Adaptation and Youth analyst

Contract

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Result of Service

The consultant will be responsible for developing a Youth Community of Practice (CoP) on Adaptation to Climate Change. The main objective of the position is to provide technical advice and to ensure operational effectiveness during the planning and implementation of the youth CoP of the Climate Change Unit of UNEP Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.

OUTPUTS

Partnerships established to foster development and dissemination of methods, frameworks, and information systems for enhanced climate finance programming at subnational, national, and regional levels.

DELIVERABLES

The consultant will work on the project: Youth Community of Practice “Empowering Youth through a Climate Resilience Community of Practice”

Among other activities, the Adaptation and Youth analyst main duties and responsibilities will include:

Product No. 1. Youth Community of Practice work plan, including planning and implementation period.

• Conduct a general benchmarking exercise, including CoP from Practical Action and knowledge management tools from WRI Colombia, as well as Youth initiatives within UNEP and other UN agencies, to gather key methodologies and examples of other Youth CoP on environment, climate change or related topics • Laise with UNEP communication team to align the proposed calendar with ongoing projects • Establish a workplan to develop the Youth CoP • Establish clear linkages with the Nature4Cities community of practice dedicated to practitioners • Identify key speakers or facilitators that could be invited to the CoP

Product No. 2. Technical document detailing the structure and content of the Youth Community of Practice roundtables.

• Formulate the general vision of the Youth CoP aiming at empowering young people on Adaptation to climate change in urban areas, • Develop the main technical content of the Youth CoP to provide a strong knowledge-base on the expected topics • Include, within the Youth CoP main content, practical ways to connect the Youth CoP participants with decision makers • Provide guidance on possible communication tools to facilitate the engagement of the Youth, such as the creation of a podcast, the use of social media, etc. • Develop exercises that the participants should realize within the Youth CoP, such as a communication toolkit (podcast program, live streaming, audiobook) to feed into social media platforms (Spotify, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, among others) • Formulate a methodology for the evaluation of the participants’ activities and final exercise. • Provide guidance on appropriate and adapted language to consider in the CoP content • Liaise with UNEP’s communication team to embed the CoP in the N4C platform .

Product No 3. Stakeholder engagement plan, including list of participants and interaction tools

• Laise with Nature4Cities team to do an actors mapping identifying main Youth groups in each of the 13 project cities to invite to the Youth CoP • Generate a criterion of selection of young people and define participant age. • Laise with the UNEP’s communication team to arrange a dissemination strategy and other interactive tools (training/demonstrations for users, manual user, mailings, etc.). • Cooperate with different stakeholder’s in the pre-identified LAC cities to show locally led-adaptation experiences with youth and governments. • Disseminate through local partner networks and social media channels the podcast product of this community of practice • Provide guidance on the establishment of a forum for the interaction between users and moderators within the CoP.

Product No. 4. Report on lessons learned from the Youth Community of Practice

• Produce a technical report of the main features of the Youth CoP, including key logistical and coordination aspects. • Summarize the main content from product 2 and the results from the different exercises produced by participants • Identify key messages to be included in communications materials, such as quotes or content from the participants • Propose a close-up survey to assess participants’ perspectives and performance

Work Location

Home Based

Expected duration

10 MONTHS

Duties and Responsibilities

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 Latin America and the Caribbean Office (LACO Office), located in Panama City, Panama works closely with the 33 countries of the region – including 16 small island developing States – with a population of about 588 million people. The office works to serve the needs of the region and its activities are integrated into the work programs approved by the United Nations Environment Assembly of UNEP (UNEA).

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is the second most urbanized region in the world, with ~80% of the population living in cities. Within the next two decades, this proportion is projected to reach ~85%, thereby ranking the cities of the LAC region among the fastest-growing in the developing world. The rate of urban expansion is faster in small and medium-sized cities relative to mega cities. This rapid urbanization and the associated expansion of cities is degrading urban and peri-urban ecosystems – including wetlands, green spaces and forests – that provide a wide range of ecosystem services for urban communities.

To address the vulnerability of urban communities, governments in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region need to develop and implement cost-effective, low-risk solutions, such as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) by protecting, maintaining and rehabilitating priority ecosystems in urban areas. As a result, UNEP is working with the governments of, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras Cuba, Panama, Guatemala and Uruguay to execute a two-years, Readiness project “Nature4Cities - Increasing resilience through Nature- based Solutions in Latin-American cities” funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The project is implemented in 7 countries (Cuba, Honduras, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama, and Uruguay) and a total of 13 cities within those countries.

The aim of the project is to increase the capacity of participating countries to design and implement Nature-based urban development strategies that ensure urban resilience to climate change through five main areas of work: (1) Strengthening the knowledge base of national and local governments to assess the potential for Nature- based Adaptation and Mitigation Solutions in urban areas in the context of broader climate change strategies; (2) Reinforcing enabling policies and institutional frameworks to increase adoption of NbS in urban planning; (3) Strengthening partnerships between key actors to accelerate the adoption of NbS solutions; (4) Defining climate finance strategies through innovative public, private and blended financial mechanisms and facilitating access to climate finance for the sustained implementation of NbS; (5) Accelerating upscaling and replication through a regional Urban NBS platform.

Under output 5.2 of the project, UNEP will establish and operate a Regional online Community of Practice to share results from all activities in the project, trainings and knowledge exchange. One of the main audience of this Community of Practice is the Youth of the 13 pilot cities where the project is being implemented. The objective of this Youth CoP is to strengthen the capacities of young people, their knowledge of climate change and their decision-making capacity vis-à-vis government institutions.

UNEP seeks to support countries in Latin America to implement the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new Paris Agreement and the priority actions defined in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of Latin American countries.

To achieve this, UNEP LACO is seeking an Adaptation and Youth Analyst to support the Nature4Cities project who will be under the supervision and guidance of the UNEP Programme Management Officer for Adaptation of Climate Change Unit for Latin American and Caribbean Office, while working in close collaboration with the Regional Team and National Coordinators for Nature4Cities. This consultant will work from home.

Qualifications/special skills

ACADEMIC:

− Bachelor’s degree in biology, environment, natural resources management, or a closely related field, is required.

PROFESSIONAL:

• Two (2) years of professional experience in conservation, natural resource management, landscaping or climate change adaptation is required.
• Experience with youth associations or initiatives with an environmental focus is required.
• Previous work experience in Latin America or the Caribbean is required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of different approaches of climate change adaptation and development, including Ecosystem based Adaptation approach is desired.
• Demonstrated experience in the design, formulation, or development of climate change adaptation project is desired.
• Work experience in the United Nations or other international organizations is desired.
• Experience collaborating with governments in developing countries is an asset.

LANGUAGE: − Fluent level in Spanish is required. − Fluent level of English is required.

Languages

Not available.

Additional Information

Not available.

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.