’s E&S Framework.

Experience working on rural infrastructure projects is an asset.

Proficiency in computers and office software packages (eg. Google Office Suite or Google Workspace) and experience in handling web-based management systems is a distinct advantage.

Excellent communication skills, (both verbal and written) is a distinct advantage.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.

Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Abuja, Nigeria is a family duty station.

Terms and Conditions

All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.