CALL FOR APPLICATIONS : Head of Programmes

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

UNIT: Project Coordination and Management Unit (PCMU)

“Regional Climate Action Transparency Hub for Central African States

POSITION TITLE: Head of Programmes

REFERENCE: 01_2023/HuRTAC/DERNADR/CEEAC

LOCATION: Douala – Cameroon

TYPE OF CONTRACT: Full-time individual performance contract

DURATION: 1 year fixed-term contract (renewable)

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 15 /04/2023

START DATE: 15/05/2023

Terms of reference

1. CONTEXT AND RATIONALE :

The Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is the executive body of the regional economic integration instrument in Central Africa. Its constitutive treaty of 18 October 1983 was the subject of a revision signed on 18 December 2019 and ratified to date by all 11 countries of the sub-region. It covers all the activities of public institutions, private companies, civil society and the populations of the region in a dynamic and integral perspective based on five pillars: peace and security; the common market; the environment and natural resources; regional planning and infrastructure; gender and human development. Economic growth, social well-being and the preservation of nature are built through the regional integration that ECCAS is developing among its eleven member countries.

Humanity is facing one of the crucial challenges of the present times, namely climate change and the degradation of the earth’s resources, which threaten the human living environment and undermine the economic development efforts of countries, especially those of the developing world.

To address this crisis, under the aegis of the United Nations, three major environmental conventions were adopted in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to which all ECCAS member states^[1] have adhered. Each of these States is committed to its implementation. In view of the ever-increasing threats and in order to strengthen climate action, the parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015, which unlike the Kyoto Protocol, is binding on all parties that commit to it, through a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which is due to be renewed and made more ambitious every five years. This was the exercise that all the countries of Central Africa had just carried out

Aware that the implementation of the NDCs implies profound changes for our economies which must take low-carbon development trajectories and aware of the difficulties that ECCAS member states are enduring in the implementation of the existing Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework under the UNFCCC and which must now face more requirements linked to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, With a strengthened Transparency Framework under the UNFCCC, the ECCAS Commission has obtained resources from the Climate Action Transparency Initiative (CATI), administered by UNOPS, for the creation of a Regional Climate Action Transparency Hub (ReCATH) for Central African States, with a view to assisting Member States in the establishment of comprehensive and sustainable MRV systems and to encourage the exchange of experiences among States. Its objectives are to :

1. Create a centre of expertise for climate action transparency

2. Assess the needs and priorities of each country

3. Building capacity in the Congo Basin

4. Create a network of national experts and officials

5. Disseminate tools and guidelines to support transparency

6. Supporting resource mobilisation

This Hub is a collaborative approach involving the Congo Basin countries and various institutions and technical and financial partners supporting Climate Action Transparency.

For the management of this new initiative in Central Africa, the ECCAS Commission has created a Hub Coordination and Management Unit based at the CAPC-AC in Douala, Cameroon. As part of the staffing of this Unit, the recruitment of a Head of Programmes is planned.

In this regard, the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States invites motivated nationals from ECCAS member states to apply for the position of Head of Programmes.

2. OBJECTIVE :

The objective is to develop, manage, implement and deliver programmes to generate results towards the achievement of the Hub’s objectives, in a manner consistent with good practice and, above all, with the requirements for programme planning and monitoring.

3. MISSION :

The Programme Officer is responsible for the development, planning and monitoring of the Hub’s programmes, focusing primarily on the development and implementation of the Hub’s programmes. To this end, he/she will :

• Develop, manage, implement and deliver the platform’s annual work programmes;
• Develop, maintain and share a clear understanding of the results of transparency in countries and the needs for developing transparency in countries;
• Stimulate continuous improvement in the competence, coherence and motivation of the hub team and wider expertise;
• Establish and maintain a broader pool of development needs for transparency in donor support;
• Technical reports on the status of the annual work plan and the pipeline of development needs for transparency and donor and country engagement;
• Maintain and communicate a strong and clear understanding of the transparency requirements and priorities under the Paris Agreement;
• To develop, maintain and motivate national thematic expertise by supporting the development of national teams of thematic experts capable of producing national results and engaging with decision-makers with the support of the Centre;
• Facilitate the engagement and contributions of international consulting teams where necessary and possible;
• Participate in the recruitment and management of technical experts’ missions financed by the hub;
• Identify and share good practices and lessons learned, training materials and transparency tools from within and outside the region;
• Provide feedback to managers on your own level of involvement in the work of the hub;

He/she will work under the responsibility of the Regional Hub Coordinator and in close collaboration with the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development Department of ECCAS, so as to ensure that the development, planning and implementation of the programmes integrates that of the Department and the Commission.

