Governance is one of the six signature solutions in UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 – alongside poverty and inequality, resilience, environment, energy, and gender equality – to support countries towards three directions of change: structural transformation, leaving no one behind and resilience.  The objective of UNDP’s governance work is to ensure that accountable, inclusive, and effective governance underpins sustainable development. UNDP’s governance assistance, including that provided through UNDP’s Global Programme, Governance for People and Planet (G4PP), is multi-dimensional and multi-level and goes beyond technical solutions to support a “systems approach” which is human rights based, problem-driven and participatory to accelerate development and ensure no one is left behind.

In addition, addressing climate change is one of the key global challenges and priorities for UNDP. Working in over 170 countries and territories, UNDP is uniquely placed to work with all sectors of society to help mobilize the institutions and resources required to support countries in implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the context of the Paris Agreement. The Climate Promise: From Pledge to Impact is UNDP’s flagship programme delivered by and embedded within the Climate Strategies and Policy portfolio of the Climate Hub. This programme is part of UNDP’s strategy to support NDC enhancement and implementation from the global to the national level, which also builds on UNDP’s larger portfolio of support to countries on climate change.

UNDP plays an essential role in the promotion, coordination, and coherence of the United Nations agenda on youth, in line with the Youth 2030 strategy.

As detailed in its Strategic Plan 2022-2025, UNDP is committed to promoting the rights of future generations and amplifying young people’s voices in decisions on climate action and the future of their communities through capacity development, youth political participation and support to young innovators. UNDP supports global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals and the Sustainable Development Goals and recognizes the crucial role that young people play in advocating for human rights, including the right to a healthy environment and solutions to the climate crisis.

This job position will be anchored in Outcome 2: People are empowered as positive agents of change in an inclusive public sphere of the G4PP.  Outputs under this outcome advance initiatives focused on youth empowerment and engagement in peace and development processes, mobilizing movements and networks, and driving effective grassroots actions for peace, justice, and inclusion in their communities. UNDP’s Youth team is also a member of the task teams on climate and nature, among many others.

Moreover, a key area of work under the Climate Promise is mobilizing society and promoting social inclusion in the NDC process. The Climate Promise aims to ensure a whole-of-society approach to NDCs, and that underrepresented groups are considered and meaningfully engaged in decision-making at all levels. As part of this work, with various groups and communities, under the Inclusivity Pillar, the Climate Promise intends to build its portfolio of support to youth and youth-led organizations and ensure youth priorities and needs are integrated into the planning and implementation, as it relates to NDCs and climate change more broadly. Through its Climate Promise, UNDP has assisted over 120 countries to update their NDCs. 91of supported countries now prioritize youth within their national climate commitments, with around 58% actively engaging youth groups, prompting specific policy measures and actions.

UNDP youth and climate teams support youth and climate action and play a pivotal role in amplifying youth voices and strengthening youth leadership through climate initiatives and programmes, like the Youth4Climate initiative, as well as multi-stakeholder partnerships like the NDC Partnership.

Position Purpose

The purpose of this position is to support UNDP’s global work on, with and by young people, regarding governance and climate action.

Under the primary supervision of Youth Policy Specialist, Governance (BPPS), the Youth and Climate Analyst will be part of the Global Youth team and will contribute to:

• Strengthening partnerships and amplifying voices of youth led organizations and constituencies that promote youth meaningful participation in climate action.
• Supporting youth leadership in climate action through implementation of innovative programmes and initiatives across regions.
• Providing policy support and promote meaningful youth engagement in climate related strategies and frameworks.
• Building knowledge and skills on youth climate action, and related topics, including climate security, climate justice.

Under the matrix supervision of the Global Inclusivity Advisor, Climate Hub, the incumbent will dedicate 50% of his/her time to supporting youth-related activities of the UNDP Climate Strategies and Policy Team under the Climate Hub.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Contribute to policy development, analysis, research, and knowledge:

