Project Analyst

Background

As of the Country Programme Document for the 2022 – 2026, within the UNSDCF Framework, UNDP’s mission is to support Viet Nam to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in which UNDP will lead the activities, interventions under the Outcome 2 to help people in Viet Nam, especially those at risk of being left behind, to benefit from, and contribute to safer and cleaner environment resulting from effective mitigation and adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction and resilience building, promotion of circular economy, clean and renewable energy, and the sustainable management of natural resources. Based on UNDP’s comparative advantage in addressing integrated sustainability and the poverty-environment and climate-health linkages, UNDP will contribute to enhancing climate and environment governance; reducing poverty and vulnerability; and responding to climate and disaster related risks, persistent organic pollutants, degradation of biodiversity and ecosystems, desertification, land degradation, plastics and ocean pollution and adverse health impacts. UNDP will empower poor and vulnerable people, especially women and ethnic minorities, to improve their resilience and access livelihood opportunities. UNDP support will increase institutional capacities for planning that reflects climate and disaster risk and for application of nature-based solutions, climate-resilient agricultural practices, tools to manage climate and disaster risks, and adaptive measures in the health sector; and to ensure resilience in housing and infrastructure development.

As a result of many years of war, the land and people of Vietnam are affected by landmines and other Explosive Ordnance (EO). According to the results of the project named "Vietnam National Explosive Remnants of War Contamination Surveying and Mapping" from 2010-2014, EO contamination remain in all 63/63 provinces/cities across the country. According to the Government of Vietnam, the total area of contamination is 6.13 million ha, accounting for 18.82% of the country's area.

Building on the lessons from the Korea-Vietnam Mine Action Project (KVMAP), the Korea – Viet Nam Peace Village Project (KVPVP) was developed and founded on the close collaboration between the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The main purpose of the project is to strengthen the capacities of the Viet Nam National Mine Action Center (VNMAC) and other responsible parties to further improve the contribution of mine action activities for human development in contaminated areas, especially in Binh Dinh, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Ngai provinces. The Republic of Korea provides its support via the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

This project, which aims to enable inclusive, safe and resilient local development by reducing the impact of EO on local communities and supporting them to stably improve livelihoods, housing and health, is structured around two main outcomes and four related outputs. Whereas the first outcome on ‘human security’, and its two associated outputs, relate to mine action and its pillars , the second outcome on sustainable rural development with a focus on livelihoods, resilient housing and health care and its two outputs provide solutions for EO victims and their local communities affected by EO. It offers various options how cleared land can be effectively utilized for sustainable livelihoods and resilient economic and social infrastructure in the context of increasing impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. The suggested intervention will provide best practices which can help improve the mine action sector in Viet Nam overall, as well as provide a couple of models how mine action activities can be linked closely with other development solutions.

Viet Nam as a whole is particularly vulnerable to climate change and is already impacted by more irregular and intense climate variability and extreme weather events. It ranked as the 6th most climate change affected country, according to Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2020 . Located in the central parts of Vietnam, the three target provinces not only have widespread EO contamination but are also specifically extremely vulnerable to the risks of floods and storms. This increased exposure of people and economic assets has been the major cause of long-term increases in economic losses from weather- and climate-related disasters. ;  Every year the country is affected by a range of hydro-meteorological and climatological hazards: droughts and forest fires during January-April; tropical, hail and wind storms; coastal, riverine, and flash floods; heavy rainfall and landslides in June-December; and extreme temperatures (cold and heat waves) throughout the year.  This climate exposure and sensitivity in impacting agriculture leading to the consequence of, overall agricultural productivity falling, with the corresponding declines in yields and incomes. This convergence of interrelated challenges is particularly difficult and increases risk for poor, near poor farmers, female farmers, especially those with disabilities and survivors. Given that the majority of EO victims are farmers and engage in agricultural activities for their livelihoods, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to climate change and extreme weather events coupled with the dangers of working on the land contaminated with EO. The presence of EO hinders people from cultivating land due to fear of being harmed and in some areas the land has become almost unusable. Therefore, once the lands have been cleared, the project will support EO victims and their communities (here in after can be referred to as ‘farmers’) across the target provinces to expand agriculture activities and implement local initiatives to improve their livelihoods. They will be provided with the skills and knowledge needed to enhance the resiliency and productivity of their agro-ecosystems and increase their capacity to access credit and markets to ensure vital financial sustainability. They will be provided with locally tailored agro-climate advisories and information so that they can reduce risks of changing climate and enhance the resilience of farming systems. The project will also enable local communities to gain access to small-grants to implement nature-based innovative solutions on newly cleared land that will lead to increased sustainability and resilience of livelihoods.

