Climate Institutional Development Advisor (National) - (Technical Specialist Environmental) - Ethiopia (Retainer - Homebased)

WEC Background: 

The Water, Environment and Climate (WEC) portfolio, based in Vienna, and with offices based globally is part of the UNOPS Global Portfolio Office. The Portfolio has built strong partnerships and is effectively managing a portfolio of over 500 million USD over the last 15 years to support key initiatives with fund management, project implementation and administrative support. 

WEC effectively operationalizes partners' agendas with global approaches, as well as regional and country specific activities focused on climate action, protection and conservation of the environment. Partners profit from WEC’s ability to operationalize and/or scale up their important substantive agendas, including in support of key multilateral environmental and climate agreements,  such as the Paris Agreement, the Cartagena Convention as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

The NDC Partnership: 

The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development. In 2015, the world endorsed the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Nations signal their commitments to the Paris Agreement through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - each country’s strategy to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience against the negative effects of a changing climate. The Partnership advances the goals of the Paris Agreement by bringing together nearly 200 countries and institutions in new ways to accelerate NDC implementation and enhance ambition over time. The Partnership’s work through 120 partners supporting almost 80 countries produces many examples of impact, lessons learned and ideas for the future. The Partnership is governed by a Steering Committee, co-chaired by two country representatives. The Partnership’s work is facilitated by a Support Unit based at World Resources Institute in Washington DC and the UNFCCC Secretariat in Bonn, Germany. UNOPS supports the NDC Partnership and its Support Unit through the Water, Environment and Climate (WEC).  

Country Context

The Federal Government of Ethiopia has recently changed public institutions organisational structures and legal mandates including the roles and responsibilities of the three focal institutions of the NDC Partnership. Accordingly, the Planning Development Commission was promoted to the Ministry of Planning and Development and conferred the responsibility for the overall national coordination and leadership of climate actions in Ethiopia. The above reform has bestowed the Ministry of Planning and Development to be a national designated authority (NDA) or focal point (FP) to function as the focal ministry and main interface between Ethiopia and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Adaptation Fund (AF).

MoPD has established an Environment and Climate Change Main Department (ECCMD) and developed a revised national guideline on new institutional governance and Coordination systems and structures. ECCMD will serve as climate arm of MoPD to lead on its new national climate mandate including coordination of climate change international negotiation and communication, planning and implementation of climate policy and strategy initiatives such as the updated NDC implementation and LT-LED Strategy, ensuring national compliance to the UNFCCC's requirements (such as the enhanced transparency framework), and mainstreaming climate into the sectoral development plans and budgeting processes. 

MoPD has identified the need to build the capacity of the newly established Environment and Climate Change Main Department (ECCMD) and the key areas of support prioritised to this end are to build professional and institutional capacity of ECCMD, support develop the Department’s first strategic or operational plan and further elaboration, implementation and institutionalisation of the revised climate governance and coordination guideline, support climate sector institutions in mobilising finance required for implementing their sectoral NDC (consisting mitigation, adaptation and institutional development interventions). Thus, MoPD is requesting the NDC Partnership to recruit an Institutional Development Advisor who will be based in MoPD HQ Office in Addis Ababa to support in capacity building of and assisting the ECCMD team to achieve the outputs proposed to achieve the objective discussed in the Request for Support document submitted.

