Programme Specialist – Climate Change-Environment – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Open for Non-Ethiopian nationals only)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

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Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa and is the second most populous country on the continent with an estimated population of 115 million. It borders six African countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, and covers 1,104,300 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethiopia represents a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African cultures evident in the religious, ethnic, and language composition of its people.

Over the past two years, children and their families across Ethiopia faced multiple and complex emergencies, such as the conflict in northern Ethiopia and the drought, which resulted in millions of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. UNICEF has programmes in Child Protection, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, and Education and serves over 15 million children in Ethiopia. Join UNICEF Ethiopia to contribute to improving the lives of children and women.

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Under the guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative – Programme, the incumbent supports the scale-up activities in mitigating the impacts of shocks and stresses and addressing the root causes and shortfalls in the capacities of stakeholders thereby supporting the strengthening of low-carbon programmes.

The main purpose of this assignment is to reinforce capacities of the UNICEF and its partners in strengthening its climate change-sensitive, environmentally friendly programme while scaling up low-carbon humanitarian response, resilience building, and development. The assignment is designed to align with UNICEF’s global strategy on climate energy and the environment as well as integrate it into resilient and sustainable solutions and systems for vulnerable communities, households, and children.

It will help to better understand the opportunities for UNICEF in integrated humanitarian responses, climate change response, environmental action, disaster risk reduction, and resilience as a pathway between humanitarian aid and development.

For this purpose, UNICEF seeks to examine the baseline situation of climate and environmental-related issues affecting children and map the different actors working in Ethiopia on this subject. In addition, the analysis will explore the financial opportunities for UNICEF in collaboration with other UN agencies with the aim of implementing projects that can respond to various problems by taking advantage of the expertise of the different agencies. This is particularly important under donor grants such as the United Kingdom – Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office  (FCDO) Ethiopia Crises to Resilience (EC2R) programme which aims to alleviate the impact of the conflict and drought on the poorest Ethiopians.

Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks:

Programme Coordination of Climate, Environment and Energy activities 

• Provide technical support to sections and COs regarding climate, energy, and environment
• Ensure that UNICEF engagement in the area of climate, energy, and environment (CEE) is well coordinated within and outside UNICEF and that UNICEF progressively integrates climate change action into office programs.
• Liaise with other stakeholders active in climate change and environmental sustainability for coordination, lessons learned and good practices and ensure linkages/ knowledge exchange with regional and global stakeholders.
• Participate in relevant United Nations and development partners’ climate change and environment working groups to ensure linkages/ knowledge exchange with regional and global stakeholders.
• Integrate CEE in Resilience task force CO coordination and coordinate with emergency section.
• Plan for use of technical experts from the Regional Office and HQ, through remote support and on-site visits.
• Technical support on reviewing and oversight on ESS / ESIA associated with climate projects.

EC2R Coordination

• The FCDO Ethiopia Crises to Resilience (EC2R) programme is a multi-agency, multi-sectoral intervention which requires horizontal efficiencies and coordination of stakeholders with results aimed to alleviate the impact of the conflict and drought on the poorest Ethiopians. The Country Office is seeking a coordinator to bring all partners together on a regular basis to develop further efficiencies and to ensure strong implementation and coordination throughout the intervention. The coordinator will also ensure timely achievement of results, proactively communicate potential challenges and work with stakeholders to overcome challenges, and ensure strong communication to all partners, including FCDO.
• With support from the Donor Relations Specialist, regularly convene meetings with EC2R partners for the purposes of implementation updates, identification and information sharing on potential areas of coordination (e.g. supply distribution), identification of any potential risks or bottlenecks, brainstorming on mitigation measures, to create further efficiencies within programming across partners, ad to ensure that EC2R is implemented within donor conditions.
• Support with the coordination and quality assurance of inputs related to donor updates and reports.
• Regularly monitor UNICEF EC2R budget utilization and support programme teams to accelerate utilization where needed.
• Proactively identify any potential risks to implementation in the event a re-programming request might be necessary.

