Programme Management Officer

Water and Energy Cluster (WEC)

​UNOPS Water and Energy Cluster (WEC) supports the design and management of multi-stakeholder initiatives by providing services in financial and grant management, procurement, human resources, and project management.

The cluster has supported projects in the areas of water resource management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and transparency, energy access and distribution and environmental conservation under the Paris Agreement. The WEC has also supported operations and financial management services, in Vienna, the rest of the ECR region and beyond.

The main partners include UN agencies, bilateral agreements (with the Nordics, Germany, and Italy), the Green Climate Fund and several NGOs (such as CIFF and CWF).

Initiative for Climate Action Transparency

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) helps countries better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions, and fulfil their transparency commitments under the Paris Agreement. It does this by increasing the overall transparency capacities of countries, including the capacity to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions on countries’ development objectives, and providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policy-making. ICAT’s innovative approach is to integrate these two aspects.

ICAT currently works with more than 40 developing countries worldwide to support their work on NDCs, including tracking of implementation, further policy development and related Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV).  Work covers sectoral policies (renewables, energy efficiency, transport, etc.) and cross-cutting aspects such as the link to sustainable development benefits, transformational change, and integration of subnational and non-state actors.

ICAT is funded by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Italian Ministry of the Environment (IMELS) and the ClimateWorks Foundation.

Under the overall guidance of the ICAT Director and the direct supervision of the Senior Programme Officer, the Programme Management Officer will perform the following responsibilities:

Country and regional engagement 

• Support the ICAT Director and the Senior Programme Officer in coordinating ICAT’s country and regional work including drafting work plans for country support and the regional hubs and liaising with country and regional focal points;

• Support effective capacity building activities and peer-to-peer exchanges conducted to build long-term capacity of ICAT beneficiary countries;

• In collaboration with Implementing Partners, provide support to the coordination and implementation of ICAT’s country work plans.

• Draft official letters and taking notes during meetings and visits;

Research Activities

• Ensure the collection and analysis of all relevant background information for ICAT’s country and regional engagement, in particular information on potential ICAT partner countries and regions in which ICAT plans its engagement;

• Track ICAT progress on country work and its regional engagement on a continuous basis, in accordance with work plan objectives and giving special attention to ICAT’s impact indicators, to keep ICAT management informed and ensure that information ICAT publishes (including on its website) is up-to-date;

• Conduct background research on transparency-related developments and activities of relevance to ICAT country and regional support;

• Prepare high quality summaries and reports, including, but not limited to input to, project reports, annual reports, situation reports, briefing notes, and other UN reports. Prepare written summaries of meetings/visits. Provide input into Donor Steering Committee (DSC) documents and lead preparation of regular progress reports; 

• Keeping abreast of relevant policy developments, in particular discussions and negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and decisions adopted in that context, and of research activities of other organizations/initiatives relevant for ICAT country/regional work plan implementation.

Knowledge building and sharing

• Organize, prepare and participate in ICAT Country and Toolbox Group meetings including drafting the agenda, maintaining documentation of decisions and actions, coordinating inputs from Implementing Partners;

• Support the organisation of ICAT events, including meetings of the Donor Steering Committee, Advisory Committee and Initiative Coordination Team, and other ICAT stakeholder events, such as COP side events;

• Develop and maintain knowledge sharing tools to capture on an ongoing basis progress on country work and regional engagement, linking all relevant stakeholders;

• Support collaboration with partners such as CBIT, PATPA, NDC Partnership, MRV Group of Friends;

• Liaise with other relevant UN agencies, including the UNFCCC  secretariat, UNEP, UNDP, and UNU to obtain up to date information on ongoing activities;

• Maintain regular contact with ICAT implementing Partners and country and regional focal points for updates on ICAT country and regional work and collection of country and regional background documents;

• Ensure that files with all legal documents, relevant correspondence, reports documenting results of country and regional activities and files related to workshops are complete, securely stored and kept up-to-date, and that relevant documents are uploaded on the ICAT web pages;

• Any other duties as requested and tasked by the Senior Programme Officer.

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree) in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations or other relevant discipline is a requirement.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Project Management, Business Administration, International Relations, or other relevant discipline will be considered with an additional two years of relevant experience.

Experience:

• Minimum two (2) years relevant and progressive professional experience in the field of Research and Programme Management is required, preferably with focus on reporting, development and coordination;

• Prior work experience in the area of Climate Change is required;

• Work experience with capacity building and development cooperation is an added advantage;

• Knowledge of relevant UNOPS systems, policies and procedures is an added advantage;

• Experience in the usage of computers and Google suit/MS Office is preferred.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. 

• Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic/Chinese/French/Spanish/Russian) is required. 

Work permit Requirements

• The position is ‘Local/National’ and applicable for German nationals or individuals with Germany Permanent Residence permit or EU Citizens only.

Other considerations

• Interested applicants are requested to apply online and attach ‘Cover Letter’. Please note that applications without cover letters may not be considered.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.