The Institutional Development Advisor will support the Ministry to clearly develop teams roles and responsibilities, MoPD’s internal institutional arrangements for coordinating and delivering its climate mandate (aligned with existing MoPD strategic plan, systems and institutional setup/structure), capacity building of the ECCMD team, support the ECCMD in rolling out and strengthening the revised climate institutions governance and coordination system and structure. More specifically, the Institutional Development Advisor will be responsible for delivering the following activities:

1) Strengthen and improve capacity of Environment and Climate Change Main Department (ECCMD) team to coordinate and deliver functions related to MoPD’s climate mandate and implementing the updated NDC   

• In close consultation with the ECCMD Senior Management, Climate Policy and Climate Finance Advisors, the NDC Partnership In Country Facilitator regularly review and suggest improvements to the ECCMD management regarding the ECCMD’s roles and responsibilities and internal institutional set up (intra and inter Departmental relationships and mandates within the MoPD organisational structure) required to deliver on MoPD’s climate mandates (including its functions as UNFCCC’s national focal institution and Nationally Designated Authority for GCF/GEF/AF); 

• Develop/refine the job specification and induction of key ECCMD staff to deliver on the roles and responsibilities set for the Main Departments organised under the Division as stated in the MoPD’s Organogram and revised national climate Institutional governance and coordination guideline; 

• Facilitate discussion sessions to inform and get feedback of relevant MoPD Departments on the proposed ECCMD’s institutional setup, the roles and responsibilities of the main Departments and internal coordination required to deliver on climate governance and coordination mandate of MoPD as stated in the ECCMD’s institutional structure document and draft revised climate governance and coordination guidelines led by the Environment and Climate Change Main Department (ECCMD);

• Clearly document the ECCMD’s functions and key team members roles and responsibilities in coordinating and facilitating mainstreaming with the Climate Sector Organisations’ CRGE Units;

• Regularly review and suggest improvements to update the ECCMD’s institutional structure and the CRGE Governance guideline so that ECCMD team will be gradually empowered and capacitated to effectively lead and coordinate to deliver on its climate mandate and effectively facilitate national processes; 

• Ensure the documentation of the ECCMD team’s roles and responsibilities within MoPD institutional structure documents and publicly available written statements or terms of reference, to aid transparency and understanding.

2) Strategy and operational plan Development 

• Support ECCMD in developing its first three-year strategic/operational plan (2023-2025) taking into account the MoPD new climate mandates and responsibilities, revised CRGE governance and coordination guideline, the CRGE/NDC progress review (2011-2019) and the updated NDC documents and findings and recommendations of other relevant studies. 

• Produce the Terms of Reference (ToR) for developing the Strategic/operational plan to facilitate internal discussions on the processes and scope of the task. 

3) Support in rolling out and institutionalizing the revised CRGE Climate Institutional Governance and Coordination Structure and system 

• Assist in updating the draft CRGE Governance guideline on the institutional arrangement for an effective coordination and partnership contributing to transparent information flow, data sharing, financial responsibilities; 

• Define internal coordination required (ECCMD’s and other MoPD’s Departments role and responsibilities) to revitalize and facilitate national climate institutions governance and coordination systems and lines of communication with key climate/CRGE sector government institutions. These should set out the ECCMD and MoPD’s relevant Departments roles and responsibilities, sharing information relevant to NDC implementation and coordination on cross-cutting issues; 

• Document internal coordination requirements within legislation or publicly available to provide the maximum mandate and authority, or within publicly available written statements;

• Support MoPD in cascading/institutionalizing and strengthening of the national climate institutional governance and coordination systems and structures; 

• Coordinate ECCMD team to organize stakeholders’ consultation session to introduce, update and implement/institutionalize the revised climate institutional governance and coordination guideline; 

• Support MoPD/ECCMD team to facilitate discussion with and provide technical support for the CRGE Sector institutions (implementing entities) to re/establish CRGE Units/Desk and supporting Sectors in redefining their mandates/functions and internal coordination arrangements in mainstreaming climate actions (project/program planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and mainstreaming climate into sector development plans); 

• Monitor progresses across sectors and political processes about progresses and effectiveness of the revised CRGE Governance Structures in coordinating the implementation of the updated NDC and share/update findings and improvements required  with key decision makers and officials of the institutions within the Governance framework (Government, Development Partners and CSOs);

• Support and work with the ECCMD team to organize, deliver and facilitate workshops relating to institutional development, leveraging expertise from member institutions;

• Upload and avail the revised CRGE Governance guideline, the updated NDC, the NDC implementation plan and the Ten-Year Development Plan and other key institutional strategic documents on MoPD and/or Partners websites for wider dissemination; 

• Prepare and disseminate briefs on the revised CRGE governance and coordination guideline and the updated NDC. 

