Posting Title: GEO Cities Expert

Department/Office: United Nations Environment Programme

Duty Station: PANAMA CITY

Posting Period: 17 March 2021 - 25 March 2021

Job Opening Number: 21-United Nations Environment Programme-150556-Consultant

United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity

Result of Service

Objective.

The consultant will support UNEP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean to follow up and deliver on requests from countries for technical assistance and training for the designing, preparation and outreach of State of the Environment Reports and/or Integrated Environmental Reports (hereinafter defined as GEOs) both at national and local level.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Programme Officer of the Sub-programme Environment Under Review of UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office, the consultant will be in charge for providing technical assistance to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for the preparation of national or local (cities) GEOs.

The provision of technical assistance will be based on training material (organized in modules), whose design, contents and development are key deliverables of this consultancy. The methodology used to develop the training material shall be based on the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts and Responses) causal framework, as well as relevant technical literature (e.g. the GEO-6 and its spin off publication GEO-6 for Cities) and should include links and synergies with key global and regional Agendas and related metrics such as the 2030 Agenda and related Sustainable Development Goals, and the ILAC initiative of the Forum of Ministers of Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Specific Tasks: The consultant will be responsible for carrying out the following activities: Design and development of training material for GEOs production

1. Participate in meetings chaired by UNEP ROLAC and Headquarters and/or other organizations as requested to receive technical guidance for the development of the GEO training and for the identification of the contents and structure of the modules and the methodology to be included in the training material;

Provision of technical assistance to countries/organizations for the production of GEOs

2. Upon request of his/her supervisor and in close coordination with the institution leading the production of the GEO in the country (hereinafter the client), and by means of training material developed at point 1 above, support the client (as described in section 3 "outputs/work assignments) in the initial phase of the designing process for the production of the GEO;

3. Advise the client, in the frame of the workshops (as described in section 3 "outputs/work assignments), on how to ensure that effective mechanisms are in place to guarantee the scientific credibility of the GEO process, to grant participation to all relevant stakeholders making sure that policy recommendations are part of the final document.

4. Advise the client, in the frame of the workshops (as described in section 3 "outputs/work assignments), about the general guidelines to develop an impact strategy for the GEO, by identifying key actors to be involved in its dissemination, along with targeted audience, key events where main messages from GEO should be presented and disseminated.

Work Location

Home-based

Expected duration

4 months

Duties and

Responsibilities

Introduction.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.

The UNEP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC), located in Panama City, works closely with the 33 countries of the region, sister UN agencies and scientific organizations to keep the environment of Latin America and the Caribbean under review.

Since 1995, UNEP has been conducting an ambitious integrated environmental assessment project known as GEO (Global Environment Outlook). GEO reports have an established methodology to detect trends in the state of the environment and to monitor progress towards the achievement of environmental policy targets. The GEO methodology employs a matrix of the Driver Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) indicators to answer these questions as an analytical instrument that permits factors that act on the environment to be organized and grouped in a logical manner. It shows how urbanization affects the environment because of factors that put pressure on local natural resources and ecosystems, as well as action taken by local society and government to confront the problems caused by human activities.

In parallel with the production of GEOs at global, regional, national and city level, UNEP has been promoting the use and implementation of indicator frameworks to strengthen the national and regional environmental information systems and networks, enhance the capacity of countries to keep the environment under review, and promote a more effective and widespread use of environmental data and information in policy and decision making.

UNEP seeks a talented and motivated consultant to support the GEO process at the national and local level in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. The incumbent will work from home. The consultant will be supervised by the Programme Officer of the Sub-programme Environment Under Review of UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office.

Qualifications/special skills

Academic Qualifications: Master's degree in Environmental Sciences, Statistics, Mathematics, Physical Geography or related fields. In lieu of Master's degree, First-level university degree (Bachelor´s degree) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience.

Experience: A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in Environmental Science, Environmental Analysis for Sustainable Development, Environmental Data and Statistics.

Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches relevant to Integrated Environmental Assessments and GEOs;

Knowledge of Indicators frameworks to monitor the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals, Multilateral Environmental Agreements and other relevant international treaties and conventions, is desirable.

Language: Fluency in English and Spanish is required for this consultancy.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS' BANK ACCOUNTS.

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This vacancy is archived.

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