IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,300 Member organisations and the input of more than 16,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. The IUCN Secretariat has offices located all around the world and is headquartered in Gland, Switzerland.

Every four years, the IUCN membership adopts a quadrennial Programme that guides the work of the Union, especially that of the IUCN Secretariat. The Secretariat implements the IUCN Programme through a growing portfolio of over 400 projects across the world that are designed to respond to country, donor, and IUCN priorities. IUCN has put in place an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) in order to provide a systematic procedure to check IUCN projects for potential adverse environmental and social impacts and to assure that negative impacts are avoided or minimised to the extent possible while promoting positive impacts. The ESMS procedures and policies are explained in the ESMS Manual and in the ESMS standards available at www.iucn.org/esms.

In order to enhance ESMS performance, support timely delivery of ESMS instruments and operational efficiency, as well as to ensure ESMS review is geographically close to the projects and their stakeholders, IUCN is hiring an ESMS Specialist for the Asia Regional Office for (ARO). He/she will be responsible for providing guidance on the application of the IUCN ESMS policy to the Asia and Oceania regional project portfolio and reviewing and clearing projects for compliance with that policy. This position will contribute to the region’s leadership in safeguard quality assurance and will play a key role in improving IUCN’s ESMS practices and culture. It will require safeguard subject-matter expertise and experience as well as aptitude in advising and training on the need and benefits of safeguard application.

1. MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
As the regional specialist for the application of the ESMS, this position is responsible for providing quality assurance and guiding project teams on ESMS requirements ensuring that ESMS procedures, standards and principles are applied on the regional project portfolio. This includes preparing ESMS screening reports for projects in Asia and Oceania including country specific and multi-country/regional projects, advising project teams on safeguard-related improvements of project design, provide guidance on the preparation of ESIAs and safeguard instruments and preparing ESMS clearance. It further involves providing support and supervision during project implementation to guarantee that ESMS requirements are complied with and assure quality. Where a safeguard related grievance is raised, he/she will be instrumental in solving the matter proactively.

He/she will also build ESMS capacity in the region to enhance ESMS compliant project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk management strategies. This involves coaching and training of regional and country office staff and project teams (including external to IUCN) as well as supporting recruitment, onboarding and training of project ESMS officers.

This position provides safeguards expertise to support learning from ESMS application in support of further refining the IUCN system and increasing the system’s efficiency. She/he will monitor the application of safeguard instruments in the region, distil lessons learned and support the global ESMS Coordinator in system development, refinements and learning.

This position will report to the Portfolio Manager Asia and Oceania – Multilateral Finance (GEF, GCF) but will be guided technically by the global ESMS Coordinator.

This position requires frequent travel in the Asia and Pacific regions.

2. SPECIFIC DUTIES:
2.1 Regional portfolio ESMS application
Application of ESMS procedures to the regional project portfolio, specifically:
2.1.1 Environmental and social due diligence at project design/formulation stage
• Screen projects for environmental and social impacts, define risk category, identify necessary
impact studies and safeguards instruments;
• Advise project teams on stakeholder engagement during project design and implementation
phase;
• Support project teams/ in contracting experts for environmental and social assessments ; or
where issues are less complex, carry out targeted assessments and stakeholder consultation;
• Appraise the quality of final ESIA reports and environmental and social management plans
(ESMP) and other safeguard tools;
• Advise on appropriate budgeting for ESMS activities;
• Conduct final compliance check and provide ESMS clearance of projects.
2.1.2 ESMS support during project implementation
• Provide ESMS training for executing agency (EA) and relevant partners at project inception;
• Appraise any ESMS deliverables that are due in the inception phase;
• Support the EA in monitoring safeguard tools and reporting progress on implementation and
compliance with all ESMS requirements;
• Contribute to annual project implementation reviews/ supervision missions and to the
development of the ESMS specific aspects of the mid-term review and terminal review;
• Manage ESMS project data including entries to the IUCN Project Portal to assure maintenance
of ESMS records.
2.1.3 Grievance management and incident reporting
• Provide guidance to the EA in setting-up a project-level grievance mechanism in adherence to
IUCN’s Grievance Mechanism Guidance Note;
• Work with EA to solve grievances in line with IUCN’s three-staged grievance process;
• Maintain a register of grievances received at the regional level, and report on progress solving grievances;
• Ensure timely reporting of incidents and implementation of corrective actions.

2.2 Build ESMS capacity in the region
To enhance ESMS compliant project design and ensure effective implementation of the risk
management strategies, it is essential to strengthen regional ESMS capacity. This involves:
2.2.1 Train and coach regional and country office staff and project teams on ESMS procedures,
principles and standards to ensure not only consistent application but also pro-active
integration of ESMS principles into project design;
2.2.2 Support the global ESMS Coordinator in the development of ESMS training materials and
delivery of training sessions;
2.2.3 Contribute to the recruitment, hiring and on-boarding of new project-level ESMS officers in
the region an provide technical supervision.

2.3 ESMS development, refinement and learning
Supporting the global ESMS Coordinator in system development, refinements and learning. This
involves:
2.3.1 Monitor ESMS implementation in the region to capture lessons learned and feed-back from
the EA and project stakeholders and suggest refinement and improvements of the system;
2.3.2 Contribute to enhancement of institutional processes to increase effectiveness of ESMS
application;
2.3.3 Generate lessons on the ESMS application identifying good practices and synthesising
these practices for dissemination;
2.3.4 Perform other duties as may be assigned from time to time.