National Natural Resource Expert, (Retainer)

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peace building, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

The National Natural Resource Expert (NNRE) will specifically:

1. Undertake a stocktaking exercise of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) interventions implemented in South Asia, with particular reference to Nepal and analyze the cost of benefit ratios of these interventions to identify the most cost effective approaches for building capacity of national stakeholders.
2. Train national stakeholders of Ministry of Forests & Environment (MoFE) and Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock Development (MoALD) on i) cost effective EbA for Nepal and ii) selecting EbA using the UNEP EbA decision support framework.
3. Identify and develop Natural Resource management plan based on EbA principles for the project districts to build the resilience of the communities from climate change impacts. This includes addressing the issue of water shortage, land restoration, identification of climate resilient species, climate induced disasters etc.
4. Identify, select and develop community livelihood improvement plans (CLIPS) in consultation with User Groups for Income Generating Activities (IGAs) from forests, rangelands and agro-ecosystems from the working sites. These IGAs will include I) fodder sampling harvesting and distribution ii) timur collection and processing iii) allo collection and processing IV) cardamom cultivation and processing v) bee keeping and honey processing VI) miscellaneous Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) harvesting and processing vii) eco-home stays and viii) ghee production. IGAs from agro-ecosystems include mushroom, turmeric and ginger cultivation and processing.
5. Link the produce from activities implemented under CLIPs to the market through market system development involving private sectors, financial institutions, etc.
6. Provide technical training to Divisional Forest Offices (DFOs), Soil and Watershed Management Offices (SWMOs), Agriculture Knowledge Center (AKCs) and Veterinary Hospital and Livestock Expert Centers (VHLECs) and Targeted User-groups on developing livelihood options from forests, rangelands and agro-ecosystems. Identify and provide trainings on capacity development for targeted User groups.
7. Roll out and implement the EbA interventions and Livelihood Improvement Plans based on bullet 3 and 4 to develop alternative livelihood options for communities in the project sites. Identify IGAs for the most poor, vulnerable and socially excluded communities.
8. Undertake any other responsibilities relevant for EbA as required by PMU.

• PhD's degree in Resource Economics, Socio-economics, Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Agriculture or related areas with 10 years of substantive work experience in conducting studies/research in the areas of natural resource sector, socio-economic development and livelihood/IGA strategy or other related fields is required.
• Master's degree in the above subjects with 15 years of substantive work experience may be accepted in lieu of PhD's degree.
  
  

• Sound working knowledge of poverty environment nexus, socio-economic development, livelihood dimension and Gender and governance is preferred. 
• Proven knowledge and experience of having developed tools, protocols, strategy and plans including the ability to network and travel to field sites is preferred.
• Strong analytical and probing skills is preferred. 

Contract type: LICA

• 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
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• 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.

The position is based in the family duty station (Kathmandu) with regular travel to field sites.