Project Analyst

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with offices in 180 countries. Globally the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion each year. The UNDP office in North Macedonia employs a team of 70 and currently manages a portfolio of projects in inclusive prosperity, environmental protection and disaster risk reduction, and good governance worth over USD 15 million per year. The Energy, Environment & Disaster Risk Reduction Unit includes projects on climate change, natural resources management and disaster risk reduction.

The primary objective of the project for the development of the National Adaptation Plan is to increase the resilience of the Republic of North Macedonia to the risks and impacts of climate change by integrating adaptation planning into national and sectoral planning processes. In doing so, North Macedonia will be better positioned to design and implement effective adaptation actions and investments in line with national priorities.

Successful implementation of this project will help the country to advance on its path to sustainable and climate-resilient development. This advancement process will target key institutions from the national to the municipal level with a focus on five priority sectors of transport, agriculture, water resources, forestry, and cultural heritage. This project has been carefully designed to respond to the country’s needs, align to and support national development aspirations, and complement other related projects. 

The formulation of this project benefits from an extensive multi-year gender-balanced stakeholder consultation process. The result was the identification of three primary gaps standing in the way of achieving the project objective. The gaps are (i) limited institutional coordination and technical capacity at the national, municipal and sectoral level to address climate change through adaptation, (ii) insufficient evidence base (data, studies, and tools) and plans for conducting effective adaptation planning and investments, and (iii) lack of private sector engagement.

This project is expected to deliver the following four outcomes: 3.1 Adaptation planning governance and institutional coordination strengthened; 3.2 Evidence basis produced to design adaptation solutions for maximum impact; 3.3 Private sector engagement in adaptation catalyzed; 3.4 Climate adaptation in the country advanced. 

More broadly, this project will contribute to advancing the Republic of North Macedonia’s national climate efforts that builds on previous initiatives and advances the implementation of strategic documents including the NDC, Long-term Strategy and Law on Climate Action, the UN Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, the GCF Country Work Program as well as sectoral development and climate change plans and efforts. 

The Project shall be implemented in close collaboration with the Cabinet of the Prime Minister in its capacity of the Nationally Designated Authority, the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Culture, and other relevant ministries, academia and CSOs.

The Project Analyst will be responsible for the overall management of the Project, including the mobilization of all project inputs, supervision over project staff, consultants, and sub-contractors. S/he will report to the Head of the UNDP Energy, Environment & Disaster Reduction Unit. 

• Manage and coordinate the implementation of the respective activities based on the Project Document, including, as needed, supervision and guidance of consultants and experts with a view to achieving project results;
• Develop comprehensive/detailed project work-plans that include all project activities and roles and responsibilities and setting-out corresponding milestones;
• Monitor the progress of implementation of project activities and key event schedules observing the work-plans and set deadlines including monitoring of the financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports;
• Prepare revisions to the multi-year workplan, as needed, as well as annual and quarterly plans if required;
• Mobilize goods and services to support project activities, including drafting TORs and works/product requirements and specifications, and overseeing all contractors’ work;
• Capture lessons learned during project implementation;
• Prepare the inception report no later than one month after the inception workshop;
• Support the Terminal Evaluation process;
• Manage the transfer of project deliverables and assets to national beneficiaries and other project stakeholders;
• Manage and monitoring project risks initially identified, including social and environmental risks, submitting information on the new risks and possible mitigating measures to the Project Board for consideration and updating the status of these risks by maintaining a Project Risk Log;
• Monitor events as determined in the project monitoring plan, and update the plan as required;
• Assume responsibilities in line with the office Internal Control Framework and act as a `first authority` for Project transactions;
• Ensure adherence of project activities to the existing financial, procurement and administrative processes that are in line with prevailing UNDP rules and regulations and, at the same time, observing the project timelines;
• Prepare project progress reports (progress against planned activities, update on risks issues, expenditures) and ensuring timely submission of the reports to the relevant instances, such as the project boards and relevant donors;
• Ensure that the indicators included in the project results framework are monitored annually in advance of the GCF bi-annual report submission deadline so that progress can be reported in the GCF Interim Progress Reports and portfolio reports;  
• Prepare the GCF bi-annual report;
• Manage project tracking in QUANTUM in accordance with UNDP procedures.

Building strategic partnerships needed to achieve results and maintaining collaborative working relationships among key project partners, through effective communication, consultation and reporting:

• Cultivate relationships with the central and local authorities, academia, CSOs, and other Project stakeholders, ensuring full understanding, cooperation and an appropriate fit of the project activities with the main needs of the beneficiaries; 
• Establish effective linkages with other relevant projects and initiatives in the sector with a view to developing substantive partnerships and generating synergies; 
• Disseminate project reports and respond to queries from concerned stakeholders;
• Maintain regular coordination and quality assurance of expert inputs and products as well as among project partners to ensure coherence and complementarity of project activities;
• Identify opportunities for deepening the cooperation and recommending adequate approaches to dealing with different stakeholders based on information on all relevant stakeholders gathered during project implementation;
• Maintain regular communication on relevant project issues with the national counterparties, consultants and experts with an aim to ensure quality and timely delivery of all agreed outputs;
• Communicate project goals, activities and results clearly to both stakeholders and the wider public;
• Submit reports to UNDP, partners and donors in a quality and timely manner;
• Support the partnerships and advocacy activities in the areas/sectors covered by the project;
• Organize and ensure analytical reporting and project evaluations and collect and captures lessons learned from the project implementation.

Ensuring Gender mainstreaming within the project:

• Ensure gender is effectively mainstreamed throughout the project activities, work plans, budgets, reports, research, analyses and, where specifically relevant, analyzed in detail;
• Ensure gender equality is mainstreamed throughout team, consultant and staff management activities;
• Ensure knowledge on gender equality is incorporated in Project knowledge management activities and products;
• Ensure collection of gender disaggregated data, as appropriate. 

Facilitate knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing and advocacy relevant to the assigned thematic area(s):

• Organize training, workshops, and capacity building activities in a consultative manner, involving technical experts and stakeholders that may include the government, private sector, NGOs, donors, and/or academia;
• Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned that are generated from the project and implementing partners; 
• Participate in and ensure sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice on project related issues. Support establishment of knowledge platforms for the project, facilitate innovative mechanisms for dissemination of knowledge from the project, and develop knowledge resources and products to share with project partners and to support UNDP’s engagement in this area;
• Promote advocacy on development trends and opportunities to collaborate in coordination with the project partners, stakeholders, and UNDP communications staff. 

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The Project Analyst will be engaged on a regular NPSA contract and will report to the Head of the Environment, Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction Unit (for more details see the organigram below). The Project Analyst will be located in Skopje. 
 

• Climate:    
  • Climate Change Adaptation: Climate-Resilient Infrastructure.
• System Thinking:    
  • Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.
• Project Management: 
  • Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals. 
• Effective Decision Making: 
  • Take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one's authority, area of expertise and resources and take into consideration potential wider implications.
• Partnerships Management: 
  • Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies. 
• Risk Management:    
  • Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.
• Gender:     
  • Communication and Advocacy for Gender Equality.