Result of Service

• Relevant policy actors in the Kenyan government at the national and county levels, including the ministries of agriculture and environment and council of governors are identified and informed of the goals, timeline, and outputs of the project. • Relationships between UNEP, national implementing partners, and key influential government stakeholders and relevant ministries are strengthened and mutual goals and objectives identified. • A broad audience of stakeholders, especially key policy makers, understand the True Value Accounting approach employed by the TEEBAgriFood study and its advantages for planning and policymaking. • A broad audience of stakeholders, especially key policy makers, understand the key project findings from the TEEBAgriFood study, leading to greater awareness and support for sustainable food systems. • Policy processes and negotiations reference results of TEEBAgriFood applications in Mau Forest Complex, Loita Hills, and Cherangani. • Workplan for creating a national monitoring system to inform NBSAPs, developed in collaboration with relevant Kenyan agencies • Opportunities for aligning food and agriculture policies with GBF targets and indicators are identified and shared with relevant policy stakeholders

Work Location

Nairobi, Kenya

Expected duration

8 months

Duties and Responsibilities

Organization Setting: UNEP 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. The 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 consultant will work for The Economics of Nature Unit in the Ecosystems Division to execute work packages of The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB) projects, and specifically on the projects “True Value Accounting: Making the Economic Case for Food Systems Transformation in Kenya and India” funded by the IKEA Foundation and “Technical Support for the Global Biodiversity Framework Early Action Support” funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The True Value Accounting project supports the implementation of evaluations of agro-ecological value chains in accordance with the TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework , which is broad in scope and requires considerable technical capacity related to quantification and valuation of natural capital and ecosystem services. The application of the TEEBAgriFood Framework entails modelling projections of future land use and quantifying human, social, and natural capital impacts throughout agrifood value chains. The True Value Accounting project will entail applying the TEEBAgriFood Framework to evaluate food and agriculture systems in Southwest Kenya. The study, conducted by a national implementing partner, will compare differences between Business as Usual (BAU) and at least two alternative land use scenarios. The scenarios will be jointly developed by the national implementing partner, UNEP-TEEB, and the project steering committee. The study shall quantify or evaluate qualitatively changes in social, manufactured, natural, and human capital stocks and associated flows under each scenario. With reference to natural capital, changes in the flows of ecosystem services (or dis-services and residuals) between scenarios are to be used to identify how natural capital contributes to agri-food value chains and how in turn agri-food value chains may impact natural capital stocks. The GBF Early Action Support project aims to provide technical support to GEF-eligible Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in their work to review and align components of their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAPs) with the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF): national targets, policy frameworks, monitoring frameworks, and biodiversity finance. The Economics of Nature Unit will lead implementation of technical support interventions related to monitoring frameworks and policy coherence with the GBF, specifically, on integrating the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) Ecosystems Accounts and NBSAPs in multiple countries. UNEP requires the support of a policy advisor with extensive knowledge of the Kenyan national and regional political landscape as it pertains to agriculture, environment, forestry and biodiversity-related policy domains. The role of the advisor will be to mainstream the analytical results of the True Value Accounting study – as endorsed by the Project Steering Committee – to ensure the research outputs are linked to the Kenyan national and regional policy context and communicated to the relevant stakeholders and policy makers. The advisor will be responsible for linking the existing applications in the Mau Forest Complex, Loita Hills, and Cherangani to national and international policy initiatives to ensure wide uptake of the emergent findings. Additionally, the advisor will liaise with the National Statistical Office of Kenya, the Ministry of Environment, and other levant parties to ensure that efforts to operationalize natural capital accounting are aligned with the NBSAP. 1. Duties and Responsibilities: Duties and responsibilities of the consultant will entail supporting the project management and mainstreaming of the project and its findings within national and international policy context. Specific duties include the following. 1. Steer and lead communication between implementing partners Strathmore University and the Kenyan government at national and county levels. 2. Support the policy stakeholder engagement to strengthen the policy relevance of the project (eg Steering Committee participation) including the study scope, the definition of scenarios and the key performance indicators which will be measured. 3. Develop a strategy for engaging policy makers and for mainstreaming TEEBAgriFood analytical results into applicable policy processes in each study County, and at the Federal level, including identifying key government focal points and other stakeholders who should be consulted. 4. Review interim and final TEEBAgriFood study deliverables and offer guidance for how the results are/are not relevant for County and National policy priorities. 5. Consult with key high-level Kenyan government stakeholders to determine options for policy mainstreaming of the Mau Forest Complex, Loita Hills, and Cherangani TEEBAgriFood studies. These consultations should begin with the Project Steering Committee and include discussions at Deputy Secretary level in the Ministries or equivalent. 6. Prepare a TEEBAgriFood policy mainstreaming report to include the following elements: a. Based on government stakeholder consultations, how the findings in the TEEBAgriFood project in these counties can contribute to key policy priorities of the Kenyan government, including but not limited to priorities for natural resource management, rural development, gender empowerment, national biodiversity strategy and action plans (NBSAPs), food security, and sustainable agriculture. b. How implementing the study recommendations can contribute to Kenya’s obligations and objectives under key international policy commitments and initiatives, including but not limited to, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; 7. Make recommendations for communicating project approach and results; contribute to the communications strategy that has been developed for the TEEBAgriFood Kenya applications. 8. Develop a multi-agency workplan for creating a monitoring framework for the revised NBSAP. 9. Provide technical support on a review of opportunities for achieving policy coherence with the GBF, focusing on the food and agriculture sectors.

Qualifications/special skills

An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent), preferably with a specialization in environmental governance, environmental management, law, social anthropology, environment and development, sustainable development, economics, applied economics, biology, agriculture, or related fields is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. A minimum of two years’ experience working with different branches of the Government of Kenya, including at senior level, on issues pertaining to agriculture and the environment is required.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in spoken and written English is essential. Fluency in spoken Swahili is desirable.

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.