Organizational Setting

FAO successfully secured several national child projects within the context of the Sustainable Cities Integrated Program (SCIP), one of 11 flagship programs of the GEF-8 programming directions. This program addresses the unique challenge of sustainable urban development by delivering multiple global environmental benefits including inter alia climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and reduced land degradation. The program will place a strong emphasis on integrated land use planning both within cities as well as surrounding ecosystems, support institutional coordination, and catalyze integrated approaches to scale up innovative sustainability solutions. It will adopt a people centric approach with integration of gender, health, and inclusion which are critical to ensure sustainability and equitable distribution of environmental benefits.
The SCIP was Council approved in June 2023 and will be included in the GEF June 2024 work programme. The PPG phase of the national child projects will thus be initiated in June/July 2024. The GEF project design expert recruited under this contract will be engaged to develop the project documents of the Algeria national child project, under the GEF SCIP programme.
The Algeria SCIP child project will be developed under the GEF core indicators of (3.1) area of degraded agricultural lands under restoration, (3.2) area of forest and forest land under restoration, (3.3.) area of natural grass and woodland under restoration, area of wetlands under restoration, (4.1) area of landscapes under improved management to benefit biodiversity, (4.3) Area of landscapes under sustainable land management in production systems (agriculture and rangeland), (6.1) Carbon Sequestered or Emissions Avoided in the AFOLU and (11) people benefiting from GEF-financing.
As per the Algeria SCIP Concept Note, the project is expected to create an enabling environment, support technical interventions and knowledge management focusing on the domain of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for sustainable urban development, for three Algerian cities (Sidi Abdellah, Boughezoul and Hassi Messaoud). The final NbS’s must be identified during the PPG phase but will focus on, as for example, urban forests, productive green spaces, and rain gardens. The final intervention is expected to deliver (global) environmental and socio-economic benefits and align with above GEF core indicators.
The project documents will elaborate the engagements made in the context of the EOI and Concept Note.

Reporting Lines

The National Specialist will be under the overall supervision of the FAO Country Representative and the technical supervision of the Lead Technical Officer.

Technical Focus 

The National Specialist will be supporting in project preparation processes (PPGs) of the above-mentioned project.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Develop of urban development/planning and environmental baseline of existing urban planning and environmental initiatives, based on a thorough desk review, site visits and consultations;
•    Identify ongoing urban greening initiatives and potential synergies;
•    Provide technical inputs regarding the outcomes, outputs and activities of the project;
•    Provide sound inputs on the institutional arrangements from a sustainable cities’ perspective;
•    Contribute to the successful organization of stakeholder consultations and project inception and log frame validation workshops;
•    Provide sound inputs on implementation arrangements, beneficiaries and risk management matrix;
•    Contribute to FAO project document and annexes including particularly a solid theory of change.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in in landscape architecture, urban planning, urban forestry, agronomy or related discipline.
•    Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in project management and implementation.
•    Working knowledge of English and French
•    National of Algeria or resident of the country with valid work permit.

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills 

•    Work experience in policy analysis, stakeholder engagement and mapping, and knowledge management.
•    Extent and relevance of experience in working on GEF and/or FAO projects is an asset.
•    Familiarity with UN policy and procedures is an asset.