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UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

The forest ecosystems of Ghana’s Northern Savannah Zone (NSZ), an area of 9.7 million hectares with a population of over 5 million people, is characterized by nearly 400 million shea and other trees growing naturally on traditional farming systems. The trees are integrated with crops on smallholder farms, creating an agroforestry landscape resilient to climate change. These lands are facing a great threat with total forest cover having declined by over 77% between 2001-2015, with the conversion of 1,058,492 million hectares (ha) of woodlands to grasslands, croplands and degraded forests. This has resulted in Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions of an estimated 3.568 mtCO2e per annum. The main drivers of this deforestation and forest degradation are mid to late dry-season fires, conversion to agriculture, and cutting for timber and wood fuels.

The loss and degradation of woodlands and forests, including valuable trees like shea and other species, pose significant environmental, social and economic risks in the NSZ. Shea landscapes are important sources of carbon storage and sequestration above ground and in soils and roots. Shea is an ancient crop, consumed as an edible oil. The loss of shea trees impacts women because it provides a major source of economic livelihood to women in the region. They collect shea fruits and process them into kernels for sale, increasing the household income and promoting women’s involvement in the international marketplace and their empowerment.

If community and forest reserves are managed sustainably and shea is restored in the landscape, a host of economic, environmental and social benefits will accrue over the long term to the population in the Northern Savannah Zone.

The Project Has Four Interrelated Outputs That Will Be Implemented Through a Cross-sectoral, Comprehensive And Holistic Approach, Driven By Communities, Women’s Groups, The Private Sector And Government Institutions

Output 1: Off-reserve, degraded, savannah woodlands and forests restored under self-financing community management in CREMA.

Output 2: Degraded shea parklands restored through public-private partnerships.

Output 3 Modified Taungya System plantations and fire management in forest reserves

Output 4: Integrated monitoring system implemented, and REDD+ Systems strengthened

These Terms of Reference focuses on the management and coordination of the stakeholders involved in the shea value chain. The partners on the GSLERP (UNDP, Forestry Commission and Global Shea Alliance) have agreed to set up a national shea sector multi-stakeholder platform as the mechanism to get a more concerted approach amongst the relevant stakeholders to developing and sustaining the Shea industry.

This position seeks to employ a professional to lead the formation and management of the national shea multi-stakeholder platform.

Duties And Responsibilities

• Ensure effective planning, budgeting, and management of the platform through the following tasks:
• Prepare and deliver project work plans, budgets, troubelshoot any issues that may arise, and carry out monitoring through the implementation of the project;
• Prepare project reports in line with the standard template in a timely manner;
• Oversee budget utilization, prepare and submit financial reports to the Forestry Commission and the UNDP;
• Ensure gender-related economic, environmental public research and analysis, to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures, guidelines and tools that will hold the platform together.
• Oversee, coordinate, and facilitate the establishment and implementation of the National Shea Multi-Stakeholder Platform and ensure effective implementation and achievement through the below activities:
• Provide technical expertise on the day-to-day multi-stakeholder coordination process and ensure the achievement of targets as outlined in the project work plan;
• Deliver conferences and workshops in collaboration with multiple stakeholders;
• Facilitate and prepare the content for the multi-stakeholder process, meetings, and workshops;
• Lead and supervise all communication with members on the platform;
• Oversee the day-to-day coordination with platform members and ensure the achievement of targets as outlined in the project work plan;
• Performs oversight roles for platform compliance against the relevant government policy and regulations;
• Develop and strengthen relationships with key actors in the shea sector and foster their participation in the national platform;
• Manage the multi-stakeholder dialogue process to develop, implement and monitor collective action plans and commitments.
• Create and nurture strategic partnerships and support to the implementation of resource mobilization:
• Establish and maintain good working with the Forestry Commission, the Global Shea Alliance, and other relevant public and development partners;
• Lead efforts to ensure the creation and coordination of partnerships with development partners, government institutions, the private sector, civil society etc., including efforts to determine programmatic areas of cooperation;
• Identify opportunities for mobilizing resources for the project and prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation;
• Ensure the visibility of the project in coordination with UNDP’s Communication unit and other relevant counterparts’ communications departments.
• Facilitate knowledge building and management for and from the platform’s implementation:
• Identify best practices and lessons learnt from the development and management of the platform and from other initiatives;
• Lead in generating knowledge products such as best practices and lessons learnt for knowledge sharing;
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Manage and provide input to platform-related learning and evaluation activities.

The incumbent of the position should avoid any kind of discriminatory behavior including gender discrimination, and ensure that:

• Human rights and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions;
• Activities are designed and implemented in accordance with the “Social and Environmental Standards of UNDP”;
• Any kind of diversities based on ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, class, and gender are respected within all implementations, including data production;
• Differentiated needs of women and men are considered;
• An inclusive approach is reflected within all actions and implementations, in that sense an enabling and accessible setup in various senses such as disability gender language barrier is created;
• Necessary arrangements to provide gender parity within all committees, meetings, trainings etc.

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

Competencies

Core

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Strategic Thinking

• Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with the platform objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions
• Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for the platform.

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.

Negotiation And Influence

• Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates win-win situations.

Partnership 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 platform strategy and policies.
• Sets overall direction for the formation and management of strategic relationships contributing to the overall positioning of platform.

Strategic Engagement

• Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives.

Customer Satisfaction/Client Management

• Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers’ needs. Provide inputs to the development of a member service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond members’ or groups’ immediate requests.
• Ability to anticipate members’ or groups’ upcoming needs and concerns.

Education

Required Skills and Experience

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Agriculture, Forestry, Natural Resource Management, Regional Planning, International Development, Public Policy, Economics, Political Sciences, Environmental Policy or related field is required, or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in a relevant field in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience

• Minimum 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services, and/or hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
• Experience in project management, programme/project coordination and monitoring or similar;
• Experience with multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaboration processes;
• Proven knowledge of the shea commodity industry;
• Direct experience working with UNDP/FC or other shea value chain-related agencies/institutions is an advantage to organization’s directly involved in the shea value chain;
• Experience with UNDP or other UN agencies is an advantage;
• Experience with the Forestry Commission is an advantage;
• Proven ability to work with and establish working relationships with a broad range of stakeholders (government, private sector, financial institutions, civil society, etc);
• Outstanding communication, interpersonal and presentation skills, management, and organizational skills.

Required Language(s) (at Working Level)

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of one or more local language is a strong asset.

Disclaimer

Applicant Information About UNDP Rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Non-discrimination

UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

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