UNEP’s Source to Sea Pollution Unit plays a crucial role in identifying and acting on the challenge of land-based pollution. The Unit focuses on issues including but not limited to plastic pollution and marine litter, nutrient management, wastewater and physical alteration and destruction of habitat and its activities serve to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically SDG 6 and 14. It also contributes to UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025, and as well as to the implementation of UNEP’s Chemicals and Pollutions Action sub-programme. The work of the Unit also contribute to the implementation of numerous United Nations Environment Assembly’s (UNEA) resolutions, including for example “Marine litter and microplastics” (UNEP/EA.1/6, 2/11, 3/7 and 4/6), “Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities” (UNEP/EA.4/11), “Sustainable Nitrogen Management” (UNEP/EA.4/14, UNEP/EA.5/2), and “End plastic pollution: Towards an international legally binding instrument” (UNEP/EA.5/14).
To counter the challenges posed by land-based activities, the Unit is implementing the project titled “Protecting the Marine Environment from Land-Based Pollution through Strengthened Coordination of Global Action.” To counter the challenges posed by plastic pollution, the Unit is working toward the Output 3 of the Programme of Work (PoW) project titled “ONE UNEP Plastic Project on Accelerating a Global Circular Plastic Economy to Reduce Plastic Pollution and its Impacts’’, which aims to trigger a systems change to accelerate the safe and just transition towards a circular economy of plastics thereby reducing plastic pollution. This output focuses on enabling and planning actions to address plastic pollution and includes the facilitation of the development of harmonized methodology and tools to assess national baseline, and guide governments and stakeholders to develop systemic and tailored action.
Engagement with all relevant stakeholders is also promoted through this output, including through the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML) and the Global Plastics Hub. The GPML is the largest global multi-stakeholder partnership, bringing together governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector for collaborative action on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
The Global Plastics Hub of the GPML is the global digital platform on plastic pollution and marine litter, providing crowd-sourced and open access to resources and integrating data from partners across the globe and the plastics lifecycle, to foster evidence-based and collaborative action. The Global Plastics Hub is being developed through consultation with experts from the GPML, including its Community of Practice on Plastic Monitoring and Assessment Harmonization and Community of Practice on Informing Action.
This consultant will focus on enhancing the hub’s data and knowledge hubs to better inform evidence-based policies and actions, by developing data-driven stories based on mapping of data on plastic pollution sources and plastics flows across the lifecycle for at least 10 countries, reviewing new finance and investment datasets, and collecting and developing case studies for integration into the Hub. The data stories will strengthen country dashboards and demonstrate the potential of dashboards and recommendations to address pollution sources based on data mapping and stories developed can be shared with country partners to strengthen usability of the dashboards and identify opportunities for further enhancement. Countries will be selected based on criteria to be defined with the consultant, including data availability, capacity needs, and relationship and interest of country partners.
The consultant also support the GPML Community of Practice on Plastic Monitoring and Assessment Harmonization in harmonization of plastic categorization in waste and marine litter survey protocols, as recommended in the GPML CoP Workshop.
This assignment is within UNEP’s Ecosystems Division, under the direct supervision of the Programme Management Officer leading the development of Global Plastics Hub and overall supervision of the Chief of the Source to Sea Pollution Unit, and in close consultation with other relevant divisions, regional offices and Regional Seas programmes, as relevant.
Duties and Responsibilities
a) Develop data stories to strengthen country dashboard using country specific data shared by different partners and other divisions of UNEP for at least 10 countries.
b) Harmonization of the plastic products/waste categorization under Waste Wise Cities Tool and GESAMP coastal litter monitoring guidance, as recommended in the GPML CoP Workshop.
c) Review existing finance and investment data (i.e. The Circulate Initiative’s Investment Tracker and UN-Habitat’s municipal solid waste management finance data) and develop prototype narrative for country dashboard enhancements.
d) Collect and develop case studies through reviewing National Plastic Strategies developed by selected countries that will be uploaded to the Global Plastics Hub.