The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system’s designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action.
The UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office (LACO), located in Panama City, Panama works closely with the 33 countries of the region and its activities are integrated into the Medium-Term Strategy and the Programme of Work approved by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). In terms of addressing climate change, UNEP aims to support countries in compliance of the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the priority actions defined in the countries Nationally Determined Contributions. The overall objective of UNEP´s Sub-programme on Climate Change is to strengthen the ability of countries to move towards climate-resilient and low emission strategies for sustainable development and human well-being. The expected accomplishment regarding climate change adaptation is that adaptation approaches, including an ecosystem-based approach, are implemented, and integrated into key sectoral and national development strategies to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience to climate change impacts. Furthermore, the UNEP´s Sub-programme on Climate Change is also committed to ensure that crosscutting issues such as gender equity and women empowerment are effectively undertaken in the development of its tasks to guarantee an equitable development in line with its adaptation objectives.
To fulfill the objectives of the project, the UNEP LACO Office is recruiting a regional adaptation specialist to provide technical and strategical contributions to UNEP in structuring an integrated vision of the interventions and added value of UNEP’s work in adaptation in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region. The main objective of the position of Regional Adaptation Specialist is to structure and implement a comprehensive road map to bolster the development of a Regional Adaptation Strategy, within the framework of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) projects of El Salvador and Panama, as well as the Medium-Term Strategy and the Program of Work of the institution.
This includes providing technical and analytical guidance to strengthen national and regional adaptation processes, ensuring coherence with global frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Goal on Adaptation. The specialist will facilitate the integration of adaptation priorities into sectoral and subnational planning, promote knowledge exchange between countries, and identify synergies and opportunities for scaling up adaptation actions through innovative approaches, such as nature-based solutions, private sector engagement, and gender-responsive adaptation. The position will also contribute to the monitoring, evaluation, and communication of adaptation progress, generating evidence and lessons learned that inform the design of future regional and national strategies.
The NAP projects aim to strengthen institutional engagement and capacities to plan, finance, implement, monitor, and report strategic adaptation processes, considering stakeholders at multiple levels. The NAP projects seek to achieve its objective through four components:
• Adaptation planning, governance and institutional coordination strengthened.
• Evidence basis produced to design adaptation solutions for maximum impact.
• Private sector engagement in adaptation catalyzed.
• Adaptation finance increased.
Specifically, the Regional Adaptation Specialist is expected to guide the work related to:
– Generation and dissemination of science-policy knowledge
– Technical, capacity building and advisory services
– Regional Advocacy and outreach
– Intergovernmental and interagency process
– Contributions to Project management
The Regional adaptation specialist will operate under the overall supervision of The Regional Subprogramme Coordinator for the Climate Change Unit in UNEP LACO. The incumbent will work from Monday to Friday, 40 hours per week, full time basis and will be located at the UNEP LACO office in Panama City, Panama. Additionally, he/she will work in close collaboration with UNEP´s Climate Change team, the MARN in El Salvador, MiAmbiente in Panama, national consultants, government and non-governmental counterparts. Travel might be needed for the execution of the consultation processes.