IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of 1,400 Member organisations and some 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples’ organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development.

Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems and improve people’s well-being. Through its status as a Project Agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and an Accredited Entity for the Global Climate Fund (GCF), IUCN been entrusted to mobilise significant sources of multilateral funding and to use its global network of Members and experts to put this funding to greatest effect.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) includes a target to protect at least 30% of the planet under effective conservation. IUCN is closely supporting the implementation of the KMGBF across many countries and ecosystems. Framed by IUCN’s global agenda on forests, the IUCN Asia Regional Office seeks to combat deforestation and forest degradation in areas of high biodiversity and cultural significance and restore degraded forest landscapes, while ensuring that rights-based land use is enabled, and forest benefits are sustainably managed and equitably shared.

IUCN and FAO co-lead the GEF-8 Indo-Malaya Critical Forest Biome Integrated Programme (CFB IP). The CFB IP will contribute to maintaining the integrity of globally important primary forests of Indo-Malaya* to maximize multiple global environment benefits related to carbon and biodiversity and human well-being. The CFB IP consists of a regional coordination child project and three country child projects in Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand (with eight target landscapes). Additional country child projects are being considered.

The CFB IP works with multiple partners to reduce threats to primary forest conservation, focus on expansion and effective management of protected and conserved areas, and improve practices for enhanced IPLCs’ resilience and benefits in primary forests outside PAs, including buffer zones. The programme will also create an enabling environment for primary forest conservation and leverage incentives and finance for the conservation and sustainable management of primary forests. As part of its activities, the programme will conduct a biome-wide diagnostic assessment focusing on primary forest conservation and develop a regional strategy specifically aimed at this crucial task. Furthermore, it will create a Primary Forest Investment Forum to stimulate investment and innovation in this area. Overall, the programme will facilitate policy coordination, knowledge sharing, and learning on the topics related to the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of primary forests in the region.

The CFB-IP will engage a full -time international Senior Programme Officer, who will lead the implementation of the project and the work of the Project Management Unit, under the guidance of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the supervision of the IUCN Asia Regional Office’s Regional Coordinator for Forest and Drylands (with additional functional reporting line to FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific’s Senior Forestry Officer). The Senior Programme Officer will provide lead technical advice to the implementation of the Project and will ensure that project implementation meets IUCN, FAO and GEF standards. The Senior Programme Officer will be fielded full-time in Bangkok throughout the project duration.

*For the purposes of the Global Environment Facility-funded Indo-Malaya Critical Forest Biome Integrated Program, the biome is considered to comprise Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

1 Technical implementation:
• Provide technical advice to the PSC to ensure technical soundness of all project activities and outputs, assuming quality control of interventions, maximum technical cross fertilization with other initiatives as well as technical consistency between project work implemented by different partners;
• Overall technical co-ordination of the inputs of individual consultants and partners;
• Technical quality control of the work of all consultants and sub-contractors, to ensure timely and quality delivery of expected outputs; ensuring effective synergy among the various sub-contracted activities, and integration of project outputs;
• Bring international technical experiences to project planning and implementation to ensure that full use is made of lessons learned, and that best practices are used to achieve the project objective;

2 Team supervision and management:
• Supervise and coordinate the production of project outputs, as per the project document in a timely and high-quality fashion;
• Coordinate all project inputs and ensure that they adhere to IUCN, FAO and GEF procedures;
• Supervise and coordinate the work of all project staff, consultants and sub-contractors ensuring timing and quality of outputs;
• Coordinate the recruitment and selection of project personnel, consultants, and sub-contracts, including drafting terms of reference and work specifications and overseeing all contractors’ work;
• Lead day-to-day operations of the PMU, including staff management, contracting, etc.;
• Apply adaptive management for progressing towards the Project’s strategic targets;

3 Work planning, budgeting, and financial management:
• Prepare, revise, and submit project work and financial plans, as required by Project Steering Committee and IUCN/FAO;
• Manage the Project and budget according to the Project Document and Annual Work Plans, applying results-based management;
• Lead the financial management of the Project including procurement, disbursement, with the support of the Admin and Logistics Coordinator;
• Manage requests for the provision of financial resources by IUCN and FAO, through advance of funds, direct payments, or reimbursement;
• Monitor financial resources and accounting to ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reports submitted on a quarterly basis.

4 Safeguard issues:
• Coordinate the development, implementation and monitoring of any required management or action plans in response to Safeguards issues, working closely with the Safeguards and Gender Specialist consultant
• Uphold social and environmental safeguards, including the implementation of relevant procedures (supported by the Safeguards and Gender Specialist Consultant);
• Support gender mainstreaming into project implementation, including the implementation of the Gender Analysis and Action Plan
• Encourage staff, partners, and consultants such that strategic, intentional, and demonstrable efforts are made to actively include women and disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in the project
• Lead technical advice to the implementation of the Stakeholder Engagement Plan, Project Communication Strategy and Action Plan and social and environmental safeguards;
• Advise on and ensure gender-disaggregated data collection to track progress on gender aspects,
• Identify gender-specific information and capacity needs and mainstream these into the Project’s capacity development and communications strategies.

5 Communication:
• Review the project Communication Strategy and support the development of the Communication Plan and update annually;
• Help design the project information website and supervise its maintenance;

6 Knowledge Management and Capacity Development:
• Supervise the KM and Capacity Development Specialist to ensure case studies, knowledge and lessons learned on key issues are shared; key project reports are published and disseminated; and successful experiences from the project are documented.
• Provide strategic guidance to the Project’s capacity development efforts;
• Monitor the implementation of the Capacity Development Plan.

7 Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships:
• Develop and foster the strategic partnerships required for effective project implementation, maintain an overview of their effectiveness, and adapt their management as necessary;
• Lead liaison with project partners and other groups to ensure effective coordination of project activities, and coordination with complementary projects and programs;
• Ensure partnerships are facilitated and supported to high standards by relevant consultants and services contract providers, through provision of training, guidelines, and evaluation;

8 Project Reporting:
• Lead, oversee and ensure timely project reporting, including Inception Report, Annual GEF Project Implementation Reports, Half-Annual Progress Reports, Quarterly Financial Reports, Annual Non-Expendable Material Purchase Report, Final Project Report, ensure preparation and consistency of Annual Co-financing Reports by Co-financers, technical reports and any other reports required by IUCN, FAO and GEF;
• Disseminate project reports and respond to queries from concerned stakeholders;
• Report progress of project to the Project Steering Committee and ensure the fulfilment of directives.

9 Monitoring Evaluation and learning:
• Work with the MEL Specialist to review and update the M&E plan including results framework baselines GEF Core Indicator sheet, etc. during project inception phase;
- Work with the MEL Specialist to monitor and report on results achieved against the relevant GEF Core Indicators at Mid-point of project implementation and at project end.
• Support the establishment of baselines;
- Monitoring of logframe indicators and project impacts;
• Advise the PSC on progress towards annual, mid-term and end-of-project targets
• Support the introduction of midcourse corrections to the Project based on the recommendations of the MTR;
• Support the MEL Specialist in preparing evaluations and in implementing their recommendations, including the project phasing out.