Climate Finance, partnerships, and resource mobilization and provide linkages to regional and global efforts

• Strengthen and establish climate and environment-focused partnerships with CSOs, the Government, the UN, and development partners.
• Systematically pursue climate finance (global climate funds, bilateral, private sector) by establishing partnerships with relevant focal points, and potential partners and mapping opportunities for UNICEF.
• Provide linkages to UNICEF’s global “Climate, Energy, and Environment programmes and regional work and pilot their implementation at the country level.
• Develop concept notes and proposals for fundraising for climate change adaptation and mitigation proposals as well as inputs to proposals from other sections as needed.
• Follow-up, backstopping, and coordination of implementation of approved environment-focused proposals.
• Explore climate financing architecture and opportunities for UNICEF and the Government to qualify and apply for climate finance from IFI and other climate financing institutions. 

Technical and operational support for programme implementation 

• Substantively lead UNICEF efforts at sectoral integration of environment and climate change in emergency and resilience programme.
• Support expansion of green energy use and applications in UNICEF programmes and operations through market assessments, development, and knowledge sharing.
• Identify actions and best practices for protecting children from climate change and environmental risk and provide necessary technical assistance and capacity development to staff and partners for their adoption.
• Identify objectives, actions, and best practices for reducing UNICEF’s environmental and carbon footprint to efficiently implement its programmes.
• Example of sector support for the design of programmes, and risk-informed programming.
  • WASH: Coordinated concept and proposal development jointly with internal and external stakeholders for accessing climate finance. Potential entry points include household and institutional climate adaptation, environment, and climate awareness through WASH in Schools programmes, innovation in water and wastewater treatment and management, climate resilient water safety planning, and water scarcity.
  • YOUTH: support the section in conducting climate and environment-focused youth participation and youth activism to support climate initiatives.
  • EDUCATION: support the section on the development of environment and climate action curriculum support, and in awareness raising around environmental impacts on children and the youth.
  • HEALTH: support engagement regarding the climate resilient health systems, and support work regarding the added burden of disease due to climate change.
  • SOCIAL POLICY: support the section in the incorporation of national climate and environment vulnerability assessments and social safety systems.

Networking and partnership building

• Support sector resisector-resilientts in technical relationships with relevant ministries and government counterparts in order to support national priorities and promote UNICEF’s portfolio of action on climate change.
• Support communication, evidence dissemination, and awareness raising on the impact of climate change on children’s rights in Ethiopia, to facilitate programme implementation and build the capacity of stakeholders.
• Prepare materials for climate change programme advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships, and support fund-raising.
• Participate in inter-agency discussions, ensuring that UNICEF’s position, interests, and priorities are fully considered and integrated in the UNDAF development planning and agenda setting.

Innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building

• Maintain overall knowledge of the policy, institutions, and programmatic activities
• Disseminate regional and global relevant climate change and environmental research and innovations (technical and systems) to advocate for their adoption by programmes and operations.
• Prepare learning/knowledge products, covering innovative approaches and good practices, in climate action to support overall programme development.
• Draft policy papers, briefs, and other strategic materials for use by management, donors, UNICEF regional offices, and headquarters
• Participate as a resource person in capacity-building initiatives to enhance the competencies of clients/stakeholders.

The support provided by the specialist will explore the opportunities of UNICEF in climate change. She/he will facilitate the shift to a climate resilient programme and enable the country office to achieve nexus between humanitarian and development of the country programme.

Specific results:

1. Timely and accurate technical assistance is provided to Programme Sections to carry out climate, energy, climate adaptation and mitigation responses and environment-related programme delivery; evaluate and report on compliance with the established guidelines and procedures.
2. EC2R implementation is well coordinated.
3. Operational research on climate, energy, and environment scaling up and strengthening.
4. Support to the Ethiopia Co CLAC focal points, to be developed, approved, and disseminated.
5. Promotion of knowledge management through drafting/finalizing key Climate, Energy, and Environment programme documents and sharing good practices, lessons learned, and facilitating knowledge/information exchange within the region.
6. Development of streamlining of Climate, Energy, and Environment proposals and concepts that are effectively promoted coherently and aligned with Climate finance institutions’ strategies.
7. Effective communication and networking at Climate, Energy, and Environment meetings is achieved through partnership and collaboration with other UN agencies, donors, and NGOs.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: environment, climate science, social and economic development, public health, public administration international cooperation, or another relevant technical field is required.
  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree. 
• Additional relevant post-graduate courses that complement/supplement the main degree are a
  strong asset.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in resilience, development, and emergency,
  programmes are required.
• Experience in WASH, Climate change, and environmental programmes is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in applying results-based management required.
• Proactive and resourceful, good communication skills in negotiating and liaising with counterparts and partners.

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable female candidates are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF.

UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.