Regional Technical Specialist for Climate change Adaptation [Open for Tier 0,1&2 applicants]

UNDP•Panama City, FL

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Regional Technical Specialist for Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) works under the secondary supervision of the PTA on Climate Change Adaptation. The RTA will be part of the LAC Environment and Energy Team located in UNDP’s Regional Hub in Panama City, Panama supporting country offices in the Latin America and Caribbean region and is expected to travel frequently. UNDP staff may be periodically redeployed, in accordance with capability, consent, and due process, to a different duty station as needed. The Regional Technical Specialist for Climate Change Adaptation is primarily responsible for providing high quality technical policy, programming, implementation support and oversight, and knowledge and capacity development services, to UNDP country offices in the region through national and regional strategies. Secondary clients might include other UN agencies, governments and inter-governmental organizations, NGO’s, donors, and the like. UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Requirements

Advanced University Degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Environment, Environment Economics, Natural Resource Management, Climate Change, International Development, Economics, Public Policy, Public Administration, or other related field is required. Or A first‑level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in one of the above fields in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying relevant experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Minimum of 5 years (with Master’s degree) or 7 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience on climate change, climate change adaptation, climate resilience climate finance, and/or sustainable development is required.
At least 3 years of experience linked to project development is required;
Proven experience in resource mobilization including but not limited to vertical and/or bilateral funds is required
Fluency in English and Spanish are required;

Nice To Haves

Experience in supporting policy development processes preferably in the Latin American region and/or Latin American countries is desired;
Experience working with governments in the Latin American region is desired
Experience working with the private sector and/or finance is an asset
Knowledge and or experience in support of Climate Change International Frameworks (UNFCCC, Paris Agreement, NAPS, NDCs, BTRs, GGA, etc) is a strong asset
Working experience in an international organization is an advantage as is knowledge of UNDP policies, procedures and practices is desired.
Working knowledge of French and/or Portuguese is an asset.

