Programme Manager

Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT)

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) was established in 2015 at the COP that adopted the Paris Agreement to support the implementation of the Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework. 

ICAT provides countries with tailored support and practical tools and methodologies to build robust transparency frameworks needed for effective climate action in sync with national development priorities. The projects ICAT supports relate to: building or enhancing transparency frameworks for mitigation; building a monitoring and evaluation approach for adaptation; building or enhancing frameworks to track progress in implementing nationally determined contributions; assessing the impacts of climate policies;  estimating or enhancing projections of greenhouse gases; integrating and/or aggregating climate actions at the subnational level and by non-State actors; building a tracking system for just transition processes; establishing or enhancing a climate data system; and putting in place a framework to track climate finance.

To support these areas, ICAT offers a suite of practical, open-source tools and methodologies to provide effective support to the transparency efforts of countries around the world.

ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership steered by the Donor Steering Committee (DSC), conformed by its donors, Austria; Canada; Germany; Italy; the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); and Climate Works Foundation (CWF), and includes the UNFCCC Secretariat as the dedicated UN body with a climate change policy mandate, and UNOPS as an ex-officio member. The Initiative is managed by UNOPS on behalf of the DSC. Within UNOPS, the ICAT Secretariat manages ICAT day-to-day activities, coordinating and guiding the work of the implementing partners.

The Water, Environment and Climate Portfolio

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 USD 500 million (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.


*** International Individual contractors are required to secure their own individual medical insurance for the entire duration of the contract.

The position is located in the ICAT Secretariat in Bonn, Germany, in the Country Support Team, which is accountable for delivering support to countries through direct projects and regional climate action transparency hubs.  ICAT is engaged with more than 50 countries across Africa, Asia/Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean by implementing tailored, technical support. The portfolio of country projects is distributed among the members of the country team and the incumbent will be assigned specific countries,  primarily French-speaking, to work with. 

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Programme Manager, the Programme Manager will: 

• Support the coordination of the implementation of the country projects and  the work programme of the regional climate action transparency hub in Central Africa, as assigned;

• Support initiation of the new country projects

• Support development of the ICAT Toolbox

• Contribute to knowledge development and sharing

The incumbent will be responsible and accountable for the following duties:

Programme management

• Provide support to the coordination and implementation of ICAT’s country/regional  projects, including coordination of Implementing Partners activities;

• Review project cooperation agreements, memoranda of understanding,  and grant support agreements and lead on the substantive development of work plans and budgets for country projects.

• Provide review/input to scopes of work for grantee selection and procurement processes to ensure the requirements of the project agreements are reflected in agreements with implementing partners. 

• Review country/regional projects deliverables and Implementing Partners reports to ensure requirements outlined in the respective agreements are being met.

• Track programme progress and results against targets, alert management if delivery is not on track, compile data and draft reports to internal and external stakeholders and support the Director and the Senior Programme Manager to prepare for internal reviews.

• Coordinate revisions to the relevant legal agreements, budgets and work plans by ensuring efficient information flow between implementation teams, management and donors.

• Review and edit summaries and analytical reports, communication and outreach materials, including, but not limited to, project reports, annual reports, situation reports, briefing notes, and other UN reports. Prepare written summaries of meetings/visits, as appropriate; research and prepare input for analytical, documents for the Director and the Donor Steering Committee.

Country and regional engagement 

• Support the ICAT Director and the Senior Programme Manager in initiating and managing projects under ICAT’s country and regional work, including scoping 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;

• Participate in external meetings at the country, regional and global level. This may entail visits to ICAT partner countries;

• Establish and build relationships with ICAT partner country governments and partnering regional organizations, as well as relevant actors at the UN, international organizations, NGOs, donors, and climate change stakeholders to facilitate activities and improve the quality and relevance of programme implementation.

• Support preparations for official meetings, events, briefings, and missions, and prepare talking points, briefing notes, presentations and speeches for the Director and the Senior Programme Manager.

Support to the further development of the ICAT Toolbox

• Provide support on further developing the ICAT toolbox and ensuring coordination with implementing partners;

• Provide substantive input to ICAT’s knowledge base by drafting ToRs for new tools and methodologies to complement those already in the ICAT toolbox, and background notes and engaging with active and potential partners;

• Support the identification of suitable partners for the translation of ICAT methodologies into other languages (in particular) French and for outreach activities.

Knowledge development and sharing

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

• Support the organization of ICAT events, including meetings of the Donor Steering Committee,  the Advisory Committee, the 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;

• Collaborate with partners and UN agencies such as the UNFCCC secretariat, PATPA, NDC Partnership, ETF Group of Friends, and UNDP;

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

Contract type: Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA)
Contract level: IICA 2/ICS 10
Contract duration: Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

• 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. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. 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.

• International Individual contractors are required to secure their own individual medical insurance for the entire duration of the contract.