Social and Environmental Standards Technical Adviser Specialist

Background

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, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the 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 the Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) is responsible for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan. BPPS's staff provides technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government, and civil society dialogues, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that risk management is fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge- and data-driven in its programme support efforts.

UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards (SES) (www.undp.org/ses) underpin the sustainable development results that UNDP supports. While UNDP’s SES provides a robust safeguards framework for the organization, sustained investment in Country Office capacities for integrating SES into the project and programme design and implementation is critical. UNDP has put a global SES Implementation Plan supported by regional and country office plans managed by the Regional Bureau.

The SES are an integral component of UNDP’s quality assurance and risk management approach to programming. To this end, UNDP has a global SES Team that is hosted by the BPPS and involves global and regional SES technical advisors matrixed to the Regional Bureaux or relevant GPN Teams. The SES Team provides advisory and oversight services to UNDP programming, aiming to fuel integration of SES into project design and guiding social and environmental risk assessment and management in compliance with the SES policy.

The UNDP Rome Centre for Climate and Energy (hereafter the Rome Centre) acts as the principal, integrated global platform for the strategic partnership between the Government of Italy (through the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security – IMEES or Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica - MASE in Italian) and UNDP for delivering on two critical policy areas: Youth Climate, and Climate Finance. One of the core tasks of the canter is to identify, finance, and implement country-level actions to reduce the energy access gap and boost the energy transition while supporting projects in developing economies to decarbonize and enhance climate resilience. This includes oversight of the design and implementation phase of projects (together with Country Offices and Regional Bureaus), as well as portfolio-level oversight and management.

The climate finance initiatives currently are PISTA (Platform for Investment Support and Technical Assistance) and Energy for Growth in Africa (E4G). Amongst other things, these initiatives engage in:

Project Origination, using several modalities (such as calls for proposals, innovation challenges, through national focal points doing on-the-ground consultations, etc). 
Project Selection, to identify the projects that will be admitted to the pipeline of PISTA and E4G. Such projects may receive technical assistance in kind and/or in the form of grant resources to (a) further develop the project to achieve bankability and readiness for investment, and (b) be connected to financiers to mobilize the requisite financing. 
Provision of Technical Assistance to enhance the technical, financial and operational viability of projects and their ability to attract financing.
Financial facilitation, for projects to mobilize resources by enabling connections to financiers. The financier may, as part of their funding approval mechanism, request UNDP’s support in addressing issues pertaining to social and environmental risks and safeguards.

Scope of Work

The SES Technical Specialist for Climate and Energy (hereafter SES Specialist) will support in designing and implementing the application of Social and Environmental Standards in the Rome Centre portfolio. The SES Specialist will also develop guidance notes and other material for internal capacity building, and to further integrate SES in UNDP’s energy and climate programming at large. The position will be a part of the Rome Centre and the UNDP SES Team, working closely with Climate Hub, Regional Bureaux, Country Offices, and the project teams/consultants.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

Provision of advisory support on SES policy & accountability framework in the Rome Centre initiatives:
•     Lead and ensure that the UNDP Social and Environmental Standards are integrated into broader operational frameworks of the Rome Centre, including programming, procurement, monitoring and reporting mechanisms. (SES System Integration:)
•     Regularly monitor and review major projects to ensure SES compliance. (SES Compliance Checks)
•     Lead and ensure SES risks and issues are escalated where needed to senior management of the Rome Centre and the SES Global Team (Risk Escalation)

Provision of SES advisory and implementation support to Rome Centre initiatives:

•     Evaluate, screen and categorize the projects on the basis of (a) potential social and environmental risks, and (b) existing and proposed social and environmental risk management and mitigation measures.  (SES role supporting Project Origination) 
•     Provide necessary guidance and quality assurance support to the applicant / project owner on the completion of the relevant documentation (such as the UNDP Pre-Social and Environmental Screening Procedure, or ‘Pre-SESP’) to identify and record the key social and environmental risks and mitigants associated with the overall project and associated with the activities supported by UNDP.  (SES role supporting Project Selection)
•     Provide ad-hoc advisory support to the project on activities pertaining to SES, including Reviewing TORs to conduct an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) or Strategic Environmental and Social Assessments (SESA). (SES role supporting the provision of Technical Assistance)  
•     Providing ad hoc advice to project developers on how to effectively identify and manage results-based risks
•     Providing ad-hoc advice to project developers on Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMF), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMP), and issue-specific plans and framework. 
•     Providing ad-hoc advice on effective disclosure and consultation processes with potentially affected stakeholders.

