Programme Officer

Launched in 1992, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) has been promoting grassroots actions to address global environmental concerns.  SGP aims to deliver global environmental benefits in the GEF focal area of biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, protection of international waters, prevention of land degradation (primarily desertification and deforestation), and elimination of persistent organic pollutants through community-based approaches.  SGP is a corporate programme of the GEF.  It is implemented by UNDP and executed by UNOPS.  As of today, SGP has funded over 20,000 community-based projects covering more than 120 countries.  It has gained considerable experiences at the community level, including adapting to climate change while addressing issues of the GEF focal areas.  Further information can be found at: https://sgp.undp.org/.

The Programme Officer is a full time position for 12 months that will assist the work of the SGP Central Programme Management Team (CPMT).  The Programme Officer will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Advisor responsible for the SIDS Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) programme funded by the Government of Australia. 

As an integral member of the team, he/she will also be expected to coordinate closely with the SGP Knowledge Management (KM) and Communications specialist on all KM activities and products, collaborate with other CPMT team members, SGP National Coordinators (NCs), partners and others, as well as to take on additional tasks assigned by the direct supervisor and senior management, as necessary.

The Programme Officer main functions will be to provide support for oversight, programmatic technical inputs and logistical needs of the SIDS CBA, including assistance in administrative tasks such as organizing periodic skype calls with countries, providing feedback on operational matters of the projects, drafting briefs and donor reports and provide support for knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation tasks. The incumbent will also assist CPMT in the recruitment of short term consultants, website updates; logistic issues, budgets and expenditures tracking and other routine project follow up actions. As and when required, the incumbent may be required to travel to participating countries to undertake tasks detailed below or as assigned by the Programme Advisor of CBA programme.

Key areas of work

The Programme Officer will be responsible for assisting CPMT and programme Advisor of the CBA programme with the following key areas:

a)  Support for Technical and Management oversight of the CBA portfolio (40%)

- Provide strategic support on all aspects of the CBA global portfolio implementation through anticipatory action, proactive monitoring, data mining and creation of tools to facilitate agile monitoring of key processes, i.e. CBA implementation processes, budget and expenditures tracking, pipeline management and overall realization of annual work plan, thereby supporting CPMT team and advisor in aligning planned targets as described in the global cost sharing agreements.

- Provide support to the SGP National Coordinators (NCs), Sub-regional coordinators (SRCs), and National Focal Persons (NFPs) in order to help coordinate the development and progress of the pipeline and portfolio of high quality SIDS CBA projects, routine follow up with participating countries on programme status, liaising with UNOPS on country requests and tracking deliverables from programme countries and consultants.

- Work closely with all CPMT staff and relevant consultants to provide logistical support such as preparing and administering annual surveys, sharing lessons across countries based on project fact sheets and proactively working with national coordinators to provide needed information and verifying the accuracy of the same for preparations of CBA products and other related SGP materials. In the same vein, monitor progress of consultancies and that deliverables are submitted in a timely manner.

- Working with interns and other personnel assigned to the project to provide logistical support. This will require the incumbent to help in drafting interns TOR, work with UNOPS for posting, provide secretariat support during the evaluation of the applications and relay feedback to unsuccessful candidates.  Once interns are on board, work with CPMT to find and locate office space/working station, receipts of accreditation and UN badges, provide relevant data and information needs required by interns on a demand basis and based on the assigned tasks.

- Day-to-day follow up with SGP country teams on project progress, realization of key agreements, finalization of strategies, release of COBs by UNOPS etc. After consultation with CPMT, provide technical backstopping to SGP NCs on CBA matters (including the Vulnerability Reduction Assessment tracking tool methodologies)

-  The incumbent will devise and maintain an up to date registry for the project, file documents and information (electronic and hard copies) efficiently.  Upon request by senior management, the incumbent will provide the necessary information stored in the repository of data and information from all sources including those maintained in the share drive of SGP. Liaising efficiently with country programme countries to seek needed information and data as required by the CPMT and advisor of the CBA programme. New and generated information on projects progress, reports, fact sheets, videos and You tube materials, will be posted in relevant pages of SGP website and partner advocacy platforms and networks like weAdapt and Asia Pacific Adaptation Networks (APAN).

b) Knowledge Management (30%)

All Knowledge Management (KM) tasks will be carried out in close consultation and under the guidance of the CPMT Programme Advisors for CBA and the SGP KM & Communications Specialist. These will include:

- Preparations of specified KM products for global and regional events and when required by CPMT as part of its outreach and communications efforts;

- Develop case studies, fact sheets, flyers or brochures on the CBA programme and projects as required by SGP;

- Update CBA information and pages on the SGP website (i.e. events, conferences, articles and stories) to showcase results from the projects and establish appropriate links/contribute to other relevant websites or knowledge platforms such as the WeAdapt by Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI);

- Prepare an annual survey for sourcing project information from countries and use the survey results to draft a compilation of the annual progress report based on appropriate template and advice from the CBA advisor.

