UNDP Environment Policy Specialist (Nature, Climate and Energy) || Apply Now

The UNDP Environment Policy Specialist will help implement the Nature, Climate, and Energy (NCE) portfolio in the 2024-2028 Country Programme. They’ll lead in securing funding and representing UNDP in Cambodia on environmental matters. They’ll also work on multidisciplinary projects addressing development challenges, including climate action, nature-based solutions, and socio-economic growth.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the general direction of the Resident Representative, and the daily supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative, the incumbent is expected to provide high-quality and timely technical guidance and advice to UNDP Senior Management and national partners, and tangible substantive programmatic inputs delivering results effectively in the following areas. When required, the Policy Specialist may be assigned to lead the NCE portfolio of interventions.

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.

1. Provide technical and management support for the effective and timely provision of UNDP’s technical assistance packages NCE portfolio   

• Manage and oversee the UNDP team of international and national staff and consultants in providing timely and high-quality technical support in the areas of NCE, sustainable financing and other related areas;
• Develop Terms of References (TORs), identify and evaluate experts, and review reports produced, following UNDP rules and regulations;
• Liaise with UNDP country office, regional bureaus, and HQ, to mobilize and strengthen Technical Support related to NCE;
• Regularly update management on the NCE portfolio implementation status and results.

• Review ongoing work related to sustainable financing by UNDP such as Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES), Biodiversity-financing (BioFin) and REDD+ (“Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries), and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries);
• Advice the Country Office (CO) in developing and implementing an overall strategy and action plan for sustainable financing work;
• Provide lead technical support for the UNDP team’s work related to PES, BIOFIN as well as REDD+ with the aim to design and operationalize sustainable financing mechanisms, and fund such as the Environmental and Social Fund (ESF);
• Mobilise technical assistance, supervise and provide quality assurance for the technical works conducted by international and national specialists and consultants and project partners related to sustainable financing. These entail:
  • Examining existing revenue sources and gaps for protected area management in the country such as the national finance, Official Development Assistance, taxes, fees, royalties, charges, fines, penalties, private donations, trust fund, ecotourism, REDD+, PES, eco standards and labelling.
  • Reviewing options for sustainable finance mechanisms and assess suitability for implementation in the country ;
  • Facilitate the MoE, Ministry of Economy and finance (MEF),  and other national partners as applicable in reviewing existing economic valuation studies on sustainable ecosystems;
  • Facilitate the MoE to identify and prioritize potential sustainable finance mechanisms and/or sources and necessary policy and fiscal reforms and fiscal incentives to implement priority sustainable finance mechanisms;

• Facilitate the Country Office (CO) in developing and implementing the overall strategy for resource obilization from bilateral, multilateral, IFIs and vertical funds including Global Environmental Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the private sector;
• Develop a leaflet, power point presentations, and other information materials on the CO’s NCE profile;
• Participate in development partner and technical working group coordination meetings and prepare and disseminate a summary of discussion notes for the Country Office;
• Liaise with UNDP regional bureaus, HQ, and donor country based (as needed to ensure coherent corporate advocacy) and for identifying funding options and resource mobilization strategies.

4. Facilitate UNDP’s policy engagement in terms of policy dialogue, research, communication, and partnership.

• Facilitate policy dialogue with the government, development partners, civil society, private sector; contributions to development of policies as relevant;
• Provide technical inputs for communication materials such as the website, social media, news articles, and blogs for use in print and social media channels;
• Draft responses for media inquiries about the UNDP work in the environmental sector including natural resources management;
• Raise visibility of the programme strategies through knowledge sharing and well-developed communication materials; and
• Ensure that UNDP and wider international best practice and lesson learning is fed into the implementation of programme strategies and in the work of UNDP Cambodia.

5. Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities

• Lead the teams to implement nature, climate and energy-related portfolios/projects.
• Provide on-the-job coaching and mentoring, using a learning-by-doing approach

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Required Skills and Experience for UNDP Environment Policy Specialist

• Education:

• Experience: