JOB DETAILS:

United Nations Development Programme Project Provincial Coordinator Solomon Islands UNDP Jobs 2024

United Nations Development Programme looking for “Project Provincial Coordinator”. Applicants with an Advanced degree may apply on or before 12-Jul-24.

The United Nations Development Programme has published a job vacancy announcement on 28/06/2024 for qualified applicants to fill in the vacant post of Project Provincial Coordinator to be based in , Solomon Islands. For more jobs, please visit https://unjoblink.org

Company Name: United Nations Development Programme

Job Title: Project Provincial Coordinator

Duty Station: , Solomon Islands

Country: Solomon Islands

Application Deadline: 12-Jul-24

About the Company:

The biological diversity of Solomon Islands is critical for the wellbeing of the people of Solomon Islands. The predominantly subsistence lifestyle that characterizes the Solomon Islands economy is underpinned by the country’s heavy reliance on its biological diversity. The importance of biodiversity as the basis for the people’s livelihood and wellbeing is therefore well understood and it is recognized that without biodiversity the country also loses its aesthetic, spiritual and educational values and significance, which are integral to our wellbeing and traditional way of life. Thus, the maintenance of watersheds, marine environment and water quality, soil retention and erosion control, provision of critical habitat for fauna, climate regulation, nutrient cycling and the pollination of plants are just a few of the essential ecological services that are essential to the islanders. Nonetheless, there is growing realization that the country’s biodiversity is also under increasing pressure from multiple sources of threats, for example, from habitat loss, land degradation, overexploitation, invasive alien species and climate change. These pressures can be devastating for the health of the country’s biodiversity and, therefore its livelihood and wellbeing.

The United Nations Development Programme, Solomon Islands with partnership with the Solomon Islands Government recently received CEO endorsement for its GEF 7 STAR Allocations focusing on mainstreaming biodiversity across sectors, as well as landscapes, seascapes; addressing direct drivers to protect habitats and species; and creating an enabling environment to support Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target implementation. This project will help the Solomon Islands in safeguarding its indigenous species and ecosystems from invasive species, halt land degradation and restore degraded areas, control unsustainable resource use and climate-induced risks through a holistic and integrated landscape-seascape management approach through effective government enabling and capacity, community participation and development of resilient blue/green livelihoods.

The project objective is to ensure that Solomon Islands indigenous species and ecosystems are at reduced risk from invasive alien species, land degradation and unsustainable resource use as a result of effective government enabling and capacity, community participation and resilient blue/green livelihoods. The project recognizes that these land and seascapes of the Solomon Islands underpin the lives and livelihoods of a large number of local communities and that implementation of a coherent and integrated strategy to promote improved measures for prevention and management of invasive alien species, land and marine degradation and unsustainable use of its natural resources is an integral part of the solution. This is to be achieved through four interrelated and

mutually complementary Components that are focused on addressing barrier. The four Components of the project are.

• Component 1: Enabling framework for safeguarding biodiversity, combating land degradation and securing a nature-based economy.
• Component 2: Comprehensive risk management approach to address IAS threats to biodiversity and land degradation.
• Component 3: Community-based integrated ecosystem management and threat reduction at land/seascape scale.
• Component 4: Knowledge management, awareness, M&E and gender mainstreaming.

The Project Management Unit will comprise of the National Project Manager, Project Finance and Administrative Officer, five Project Provincial Coordinators for each of the five Provinces and they will be supported by part- time Community-based Liaison Associations for the 12 landscapes/seascapes. They will facilitate and coordinate on-the ground project activities. An International Technical Advisor will work with the PMU to provide technical oversight and implementation support for full time in Year 1 and Year 2 and will work remotely from Year 3-6.

The Project Provincial Coordinator (5 positions) will work under the overall guidance of the Chief Technical Advisor and direct supervision of the National Project Manager and will manage day-to-day operations of the project sites in the provinces. The Project Provincial Coordinator will work closely with PMU staff as well as the provincial government administration officers (especially Department of Agriculture, Department of Fisheries), and relevant partners. S/he will be responsible for overseeing project activities in the provinces.

The position is for an initial period of 18 months-2 years (negotiable) with the expected opportunity to renew up to a period of 4 years.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Under the overall guidance and in coordination with the UNDP Sub-Office in the Solomon Islands, the Project Provincial Coordinator will implement the agreed project activities and ensure that objectives are reached as set out in the project document. Under the supervision of the National Project Manager, the Project Provincial Coordinator will work full-time to provide day to day management and coordination of the project activities in the provinces and will be responsible for the following. The project provincial coordinators tasks will entail support for formulation, implementation issues, evaluations and lessons learned exercises regarding the implementation of the project.