Given above context and as the project has been implemented in a full-scale manner, including the agriculture activities in three project provinces, UNDP is seeking to recruit a Project Analyst on Climate Smart Agriculture to provide coordination, implementation, technical assistance and management support to the project, and to foster implementation of agriculture and climate change responsiveness under the Outcome 2 of KVPVP project to leverage effectiveness of the project interventions in general and Output 2 – Agriculture in particular, maximizing benefit to vulnerable beneficiaries, contributing to climate change resilience, sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Project Analyst works under the general supervision of the Programme Analyst on Climate – Health nexus who is the Manager of the Outcome 2 of the KVPVP project and with the overall guidance of Assistant Resident Representative (ARR)/Head of CCEU, work closely with Agriculture Specialist, and other relevant colleagues at  the CCE and GPT units at UNDP Viet Nam to ensure and enhance the projects’ multiplied impacts, performance and compliance.

With above stated objectives, the Project Analyst will be responsible for following tasks and deliveries:

Leading the agriculture technical support including technical inputs, guiding facilitation and capacity building on climate smart agricultural practices, agronomy, value chain, crop production, low carbon and resilient agribusiness, fostering detailed intervention and providing technical advisory services to Project Management Units and stakeholders in three provinces related to the Outcome 2 of the KVPVP project.

• Leading development of detailed workplan including quarterly and annual workplans for project agriculture activities that reflect targets, technical design, intervention description and relevant requirements with emphasis on specific actions and roles of stakeholders (UNDP, DARDs, districts, communities, local based organization etc.).
• Providing technical assistance and ground support to partners in 3 provinces to develop the quarterly and annual workplan of the agriculture activities, implement interventions of agriculture component, in line with approved planned, relating following aspects:
  • Climate resilient crop production: FFS, climate smart farming techniques, watering and cultivation, adaptation initiatives
  • Innovation: agriculture inputs supply/distribution to farmers for applying new techniques, climate information advisory, climate innovation initiatives planning and application 
  • Credit and market and value chain: Primary producers, cooperative, value chain development, market and private sector linkages
  • Inclusiveness (ethnic minorities, gender) in all the agriculture intervention
• More specifically:
  • Coordinate for a coherent approach among key stakeholders, including smallholder farmers, cooperatives, local agriculture extension and grassroots actors in supporting smallholder farmers to increase capacities to apply on-farm climate resilient cultivation practices and technologies. 
  • Provide technical assistance to smallholder farmers, cooperatives and local actors on value chain, markets and credit for sustained climate-resilient agricultural investments
  • Monitoring and direct facilitation of FFS and field training activities
  • Provide support to facilitate formulation and operational of Climate Innovation Platforms and promotion of localized agro-climate advisories to enhance smallholders’ climate-resilient agricultural production. 
  • Provide proper guidance to the project counterparts for effective planning, management and implementation of projects activities associated with technical designs to ensure achievement of quality results, timely implementation and overall targets of the project.  
  • Ensure effective partnership of DARD’s core unit, e.g. District Agriculture Department, Agriculture Extension and Service centers, institutions and organizations to promote the project values, to exchange lessons learned, and jointly contribute to develop and adopt a comprehensive set of policies and regulations climate resilient agriculture. 
  • Ensure that project interventions comply with social and environmental safeguards frameworks, including on gender and ethnic minorities, as well as achieve specific gender action plan results.  
• Lead the design of learning, sharing and replication, including the design for capacity building of farmers to scale up climate-resilient cropping systems and good practices, models from Climate Innovation Platform etc. thru coaching farmers groups, cooperatives, exchange events.
• Identify project delivery issues and ensure effective coordination of project resources. Work closely with national counterparts to build cooperative relationships and establish the organization as an effective partner.
• Active participate and contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice, including UNDP/MARD thematic group on Cultivation, Irrigation, Food security, and other appropriate networks.

