Result of Service

1. Enhanced and better documented process of consultation with national partners (government, civil society, research and private sector) on their demands and ongoing work related to nature driving economic transformation. 2. Improved quality and technical coherence in the background study on socio-biodiversity value chains in protected areas (RESEX) in the Amazon Region Completed draft of concise fundraising proposal, for pre-identified philanthropic foundation, to implement the new Brazilian Organic Waste Strategy and its thematic chapter on food waste prevention at city-level. This will bring together technical inputs from the wider UNEP Cities Unit and Brazil Office teams. 3. Consultation and coordination with local partners on how to deliver measurable food waste reductions in the context of the local policy framework and socio-economic priorities, integrating insights in the proposal. This can build on stakeholder mapping on sustainable food cities conducted by UNEP in Rio de Janeiro in 2022. Anticipated that consultant will focus on key stakeholders such as city government, waste agency, key NGO and retail partners. 4. Maintaining close coordination (in-person or online) with SMSAN e SMMA team to coordinate on project implementation, support administrative processes, and ensure ownership of project deliverables, including: a. Identifying members of the advisory board for the project, and validate it with SMSAN; b. Coordinating the organisation of the first hybrid meetings of the advisory board, define agenda and objective, support SMSAN in the organisation of subsequent advisory board meetings c. Draft database structure for relevant data and stakeholders active in environmental restoration along with their specific actions/visions in the Curitiba; d. Monitoring and documenting the progress of the project’s activities by providing monthly reports to UNEP, developed in consultation with SMSAN/SMMA e. Communicating the progress of the piloting efforts through regular meetings with the UNEP Cities Unit f. Performing other tasks associated with the implementation of the UNEP Cities Unit efforts in Curitiba, as needed and directed by supervising staff members. g. Training of SMSAN employees and other municipal bodies on the topics of climate change, carbon market and carbon credit projects and application of the proposed methodological protocol. 5. Through strategic guidance and technical support and analysis, lay strong foundations to accelerate action on the ground and enable further cooperation with international implementation agencies, aiming to increase the potential for external funding and replication of the implemented UPA and food systems programs in Curitiba.

