Regional Energy Specialist - Asia/Pacific Region
Regional Energy Specialist - Asia/Pacific Region
- Thailand
The Regional Energy Specialist will work closely with the Environment Regional Team Leader and other Technical Specialists and Policy Advisors supporting the Asia/Pacific region to advance the sustainable energy agenda, while engaging with country offices in the region and enabling strategic partnerships with regional organizations and partner UN agencies. Therefore, working closely with other Specialists and Advisors, the Regional Energy Specialist will provide policy and programme support to:
(1) de-risk energy investments.
(2) scale up energy finance;
(3) promote innovation, technology, and data for sustainable energy,
(4) enable SDGs through an inclusive, just energy transition,
(5) advance energy access and transition policies and the enabling policy environment e.g. on carbon pricing, energy audits and fossil fuel subsidy reform; and
(6) expand energy access for poor and displaced communities, among other activities.
The Regional Energy Specialist will be supervised by the Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub based in Headquarters New York (Primary Supervisor) and work directly with the Environment Regional Team Leader for Asia/Pacific (secondary supervisor).
Scope of Work
The Sustainable Energy Hub requires the support of a Regional Energy Specialist to deliver on the activities described below.
1.Ensure Strategic Leadership, Programme Support, Policy Advice and Innovation
- Develop and define strategic approaches for UNDP’s work on sustainable energy and climate change mitigation, drawing on UNDP’s existing work under the Sustainable Energy Hub and Climate Promise, with strategic linkages with a Vertical Fund-financed portfolio of projects as well as analysis of the global/regional policy context.
- Lead the development of sustainable energy policies and tools, including for crisis contexts (where relevant and as requested, as these efforts may vary).
- Advise UNDP’s work in the Regional Bureau for Asia Pacific to assist countries at the regional level in designing strategies and policies to support energy access priorities, promote the energy transition, and foster low carbon growth in the context of their sustainable development efforts, aligned with the service offer under the Sustainable Energy Hub.
- Contribute to the development and implementation of new strategic programming and partnerships in areas of energy access and the energy transition to achieve results set within UNDP’s Strategic Plan, Energy Offer, SIDS Offer, and the work plans of Sustainable Energy Hub and the regional Nature, Climate, & Waste Hub teams.
- Collaborate with global, regional, national, and sub-national staff to promote UNDP’s de-risking approach and implementation of the corporate sustainable energy strategy.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues across and beyond NCE&W Hubs and GPN colleagues to identify policy issues regarding the implementation of energy-related SDGs and the nationally determined contributions (as they relate to energy).
2.Policy Positioning and Promote Strong Partnerships
- Under the guidance of the Environment Regional Team Leader, mobilize, foster, and strengthen strategic partnerships with UN entities, and other relevant bodies at the regional level, and provide inputs to those partnerships in support of UNDP initiatives.
- Prepare briefing notes and speeches. Advocate the importance of the thematic area in various fora at the regional level, including academia and civil society, with a view to deepen related political commitment and related reforms.
- Provide regional support to UNDP’s Sustainable Energy Hub, where needed.
- Support the Environment Regional Team Leader in engagement in UN interagency coordination in relevant policy areas by organizing and participating in regional meetings.
3.Facilitate Research and Knowledge Management
- Provide substantive inputs for HQ policy briefs/position papers prepared in collaboration with other practices that address links between energy and development.
- Coordinate and conduct analysis of data, case evidence and research findings to distil relevant lessons from regional projects and programmes to inform policy formulation and guidance and other products.
- Develop relevant analysis on issues related to energy, including on emerging issues of significance to the region, and contribute to new research, technical paper, or reports, as needed by the Regional Hub and/or the Sustainable Energy Hub.
- Collect and compile information on the energy profiles of countries in the region, including key indicators and policies, and identify areas of strategic significance for programming and policy work.
- Coordinate team contributions and support to corporate knowledge management activities, at region-specific level to help influence/advance policy dialogue in the thematic area in collaboration with policy teams at HQ and in Regional Hubs.
- Contribute regional energy insights and programming priorities to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
- Coordinate and perform knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned in the specific thematic area, and verify that knowledge sharing and content management is in line with guidelines and performed using corporate tools.
- Contribute, and coordinate as requested, substantive inputs for energy programming outputs (e.g. work-plans, project documents, inception missions, workshops, technical working papers, methodologies).
- The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Institutional Arrangements
- The incumbent will work be based in Bangkok/Thailand, Asia Pacific Region.
- The incumbent will work in collaboration with the BPPS/SEH team and the Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub.
- The incumbent will report to, and be directly supervised by, the Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub (Primary supervisor) and the Environment Regional Team Lead for Asia/Pacific (Secondary supervisor).
- The incumbent will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment.
- The Regional Energy Specialist will be responsible for providing her/his own workstation (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to reliable internet connection;
- Given the scope of the work to be undertaken during this assignment, the Regional Energy Specialist is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability taking into consideration different time zones.
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