Foster and contribute to KVPVP’s project management, in term of M&E of relevant targets and compliance of safeguard, gender equality and stakeholder engagement of Outcome 2, in line with Project Document signed by UNDP and KOICA, Feasibility Studies approved by three project Provincial People’s Committees and Letters of Agreement signed by UNDP and three Local Project Owners.

• Provide support to project management and project team to undertake M&E requirements, workplans, annual reports etc. to ensure consistence management of targeted narrative and impacts indicators of changes, performance, beneficiaries, areas etc. and to ensure compliance of SES/safeguards (gender, ethnic minorities, stakeholders engagement).
• Support thematic coordination of cross-cutting activities, including baseline assessments, gender assessment, thematic planning (e.g. Gender action plan) - with various agriculture relevant indicators, promoting synergies and coherence among the project components and activities (resilient house, risks mapping etc.). Ensure synergies and coherence between KVPVP project in general and Outcome 2 in particular and on-going/future climate change adaptation, climate resilient agriculture and agribusiness initiatives to bring about larger benefits and impacts. 
• Advise and provide substantive inputs to the project team and partners to enhance knowledge management to promote and experiment innovative approaches on sustainable agriculture development, climate resilience and community development. 
• Actively participate and contribute of technical inputs and practical expertise to the relevant projects on the topics of climate responsive agriculture, value chain/agribusiness.

Effective contribution to CCEU/UNDP Viet Nam portfolio on climate agriculture  

• Providing technical advisory support to enhance the agriculture portfolio of CCE Unit, specifically on agro-food system transformation, resilient agriculture, value chain, food and agricultural commodities systems, and agribusiness, food security, low carbon, circular economy in agriculture etc; 
• Ensure synergies and coherence between KVPVP project and another ongoing project, such as GCF2-SACCR (GCF fund), VNCSCC (Canada fund), iLandscape (EU fund), Agrifood system transformation (UN SDG fund) projects and future climate agriculture, climate change initiatives to bring about larger benefits and impacts. 
• Advise and provide substantive inputs to UNDP Viet Nam’s participation and contributions to national, regional and international forums on climate agriculture and agro-food system transformation, climate change.
• Promote and experiment innovative approaches on sustainable agriculture, in collaboration with global and national think tanks as well as with other team members and colleagues within UNDP and CCE unit in particular.
• Actively participate and contribute of technical inputs to the relevant projects, such as GCF2-SACCR, VNCSCC, ILandscape, Agrifood system transformation and others. 

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible  
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident 
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy

• Systems Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

2030 Agenda: Planet

• Climate: Climate Change Adaptation: Fostering Food Security and resilient Agricultural systems

Business Management    

• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Partnerships Management: Build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
• Monitoring & Evaluation: Ability to systematically monitor results of strategies, programmes, and activities with a view to make sure that they are being implemented effectively; Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback and reporting on the consistency or discrepancy between planned activities and programme management and results; Ability to make independent judgment of the management and results of strategies, programmes and activities based on set criteria and benchmark, keeping in mind the needs and concerns of client, current and upcoming. Knowledge and understanding of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, concepts, methodologies, systems, processes, and tools. Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
• Communication: Communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Administration & Operations

• Events management (including retreats, trainings and meetings): Ability to manage events, including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Agronomy, Agriculture Extension, Crop Science, Climate Change or relevant fields is required.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Applicants with a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field of study are not required to have professional work experience. 
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience in implementing projects in the agronomy/ agriculture livelihood/ climate change or relevant fields.
• Experience in M&E and safeguards (gender/ ethnic minority/ stakeholder engagement) is desirable.
• Experience in coordination and implementation of agriculture-related projects and/or working with the agriculture/rural development sector including relevant stakeholders at Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Institutes/Academy in Agriculture is desirable.
• Demonstrate understanding and experience in designing, formulating and implementing technical assistant projects, preferably UNDP’s and development partners’ projects is desirable.
• Ability to work as team member in a multicultural environment is desirable.

Required Language(s):

• Fluent in English and Vietnamese is required.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.