Result of Service

The ultimate result is a well-coordinated and efficiently implemented segment of the IDRA 2025–2026 workplan, with strengthened delivery of IDRA products, events, and stakeholder engagement.

Work Location

Home-based

Expected duration

January to September 2026 (part-time)

Duties and Responsibilities

Background: Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention seeks to support countries to address Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought (DLDD) (www.unccd.int) and to achieve a Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) consistent with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Droughts are the most far-reaching of natural disasters, causing short and long-term economic and ecological losses as well as significant secondary and tertiary impacts. To reduce societal vulnerability to droughts, there is a need to overcome the prevailing structures of reactive, post hazard management approaches and to move towards proactive and risk management approaches. Against this backdrop, spearheaded by the governments of Senegal and Spain, a group of like-minded countries in partnership with various stakeholders took the initiative to form an International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) to catalyse a political momentum to achieve a transformational change of actions and mindsets towards drought resilience – a transformation in the way the impacts of drought are managed which is essential to reduce this existential threat to many parts of the world. The initiative was launched on 7th of November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt at the margins of the UNFCCC COP 27 in a high-level event, jointly convened by Senegal and Spain. The International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) is a collaborative platform that supports countries, cities, and communities to combat drought proactively. The alliance will promote effective and efficient preparedness and adaptation measures that go beyond disaster response to reduce vulnerability to drought, in support of the drought-related international cooperation that already exists under the umbrella of the UNCCD. The alliance seeks to act as a global facilitator for drought management focused on systemic risk. To reduce systemic risks and avoid new ones, there must be a shift from dealing with drought impacts reactively to getting ahead of the curve and addressing underlying risk drivers. Socioeconomic and environmental vulnerability of exposed systems must be reduced and impacts of land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change are mitigated as part of a transition from reactive to prospective and proactive drought risk management. The UNCCD Secretariat is supporting the Alliance in the operationalization of its work and ensuring coherence and consistency with the fulfilment of all relevant COP decisions related to drought. After IDRA’s successful participation in UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, the Alliance has been working on the roadmap to be followed for the 2025-2026 period until UNCCD COP17. The purpose of the junior consultancy is to provide support to the UNCCD secretariat on IDRA and drought related activities to follow the implementation of IDRA’s 2025-2026 roadmap ahead of UNCD COP17 in Mongolia. Duties & Responsibilities: Under the direct supervision of the responsible officer and the Advisor to the Deputy Executive Secretary, the Junior Consultant will provide effective support to the Executive Office, in close conjunction with the GPARC unit, in the development of IDRA’s activities for the period January – August 2026. The consultant will undertake the following tasks: • Support IDRA’s 2025-2026 workplan implementation; • Support the different teams working on IDRA related tools and outputs, including IDRA’s senior policy advisor and IDRO Senior Strategic Advisor.; • Provide and contribute to various written documentation (briefing notes, speeches, presentations, methodological notes, narrative and financial reports, minutes of meetings concept notes or any other documentation) on substantive topics related to IDRA and other UNCCD drought related planned activities; • Contribute to the preparation of IDRA related events (Plenary meeting, Steering Committee meetings, UNCCD COP17, UNGA, etc.), including appropriate documentations (i.e. invitation letters, concept note, presentations, etc.); • Support in the preparation and organization of specific IDRA outputs such as the Drought Atlas promotion, International Drought Resilience Observatory phase 2 development, Communities of Learning and Practices; • Support new members’ application process to join the Alliance by assessing their application, informing the Steering Committee, and sending letters of acceptance in accordance with the formal official process; • Contribute to maintain a smooth and efficient communication with IDRA co-chairs and IDRA members; • Support drought decision consultations and capacity building activities; • Any other responsibilities as delegated by the designated requesting officer.

Qualifications/special skills

– A first-level university degree in Law, Public Administration, Economics, International Relations, Public Affairs, Social Sciences, Sciences, or a related field. Master”s degree in any of the mentioned areas is desirable. – Minimum of 1 year experience in areas of international cooperation, including volunteering or internships in NGOs, academia, think tanks, governments and other international organizations. Previous experience with UN is a plus.

Languages

Fluency in spoken and written English and Spanish is required. Knowledge of an additional official UN language is an advantage.

Additional Information

Only individuals who can act as independent, individual economical operators are qualified to apply. Individuals who can provide their services only on account of an institution or enterprise are not eligible under this procedure. Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations Secretariat and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultant and individual contractor is responsible for determining tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. For remote consultancies, the selected candidate will be required to have a laptop or desktop PC (with Windows 11 or newer) or Mac (with the latest MacOS update), as well as a reliable, high-speed internet connection. An Office 365 license will be provided by the UNCCD to enable the candidate to access official emails, SharePoint, OneDrive and other office applications, such as Word and Excel. Further computer requirements: An antivirus application which receives regular updates; Browsers must be a newer version with regular updates enabled; Regular Windows 11 updates should be enabled with Windows laptop or PC. In addition, a mobile phone will be required to enable Multifactor Authentication (MFA) through SMS or the Authenticator App.

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.