Work Location

Home-based in Brazil

Expected duration

13 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. UNEP Ecosystems Division works with international and national partners, providing technical assistance and capacity development for the implementation of environmental policy, and strengthening the environmental management capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The United Nations development system will seek to rally all actors behind a set of high impact initiatives (HII) aimed at demonstrating that transformative progress is possible despite challenging global circumstances and at mobilizing further leadership and investment to bring progress to scale between now and 2030. One of those HII is ‘Nature Driving Economic Transformation’, in which the power of biodiversity and nature will be leveraged to drive equitable economic progress. This consultancy will contribute to UNEP’s Common Approach to Biodiversity in the context of implementing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, specifically on the bioeconomy driving economic transformation, and it will include activities related to (i) supporting Brazil to adopt their national bioeconomy policy, (ii) scaling bioeconomy impact through regional platforms & G20 initiatives, and to (iii) contributing to the development of a payment for ecosystem services guidelines to be adopted by the G20. These activities will provide inputs to the development of a Project Document (‘Valuing the Essentials II’) which is included in the UNEP Programme Coordination Project (PCP) ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Across Sectors and Systems’. The overall objective of this PCP is as follows: Biodiversity and ecosystem services are mainstreamed in public and private sector planning and decision-making and in development frameworks to realize multiple benefits and avoid negative impacts on nature. UNEP Cities Unit in the Climate Change Division manages UNEP’s food waste, urban agriculture and urban food systems work stream. UNEP is working with the Ministry of Environment of Brazil on its new Organic Waste Strategy, and in particular on its Thematic Chapter on Food Waste Prevention. In relation to this workstream, UNEP seeks support in implementing the Strategy and its food waste prevention recommendations at city-level in Brazil, including fundraising to support a pilot program in three cities. This work will build on the household food waste baseline developed by UNEP in Rio de Janeiro in 2023, market segmentation approaches for targeted messaging, and interventions in retail environments to help consumers reduce food waste at home, that UNEP is currently piloting in the USA. Through the Generation Restoration project, over three years (2023-2025), the Cities Unit seeks to increase the involvement of the city’s stakeholders, including vulnerable groups, in replicating and expanding the restoration of urban and peri-urban ecosystems. 25 cities are part of the project, including Curitiba, in Brazil, which is starting to implement a pilot project. In this context, UNEP Cities Unit is looking to hire a consultant to facilitate the development of a protocol to validate the adaptation and climate mitigation potential of municipal ecosystem initiatives to restore nature and urban biodiversity, support the connectivity of environmental and food ecosystems and improve collaboration between local stakeholders for the protection of biodiversity across the municipal area. The (level B) consultant will work as part of the UNEP Cities Unit of the Climate Change Division, under the supervision of Sharon Gil, Program Management Officer, and in close collaboration with the UNEP Brazil office and the UNEP Ecosystems Division. The consultant, among other duties will contribute to technical discussions on links between different portfolios and frameworks dealing with food loss and waste, ecosystem restoration and urban and peri-urban agriculture. (i) Lead on the development of a project document linked to the “Nature Driving Economic Transformation” High Impact Initiative The consultant’s responsibilities will include: 1. Consult with national partners (government, civil society, research and private sector) on their demands and ongoing work related to nature driving economic transformation. 2. Provide review of the background study on socio-biodiversity value chains in protected areas (RESEX) in the Amazon Region, on topic such as ecosystem services assessment, social capital analysis and economic evaluation 3. Draft summary for policymakers of the workstream on Bioeconomy in Brazil, including policy recommendations, main impacts and lessons learned. 4. Contribute technical assistance on the development of incentives for socio-biodiversity value chains, such as payment for ecosystem services, based on extant monitoring systems and consistent with the Systems of Environmental-Economic Accounting framework (SEEA). (ii) Contribute to UNEP’s Food Waste portfolio in Brazil The consultant’s responsibilities will include: 5. Support the Food Waste portfolio, in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, by contributing to the development of a compelling fundraising proposal to implement the new Brazilian Organic Waste Strategy and its thematic chapter on food waste prevention at city-level. This will include consulting and coordinating with local partners on how to deliver measurable food waste reductions in the context of the local policy framework and socio-economic priorities, and support drafting the proposal. 6. When requested, provide support and carry out field missions, events, interlocution with local partners, and participatory consultations. (iii) Provide strategic guidance and technical support to the City of Curitiba to implement the Generation Restoration pilot project on urban ecosystems restoration and food systems. The consultant will: 1. Provide strategic guidance to the City of Curitiba on the scope and feasibility of the pilot project based on experience with other cities, national programs and strategies, and UNEP priorities. 2. Develop an index/ranking of the degraded areas with the greatest potential for restoration through productive food systems, such as agroforestry or Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPUL. 3. Create scenarios to estimate the increase of biodiversity and other social, economic and environmental benefits that could be attained by the restoration of the selected/ranked areas. 4. Develop three models/studies to be implemented and replicated in the selected degraded areas that include species, techniques, indicators and other information needed to execute and measure the impacts of the Project; 5. Conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the projects developed by the Municipal Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security (SMSAN) aimed at developing Sustainable Food Systems (Urban Agriculture, Agroforestry, Food Waste Reduction, and Composting). These projects will be evaluated according to: a) Global biodiversity indicators based on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; b) Based in international standards of carbon footprint evaluation to assess the impact of these projects in the overall city carbon emissions and c) Based on qualitative criteria related to “people happiness” according to the methodologies preconized by the World Happiness Report (https://worldhappiness.report/about/). d) Based on SDG 5 (Gender Equality) to assess the role of woman in the development of urban agriculture.

Qualifications/special skills

An advanced university degree in Environmental Science, Social Science, Agricultural science or Public Administration, Economics or Environmental Economics, or a related field is required. A first university degree with a combination of two (2) years professional and academic qualifications may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree. A minimum of five (5) of professional working experience in program and project implementation in the field of food systems in Brazil is required. Strong network and experience in stakeholder engagement, strategy development and intervention planning at federal, state and/or municipal level in Brazil is desirable. An understanding of the biophysical and economic modelling of ecosystem services in the context of food systems is required. An understanding of the Brazilian environmental, bioeconomy and agricultural political context, as well as the Brazilian agricultural institutional and fiscal framework is highly desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this position fluency in oral and written English and Portuguese are required.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.