The UNDP Country Office in Myanmar is a key interlocutor and advisor to the government at the national and sub-national on sustainable and inclusive growth, (including economic, environment, climate change and disaster risk reduction issues) and is expanding its programme at the state, region and township levels in order to ensure stronger institutions at all levels of government as well as broader civic engagement as part of the effort to support Myanmar’s democratic transition, build and sustain peace and promote more inclusive and sustainable development.
UNDP Myanmar also strives to provide high quality advice on issues related to natural resource management, both because of the importance of this topic to sustainable development, but also because of the potential social tensions related to the equitable and inclusive management of natural resources.
Integrated programming has guided the design of the UNDP Myanmar Country Programme (2018-2022) in order to better address the inter-linkages between peace-building, governance, natural resource management and disaster resilience, inclusive growth, and the vertical linkages between subnational and national governance levels. The Country Office has aligned the new office structure with the new CPD and designed new ways of working that will facilitate more collaboration across the office, create the foundations for more sub-national level work and higher delivery, facilitate the transition of the country office from Yangon to Naypyidaw during the CPD period, and emphasize learning and support to national staff capacity development.
The Governance for Resilience and Sustainability (GRSP) leverages existing vertical funding and links up to horizontally and vertically with UNDP Country Programme key priority areas working at national and sub-national levels. GRSP is designed to help the Government of Myanmar (GoM) implement recent policy reforms related to environmental governance, climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR), to ensure that economic growth in Myanmar is more inclusive, resilient and sustainable. The project recognises that environmental degradation, when combined with natural disasters and effects of climate change, undermines the attainment of inclusive and sustainable growth. It also recognises that Myanmar’s environmental assets present unique opportunities for green economic development, which can directly support women’s economic empowerment and community resilience.
Areas of Project support include: strengthening capacities to ensure climate, disaster, and environmental risks are considered in development planning and budgeting at national/sub-national levels; technical assistance to review and improve relevant policies and laws to promote green growth, and build resilient and sustainable communities; strengthen government capacities and mechanisms to prepare for sustainable post-disaster recovery; strengthen government mechanisms to mobilize, access and effectively manage environment and climate finance, including innovative financial mechanisms such as Payment for Ecosystem Services; provide support to assessing the economic, social and environmental impact of selected industries; building linkages with the private sector to influence sustainable practices; and supporting access to justice to address environmental grievances, and supporting civic engagement in monitoring compliance with environmental standards.
The Project also supports Myanmar’s climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and actions, such as the provision of climate risk information and livelihood diversification including scaling up community-based and ecosystem-based approaches to enhance adaptive capacity resilience of vulnerable communities. Regarding biodiversity, the Project supports initiatives to enhance the management of targeted protected areas and conservation of ecosystems and wildlife focused on promoting community-based natural resource management and conservation, integrated land use, and participatory protected area management.
GRSP acts as an umbrella project for all emerging government priorities on environment, climate change and DRR work including under the Area Based Programme including in Rakhin and Kachin, small scale activities under regional and global projects, while ensuring cross synergies and linkages with GEF, UN-REDD and relevant activities under the Governance for Sustaining Peace Unit under implemented through the CO in Myanmar. The joint UNDP-UN Environment Poverty-Environment Action for the SDGs (PEAS) programme is embedded within GRSP
Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Unit, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, the Project Manager /Chief Technical Advisor is responsible for ensuring the direction of project activities and the achievement of project targets and results. S/he plans project activities and inputs, manages the day-to-day implementation of the project and supervises project experts and personnel. S/he maintains close working relationships with relevant government counterparts from various ministries at the Union and sub-national levels.
The Project Manager/Chief Technical Advisor supervises a team of international and local project professional and support staff. S/he works in close collaboration with the UNDP CO Programme, Strategic Results, Gender Specialist, Partnership and Innovation and Programme Support teams and maintains effective working relationships with project Implementing Partners (IPs), donors and other partners such as UN agencies.
The Project Manager/Chief Technical Advisor is accountable for actively engaging in the Country Office integrated coordination and task team structures to ensure full integration of its activities within the Country Programme and projects. The Project Manager will need to manage integration and coordination among different government partners, UNDP project managers and Technical Advisors.
UNDP Myanmar is committed to achieving 50/50 gender balance in its staff. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.