Events Coordinator - Climate Strategies and Policy

Contract

This is a IPSA-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as International Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally internationally recruited only. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about IPSA-10 contracts.

Background

Working in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of its key priorities for the next 10 years is to support countries to accelerate ambitious action on climate change.

Climate change is the single greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, threatening water and food security, health, livelihoods, and the safety of billions of people together with drastic negative impact on global ecosystem balance. UNDP’s ambitious “Climate Promise” supports over 120 countries to enhance their climate ambitions under the Paris Agreement, with focus on greater emissions reduction and resilience building. The next phase of the Climate Promise will focus on NDC implementation, climate advocacy, and long-term planning to ensure inclusive climate action at the speed and scale required to keep global temperature below 1.5°C. Achieving the carbon neutrality in the second half of the century by all countries is a crucial requirement set by the Paris Agreement to avoid irreversible global climate change. Realization of this goal involves work on global, regional, national, and local levels, as well as participation of all relevant stakeholders – governments, business, MDBs (Multinational Development Banks), international organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations. The path to carbon neutrality should be just and leaving no one behind, while empowering women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and vulnerable groups of population. UNDP is well positioned to enable such work through cooperation on HQ, Regional and Country Offices levels, as well as through the Global Policy Network, forming an interconnected system of knowledge exchange and expertise delivery enabling the cutting-edge climate policy advocacy, development, and implementation.

UNDP launched the second phase of the Climate Promise at COP26, with a high-level, virtual event. This event both celebrated achievements of the first phase and chart the path forward for the next phase. Now, as the Climate Promise enters its second phase, UNDP is recruiting an Event Coordinator to lead the organization of events (in-person and online) that help to showcase the Climate Promise and the work of participating countries, advocate for the importance of NDCs and climate action for sustainable development, and share lessons, experience, knowledge and insight from across the portfolio to advance the agenda. Such events would potentially be at the regional and global level, and include everything from external high-level events to technical engagement with partner country governments, to internal UNDP peer-to-peer learning.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and execution of Climate Promise events (e.g., prepare guidance/concept notes, support the operationalization of the concept, send invitations and track registrations, identify and organize the speaker roles, liaise with concerned colleagues and partners, develop output reports, etc.);
• Lead the logistical and management activities of Climate Promise events (e.g., setting up and managing virtual platform and/or venue, managing budget tracking, etc.);
• Provide event materials (such as run-of-show, speech transcripts, objectives and take-aways) to the leadership team to support outreach, communication and visibility efforts of NDC events;
• Track regional and global events across the CSPT and Climate Promise more broadly and contribute inputs to Climate Promise Newsletters and weekly webinar roundups on internal platforms;
• Enhance peer-to-peer learning and south-south exchange through the optimization of Climate Promise event format and design; and
• Carry out other ad-hoc activities to support the smooth implementation of Climate Promise events, including follow-up tasks post-events.

Competencies

Achieve Results

• Demonstrate focus on achieving quality results and impact
• Consistently strive to meet or exceed excellence standards
• Hold self and others accountable for results
• Efficiently establish appropriate plans and resources for self and others to accomplish goals

Think Innovatively

• Look beyond conventional approaches and established methods
• Propose new ideas, approaches and solutions to problems
• Seek patterns and clarity outside boxes and categories while resisting false certainty and simplistic binary choice

Strategic Thinking

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP

Effective Decision Making

• Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources

Communication

• Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience
• Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in Sustainable Development, Public Administration, Political Science or a related field. In lieu of a Master’s degree a Bachelor’s degree in the aforementioned categories in addition to 7 years relevant professional experience will be considered.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in event organization, including in-person and online events.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Knowledge of French and/or Spanish will be considered an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in leading the organization of regional and global events with numerous partners, preferably for international organizations; experience with climate related events will be considered an asset.
• Demonstrated competency in using online platforms such as Zoom and Teams, including advanced functionalities.
• Experience working with international institutions, including UN agencies and partners.
• Ability to operate corporate and commercial software applications such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, and Excel.
• Excellent coordination, organizational and interpersonal skills.
• Highly motivated, enthusiastic, pro-active and positive can-do attitude.
• Experience and understanding of digital communications and the social media landscape to fed into and compliment the Communications team.
• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to meet deadlines, prioritise and maintain high-quality of output working under pressure.
• Ability to work in an independent manner and across time-zones