- Collaborate with UN system, KM specialist and external partners (including donor communication focal points) for the distribution of knowledge products as needed;

c) Monitoring & Evaluation (30%)

The Programme Officer will monitor project delivery in terms of generation of intended outputs and outcomes, KM products for the SIDS CBA projects. In tracking project milestones and indicators, the incumbent will work closely with the CPMT team to ensure overall coordination and timely inputs. Other tasks will include:

- Continue monitoring (using Google analytics) and ensuring all information is captured in database and evaluate progress of all projects in the SIDS CBA portfolio with a view to capturing and identifying areas/topics where documentation of knowledge and results can be done.

- Work with NCs to ensure proper and correct entries of SIDS CBA projects in the SGP database to provide analytical information needed for the development of documentation as requested by CPMT.

- Work with CBA manager to ensure that global SIDS CBA technical results are generated periodically, consolidated, analyzed, benchmarked against targets, and reported by region and globally in accordance with internal and external requirements. This activity will contribute to the drafting of SIDS CBA annual report preparation, with close guidance from CBA advisor.

 - Ensure delivery of regular communications and reporting to the main donor with regards to national-level SIDS CBA activities, as well as sharing of lessons and timely contributions to international conferences and meetings.

- Review Vulnerability Reduction Assessment (VRA) reports, information in database, liaise with NCs to acquire where it is missing in order to track VRA scores or indicators for all MAP and SIDS CBA projects.

- Aggregate VRA results from all MAP and SIDS projects and provide to CPMT or identified consultant for the development of a publication on “Experiences of CBA methodology for SGP internal and external use”

- Track sex, gender disaggregated data, participation of women, indigenous peoples, youth, disabled in SGP CBA projects, as well as volunteer activities, for synthesis and use in scheduled reports.

- Backstop SGP NCs, Sub-Regional Coordinators (SRCs) and part-time National Focal Persons (NFPs) who organize national and regional meetings/workshops and ensure that final reports/outputs from such meetings reach CPMT and stored for future use.

- Track data related to partnerships building, especially with UN agencies and monitor co-financing levels in the database at national levels.

3. Monitoring and Progress Controls

The Programme Officer is expected to produce high quality outputs and ensure timely and effective completion of the key tasks listed above. The final results of the consultancy are expected to include:

- Effective and timely provision of support for programme oversight, answering routine questions from the field and providing administrative backstopping to national coordinators proficiently;

-  Continuous tracking of key programme indicators and ensure effective completion of ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities;

-  Work with National Coordinators in editing national level documentations and publications to ensure their posting to the SGP  and countries website;

- Development of case studies and any other relevant knowledge products for climate change conferences, workshops and symposiums using information generated from the SIDS CBA projects, including performing all research and analysis activities needed to support the process.

- Research and analysis support in the development of publications on Vulnerability Reduction Assessment (VRA) as informed by the SIDSCBA project results.

- Development of the annual work plans and donor report, aid quality check information, financial reporting and tracking of budget expenditures as required by donor in close consultations with programme Advisor and the UNOPS Portfolio manager;

-  Support the CBA Programme Advisor with an on-going scoping study on persons with disability, piloting of study findings in the fields and mainstreaming of outputs in the SGP wide programme;

- Work with the CBA Programme Advisor to organize regional training meetings, initiate ‘end-of-project’ evaluation reporting for 41 SIDS CBA participating countries in a timely manner;

- Coordinate and organize independent external evaluations of the SIDS CBA global project and back-stop evaluator/s to undertake the exercise smoothly and provide acceptable reports;

·         Completion of a master’s degree or a first degree in any of the following fields: natural sciences and/or resource management, meteorological fields or climate sciences, social sciences and/or sustainable development, project management and/or administration.

·         Experiences of at least 5 years in a combination of the fields of climate change adaptation, administrative support to projects implementation, including programme and finance support functions gained from preferably a development organization.

The other mandatory requirements for this post are:

·         Experience in programme administration and monitoring; designing and conducting surveys, drafting and editorial of reports and proof reading of technical reports.

·         Demonstrated ability to maintain effective communications with different stakeholders and arrange stakeholders meetings and workshops

·         Experience in content management systems such as Drupal and Joomla, use of google analytics and technology proficiency in website servers and updating of websites;

·         Experience in the usage of office software packages and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet (Excel) and database packages;

·         Experiences with grant making processes for community level organizations is an asset;

·         Proven ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines while maintaining high-quality outputs;

·         Proven ability to use good judgment and experience working in a multi-cultural setting are critical.

Small Grants Cluster

UNOPS executes the UNDP-implemented Small Grants Programme though the Small Grants Cluster. Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the Small Grants Programme efficiently channels direct grants to non-governmental and community-based organizations to help them cope with climate change; conserve biodiversity; protect international waters; reduce the impact of Persistent Organic Pollutants; and prevent land degradation. Helping communities with their initiatives for sustainable livelihoods while generating global environmental benefits is the core inspiration of the Small Grants Programme.

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale. 

• 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.
• 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
• 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.