National Technical Consultant

In 2016, Barbados became a partner country in the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a joint initiative of five UN Agencies: UN Environment, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). PAGE responds to paragraph 66 of the Rio+20 outcome document "The Future We Want", which calls upon the UN system to support countries interested in pursuing green economy policies. The partnership supports nations and regions in reframing economic policies and practices around sustainability to advance the 2030 Agenda to foster economic growth, create income and jobs, reduce poverty and inequality, and strengthen the ecological foundations of their economies. Additionally, PAGE offers a comprehensive and coordinated package of technical assistance and capacity building services.

With a diversified, serviced-based economy buttressed by the tourism and international business sectors, Barbados has successfully employed a blend of good governance, social and economic policies to the betterment of its citizens. However, the negative effects of recent global financial and economic crises, together with a dependency on imported fossil fuels, have placed pressure on the country's economy, society and environment. Limited access to natural resources, coupled with its high vulnerability to climate change as a small island developing state (SIDS), underlines the importance of building a resilient economy and achieving an integrated ecological, economic and social well being.[1] Against this background, the Government of Barbados has committed to pursuing a green economic future in the context of sustainable development. That commit is embedded in range of policy instruments including:

The National Sustainable Development Policy,
The National Strategic Plan (2006-2025)(NSP), and
The 2007 Green Economy Policy.

Building on that policy foundation, Barbados also undertook a Green Economy Scoping Study (GESS) with the assistance of the United Nations Environment Programme. The GESS specifically examined green economic opportunities in key sectors with emphases on issues of energy, water, land and waste. Following on the GESS, Barbados requested the UN system to further its green economic transition in 2016 via the Partnership for Green Economy (PAGE).PAGE provides integrated and holistic support to countries on eradicating poverty, increasing jobs and social equity, strengthening livelihoods and environmental stewardship and sustaining growth. The programme is adaptive and aligns with national priorities to offer tailored and effective support to transform economies to advance the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

A joint collaboration between five United Nations agencies —the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) —PAGE seeks to work collaboratively, employing shared knowledge between UN agencies and country offices, funding partners and partner countries, to leverage collective strength, avoid duplication, and accelerate progress towards widespread inclusive, green and sustainable development. (UN PAGE –Accelerating and Fair and Green Economic Transformation –2021)

Barbados is one of 20 PAGE countries globally, however it should be noted that Barbados has, for nearly two decades, engaged in a number of sustainable development and green economic policy interventions and assessments, which support the basis for establishing the enabling conditions for Green Economy, across sectors, nationally. The PAGE programme in Barbados is now proceeding with a focus on thematic areas such as green and blue jobs, youth engagement, green industry, and strengthening individual and institutional capacity for IGE.

A special programme supporting Barbados’ Post-COVID recovery efforts is also being executed within the context of umbrella PAGE Barbados framework. UNDP, one of the PAGE partner agencies, is focusing specifically on green technology development in Barbados, piloting an annual green innovation competition, the “BARBADOS GREEN TECH CHALLENGE”.

Duties and Responsibilities

The national consultant will be responsible for the organization of the Green Tech 2022 challenge, as described below:

THE 2022 GREEN TECH CHALLENGE-FINDING SOLUTIONS TO EVERYDAY CHALLENGES

The overarching goal of Green Tech 2022 is to establish the environment as an essential commercial core through which all other business sectors connect and are positively impacted. Given this central focus on the environment, the key objectives of GreenTech 2022 can be further extracted into the following:

Encourage the ideation and stimulate the development and launch of new GreenTech innovations across a variety of environmentally connected industry sectors
Develop a pipeline of validated new business ideas capable of attracting post-event start-up funding for the launch of new GreenTech enterprises
Provide a high quality cadre of GreenTech enterprises capable of evolving to meet the entry and requirements of the BLOOM incubator.
Build awareness around GreenTech such that Entrepreneurs and Investors are encouraged to focus on the sector as a viable sector for new enterprise investment
Establish partnerships that seed a GreenTech ecosystem with a view to reducing the need for donor funding and achieving programme sustainability over a 5 year period.
Establish a rapid prototyping approach to GreenTech innovation that encourages and supports the Fail Fast Fail Cheap culture as a way to stimulate ongoing GreenTech innovation and start-up activity.

The 2022 Challenge will focus on developing green tech applications in various areas including, but not limited to:

Early Childhood Education
Environmental Education
Environmental Monitoring and Reporting
Health and Wellness
Natural Heritage and Cultural Tourism
Sanitation
Sustainable Agriculture
Traffic Management and Electric Transport (Electrification of Bikes)
Waste Management (Waste Separation and Waste Recovery)

Barbados GreenTech 2022 is designed as an open challenge to Entrepreneurs, Developers and Technologists aged 7 -35 to stimulate the use of ICT in solving local environmental and climatic challenges by:

Executing a Start-up Weekend of activities designed to move participating individuals and teams from the Ideation through to Validation stages of new enterprise startup.
Creation of Minimum Viable Products that demonstrate a capacity for solving real world environmental challenges as well as the potential for rapid launch, scalability and financial sustainability..
Reward and encourage winning teams to advance their MVP projects to commercial launch by providing post event incubation support in the areas of: Funding, Business, Technology and Mentorship as essential elements to launching and growing their projects into commercially sustainable enterprises.

Additionally, the coordinator will develop a visibility product looking at capacity enhancement under communicating green economy. This will be a pilot, where youth are sensitized about green economy, but also receive insights into gathering and presenting green economy information, mainly for public and interested audiences, and their peers.

Competencies

Competencies and Critical Success Factors

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity
Acting as a team player and facilitating team work, initiative-taking
Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
Learning and sharing knowledge and encouraging the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing
Informed and transparent decision making

Development and Operational Effectiveness

Ability to efficiently and effectively manage complex issues with partners of the public and private sectors, including with people of different national and cultural backgrounds
Demonstrates good knowledge of Green Economy concepts
Demonstrates good knowledge of the public and private sectors of Barbados
Understanding of results frameworks

Knowledge Management and Learning

Shares knowledge and experience
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills

Leadership and Self-Management

Demonstrates problem-solving, teamwork and coordination skills and strong ability to manage demanding and complex programmes, focuses on result
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Building Strategic Partnerships

Analyses general information and selects materials in support of partnership building initiatives

Able to communicate technical

Required Skills and Experience

Master’s Degree in Sustainable Development, Business Management, Economics, Environmental Sciences or other relevant field