UNESCO Almaty Office is seeking for a Technical Advisor

The deadline for submission of applications is 25 January 2023.

Terms of reference

In the framework of the UNESCO-AF GLOFCA project on “Reducing vulnerabilities of populations in the Central Asia region from glacier lake outburst floods in a changing climate”, under the overall authority of the Director of the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty, and the direct supervision of the GLOFCA Project Officer, and in cooperation with the Natural Sciences Programme Specialist, UNESCO Almaty Office, the Contractor shall perform the tasks as the technical advisor, related to strategic implementation of the project and its visibility. 

The Contractor, in particular, shall:

1.    Contribute to the project execution as the technical advisor of the project:

1.1.    Advise on the strategic vision, as well as annual activities of the project and monitor progress against the approved work plan;

1.2.    Monitor events as determined in the project monitoring plan and update the plan as required;

1.3.    Monitor progress, watch for plan deviations and make course corrections when needed within Project Management Unit-agreed tolerances to achieve results;

1.4.    Advise with regular progress reporting to the Project Management Unit (PMU) at Almaty Office as agreed with the PMU, including measures to address challenges and opportunities;

1.5.    Monitor and advise on the project risks – including social and environmental risks – initially identified and submit new risks to the PMU for consideration and decision on possible actions if required; update the status of these risks by maintaining the project risks log;

1.6.    Capture lessons learned during project implementation;

1.7.    Propose revisions to the multi-year work plan, as needed, as well as annual and quarterly plans if required;

1.8.    Advise for the annual report no later than one month before the annual reporting deadline; 

1.9.    Ensure that the indicators included in the project results framework are monitored annually in advance of the report submission deadline so that progress can be reported to the Adaptation Fund Secretariat; 

1.10.    Advise on monitoring of the implementation plans including the gender action plan, stakeholder engagement plan, and any environmental and social management plans.

2.    In the framework of the GLOFCA project communications-related activities:

2.1.    Contribute to the GLOFCA Regional Exchange Workshop 2023 with a presentation on the GLOFCA Knowledge Management Platform (KMP) and other knowledge management aspects;

2.2.    Report about the progress of the GLOFCA KMP, as needed for the project reporting purposes;

2.3.    Promote the work of the GLOFCA project, its goals, objectives and results, including:

-    Regular sharing all updates and information on online and social media channels. In cooperation with the project communications assistant to be hired by UNESCO Almaty, ensure posting of two messages per week on the website GLOFCA.org, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts of the project.

2.4.    Coordinate with the Zurich team and GLOFCA staff content delivery for updating the GLOFCA website with regional and country-specific project results and thematic/project-related information:

-    Provide the content and write-up of the GLOFCA related updates (news, program profile, etc.) and support GLOFCA staff in communication and outreach;

-    Together with the Zurich University, work out the structure for all content of the GLOFCA website and agree on timely delivery of content;

-    Create and disseminate a half-yearly GLOFCA newsletter.

2.5.    Coordinate and supervise the communications assistant to further update the KMP (including uploading of content).

Deliverables:

1.    by 20 April 2023: Submit for approval (Tasks 1-5):

-    input to the Annual Project Performance Report, including for the spreadsheets ‘Lessons Learned’, ‘Risk Assessment’, ‘Environmental and Social Policy Compliance’, ‘Project Indicators’, visitors statistics of the KMP, as requested by the Project Officer;

-    input for a presentation on GEF and GLOFCA projects synergies to be delivered at the GEF project inception meeting;

-    architecture of the KMP thematic pages completed.

2.    by 20 August 2023: Submit for approval (Tasks 1-5):

-    GLOFCA project newsletter created and disseminated;

-    Recommendations provided to the PMU on the improvement of gender, youth and visibility aspects of the project implementation, including concrete proposals on remedial actions to be undertaken to keep the project “on track” on these aspects.

3.    by 17 November 2023: Submit for approval (Tasks 1-5):

-    Input provided to the Regional Exchange Workshop (presentation and other supporting documents, if any);

-    Input provided for the Midterm Review of the project, as well as recommendations for further project implementation, based on the results of the Midterm review;

-    Draft outline for the next half-yearly newsletter.

Please send the following documents to apply:

•    an up-to-date curriculum vitae;

•    a statement indicating how the candidate’s qualifications and experience make him/her suitable for the assignment;

•    an indication of the approach the candidate would adopt to carry out the assignment, including any inputs that may be required from UNESCO;

•    the overall cost of the assignment, expressed as an overall lump-sum. Any travel and subsistence requirements should be indicated separately.

The proposals and any supporting documents should be in English. The proposals should be submitted by e-mail not later than 25 January 2023 to [email protected], cc [email protected]. The selected candidate will be duly informed not later than 30 January 2023.

Should you be interested in this work assignment, please send us your written proposals by indicated deadline. We would be also grateful for further sharing of this call with other suitable candidates through your professional networks.