• Contribute to policy development on youth empowerment– with a particular emphasis on youth civic engagement, youth-led and youth-inclusive climate action, and nature-based solutions.
• Assist in the development and updating of databases, including of UNDP worldwide projects and initiatives advancing youth empowerment, institutional partners, including youth organizations and philanthropy, and mapping of potential donors and partners interested in youth and climate/nature/green jobs.
• Contribute to the analysis of data, case evidence and research findings to distil relevant lessons learned on youth and climate/nature.
• Contribute to the development of new research, policy and knowledge products/tools on themes related to youth engagement and empowerment and the intersection it has with governance, climate, nature, just transition, peace, and climate security, among others.
• Support the research, development and dissemination of knowledge-based tools, such as UNDP and UN-wide guidance notes for the use of UNDP Country Offices/UN country teams, e.g. policy brief/guidance on youth, climate action and nationally determined contributions.
• Assist in development and design of publicity and communication materials, press releases as well as developing advocacy strategies for disseminating and raising awareness of knowledge products.
• Collaborate on the preparation of corporate reports on youth, contributing to/drafting power-point presentations, speeches, briefing notes.

Contribute to youth programming support for effective interventions:

• Collaborate to the implementation and reporting of relevant initiatives UNDP is leading or part of, on and with youth.
• Support youth meaningful participation in climate mobilization, acceleration and ambition and youth inclusion in Nationally Determined Contributions enhancement and implementation.
• Support the Youth team with the development/monitoring of global and regional initiatives with and on youth, on youth & nature, climate and/or energy, peace and climate security.
• Support the provision of advisory services on youth empowerment, as well as the provision of technical guidance to, and substantive collaboration with youth and climate regional focal points.
• Support the coordination and expand synergies between the Youth4Climate initiative and the Climate Promise work on youth.
• Support the development and use of UNDP’s Roster on Youth.
• Assist the Global Youth Policy Specialist and the Global Inclusivity Advisor in the preparation of yearly work plans, events, presentations and other programme-related documents and correspondence as may be required.
• Identify opportunities for resource mobilization and develop targeted funding proposals on youth, particularly focusing on young people and climate action.
• Draft project reports, minutes of meetings and terms of reference, as required.

Support UNDP’s Global Policy Network and communities of practitioners on/with youth, with an emphasis on Youth & Climate:

• Support the strengthening of the professional community on youth, through communications and outreach to other teams and clusters, Regional Bureau focal points, United Nations partners and other relevant organizations including through collaboration with the UN Youth Office and the Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development.
• Support the strengthening of external partnerships, including but not limited to, UNFCCC YCC, NDCP, YOUNGO.
• Support youth meaningful participation in climate and nature-focused global, regional, and country events, processes, and campaigns, as relevant, including COPs.
• Produce content for UNDP’s corporate spaces relevant to youth and climate.
• Support/coordinate the development, organization and coordination of global and regional events, webinars and platforms focusing on youth and climate action.
• Support inter-agency activities on youth, the annual and monthly meetings of the inter-agency network, the provision of inputs to the Secretary-General’s reports and the implementation of the United Nations Youth Strategy.
• Support the updating of www.youth4peace.info
• Support any other relevant tasks, as required.

Support capacity building and knowledge sharing on youth and climate:

• Support the development and capacity building of UNDP communities of practice, on youth and climate.
• Support design and delivery of youth and climate related trainings to youth constituencies and civil society young leaders.
• Produce content on youth and climate, including on Sparkblue.
• Support/coordinate the development, organization and coordination of global and regional events, webinars and platforms focusing on youth and climate.

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

Competencies

Core
Achieve Results:

• Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.

Think Innovatively:

• Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.

Learn Continuously:

• Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.

Adapt with Agility: 

• Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.

Act with Determination:

• Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.

Engage and Partner:

• Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

• Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional
Business Direction & 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: Portfolio Management

• Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment.

Business Management: Monitoring

• Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results.

2030 Agenda: Peace – Governance

• Youth political participation and leadership.

2030 Agenda: Planet – Nature, Climate and Energy

• Climate Change Policies: Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

2030 Agenda: Planet – Nature, Climate and Energy

• Climate change Policies: including international climate change regime and application.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in law, human rights, public policy, economics, environment/climate studies, international development or a related field of study is required, or
• 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:

• Minimum 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in a relevant field, including professional experience of working on development issues in at least one developing country, with focus on governance, youth, human rights, climate action, civic engagement.
• Proven experience on issues related to youth, climate, environment, governance, and peacebuilding is required.
• Proven experience in analysis and research on youth and/or climate related issues is required.
• Professional experience of working in a UNDP Country Office or in the field with similar entities will be a strong asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English required.
• Working knowledge of another official UNDP working language a real asset.