UNV Climate/Environment Research and Communications Specialist

Host Entity: UNDP RBAS

Assignment Context:

Since its inception in 2022, the UNDP SHABABEEK project aims to establish a nurturing environment that empowers youth across the Arab region to lead the development sustainable solutions for their communities' most pressing issues.

With an emphasis on the economic empowerment and civic participation of young people, the SHABABEEK various regional initiatives seek to highlight the aspirations of youth and provide them access to resources and a supportive environment, enabling them to take on the role of innovative key actors in their societies.

Enhancing Youth Engagement In Tackling Climate Change:

Given the unprecedented impacts of climate change— that disproportionately burden the marginalized and most vulnerable, including young people, --the SHABABEEK project puts significant emphasis on enhancing the role of youth in national climate policy enhancement, in line with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) revision processes in trying to shape the future.

Young people are not only victims of the climate crisis, but they are emerging as positive agents of change at the forefront of climate action. Yet, they experience challenges towards meaningful youth engagement in climate action, policymaking, as recently highlighted at MENA Climate Week 2023 and COP28. Access to transparent information and capacity building tools remains cumbersome for youth, posing barriers to support youth-led adaptation and mitigation projects and climate justice action, especially in the Arab region.

SHABABEEK has recently put together an initiative that seeks to support five interested pilot country offices across the Arab region to deploy the Checklist for Decision Makers and Practitioners on a Youth-Inclusive NDC process. This aims to foster meaningful engagement of young people in national climate policy reform processes, the review and strengthening of NDCs - particularly with view to issues that are pertinent for young people as expressed in the COY18 Global youth statement.

This initiative falls under the project’s efforts to strengthen youth political participation in political processes and improve public policy relevant to youth through civic education and youth-led bottom-up participatory policy co-creation.

Bringing The Regional Youth Network Around:

The NextGenyouth Platform Under its current portfolio, SHABABEEK also launched the NextGenYouth Platform, a one-stop-shop for the next generation of entrepreneurs, community builders, policy shapers and future-ready job seekers in the Arab region. The platform aims to serve as a knowledge bank and a hub connecting a wide regional youth and partners across the region. It offers features such as networking, e-learning, snapshots of UNDP’s and partners’ work for youth in the region, as well as a mentorship module and a mapping of opportunities.

The NextGenYouth Platform is very user-focused demand-driven platform; its potential to grow is endless as it could be tailored to the current and upcoming needs of youth and partners across the region.

To this end, the SHABABEEK Portfolio is seeking the services of a Climate/Environment Research and Communications Officer whose duties will include conducting research, namely in the area of climate change, following up the work of the Youth Engagement In NDCs initiative, supporting the work of the NextGenYouth platform and producing communications material related to SHABABEEK’s initiatives in particular related to the two mentioned initiatives.

Task Description:

Under the direct supervision of the Project and Research Analyst and overall supervision of the Portfolio Manager, the National UN Volunteer will support in the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Conduct research in the area of climate change in the Arab region, with an emphasis on the challenges and impact faced by youth;

• Conduct literature reviews, data analysis, and synthesis to inform SHABABEEK's approach to climate change programming and youth empowerment initiatives;

• Support the development and implementation of strategies to mainstream climate change considerations into youth-focused activities and projects;

• Provide technical assistance and capacity building support to youth volunteers and interns involved in climate change research and communications activities;

• Monitor and evaluate the impact of SHABABEEK's climate change initiatives on youth engagement, awareness, and behavior change, and contribute to reporting and documentation efforts;

• Coordinate countries’ efforts in revising work plans and enhancing NDCs through providing technical support on youth involvement in selected Arab States countries. Work closely with the Regional Youth team and UNDP Climate Hub team to provide innovative and creative solutions to the policy development in selected Arab States countries.

• Support the work of the NextGenYouth platform by contributing to content creation, curation, and dissemination related to climate change and youth empowerment;

• Assist in data cleaning, ensuring recency and consistency of all information on the NextGenYouth platform (backend);

• Produce communications materials, including press releases, newsletters, reports, blog posts, and social media content, to highlight SHABABEEK's initiatives and achievements in engaging and empowering youth;

• Assist in organizing events, workshops, and webinars related to climate change and youth engagement, including logistics coordination, participant communication, and documentation;

• Assist in preparing knowledge products, including background notes, briefs, fact sheets and presentations related to climate change and youth empowerment in the Arab region;

• Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations, in collaboration with the project team;

• Collaborate with project partners, stakeholders, and youth representatives to gather input, feedback, and insights on climate change issues and youth perspectives;

• Perform other related tasks as necessary.

Living conditions and remarks

As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. This position is based in Beirut, Lebanon. National UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan. National UN Volunteers are expected to be culturally sensitive and adjust to the prevailing culture and traditions.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy