Technical Analyst, Biodiversity Credit Alliance (Home-based - 2 positions)

Background

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work is carried out through a network of advisors and specialists located at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, to ensure that local knowledge and context specific expertise is linked to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP provides its policy advisory and programme support functions through the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains, in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policies and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.    

UNDP's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlights our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP's Nature, Climate, Energy, Chemicals and Waste Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.

BPPS’ Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy, Chemicals and Waste work with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate natural capital, environment and climate concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies; support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements; and implement the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming on environment, climate change, and energy. This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses: 
•    Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests
•    Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems
•    Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS 
•    Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
•    Sustainable Energy
•    Extractive Industries 
•    Chemicals and Waste Management
•    Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy and SCP approaches

This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.

As the largest single operational and financial UN player in the field of environmental sustainability, UNDP is widely recognized as a global leader in supporting governments to sharpen policy, access finance and develop capacity for the management of biodiversity and ecosystems for sustainable development and poverty eradication. UNDP’s work on nature has as an overall strategic objective to maintain and enhance the goods and services provided by biodiversity and ecosystems in order to secure livelihoods, food, water and health, enhance resilience, conserve threatened species and their habitats, and increase carbon storage and sequestration.

UNDP is expanding its efforts to engage private sector in biodiversity financing, contributing to the overall objective of redirecting global finance flows from nature negative to nature positive, as a prerequisite system change for achieving the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Programme and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Among the instruments in biodiversity finance, emerging attention is being dedicated to biodiversity credits. “Biodiversity credits, or ‘biocredits’ (i.e., nature credits, biodiversity tokens and alike), are emerging as a quantifiable unit of biodiversity, supported by a scientific methodology, that can incentivise nature conservation and restoration to benefit marginalised groups living with nature.

The Biodiversity Credit Alliance (BCA) is a multi-stakeholder initiative aiming to provide clarity and guidance on the development of a credible and scalable biodiversity credit market. The BCA brings together methodology developers, private sector stakeholders, NGOs, and academia to advance the concept of biodiversity credits, ensuring they promote nature-positive outcomes while benefiting Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The BCA is structured around a Task Force and a Forum, with working groups dedicated to key technical areas such as biodiversity credit definitions, peer-review mechanisms, demand-side engagement, metrics, digital standards, and marine biodiversity credits. To date, the BCA Task Force brings together 20 leading biodiversity credit methodology developers, including companies, academia and NGOs, which work to generate scientific standards for biodiversity credits in different contexts and ecosystems. In addition, the BCA Forum facilitates the dissemination of knowledge to over 500 member organizations interested in contributing to and learning about the biodiversity credit market. The BCA Secretariat is funded and facilitated by UNDP, UNEP FI, SIDA, GIZ and EC.

This position will play a supportive role in advancing technical discussions, facilitating working groups, and ensuring high-quality outputs that contribute to the integrity and credibility of the emerging biodiversity credit market.

The Technical Analyst will operate as a part of the BCA Secretariat, ensuring that BCA’s technical working groups are well coordinated to deliver the technical outputs in a timely and consultative manner.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Technical Analyst will undertake the following responsibilities:

i)    Coordination of Working Groups
a.    Support in setting up of Working Groups
i.    Facilitate the co-leads of working groups in defining the scopes
ii.    Actively seek qualified community members and experts to join the working groups and the primary interest groups, as appropriate

b.    Production of working group work-plans and collection of inputs 
i.    Draft workplans with defined timelines and clear expected deliverables;
ii.    Build consensus among of co-leads and working group members on areas of misalignments;
iii.    Organize and facilitate working groups consultative meetings to gather member’s inputs and discuss technical topics as well as potentials divergence of opinions.

c.    Production of draft issue papers summarizing working group results 
i.    Analyze inputs from working group members;
ii.    Collect inputs in report format;
iii.    Produce draft issue papers on the analysis that systematizes the information collected;

d.    Consultation of draft issue papers, their finalization and release, and development of briefs
i.    Following BCA Issue Paper Publication Protocol, organize consultation of the issue papers
ii.    Review comments and suggestions received from the consultations, coordinate with co-leads and working group members to address them, as appropriate
iii.    Finalize the issue papers and coordinate their release to the public
iv.    Develop a brief on each issue paper and organize webinars to present them to the BCA community.

ii)    Communication and technical collaboration with partners
i.    Ensure all activities are undertaken in line with the established processes and protocols and in alignment with the High-Level Principles
ii.    Support technical collaborations with partner institutions and initiatives
iii.    Advocate endorsement and adoption of High-Level Principles and raise awareness of high-integrity use of biodiversity credits in the public and private sectors via targeted events and workshops.

Institutional Arrangement

• The incumbent will work from home base.
• The incumbent will work in the BCA Secretariat, under the overall guidance of the Senior Nature Economist as the Lead of the Private Sector Engagement Team and will report directly to the BCA Global Coordinator. The role involves engagement with different stakeholders within the BCA Governance Structures including Indigenous Peoples and local communities and external partners.
• The incumbent will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment. 
• The incumbent will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, assignment specific software, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection. 
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the incumbent is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations, taking into consideration different time zones. 

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

Business Development:

Collective Intelligence Design: Ability to bring together diverse groups of people, data, information, ideas, and technology to solve problems and design solutions or services. Knowledge and understanding of Collective Intelligence Design principles, methodology and practices. 

Knowledge Generation: Ability to research information and turn it into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need. Ability to apply existing concepts to new situations, and to develop new concepts to generate workable solutions and new approaches. Knowledge of relevant concepts, conceptual models, and theories that can be useful in addressing new situations.

Business Management. 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. 

Data. Data Analysis: Ability to extract, analyze and visualize data to form meaningful insights and aid effective business decision making.

Partnership Management. Relationship Management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master's degree or equivalent) in Environmental Science/Management or related field is required, OR 
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree
• Doctorate degree (PhD) specialised in Biodiversity Credits and Nature Financing or a related field is an advantage.

Experience:

• Applicants with a master's degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field of study are not required to have professional work experience.
• Applicants with a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of 2 years working experience with biodiversity credits, nature financing, policy development and research.

Desired skills:   

• Experience facilitating public and bilateral consultations
• Experience working with credit issuing organizations and project developers
• Expertise in statistical analysis and ecosystem protection and restoration methodologies
• Ability to work effectively across multiple countries and cultures.
• Experience in analysing and evaluating biodiversity credit supplier methodologies
• Experience reviewing and/or applying the ‘High-level Principles to Guide the Biodiversity Credit Market’
• Experience of working directly with multistakeholder groups including governments, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the UN context.
• Proven project coordination and delivery experience
• Experience presenting at high-level international events and delivering workshops
• Experience organizing events for global conferences

Required Language:

• Excellent written and spoken English 

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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