The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human settlements mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-HABITAT helps governments and the urban poor by transforming cities into safer, healthier, greener places with better opportunities where everyone can live in with dignity. It works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector to help build, manage, plan and finance sustainable urban development.

In Lao PDR, the UN-Habitat country office was opened in 2005, and now operates as a regional hub for water and sanitation programmes in the Mekong sub-region in South-East Asia. The office works in close collaboration with several different Ministries on various urban topics and community-based initiatives in urban and peri-urban areas throughout Lao PDR.

Adaptation planning is a critical priority for strengthening local resilience across Lao PDR. While the country has made notable progress in reforming policies and frameworks to enhance resilience and environmental sustainability, recent assessments have highlighted persistent challenges in measuring adaptation progress. These challenges stem largely from the limited integration of climate change adaptation across policy levels, the absence of multisectoral strategies, and insufficient focus on human settlements. To address these gaps, the revised 2021 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) emphasizes stronger mainstreaming of adaptation through results-based management approaches.

Effective adaptation planning requires an integrated understanding of risk and vulnerability across socio-economic, physical, and ecological systems. Analyzing how these systems are affected by climate-related shocks enables local authorities and partners to better understand interactions between vulnerability, exposure, and risk, supporting informed decision-making and resource mobilization. Strengthening capacity for risk analysis in Lao human settlements is therefore essential, particularly to improve adaptation planning for marginalized and vulnerable communities.

The proposed intervention seeks to bridge gaps between knowledge and implementation by advancing vulnerability and risk assessment tools and strengthening institutional and technical capacities. Its overall objective is to enhance disaster risk management and climate resilience by integrating adaptation planning into policies, development plans, and strategies, while also strengthening access to public and private adaptation finance. In this context, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has requested UN-Habitat’s support to strengthen vulnerability and risk assessment methodologies for human settlements, improving climate change understanding and supporting sub-national adaptation planning.

By focusing on vulnerability assessments, the intervention will help prioritize areas with the greatest capacity gaps, promote area-based and integrated planning approaches, strengthen stakeholder engagement and governance, address the needs of marginalized communities, and enhance risk-informed development planning and investment over the medium and long term.

Given that previous adaptation efforts in Lao PDR have largely followed a project-based approach, this initiative aims to address institutional and cross-sectoral capacity gaps that hinder holistic advancement of the National Adaptation Plan. Ultimately, it will support the Government of Lao PDR in achieving national and local adaptation targets, strengthening resilience to climate change impacts, and advancing sustainable development outcomes.

Under the direct supervision of the UN-Habitat Head of Office in Lao PDR, the Contractor will liaise with the Government, UN Agencies, other development partners and colleagues to support the implementation of ongoing projects and other relevant activities. The tasks to be developed by the Contractor include research; preparation of technical documents; support to the organization of workshops and consultations; and monitoring and reporting, in addition to any other assignment(s) requested by the Head of Office.

Some of the key actions in line with the assigned projects mentioned above are:
Project Management and Implementation
- Support the implementation, regular monitoring, and reporting on all project activities (substantive and financial) with partners and stakeholders to ensure a high quality of outputs being delivered within the agreed upon time frame.
- Coordinate with internal and external partners and stakeholders to identify a way forward including the potential opportunities of the project funded by the Green Climate Fund including coordinating technical meetings, reporting, and developing of bankable climate action proposal.
- Liaise with partners and provide substantive inputs in relevant meetings with other development partners and government counterparts.
- Coordinate and participate in project missions and meetings at regional, national and subnational levels as appropriate.
- Provide the written and oral translation and interpretation support as appropriate.

Knowledge Management and Communication
- Communicate with other project teams and partners to ensure alignment of projects' activities with broader strategic initiatives for project knowledge management.
- Support the coordination of outreach activities by preparing and delivering presentations on assigned topics/activities, web articles, etc.


Country Office Support
- Undertake other assignments as required to support climate change objectives.