Overview
The Environmental and Social Safeguards Associate supports the screening and due diligence of projects and programmes in accordance with UNDP Social and Environmental Standards (SES). The role ensures timely completion and quality assurance of required SES documentation and provides technical feedback on safeguard documents.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the screening and social and environmental due diligence of all projects and programmes in accordance with the UNDP Social and Environmental Standards (SES).
- Review and provide technical feedback on the Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP), Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), and related safeguard documents.
- Support the preparation, review, and quality assurance of Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (SEIAs), Strategic Environmental and Social Assessments (SESAs), Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), and other required SES instruments.
- Support the integration of social and environmental risk management measures, including climate risk, gender equality, human rights, disability inclusion perspectives into safeguard analyses and risk management plans.
- Support in monitoring and identifying safeguards risk register, identify emerging risks, developing mitigation measures, and ensuring appropriate management actions are tracked and updated regularly.
- Provide support to project teams to integrate grievance redress mechanisms (GRM), stakeholder response mechanism (SRM) and community feedback loops into the full project cycle.
- Monitor compliance with national environmental and social regulations, ensuring harmonization with UNDP SES and early identification of related risks and issues.
- Provide ongoing technical support as part of the IRMU risk management processes to UNDP Project/Programme staff, contractors, consultants, and government counterparts.
- Support project appraisal committees, mid-term reviews, evaluations, and quality assurance processes, ensuring safeguards are systematically addressed.
- Support the management of SES-related incidents and grievances, including reporting, escalation, monitoring and follow-up.
- Support the implementation, monitoring, and reporting of Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs), and other agreed mitigation measures.
- Support the operationalization, monitoring, and continuous improvement of the Stakeholder Response Mechanism (SRM) for Gaza and the broader PAPP portfolio.
- Prepare consolidated SES compliance reports for internal UNDP use and for submission to donors.
- Compile lessons learned, best practices, and case studies related to SES implementation.
- Contribute to corporate knowledge platforms to share country office experiences and tools.
- Support the development and maintenance of a repository of SES-related resources.
- Draft policy briefs, presentations, and communication products highlighting the office’s safeguards efforts, achievements, and challenges.
- Contribute to corporate reporting obligations, including the UNDP SES Annual Report, donor compliance reports, and country office results frameworks.
- Maintain and monitor SES and broader ERM tracking systems and compliance dashboards.
- Support the development, implementation, monitoring, and periodic update of the PAPP SES Capacity Assessment and Action Plan.
- Provide targeted capacity-building support to project teams, implementing partners, contractors, and consultants.
- Support in designing and delivering training workshops, induction sessions, and on-the-job coaching for UNDP staff, implementing partners, contractors, and stakeholders on SES and donor safeguards.
- Supports in developing tailored training modules and checklists for different target groups.
- Support awareness raising on cross-cutting safeguard issues such as stakeholder engagement and gender-based violence (GBV) risk management.
- Supports in creating communications and outreach materials to promote safeguards understanding across the Programme.
- Actively foster a community of practice within the office to ensure continuous learning and peer-to-peer support on safeguards.
- Provide targeted capacity development support to project teams, implementing partners, contractors, and consultants to improve the application of SES requirements, social and environmental due diligence processes, stakeholder engagement, grievance management, and risk mitigation measures.
Required Experience
- Minimum of 6 years with high school diploma or 3 years with bachelor’s degree of progressively responsible experience in the area of Programme/ project management, occupational health and safety with a specific focus on environmental, and social safeguards, and ability to support risk screening and safeguard instruments (ESMPs, ESMFs, etc.).
- At least 1 year of practical field experience in applying safeguards/standards within development programming, including stakeholder engagement and grievance redress mechanisms.
Qualifications
High School Diploma is required OR A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in environmental sciences, social sciences, development studies, or a related discipline
