National Project Coordinator

Background

• Tier 1: UNDP/ UNCDF/ UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed term (FTA) appointments (defined as “internal” candidates)  
• Tier 2: UNDP/ UNCDF/ UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA) and personnel on regular PSA contracts 
• Tier 3: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

UNDP Bahrain, in partnership with the Supreme Council for Environment (SCE) and with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is implementing a portfolio of three interlinked biodiversity projects: the Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support (GBF-EAS) Project, the update of Bahrain’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and preparation of the 7th National Report, and Umbrella programme to design a national Biodiversity Finance Plan (GBFP). These projects aim to support Bahrain in achieving its commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), align national policies and monitoring systems with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and strengthen financing for biodiversity conservation.

In recent decades, biodiversity finance tools and solutions have demonstrated their importance for achieving biodiversity goals and broader sustainable development objectives. Improved choice, design and implementation of effective, well-tailored finance solutions will strengthen countries’ chances of achieving national and global biodiversity targets. Biodiversity Finance Plans have become increasingly recognised as a relevant tool to help countries to identify and fill the biodiversity finance gap, including through the work of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative www.biofin.org. In December 2022, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This included numerous targets with relevance for financing. Target 19 on resource mobilisation includes reference for countries to design and implement national biodiversity finance plans. 

The GBF-EAS project focuses on early action to align Bahrain’s national targets with the GBF through support to planning, policy review, monitoring, and finance. The NBSAP/7th National Report project complements this by updating the national strategy, reporting progress to the CBD, and consolidating stakeholder consultation. The GBFP  supports countries to design a national Biodiversity Finance Plan. A Biodiversity Finance Plan includes a systems analysis of a country's economy including to map existing financing mechanisms, subsidies with potential harmful impacts on nature, drivers of biodiversity loss and gain, public and private expenditures committed towards biodiversity objectives and a country's national financial needs for biodiversity. The biodiversity finance plan itself consists of a series of actions with the aim to significantly scale up available funding, green or phase out harmful finance flows and improve the effectiveness of available expenditures. The programme allows for active sharing of experiences across countries and includes a knowledge sharing platform and the provision of continuous technical support to country teams.  Together, these initiatives advance Bahrain’s environmental commitments and institutional capacities in a coherent, coordinated manner

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Project Coordinator will be responsible for the overall management of activities under three GEF-funded biodiversity projects: GBF-EAS, NBSAP/7th National Report, and GBFP (BIOFIN). Under the overall guidance of UNDP Programme Analyst (Sustainable Growth, Energy, Environment and Gender), the Coordinator will ensure timely and quality implementation of all three projects, including the preparation of workplans, organization of technical workshops, and effective coordination with national stakeholders and consultants. The National Project Coordinator will work closely work with the technical team to ensure implementation mechanisms and technical working groups are established and meet regularly, that all planned workshops, technical studies and other activities are organised in a timely manner, and that they meet expected quality standards.  Time allocation across the three projects will be equal for the three projects.  . In the case of extension, the percentages will be adjusted according to the remaining activities and the life of the projects.

Project coordination and implementation

• Oversee the identification, selection and supervision of national consultants and experts, in close collaboration with the UNDP Bahrain and the Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU).
• Supervise the work of national experts and institutions to ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget, and to high quality standards; facilitate, guide and monitor the work of the national team;
• Develop projects’ plans in consultation with the national team and GPMTSU
• Coordinate implementation of the project components. 
• Liaise with national partners upon request, including one-on-one calls and technical support
• Define, gather, organize, and analyze key project data
• Oversee the work of the Project Support Associate to ensure administrative requirements and budgets are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner and within UNDP and donor rules and regulations.
• Support communication with key project partners
• Gather and analyze national data and use it to support the development of project progress reports, donor reports, trainings, and presentations
• Track national progress to achieve project components
• Discuss with the Ministries of Finance, Environment and other key stakeholders the establishment of a national technical steering committee and follow up on the formal establishment and regular convening of the committee and develop meeting reports to be shared with the committee, the UNDP CO and GPMTSU. 
• Maintain regular communication with Ministries of Environment and Finance for the development and completion of all reports and products.
• Ensure timely identification of risks in implementation at the national level and communication to the GPMTSU.
• Organise regular meetings of the national team and monthly calls with the Technical Advisor from the GPMTSU.
• Ensure participation of national team members in regional technical calls. 
• Participate in regional and global meeting organized by the GPMTSU
• Support the implementation of additional ongoing or emerging projects as assigned
• Plan and coordinate the delivery of national workshops and facilitate national consultations and meetings
• Prepare progress reports regularly for the UNDP and project partners.
• Signal any delays in national deliverables compared to the workplan to the UNDP Country Office and the GPMTSU. 
• Lead project monitoring, reporting and evaluation at national level, draft monthly and quarterly reports for review by the lead expert and submission to the global BIOFIN team. 
• Coordinate the development of workshop reports for the launch workshop and all technical workshops.
• Organise regular meetings of the national project team.
• Coordinate with the UNDP CO Operations team to ensure projects’ requirements and budgets are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner.

