Programme Support on Circular and Sustainable Textiles

Update

India is the second largest manufacturer of manmade fibres and the third largest exporter of textiles and apparel in the world, with a share of 4.6% of global trade. The textile and apparel industry is India’s second largest employer, after agriculture, employing over 45 million people in the country, and contributing over 4% to the nation's GDP, making it the largest manufacturing sector. Currently, India’s textile exports are at US$36 billion and are projected to reach US$100 billion by 2030. India is one of the largest producers of cotton and jute in the world, and the second largest producer of silk in the world.

Despite the growing efforts, and enabling policy measures towards sustainability in Textiles sector, the sector is facing multiple challenges, such as inefficiency in use of natural resources, huge environmental footprint, non-compliance to environmental regulations, informality and fragmentation, lack of technologies and skills, as well as needed market access and competitive edge to meet the need of rapidly evolving markets, international regulations.

Building strength and adding value through enhanced collaboration at all levels, offers a promising way forward to make a scalable impact for green economic transition of the textiles sector in India. However, to achieve this objective, a starting point would be to map the ground level challenges, opportunities and solutions, and identify key intervention areas for policy change, technological interventions, capacity building, social inclusion and integrated efforts for a systemic change and impact.

With this objective UN in India, aims to initiate an exercise to map ongoing initiatives, actors, and programmes promoting sustainability and circularity in Indian textile sector, and identify potential areas to develop joint initiative, building on mutual strengths and expertise, and ensuring scalable impact at all levels.

UN in India is hiring a United Nations Volunteer, to support research, mapping, documentation, and programme development on circular and sustainable textiles. The ideal candidate will be a team player, eager to contribute to a larger agenda, and committed to delivering quality work under tight timelines in a dynamic environment.

The UN Volunteer will:
• Support the consolidation of information on current actions and actors in India working on sustainable and circular textiles.
• Contribute to the preparation of concept notes and donor pitches for new joint programmes.
• Provide editorial and design support for reports, presentations, and communication materials.
• Support the UNEP team on issues related to consolidation of actions related to circularity and sustainable textiles.
• Any other, related task assigned by the supervisor.

Under the direct supervision of the designated supervisor, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for the following:

a. Mapping and Documentation
• Compile and analyse secondary data and publicly available reports to create a consolidated database of key initiatives.
• Assist in preparing summaries, briefs, and infographics related to circularity and sustainability in textiles.
• Prepare reports, notes on key discussion events and cluster coordination mechanism.

b. Research and Programme Development
• Support background research and evidence gathering for concept notes and project proposals, including the COE work on circularity.
• Contribute to drafting donor pitches and presentations for joint programming with UN agencies and partners.
• Assist in identifying funding opportunities and donor priorities relevant to the sustainable textiles' agenda.

c. Editorial and Design Support
• Provide support in reviewing, editing, and formatting of written documents (reports, notes, presentations).
• Support in developing basic visual aids and layouts using MS PowerPoint and Word.
• Use simple design tools (e.g., Canva or MS Publisher) to improve document presentation.

d. Digital Tools and Innovation
• Leverage AI-based tools to enhance productivity and output quality.
• Identify digital tools and methods that could streamline research or improve communication outputs