Advisory support on policy and overall direction of the project

• Provide required support to the National Project Manager with strategic planning, formulation and monitoring of programmatic issues related to the implementation of the project activities at the provincial level.
• Ensure the overall relevance, and performance of the project, the effective realization and quality of outputs at the provincial level and adherence to applicable UNDP and Solomon Islands Government standards, rules and regulations.
• Provides support with coordination with regional and local authorities and stakeholders in implementing project activities.
• Promote gender equality and women’s participation in the dialogues concerning youth empowerment for protection of Solomon Islands Indigenous Species, promotion of Sustainable Land use Management practices as well as other focal areas by the project.
• Provide technical advice to the project in developing baselines and indicators for project monitoring and evaluation, as well as in preparing project reports focused on capturing results, lessons learned and good practices for possible wider application.
• Participate in gender analysis trainings, implementation of gender analysis and collection of gender disaggregated data and mainstreaming gender issues in the implementation of project activities.
• Support the project with coordination and forging new partnerships/working relationships with other international organizations that implement similar and/or related projects and/or activities in the provinces.
• Assist NGOs/CBOs involved with planning and implementation of project activities in the province assigned.
• Assist the project management team in formulation and implementation of low value grants (LVGs) with selected NGOs/CBOs towards protection of Solomon Islands Indigenous Species, promotion of Sustainable Land use Management practices etc.
• Support individual consultants engaged by the project in collection of data and coordinating respective consultations at the provincial level.

Provide technical guidance and support for project planning, management and implementation of the biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management activities

• Support the project manager in overseeing the monitoring of the results framework, Social and Environment Screening Template (SESP), Indigenous People’s Planning Framework and Environment and Social Management Plan (ESMP) implementation.
• Support the project manager in the preparation of annual work plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, project progress and financial reporting etc.
• Provide support with the identification and operational functions of the project community liaison officers.
• Support the adoption of sustainable land management practices e.g., contour farming, composting, mulching, agroforestry, cover crops, crop rotation and the use of legume crops.
• Assist MAL and MECDM and contribute to development of technical papers and case study reports.
• Support Project team to plan and implement project activities to be implemented in the province to which he or she is assigned.
• Plan and coordinate all logistical requirements to support land use planning and farming systems assessments during the project implementation.
• Assist Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL), NGOs and Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Management (MECDM) to plan and implement community-based land use planning and land suitability assessments and soil and land management generally and specifically to farmer field schools.
• Provides technical inputs with the drafting/reviewing quarterly, six-monthly and annual project progress reports as per GEF guidelines and standards.
• Supporting with the coordination of technical oversight and monitoring of the responsibilities of Individual Consultants and the operation of the Provincial Coordination Unit (consisting of a Provincial Coordinator and Community Liaison Associates in each Province) in development of different project strategic frameworks (e.g., NISSAP, LDN framework, integrated landscape/seascape management planning process, village level conservation, SLM and livelihood activities etc.).
• Support the development, coordination and implementation of capacity building and training initiatives for all relevant stakeholders related to biosecurity, IAS prevention and management, LDN, SLM and livelihood development activities (Output 2.2) at the provinces level.
• Provide direction and guidance to Project Team Community Liaison Officers.

Knowledge management and learning

• Provide quarterly reports to the National Project Manager and Agriculture Chief Field Officer on project activities in the province.
• Review relevant documents and reports prepared leading up to the project.
• Promotes knowledge management and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example: Excellent knowledge of capacity building theory and the application of methodology: good understanding of capacity assessment methodologies.
• Excellent ability to identify significant capacity-building opportunities, ability to get capacity built, excellent ability to demonstrate national capacities built (mastery of the tools and their application).
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.
• Display understanding of the relevant contemporary ICT tools and continuously act towards personal capacity building.
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral): Sensitivity to and responsiveness to all

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 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 Development

• Knowledge Facilitation: Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally.

Business Management

• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Partnerships Management: Ability to 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.
• Communication: Ability to 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.
• 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; Ability to monitor risk and proactively engage project manager and key stakeholders to manage it.

Partnership

• Private sector resource mobilization: Ability to identify, develop, and manage partnerships that leverage private sector technical expertise and resources partners, Respectful and helpful relations with all UN staff

2030 Agenda: Planet

• Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Conservation and Sustainable use of biodiversity, land, forests, and oceans. This role contributes to the achievement of SDG 15, target 15.9.

• Advanced University Degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in agriculture, natural resource management, physical planning, geography, or related fields.
• A first level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in above mentioned fields 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 progressively responsible relevant experience in agriculture, natural resource management or related fields.
• Hands on experience in agriculture risk assessment, natural resources management, land use planning, sustainable land management work, valuing agrobiodiversity, and agroforestry, including the use of participatory approaches.
• Experience/Demonstrable ability to organize and facilitate teams to achieve stated project objectives.
• Experience in coordination of multi-stakeholder processes.
• Excellent computer skills (key MS Applications) and ability to use information technology as a tool and resource.
• Experience in Displaying cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Good inter-personal and teamwork skills/experience, networking aptitude, ability to work in multicultural, challenging, but rewarding environment.
• Experience in project management and reporting.
• Experience/Knowledge of procedures and Provincial institutional arrangements
• aligned with project objectives.

Required Languages:

• (At working level) Excellent command of spoken and written English and Solomon Island Pidgin