Team Leader for the Development of the Integrated Analysis at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights, capacity development and the empowerment of women.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Team Leader for the Development of the Integrated Analysis for a REDD+ Strategy in Nigeria with a Focus on Cross River State

Location: Abuja with travel to Cross Rivers State, Nigeria
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: International Consultant
Duration of Initial Contract: 45 working days staggered from October to December 2015
Expected Duration of Assignment: 45 working days staggered from October to December 2015

Background
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is an international effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests through offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ (“plus”) goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Nigeria's forests, which currently extend over 9.6 million hectares, have been rapidly declining over the past decades. The current deforestation rate, estimated at 3.7%, is one of the highest in the world. The Federal Government of Nigeria, reinforced by pioneering efforts from Cross River State, began to engage in REDD+ in 2009 and signed an agreement with the UN-REDD Programme in August 2012. In February 2015, Nigeria’s REDD+ Readiness Programme was extended through 2016, following two years of stakeholder engagement with little progress towards a REDD+ strategy. It envisions a two-track approach to achieve REDD+ readiness in Nigeria, based on: (i) the development of institutional and technical capacities at Federal level, and (ii) consolidating four key UNFCCC requirements for REDD Readiness on a pilot basis in Cross River State: the four Warsaw Framework elements of Strategy, Safeguards Information System, Forest Monitoring System, and Forest Reference Levels for carbon.

Nigeria’s REDD "readiness" programme entails the participatory development of a national REDD+ Strategy. As a pilot state, Cross River State will develop a REDD+ Strategy that will both inform the national strategy and serve as a model for other states. The Strategy will comprise policy reforms, investment priorities, and a related REDD+ implementation framework, with due monitoring and safeguard systems, as called for under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The REDD+ Strategy intends to enhance the value of standing forests and to incentivize sustainable forest management through a multi-stakeholder approach and a green development perspective.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is an international effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests through offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ (“plus”) goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The Team Leader will be the primary contact throughout the assessment, coordinate the overall analytic effort, and be responsible for editing and final compilation of the Issues and Options report.

The Team leader will carry out the following tasks:

• Review and assess technical reports from the national consultants, literature from relevant studies, synthesize the results from these works, identify gaps that need to be filled, and where required, propose recommendations in key areas of improvements to ensure that key elements are captured for the eventual development of the Issues and Options report (I & O report) to be considered for the delivery of REDD+ and an eventual REDD+ strategy;
• Liaise with other consultants, key institutions and partners with the view to drawing, synthesizing and inputting information for the development of an I & O report. The synthesis should include the baseline overview of the drivers of deforestation building on the studies on the drivers of deforestation, the analyses of the direct drivers (through the private sector and sustainable forest management analyses), indirect drivers (through the private sector and the policy and legal analyses) and barriers to the (+) activities in REDD+;
• Identify and formulate priority issues and options that will feed into the comprehensive report (technical, strategic, policy, sectoral etc) to address deforestation and forest degradation including on the interrelationship amongst the various issues and options outlined;
• Assess the technical feasibility, risks and sustainability of proposed interventions or options identified in the I & O report;
• Provide a clear reasoning and justification on key issues and options that have been derived through evidence-based analytical work and how addressing these can and would benefit CRS/Nigeria in the long term to promote REDD+;
• Identify Cross-cutting topics with the objective to bring together the issues that cut across all the key analyses as well as an analysis of Federal and Cross River State stakeholder institutional capacity.This will include:
• Rudimentary screening (using a SWOT methodology or something similar) as related to REDD+ programmes to confirm key stakeholders and identify and assess their critical capacity needs;
• Analysis of critical capacity needs of key stakeholders in policy development, technical, and financial areas;
• Summary of the current role of local governments and local institutions in the development and implementation of REDD+ and analysis of potential to strengthen these roles. In doing this, identify, differentiate, and describe the roles and activities of local, state, and national-level stakeholder interests in REDD+ with respect to the implementation of key strategic objectives and options for REDD+ implementation including government, civil society, private enterprise, international organizations, donors, communities, and other relevant stakeholder groups;
• Summary of roles and identification of opportunities to increase inter-MDA (ministries, departments, and agencies) collaboration on climate change and other programming to strengthen REDD+ readiness;
• Summary of planned donor program/activities and identify opportunities for integration, synergy, how such initiatives can be upscaled in a coordinated manner in order to contribute to the objective of REDD+ in CRS/Nigeria etc. and identify what coordination and/or collaboration would be useful.This may include, e.g., the NEWMAP Project, the FCPF, and others.
• Actively collaborate with the UN-REDD team and key stakeholders to ensure optimization of key and strategic opportunities required for the development of the I & O report;
• Coordinate and finalize a comprehensive I & O report for REDD+ strategy development in CRS/Nigeria;
• Based on the issues and options report, in consultations with the UN-REDD team, national consultants and stakeholders, prepare to a Policy Note with other consultants to provide a broad overview of how deforestation and forest degradation would be addressed;
• Contribute, support and participate in the preparation of a Climate Change and REDD+ meeting with high level Government officials and stakeholders that endorses the policy direction and vision outlined in the Policy Note;
• Work with the national REDD+ team to prepare Terms of References for Thematic Working Groups for the development of the CRS REDD+ strategy;
• Participate, facilitate and contribute to key thematic group meetings and national dialogue processes as may be required;
• Undertake any other action or work necessary to complete the assignment.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• An advanced Degree in Forestry, Land Management, Natural Resources Management or Development-related subjects based on the technical requirements of the assignment.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in successfully managing assessments of similar scope and scale related to related to natural resource management;
• Traceable records of similar consultancies;
• Experience, and knowledge of the REDD+ mechanism, and preferable evidence of similar work in other countries;
• Experience with the United Nations system;
• Proven experience in drafting reports and action plans.

Competencies

• Excellent writing skills;
• Good interpersonal skills;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment;
• Excellent Team building skills;
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of climate change, REDD+ process, especially the mitigation policies, technologies and climate finance as well as analytical skills and experience in preparing technical and/or policy-relevant reports and papers.

Language
Fluent English.

Application Closing Date
12th October, 2015.

Starting Date
19th October, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online