Responsibilities

Establish and maintain a strategic understanding of, and engagement with, the substantive technical issues, institutions, and processes within the region, including establishing contact with and developing strategic partnerships with other agencies, donors, NGO’s, the private sector, scientific institutions and the like;
Participate in the development of new strategic programming opportunities and partnerships in the area of climate change adaptation, climate resilient development as well as in new emerging topics such as adaptation finance and loss and damage;
Contribute in the shaping and development of regional and global retreats, regional strategic planning, pipeline management exercises, etc.;
Providing strategic guidance by identifying opportunities and participating in cross-substantive area technical dialogue, common strategic visioning, mainstreaming, programming, and other collaboration within the regional and global team around emerging topics such as nature based solution, loss and damage and finance;
Provide technical leadership in keeping the Regional Team informed of trends and issues with respect to the substantive technical area as well as identifying opportunities for cross team convergence and partnerships in alignment with trends and issues.
Identify opportunities to lead and contribute in knowledge management based on lessons learned on adaptation in the region that may guide global programming and thought leadership.
Represent UNDP in regional and global events as may be required.
Supporting the development of strategic policy and guidance for strengthening UNDP Country Offices with climate change adaptation project design and implementation including alignment with national priorities;
Assisting the development of and advocacy for specific policy analysis and development tools and guidance in support of programming and finance for climate change adaptation;
Supporting the establishment of a trusted leadership role for UNDP within the region;
Sourcing of technical expertise and support including assisting with the preparation of TORs, identification and evaluation of experts and reviewing reports;
Contributing to regional and global retreats, focal area retreats, regional strategic planning, pipeline management exercises, etc.;
Promoting gender equity/empowerment in programming opportunities;
Helping to ensure that strategies and projects are aligned to country outcomes and UNDP corporate environment results in internal UNDP project tracking systems (e.g. ERBM);
Maintaining quality/accuracy in data and project management (UNDP EF systems like PIMS), management of Quantum Risks logs, and portfolio delivery rates;
Monitoring to ensure expected quality standards are maintained in project implementation reviews;
Shape the regional adaptation portfolio taking into account regional and national priorities as well as potential opportunities to access diverse sources of finance to help countries and the region implement portfolio approaches throughout their climate programming.
Ensure that results from the regional adaptation programming are reflected within regional strategies and reports, including ROARs.
Develop and advocate for specific policy analysis and development tools and guidance in support of programming and finance for climate change adaptation, including from both public and private sources;
Assist in the maintenance of programme/project and portfolio information and corporate information systems.
Support programme and project identification and development, including on integrated approaches and multifocal area projects;
Liaise with the relevant experts in Government, NGOs, CSOs, Private Sector, Development Partners to obtain critical input, including expert advice, information from relevant documents that can feed into the preparation of a feasibility assessment, concept design and proposal development;
Organize, lead, participate and collate information based on a series of consultations with stakeholders;
Synthesize key information from existing documents of relevance, given the scope of the intended project, that can then be used as input to the development of a feasibility assessment, concept design and proposal development;
Provide timely and quality information and technical advice on sources of funds, policies, priorities and activities – including the Global Environment Facility funds, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund and other multilateral donors, bilateral donors and foundations;
Identify and suggest to the PTA priorities and entry-points for UNDP assistance including but not limited to entry points with private and financial sector;
Support UNDP staff (at Regional and national level) to conduct and capture discussions from community level consultations to both inform and validate the design of the project;
Facilitate the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of programme/project concepts and full-fledged proposals for financing for both grants and non grant instruments;
Support the project formulation technical expert to conduct technical analysis to flesh out project components and all technical sections, and project log frame with well-defined indicators, targets, inputs and outputs and long term financial sustainability strategies;
Support the project formulation technical expert with acquiring sufficient data and facilitating necessary consultations with relevant government agencies, stakeholders, and experts to produce a draft feasibility report for the project concept based on the consultations, research and analysis conducted;
Support the project formulation technical expert on outlining of financial structure of the project (with input from UNDP staff) and all main cost categories at the input level corresponding to all outcomes and outputs;
Facilitate liaisons with potential financing agencies and institutions including private sector and financial institutions.
Assisting the provision of timely quality information and technical advice on source of funds policies, priorities and activities;
Supporting the coordination of design, preparation, submission and approval of project proposals and requests for project development financing;
Support the liaison with potential (co)financing agencies and institutions, including national and regional financial institutions.
Identify key partnerships and opportunities in support of resource mobilization, including private sector and bilateral donors and global programming opportunities particularly around emerging topics such as adaptation finance, loss and damage and climate security.
Assisting with inception, contracting and startup of projects including establishment of indicators, benchmarks, work plans and financial and institutional sustainability strategies;
Supporting UNDP country offices in the supervision, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, troubleshooting and adaptive management of approved projects, including preparing and reviewing annual reports and work plans;
Developing guidance and tools for country offices to utilize in operationalizing projects inception, contracting and startup of projects including establishment of indicators, benchmarks and work plans including entry points for financial innovation;
Functioning as surge capacity to COs, supporting Environment Focal Points with urgent, pressing, complex and /or specific tasks in the context of climate change adaptation.
Support COs in communicating the impact of adaptation and resilience programming to donors, internal UNDP leadership as well as to a general audience.
Support the RTL to guide a narrative inclusive of the role of adaptation within the region that can be communicated to multiple audiences, including donors, financial institutions and outside partners as well as senior UNDP leadership
Participate in global integrated tasks teams, including on areas around the climate and nature nexus, climate information and early warning systems, climate security, finance amongst others.
Support in the mainstreaming of adaption in regional and national policies, including through documents such as NDCs and NBSAPs as well as providing technical support in the delivery of nature and climate targets as they may relate to resilience building.
Support in advancing the role of adaptation finance as a means for sustainable development by working with partners such as private sector, incubators, and think tanks linked to financial innovation and the mobilization of domestic and international sources of finance for adaptation.
Evaluating, capturing, codifying, synthesizing lessons and stimulating the uptake of best practices and knowledge, including the development of resource kits and other knowledge materials;
Peer reviewing, commenting on, and seeking to improve, the technical quality of projects, policies, practices, guidelines, advisory notes, publications and the like;
Assisting with preparation of regional Community of Practice meetings;
Preparing and delivering training courses, as needed;
Developing knowledge products of relevance to UNDP support to countries on low emission climate resilient development in the area of climate change adaptation;
Developing and carrying out a personal learning plan
Oversees the Regional Programme Associate (s)