•     In case the financiers, as part of their funding approval mechanism, request UNDP’s support in addressing issues pertaining to social and environmental risks and safeguards, the SES Specialist will support the initiatives, on an ad hoc basis, to review and address the relevant issues (SES role supporting financial facilitation)
•      Provide first-level oversight with respect to the necessary environmental and social assessments, and activities rests with the applicant / project owner and the relevant UNDP country office, regional bureau or global team. The SES Specialist will be asked to provide advisory and second-level oversight support to the projects, liaising with the country-level and regional SES teams as necessary. Tertiary oversight will be provided by the SES Global team as needed. ( Ensure Oversight)

•     Provide guidance to applicants / project owners to ensure appropriate grievance mechanisms are communicated and available. SES Specialist to provide SES advisory support to the Rome Centre initiatives where complaints or incidents have occurred, including any cases being reviewed or investigated by the OAI Social and Environmental Compliance Unit. (Guide on Grievance Mechanisms and Cases)

Facilitate SES capacities & learning

•     Follow global trends in social and environmental standards and pilot-test new approaches and tools. (Research and Experimentation)
•     Provide strategic support to SES capacity-building and institutionalization. Prepare necessary guidance notes (e.g. sector-specific ones in the energy space) and other support materials towards capacity development, which can be useful for relevant country offices and global teams alike. (Internal Capacity Development)
•      Document SES stories and cases and facilitate strengthened knowledge exchange on SES across UNDP and with partners. (Generate Knowledge and Facilitate Exchange)
•      Identify high-caliber SES consultants, at global and regional levels and across a range of SES topics, for deployment to support SES implementation in the Rome Centre initiatives. ( SES Roster)

Ensure SES coordination & outreach in the UNDP Rome Centre initiatives

•     Support the integrated application of UNDP SES in the Rome Center’s joint programming initiatives with other development partners, including supporting the negotiation of SES aspects of partnership agreements. (Integrated frameworks)
•     Engage in advocacy efforts to raise awareness about the SES application in the UNDP Rome Centre initiatives among the UNDP partners and other relevant stakeholders. (SES Awareness Raising)
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The SES Specialist will work under the day-to-day management of the team leads of PISTA and of Energy for Growth, with substantive SES-related reporting to the Leader of the UNDP SES Team.

The SES Specialist will work from home and will be responsible for providing her/his own workstation (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection. UNDP will provide access to all information and project documentation necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment. Given that interaction with colleagues in different time zones may be necessary, the SES Specialist is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability.

The contract may be extended to provide continued support aligned with the above functions depending on performance, the demand for oversight and advisory support, and the availability of additional resources. 
 

Core Competencies:

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Experience:

Required skills     
•     Experience with SES implementation and/or oversight and/or quality assurance in the context of climate and energy projects in a developing economy context, with strong social interface is required.
•     Specialised experience on Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMF), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMP), Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) or Strategic Environmental and Social Assessments (SESA) is required.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
•     Demonstrated experience working on issues related to oversight and quality assurance of safeguards.
•     Familiarity with UNDP (or other development partners) social and environmental standards and safeguards frameworks and policies.
•     Experience with engaging with financial institutions in building social and environmental frameworks and in addressing issues pertaining to E&S risks and safeguards 
•     Experience with building and managing grievance mechanisms in case complaints or incidents.
•     Experience in SES capacity-building and institutionalization.
•     Experience in supporting advocacy efforts to raise awareness about the SES application
 

Required Language(s)     

•     Fluency in written and spoken English and French is required.

•     Knowledge of Portuguese language is desirable.

Education:

•    Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Development Studies, Social or Environmental/Natural Sciences, Integrated Natural Resource Management, International Environmental Law or related field is required. Or

•    A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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