Provision of technical services 

• Develop terms of reference for national and international experts to provide specific technical support.
• Develop technical guidance documents, tools, and trainings biodiversity and policy, including – but not limited to – NBSAP target alignment, policy review, biodiversity finance, gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment, stakeholder engagement,
• Develop reports and policy recommendations related to the targets in the emerging post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
• Ensure alignment of national work with global methodologies such as the BIOFIN workbook and others. 
• Guide and support the implementation of additional ongoing or emerging projects as assigned
• Guide and support literature reviews, knowledge management, compilation of information, and gathering of data on topics pertinent to the project, such as, but not limited to biodiversity and ecosystem in national, local and international contexts, sustainable development, Indigenous people and local communities; social entrepreneurship; engagement in global policy processes.

Facilitate capacity building and kowledge shairng 

• Develop capacity building material, identifying relevant topics, dates and speakers for workshops and webinars 
• Support an active and smooth utilization of the NBSAP Forum (http://nbsapforum.net) by GEF-eligible Parties, including sharing best practices and resources, the broad circulation of job offers and learning opportunities and dynamic discussions.
• Support the preparation of capacity building engagements at UNDP-participating events, such as CBD Conferences of Parties, Open-Ended Working Groups, SBSTTAs; virtual events such as the UN Nature for Life Hub, and global conferences, among other opportunities.  
• Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned that are generated from the project and impementing partners.

Ensure effective communication

• Signal any delays in national deliverables compared to the workplan to UNDP and the national project team; 
• Lead project monitoring, reporting and evaluation at national level in addition to the preparation of draft monthly, quarterly reports and annual report in addition to project component submissions according the global project requirements; 
• Develop workshop reports for all national stakeholder workshops and all technical workshops/meetings/trainings; 
• Develop briefing notes, press releases, web articles, talking points, PowerPoint presenttion, social media communications and other media products as required;
• Support the translation of communication materials from and to Arabic as needed
• Develop and document best practices and lessons learned from across the three projects
• Develop case studies to showcase successful policy alignment examples between national targets and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework targets

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization. 

Institutional Arrangement

The Project Coordinator will report to the UNDP Programme Analyst (Sustainable Growth, Energy, Envirnment and Gender) and be supported by a Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU). A dedicated technical advisor by GPMTSU will be available to support country’s work. Similar to the global level, the Coordinator is the most senior representative of the National Project Management Unit (NPMU) and is responsible for the overall day-to-day management of the project, including the mobilization of all project inputs, supervision over project staff, responsible parties, consultants, and sub-contractors. The Coordinator typically presents key deliverables and documents to the appropriate national governance mechanism and to the GPMTSU for their review and approval, including progress reports, annual work plans, adjustments to tolerance levels and risk registers 

At the national level, each BIOFIN country will have, as a requirement and as part of the National Project Management Unit (NPMU), a full-time dedicated Coordinator supported by a part-time Project Support Associate, and consultants, such an Environmental Policy consultant, and others, as needed. 

Institutional Arrangement

The incumbent will report to the Programme Analyst (Sustainable Growth, Energy, Environment and Gender) 

Competencies

Core
Achieve Results:	LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
Think Innovatively:	LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
Learn Continuously:	LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
Adapt with Agility:	LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
Act with Determination:	LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
Engage and Partner:	LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion:	LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making
People Management (Insert below standard sentence if the position has direct reports.) UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.  Cross-Functional & Technical competencies (insert up to 7 competencies)  Thematic Area Name Definition Cross-functional     Business Direction and Strategy System 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 Business Management Knowledge Facilitation Ability to animate individuals and groups, internally and externally, and to design and facilitate activities, to share and exchange knowledge, information and ideas. Knowledge of tools and approaches to stimulate active participation, contribution, and exchange. Business Management Project Management Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals. Business Management Results-based Management Ability to manage the implementation of strategies, programmes, and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results. Knowledge and understanding of relevant theories, concepts, methodologies, instruments, and tools. Business Management Working with Evidence and Data Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting  decision-making. Business Management 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 Business Management Customer Satisfaction/Client Management Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Technical:     Policy and Programme Agenda 2030: Planet Nature: Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Required Skills and Experience

E

Min. Education requirements	Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in environmental sciences, natural resource management, biodiversity, economics/finance or a closely related field or related field is required, or   A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree
Min. years of relevant work 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 the implementation of environment/biodiversity/finance or relevant projects.
Desired criteria	Prior experience with UNDP, CBD, and/or SCE  Strong experience in coordination and project management  Experience in collaborating with international and national experts, institutions and stakeholders Exposure to environmental issues or biodiversity highly desirable, but not required; Sound understanding of key software packages (MS Office)
Required Language(s)	Fluency in English and Arabic is required.
Professional Certificates	NA

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.

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