Disaster recovery forestry advisor

Background

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the voice for the environment within the United Nations system. UNEP mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and people to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. At the country level UNEP delivers, through its regional offices and with the technical support from its global divisions, environmental capacity-building and technical support in response to country priorities and needs.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and is part of the “Least Developed Countries” group. Political instability has been recurrent over the past two decades which has caused violence and insecurity, strangled economically the country and impoverished its population. The political stability restored in 2006, the improvement in security and modest but sustained economic growth over the past years represent significant strides. However, Haiti remains an extreme example where poverty, food insecurity, health problems and disaster vulnerability are all closely linked to environmental issues such as extensive deforestation, soil erosion, inadequate waste management, water pollution, water scarcity and coastal zone degradation.

In this context, the Government and UN country team requested UNEP assistance in addressing these poverty and environmental issues. UNEP thus decided to engage in the country through a long-term transformative intervention, the Haiti Regeneration Initiative, aiming to achieve major and sustained improvements in both the environment and the linked wellbeing of its population. The UNEP Haiti Regeneration Initiative seeks to catalyse and support the design and implementation of an innovative and large scale intervention in close collaboration with a number of actors. The longterm outcome (10-20 years) of the Initiative is: poverty and vulnerability to disasters are reduced through the restoration of ecosystems and livelihoods based on sustainable management of natural resources. It focuses on two ecoregions: selected mountainous areas in upper river catchments and coastal areas (coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds).

The Disaster Recovery Technical Assistance Facility:

In the framework of the initiative, UNEP is currently developing in a Technical Assistance Facility in the subject areas of flood risk mitigation, erosion control and reforestation/revegetation. The facility is designed to immediately assist the recovery effort from 2009 to 2011 when it will be integrated to the long term Haiti Regeneration Initiative.

An international humanitarian relief effort has been underway since August 2008 and the recovery and reconstruction programme is now starting on a large scale and expected to continue for up to 2 years. A significant part of the recovery programme is planned to be in the form of labor intensive cash for work and food for work. Appropriate training and ongoing supervision is needed to achieve and sustain the required level of technical quality. This is particularly important for the selection of design options for the development of reforestation/revegetation activities at small scale. When they are badly designed and or executed will simply fail – the trees or plants will either fail to seed, die within a short period, be cut down or if they survive will fail to deliver the hoped for benefits. At the larger scale of complete catchments or sub-catchments, the many diverse small work items need to fit into and form a coherent design to provide the most benefit. Ideally such efforts would contribute to the implementation of a catchment management plan.

In summary, an element of technical expertise is required to properly implement labour intensive works to protect and restore catchments. The objective of the proposed Technical Assistance Facility is to improve the quality and sustainability of the Haiti 2008 disaster recovery programme. It will achieve this by closing the identified skills gap in a cost effective and flexible manner that also contributes to the sustainable development of the country. UNEP will act as a centralized organizational host for a range of national and international experts that can deliver services to the 20+ organizations already undertaking or planning to undertake many labor intensive catchment recovery works. These services will be centrally funded and contracted and then delivered free to client organizations where possible to reduce overall transaction costs for the recovery effort.

The role of the Disaster Recovery Forestry Advisor will be, as a member of this Technical Assistance Facility, to assist the client projects in design and implementation of their projects. The services will range from ad hoc visits and advice notes to detailed design and longer term secondments into the client organizations.

Specifically, the Disaster Recovery Forestry Advisor will have the following duties:

• Participating as a team member in the whole project activities – proposal writing, design, community and government liaison, progress and completion reporting;
• Reconnaissance visits to active and planned project sites;
• Researching technically linked issues and developing design notes, plans and instructions;
• Briefing, coaching and short training sessions;
• On-site supervision of quality critical works;

The outputs to be produced by the consultant are expected to include the following:

• Site work instructions – verbal and written;
• Short technical notes, reports and plans and input into whole project documents;
• Training materials;
• Project records including maps where relevant. Level of Study/Experience/Skills:

A. Education

• Advanced university degree in Forestry, Environmental management, Environmental sciences, Natural Resources Management or related fields with strong knowledge of risk management and disaster recovery. A first level degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

B. Experience and knowledge

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in forestry/agroforestry/community forestry, disaster risk reduction and recovery programmes including working with governments and field experience;
• Experience in Tropical/Caribbean environments;
• Experience in managing restoration of degraded watersheds;
• Experience in elements of project management (development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation);
• Knowledge of the UN system an asset.

C. Competencies and skills

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with people of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds;
• Ability to work independently;
• Strong communication skills with ability to express ideas clearly, both orally and in writing;
• High level of computer literacy.

D. Language Requirements

• For the post advertised, fluency in written and spoken French and English is required. Knowledge of Spanish and Haitian creole will be an asset.