4) Capacity building support 

• Design, develop, coordinate, implement and deliver and evaluate capacity development interventions that support MoPD/ECCMD organization objectives and are aligned with the organization’s strategic plan; 

• Develop capacity building plan based on training need analysis that will be conducted in consultation with Climate Change and Climate Finance Advisors and ECCMD team and drawing on available capacity assessment studies, raise and mobilize resources required to deliver training and other capacity building interventions as planned; 

• Evaluate impacts of capacity development interventions/programs and ensure successive capacity building and technical support to MoPD/ECCMD are aligned and contribute to delivering on organization mandate and are aligned with the organization’s strategic plan.

5) Support ECCMD in building and managing Partnership 

• Support in organizing periodic CRGE Forum meetings and other stakeholders consultation sessions/forums where partners and stakeholders can present their proposed climate change projects/ programs, Country climate priorities/strategies, resources available and the results obtained from the implementation of these initiatives and how these results articulate with the national and international country commitments;

• Contribute organising annual plan and progress review meetings of Federal and Regional Government stakeholders to present their plan and progresses achieved in implementing the updated NDC and the progress made to achieving the goals established by the country and mainstreaming climate change into development.

6) Knowledge Management 

• Support the development of climate change communications strategy in consultation with the MoPD team and relevant climate sector government institutions; 

• Promote the use and improvement of knowledge management mechanisms to share information about climate change risks and related initiatives;

• Coordinate arrangements for the publication of country reports, including desktop publishing, editing, printing, and dissemination; 

• Draft briefing/meeting materials and related documents (as needed) in performing the tasks outlined above;

• Facilitate and contribute to the development of web-stories, case studies, lessons learnt and academic papers; 

• Provide inputs to the preparation of presentations, advisory and briefing notes, as needed.

7) Other Tasks 

• Produce and submit own monthly and quarterly plan and progress reports and submit to the ECCMD/ Policy Analysis and Strategic Plan CEO for feedback and approval;

• Closely work with the NDC Partnership In-Country Facilitator in support of the broader institutional mandates and implementing NDC plan; 

• Support ECCMD/MoPD in design and management of Consultancy assignments and ensuring quality deliverables agreed.

• A master’s degree preferably in public administration/Organisational Management, Environmental laws or related fields;

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline in combination with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

• Additional qualifications or certificate in Climate Negotiation, Public Policy will be desirable.

Required

• At least 5 years of practical experience in the field of institutional development change and/or program management in institutions/organisations in Ethiopia; 

• Track record of experiences in working and dealing with government institutions, departments, and high-level officials and/or non-governmental institutions in strategy development, institutional growth and capacity building;

• Experience working in a variety of donor funded programs or projects in international settings, preferably within international organisations;

Asset

• Experience in facilitating conducting capacity needs and/or institutional/organisational assessments, in developing policies, formal strategies and strategic plans;

• Experience or knowhow of  Ethiopia's climate change contexts and circumstances Climate Governance and UNFCCC Institutional architecture;

• Excellent team building skills and group facilitation skills, communication including reporting writing and information sharing, cultural sensitivity and the ability to work effectively within and across teams

• Knowledge of national platforms for facilitating exchange of knowledge and experiences;

• Experience in developing policies, formal strategies and strategic plans

• Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, and Outlook).

• Proficiency in English is required.

• Knowledge of Amharic is an added advantage

Contract type: ICA / ICS 10 retainer
Contract level: Local ICA 10
Contract duration: 12 months, 220 days, with possibility of extension depending on performance and on availability of funds

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• 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 (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.