Background on South East Asia and the Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO):
UNOPS South East Asia and Pacific Multi Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered 4 countries South East Asia - 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) and the Philippines. EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises eight EAPMCOs: EAPMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Mekong and EAPMCO Philippines.
In 2024, the UNOPS EAPMCO implemented projects worth more than USD 80 million, in the areas of Energy Transition, Digital Transformations, Sustainable Environmental Management, Climate Change, Waste Management, Rule of Law and Access to Justice, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Post Conflict Reintegration, Emergency Relief, Post COVID19 Economic Transformations, and Health, through HR, procurement, construction, contract management, fund and program management services.
The Multi Country Office head office in Bangkok provides strategic direction, operational support, delivery oversight and assurance of the excellence of business processes and quality standards across all of the entire Multi Country Office locations. It is also responsible for developing, delivering and managing the portfolio of engagements in the country of the MCO location itself. The BU in Thailand is in charge of developing and overseeing the implementation of the portfolio in Mongolia.
Local context
The United Nations Office for Project Services has so far managed projects for Mongolia from its regional office in Bangkok, collaborating with national and international partners to implement initiatives aligned with the country’s development priorities. UNOPS is now establishing a direct presence in Mongolia, with a focus on sustainable development, climate action, and infrastructure resilience.
Background Information on the Project
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an important global forum to address desertification, land degradation and promote solutions to accelerate sustainable land management. The Convention was adopted in 1994 and is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. It is ratified by 197 parties, including 196 member states and the European Union. The UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP) is held biannually.
At UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia was announced to be the host for the 17th Conference of Parties in 2026. As one of the most affected countries by desertification, with nearly 77% of its land degraded, Mongolia will leverage COP17 to drive solutions for land restoration, sustainable land management and resilience-building across the world. The conference aims to accelerate global action against desertification, land degradation and drought, building on the momentum from the previous COP. In February 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of Mongolia and the UNCCD Secretariat.
UNOPS will provide comprehensive advisory services for the UNCCD COP17, encompassing various critical aspects of project development, management and implementation. These services are designed to offer independent technical expertise and advise to COP17's National Organizing Committee, ensuring that all phases of the COP17 preparation and execution adhere to international standards and best practices while being tailored to the local Mongolian context. The scope of advisory services includes detailed reviews, monitoring, advisory support, and capacity-building initiatives across key areas such as planning, design, construction, safety, environmental safeguards, procurement, risk management, communications, and legacy planning.
The Role:
The Senior Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project(s) and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. The Senior Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of a Senior Project Manager is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.
The Senior Project Manager is responsible to create the Implementation Plan, use the Project Initiation Documents (PID), Legal Agreement and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders to ensure the project(s) outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partner(s). Success of the project(s) and hence Senior Project Manager will be based on the defined Success Criteria.
The Senior Project Manager will be managing project(s) whose ultimate goal is to provide implementation and advisory services that contribute to the achievement of partners’ goals. The variety of projects is quite diverse and can range from management of grants, development of strategies to delivery of training or providing technical assistance.
While the complexity of those may vary, maintaining high standards in terms of quality, health, safety and sustainability is always expected.
Depending on the nature and configuration of the project, the Senior Project Manager might be executing technical studies and reporting, reviews, designs, supervision or operation, monitoring and maintenance services of one or several physical infrastructure assets, in one or multiple sites. Depending on the implementation modality it may involve large volumes of procurement of goods, services and HR services.
As the senior-most UNOPS personnel based in the country, the incumbent may be asked to represent the MCO Director and UNOPS as required.
UNOPS operates in complex contexts where resources might be scarce, local capacity low and where professional judgement and experience in these environments are of uttermost importance.