Programme Analyst: Climate Change & Innovation, Programme Analyst: Climate Change & Innovation, Johannesburg, South Africa – Job Ref. ZA/UNFPA/2901/2675

Mission and objectives:

•  UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
•  UNFPA’s goal is to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health, realize
•  reproductive rights, and reduce maternal mortality to accelerate progress on the ICPD
•  agenda, to improve the lives of adolescents and youth, and women, enabled by population
•  dynamics, human rights, and gender equality.
•  UNFPA launched efforts to achieve three transformative results, ambitions that promise to change the world for every man, woman and young person:
•  1.) Ending unmet need for family planning
•  2.) Ending preventable maternal death
•  3.) Ending gender-based violence and harmful practises
•  UNFPA recognizes that innovation is a key accelerator to achieve these results. UNFPA will harness innovation to meet tomorrow’s challenges and boost its impact, especially in addressing furthest behind populations, and leverage opportunities, social capital, funding and technology by (a) strengthening the corporate innovation architecture and capabilities, (b) scaling up innovations that have proven to be effective and impactful, (c) forming new partnerships and connecting with relevant innovation ecosystems, (d) strengthening and leveraging financing for innovation, and (e) expanding communities and culture for innovation.

Context:

•  The impact of climate change on the most vulnerable populations globally remains a major threat to the vision of human-centered sustainable development outlined in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action. In 2019, UNFPA organised an International Symposium on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), Gender and Climate Change Resilience to share knowledge and identify programmes to reduce the impacts of climate change and build the resilience of communities in vulnerable settings. The resulting Future Africa Call to Action outlines both the impacts of climate change on the achievement of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and the contributions that the ICPD community can make to building climate resilience. It puts forward a programmatic framework with four pillars connecting the promise of the ICPD and the achievement of climate change adaptation and resilience.
•  In 2020, the UNFPA Executive Committee adopted a value proposition on climate change, “UNFPA and the Climate Crisis: Strengthening Resilience and Protecting Progress within the Decade of Action”, which defines the key activities that will support the strengthening of climate change activities with external and internal partners. The value proposition on climate change influenced the development of the Strategic Plan and associated outcome areas.
•  UNFPA ESARO’s current (and future) Regional Action Plan (RPAP) fully integrates the UNFPA value proposition on climate change and currently has a number of indicators across all outputs to strengthen women and girls’ resilience to climate change.
•  The Programme Analyst will work within the UNFPA ESARO, which covers 23 countries. The Climate team is part of the EKI unit based in Johannesburg, with a dedicated team that supports these 23 Country Offices in three key areas: (1) Policy, Evidence and Advocacy, (2) Capacity Development and innovation, and (3) Adaptation and Climate Finance.

Task description:

•  The Programme Analyst is expected to work closely with the ESAR country offices to support their programmatic work on the delivery of agreed actions to strengthen climate resilience and innovation in ESAR. In the 6-month assignment, under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialists, Climate Adaptation and Innovation, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
•  Support ESAR country offices in developing a pipeline of proposal to mobilize climate finance especially for climate and health interventions.
•  Support research, advocacy and evidence building work on climate change and environment including update of relevant country profiles.
•  Support development of a strategy on youth, peace and climate security.
•  Support delivery of two UNFPA ongoing regional climate change and innovation projects delivered in 10 countries.
•  Perform any additional task as may be assigned.
•  Support the coordination of the region’s innovation focal point programme.
•  Support the development of at least three funding proposals for innovation programmes
•  Identify at least one innovation project for scalable support.

Eligibility criteria

Age: 18 – 80

Required experience: 1 month

Nationality: Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Assignment requirements

Relevant experience:

•  2 years

Languages:

•  English, Level: Fluent, Required
•  French, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable
•  Arabic, Level: Working knowledge, Desirable

Required education level:

•  Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Gender, Demography, Environmental/Climate Science, Innovation, Sustainability, Public Health, International Development, or other related fields.
•  Candidates with a master’s degree in any of the fields will also be considered.

Competencies and values:

•  Accountability, Adaptability and Flexibility, Building Trust, Client Orientation, Commitment and Motivation, Commitment to Continuous Learning, Communication, Ethics and Values, Integrity

Skills and experience:

•  Professional experience in climate change, environment-related and innovation will be regarded as an added advantage.
•  Candidates with more than 2 years of professional experience in any of the above will also be considered.
•  Knowledge of policy development processes and the ability to analyze the impact of policies on different populations.
•  Experience working on climate change, environment-related and innovation campaigns.
•  Experience working on youth leadership and climate change
•  Experience working with the United Nations System is highly desirable.
•  Ability to deliver under periodic strict deadlines and quick turnaround.
•  Ability to provide advice and guidance on the analysis, interpretation and application of data from project information.
•  Experience with achieving demonstrable results.
•  Demonstrated interest and/or experience (ideally one year) deep understanding of climate and environmental space.
•  Job knowledge/technical expertise.
•  Ability to be proactive and take leadership of new and existing task.
•  Previous experience as a volunteer and/or experience of another culture, (i.e. studies, volunteer work, internship) would be highly regarded.

Area(s) of expertise:

•  Development programmes

Driving license:

•  –

Other information

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