Junior Officer

Junior Officer

Assignment country: Nepal
Expected start date: 01/11/2024
Sustainable Development Goal: 11. Sustainable cities and communities
Volunteer category: International UN Youth Volunteer
Host entity: UN-HABITAT NPL
Type: Onsite
Duration: 12 months (with possibility of extension)
Number of assignments: 1
Duty stations: Kathmandu

Details
Mission and objectives

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations agency based in Nairobi (Kenya-The Headquarter) and active in over 90 countries around the world (including Nepal). It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable cities and settlements with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat is the lead agency within the UN system for coordinating activities in the field of human settlement development and the UN leading the collaboration with local and regional governments and their networks.

Context

The Government of Nepal (GoN) has made strong commitments to achieving the SDGs and meet the international commitments to promote inclusive and sustainable development by 2030. Aligned with SDG and the national priorities/commitments, the UN system in Nepal has jointly prepared with the Government of Nepal, UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2023 – 2027 in support of the achievement of Nepal’s development priorities. Also, with the Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) in the lead, GON has committed to the New Urban Agenda (NUA) for ensuring inclusive and sustainable development of the cities towards achieving the SDGs.

Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, facing increasing number of landslides, flash floods, extreme heat events, and droughts. Rapid urbanization, coupled with unplanned municipal infrastructure development, exacerbates climate risk and vulnerabilities, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged groups, particularly women and girls. Hence, it is critical that the urban development in Nepal needs to ensure no one is left behind in accessing the benefits, opportunities and services provided by the cites.

The project, “Cities 4 Women: Inclusive and Climate Resilient Urbanization in Nepal Integrating Gender Sensitive and Climate Resilient Urban Planning for Sustainable Cities”, aims to increase the demand for gender-responsive climate-resilient public spaces, generated as proof of concept through enhanced urban planning and design capacity of municipalities. The project will engage with multi-stakeholders: communities, academia, professional bodies, government officials, and policymakers to build a collaborative effort for institutionalizing gender and climate responsive planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring at the national and municipal levels and document the best practices and learnings of wider replication.

The project draws on the collective expertise of UN-Habitat, UNOPS and Cities Alliance, to jointly implement the project along with other stakeholders at the national and local levels. The project will focus on delivering four outcome areas:

1. National and Local governments follow a gender sensitive and climate resilient approach in their urban planning and budgeting processes.
2.  Municipal women officials have leading roles in including women’s voices in local planning and budgetary processes for gender and climate responsive development.
3.  Municipalities in Nepal have increased number of gender sensitive and climate resilient pro-jects in their planning process.
4.  Municipalities and national knowledge institutions jointly collaborate in generating and sharing knowledge on participatory and inclusive urban planning and gender and climate sensitive ini-tiatives.
   Through 4 main Outcomes, the project will increase the demand for gender-responsive climate-resilient public space, generate proof of concept for participatory public space projects, enhance the urban planning and design capacity of municipalities, and review the legal framework to provide recommendations for policy review.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of Habitat Programme Manager, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Provide technical assistance to the project team for the development of gender- and climate- responsive framework and step by step municipal planning guideline.
• Provide technical support to the experts for the development of training modules/ manuals re-lated to gender responsive and climate resilient urban planning.
• Closely working with the communication team of UN-HABITAT to enhance the visibility of the project through the support for the preparation of IEC materials like social media content, web stories, infographics, photo and video documentation for workshops and events.
• Support the project coordinator in the development of project reports, web stories, concept notes and event reports.
• Actively participate and contribute to knowledge dissemination events, workshops, capacity development activities, research initiatives and collaborations with different agencies.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the HPM and the Project Coordinator.

Eligibility criteria
Age: 18 – 26

Additional eligibility criteria

This assignment is funded by the Government of Korea and therefore specific criteria apply:

• Candidates must be Korean nationals.
• Candidates must be between 22 and 29 years old at the time of application. NOTE: If you are older than 26 when applying, the system will display a notification that the ’application does not meet the eligibility criteria’. Please disregard this notification and submit your application.
• Candidates who have already served as UN Youth Volunteer funded by the Government of Korea are not eligible to apply (former UN University Volunteers are eligible).
• Serving UN Volunteers will not be considered for other UN Volunteer assignments until they reach three (3) months before the End of Contract date of their current UN Volunteer assignment. This provision applies equally to first and subsequent contracts.
• Candidates may apply to a maximum of three assignments and indicate the order of preference in the ‘Additional remarks’ field when filling in the application form.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The selection will be done by the UN Host Entity at the level of the country of assignment.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 30 June 2024

+++ UN Volunteer entitlement calculator: https://app.unv.org/calculator +++

Nationality

Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Donor priorities

Requirements

Required experience

1 years of experience in or demonstrated interest in Climate Resilience and Climate Vulnerability assessment , inclusive urban planning process, urban design and public place making.

Area(s) of expertise: Communication, Development programmes, Information technology
Driving license: –

Languages

English, Level: Fluent, Required

Required education level

Bachelor degree or equivalent in Urban Planning, Environment Science, Climate Change, Development Studies, Gender Studies or the related socio-technical field.

Competencies and values

• Accountability
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Building Trust
• Commitment and Motivation
•  Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Communication
• Creativity
• Ethics and Values
• Integrity
• Knowledge Sharing
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity
• Self-Management
• Technological Awareness
• Working in Teams

Other information
Living conditions and remarks

The UN-HABITAT Nepal office in Lalitpur offers an engaging and enriching working environment with huge learning opportunities within diverse project teams. As the capital city, Kathmandu has a com-fortable living environment with moderate climate conditions. Comfortable, inexpensive flats (furnished and unfurnished) are available. Imported and local food and clothing are abundantly available. Water is in somewhat short supply and not safe to drink without treatment. Public transport is readily availa-ble and generally reliable. It is important to note that navigating through regular traffic congestion is a common aspect of daily life, and the living costs are moderately high compared to other cities in Ne-pal.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy

Advertisement end date: 30/06/2024