Consultant to support UNDP and the UN-REDD Programme’s efforts to establish a grievance and compliance mechanism

In October 2011, UNDP’s management endorsed a proposal to introduce an environmental and social policy and procedure into UNDP’s Programme and Operations Policies and Procedures (POPP). The screening procedure will determine whether a project should be subject to further review and management. The screening procedure was tested by several projects during the ground-truthing phase and has been updated to reflect feedback from this phase. The ground-truthing phase highlighted the need for UNDP to establish an accountability mechanism to receive and address grievances of those affected by UNDP-supported projects. While the current guidance requires that project-level grievance mechanisms be established for those projects with potentially significant adverse environmental and social impacts, the ground-truthing process highlighted the need to establish an organization-wide mechanism. Such a mechanism would be a key component of ensuring accountability to the application of environmental and social safeguards and would further strengthen UNDP’s capacity to respond to the needs of the people it aims to help. Best practice at other institutions suggests that environmental and social safeguard policies be accompanied by some mechanism for affected people to raise grievances and to ensure compliance with the policies meant to protect them. UNDP seeks a consultant to support the establishment of a compliance review and grievance process with two objectives: (i) to ensure compliancewith UNDP’s environmental and social policies and procedures through investigation and reporting on potential violations; and (ii) to provide an opportunity for hearing and resolving specific grievances of people affected by UNDP-supported projects and programmes. The consultant will apply experience related to this work to also providing guidance on aspects of the UN-REDD Programmes’ work on grievance and accountability.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Assist in developing and implementing a roadmap to establish UNDP’s accountability mechanism; 2. Support the development of Guidance for UNDP’s Grievance Process; 3. Support the development of Guidance on UN-REDD Programme national-level grievance mechanism; 4. Other activities related to this body of work, on an ad hoc basis. Travel Travel may be required to New York 2-3 times for 1-2 days over the period of 8 months.

Competencies

· Sets priorities, produces quality outputs, meets deadlines and manages time efficiently. · Writes clearly and convincingly. · Anticipates evolving client needs. · Communicates effectively and respectfully with individuals of a different culture, races, gender, religion, nationality and age.

Required Skills and Experience

· At least a Masters degree in environmental or international development related field. · Knowledge/experience of relevant IFI policies and procedure, especially related to grievance and accountability. · Expertise in the social and environmental safeguard policies of international institutions. · Experience in stakeholder engagement and conveying the CSO perspective is a distinct advantage. · Familiarity with UNDP’s policies and procedures is a distinct advantage. · Familiarity with UNDP’s work on grievance and accountability is a distinct advantage. · Familiarity with the UN-REDD Programme and REDD+ is a distinct advantage. · Demonstrated above satisfactory results in a similar assignment is a distinct advantage.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

Consultant to support UNDP and the UN-REDD Programme’s efforts to establish a grievance and compliance mechanism