GCP - Targeted Scenario Analysis (TSA) Intern - Home Based

Contract

This is a Internship contract. It usually requires 0 years of experience, depending on education. More about Internship contracts.

Background

Background

The UNDP Green Commodities Programme exists to improve the national, economic, social and environmental performance of agricultural commodity sectors. In 2010, UNDP launched the GCP in recognition of the importance of global agricultural commodities in achieving the SDGs, with a mission to:

o Improve the lives of farmers and their communities. o Protech high conservation value forest and important vulnerable ecosystems.

Most commodity sectors in developing countries are afflicted by poor production practices that lead to increasing pressure on ecosystems and fail to improve the livelihoods of rural communities. Poor production practices lead to negative environmental impacts such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, carbon emissions, soil erosion, depletion of water resources and contamination from chemicals. On the social side, working conditions in commodity production are often not in line with basic labor rights. Despite recent commodity booms, small producers are held in poverty, mostly due to low productivity and product quality.

Despite the progress made through standards and supply chain initiatives over the past 10 years, weaknesses in the underlying enabling environment limit change at a larger scale.

The UNDP Green Commodities Programme acts as a catalyst of mid to long-term national, structural and systemic commodity sector changes in support of sustainable agriculture. To achieve this, we:

o Strengthen stakeholder cooperation towards a shared vision and collective action. o Seek to change mindsets, behaviors, regulations and practices, improving the enabling environment that will allow sustainable production. o Work systematically, mindful of the political and economic context. o Promote gender balance. o Promote transparency, accountability and good governance as drivers of success.

As a response to a growing demand from decision makers and stakeholders for more policy-related sustainable development analysis to support national Sustainable Development Goals, the UNDP Green Commodities Programme developed Targeted Scenario Analysis (TSA).

TSA is an innovative approach that provides focused direction towards specific sustainable development policy and investment choices for public or private sector actors. It captures and presents the value and the contribution of ecosystem services to sectorial development within a decision-making framework, thereby helping make the business case for sustainable policy and investment choices.

As the name suggests, Targeted Scenario Analysis has three pillars:

o Targeted: Within a participatory process, TSA helps decision makers and stakeholders target a critical decision to be made at a policy or management level, which involves a change on how ecosystem service(s) ara managed, and improvements in sustainable development outcomes. TSA targets management and/or investment policies, both public and private. o Scenario: It does this by developing and contrasting two future scenarios – Business as Usual vs. Sustainable Ecosystem Management – that link changes to biophysical and socio-economic indicators as the scenarios develop. o Analysis: It presents an analysis of selected sustainable development indicators into the future. Decision makers select the priority and relevance of these, e.g. changes in soil fertility or water availability, changes in natural resources-based productivity, costs, net revenues, jobs, and equity and gender indicators.

Currently, the UNDP Green Commodities Programme, UNDP-GEF and PAGE are supporting TSA studies in different sectors, including : several TSA in Cuba including key sectors such as human settlements, tourism, fisheries, agriculture and protected areas; forest/cattle farming in Colombia; illegal wildlife trade in Thailand, and forest/palm oil in Indonesia. A wide range of new TSAs are being planned and designed for 2020-2021.

Duties and Responsibilities

Tasks / Expected Outcomes Main tasks:

Support to the Senior Technical Advisor for TSA with:

- In preparing the Terms of Reference for a prospective TSA, support the Senior Technical Advisor in identifying available data, and relevant background material and reports, and analyze the ex-ante viability of the proposed TSA; - Support in organizing and coordinating TSA start-up processes, including supporting follow-up on contractual and procurement matters; - Assist with the preparation and organization of meetings, webinars, virtual workshops, lessons learning processes and peer-review processes, from planning to implementation; - Preparation of presentations, briefing notes, meeting minutes and reports; - Support the maintaining of knowledge management tools and internal filing system; - Other related tasks.

Competencies

Competencies and Skills

Competencies: - Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; - Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP; - Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; - Treats all people fairly without favoritism; - Strong IT skills including MS Office; - Excellent writing and editing skills; - Experience with data collection, analysis and presentation; - Experience with knowledge management is a plus;

Personal Skills: - Creative, proactive and supportive; - Able to take initiative and work independently; - Ability to work in team; creating a positive environment; - Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities; - Excellent organizational, inter-personal, communication and administrative skill.

Required Skills and Experience

Education, Experience, Language requirements

Education: Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent) such as economics, environment, agriculture, sustainable development, international development, social/political sciences or related fields;

or

Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher) such as economics, environment, agriculture, sustainable development, international development, social/political sciences or related fields;

or

Have recently graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) as economics, environment, agriculture, sustainable development, international development, social/political sciences or related fields and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation.

Experience: Experience in data collection, analysis, and research Experience in communications, writing and editing Experience in environmental economics is a plus

Language Requirements:

Fluent English Fluent Spanish is preferred

Internship Conditions:

All internships should be on a full teleworking/ telecommuting basis until further notice. (Remote Internship / Home Based).

As of January 1 2020, Interns may be given a stipend according to the UNDP Internship Policies, if is not financially supported by any institution or programme, such as a university, government, foundation or scholarship programme. •UNDP accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship; •Interns are not eligible to apply for, or be appointed to, any post in UNDP during the period of the internship; •Interns must provide proof of enrolment in Health Insurance Plan valid for the location, and the duration of the internship. •Interns are not staff members and may not represent UNDP in any official capacity; •Interns are expected to work full time, but flexibility is allowed for education programmes; •UNDP only accepts interns for a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 6 months; •Interns are responsible for obtaining necessary visas, arranging travel, accommodation.