4. DETAILS OF THE MISSION :

Under the supervision of the Regional Hub Coordinator, he/she is responsible for the Hub programmes and ensures their planning and implementation.

In this capacity, he (she) carries out the following activities

• Support the Coordinator in the day-to-day management of the programme and the Hub’s activities.
• Support the design process of national work plans and regional activities.
• Support the coordinator in effective coordination and communication between partners working in the programme / hub projects.
• Develop, maintain and share a clear understanding of country transparency outcomes and development needs, including the development of laws and governance structures, expert pools, data flows, management systems and tools, and stakeholder engagement and communication.
• Stimulate continuous improvement in the competence, consistency and motivation of the hub team and wider expertise – Ensure that hub staff and contributing expert teams are engaged and motivated to think and work proactively for the hub and for transparency in the region.  Collect regular feedback on team engagement and act on it.  Strive for high engagement scores.
• Establish and maintain a broader pool of transparency-related development needs for donor support. This will include a compilation of transparency-related development needs for the region and for each member country. It will also include understanding and mapping the activities and commitments of other donors in order to identify contributions, avoid duplication and maximise synergies in transparency capacity building.
• Technical reports on the status of the annual work plan and the pipeline of development needs for transparency and donor and country engagement.  Coordination of progress reports to ECCAS and ICAT.
• Maintain and communicate a strong and clear understanding of the transparency requirements and priorities under the Paris Agreement, including requirements for capacity building and reporting to the UNFCCC, e.g. Articles 6, 13, 12, etc.
• Develop, maintain and motivate national thematic expertise – Support the development of national teams of thematic experts capable of producing national outputs and engaging with policy makers with the support of the Centre.
• Develop, maintain and motivate regional thematic expertise – including the development of a team of thematic expert trainers available to support and train national teams.
• Facilitate the engagement and contributions of international consultant teams where necessary and possible.
• Recruitment and management of technical expert missions funded by the hub.
• Identify and share good practices and lessons learned, training materials and transparency tools from within and outside the region.
• Provide feedback to managers on your own level of engagement in the work of the hubs.  Identify areas where engagement could be increased and results improved.

5. CANDIDATE PROFILE:

The candidate for the post of Programme Officer must have an engineering or academic background (Masters or PhD) in environmental sciences, climate change, forestry, geography,.. and meeting the following criteria and references

• At least 5 years experience in technical and operational programme support, preferably in the Congo Basin;
• Excellent project and programme management skills.
• Good understanding of the UNFCCC process and its Paris Agreement, transparency and the region’s sustainable and economic development programmes.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, including managing the input and contributions of a range of different people.
• Good experience in mobilising funding and setting up projects
• Good understanding of monitoring and evaluation systems and processes and ability to develop and adapt monitoring and evaluation systems and tools.
• Good understanding and awareness of recruitment processes and the development of terms of reference.
• Good understanding of knowledge sharing systems, tools and approaches.
• Ability and predisposition to work in a multicultural team
• Fluency in French, good knowledge of English, Portuguese and Spanish.
• Female applicants strongly encouraged

6. PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

• Identification of the development needs of the Hub’s programmes;
• Development of programme evaluation tools
• Preparation of programme monitoring reports ;
• Supervision of thematic groups ;
• Make relevant decisions;
• Timely production of reports for donors

• LANGUAGES

● A working knowledge of French and English is essential.

● Knowledge of another language (Spanish, Portuguese) is desirable.

Motivated candidates are invited to submit their application (in the first instance): CV (with three references) + cover letter to the President of the ECCAS Commission  to the following email address

• hubclimat@ceeac_eccas.org with copy to recath_eccas@yahoo.com  

No later than April 15, 2023

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[1] Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, CAR, DRC, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Chad,