UN-Habitat’s Programme Development Branch develops new programmes and ensures coherent coordination between normative approaches at HQ and operational work in regional and field offices. It is also leading on the development of five global flagship programmes. Flagship programme 2 focuses on people-centered smart cities to act as an umbrella and enabler for mainstreaming the approach across all of UN-Habitat work. This function will have a clear mandate to support colleagues in the delivery of their operational and normative work. The function will be supported by committed and mandated smart city focal points with dedicated resources and time in other offices. The objective of this flagship programme is to ensure that the smart cities field is focused on ensuring sustainable development outcomes aligned with human rights, including ensuring that no one and no space is left behind, and that cities reduce carbon emissions.

Supervision

The Consultant will be under the overall leadership Programme Management Officer – Urban Technologies and Innovation with an additional reporting line to the UNITAC Lab Manager.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide technical support to the UN-Habitat Innovation Unit
• Provide technical support to the development of the People-Centered Smart Cities programme
• Provide technical support to the Climate Smart Cities Challenge, particularly the workstream related to Curitiba
• Provide technical support to UN-Habitat’s work on digital rights, including helping establish a digital rights helpdesk
• Provide technical support to the Microsoft Datacenters project
• Provide technical support to UNITAC

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: University degree in social sciences, political science, international development, urban planning, architecture, innovation or related subjects is required.
• Experience: At least five years’ experience in working with innovation and technology projects, policy and strategy is required.
• Experience in open innovation, challenge-driven innovation and design thinking is desirable.
• Experience and knowledge of current debates relating to digital cooperation, digital rights and people-centered smart cities is desirable.
• Experience working with digital platforms, tools and services is desirable.
• Experience in policy communication, including writing policy briefs, reports and producing publications is desirable.
• Experience in project management is desirable.
• Language: Fluency in written and oral English and Portuguese required. Experience of other UN languages including French, Spanish and Arabic is an asset.

Closing: 09  August 2022

In the 1st phase, UN-Habitat's Urban Lab, in partnership with Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), developed an Integrated Spatial Plan for Khorog that creates economic opportunities and builds social stability for future growth scenarios. The plan aimed to provide the planning direction to improve resilience and social stability for existing communities and accommodate the increasing populations in Khorog in a sustainable way. In the 2nd phase, the project will aim to demonstrate the implementation of proposed policies and actions at the urban design scale by transformative projects while reflecting them in the design guidelines and legislative documents. In addition, the Urban Lab will develop a Capital Investment Plan to guide the prioritisation and financing of proposed urban interventions in the plan. Overall, the project aims to improve government stakeholders' planning and technical capacity through training sessions and collaborative planning and design projects (learning-by-doing). UN-Habitat aims to provide planning expertise, drawing on existing methodologies, toolkits, and best practices in a collaborative and integrated way to guide the growth of Khorog.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall the overall supervision of the Chief of the Planning, Finance and Economy Section and the day-to-day supervision of the Head of Urban Lab, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties:

• Provide technical advice for the development of the capacity-building activities and thematic learnings to build the capacity of city authorities.
• Facilitate communication between stakeholders and overcome potential linguistic barriers.
• Keep informed and communicate changes (in national, regional, and local regulation/planning/Covid-19) with the project team that might impact the project activities and outputs.
• Host multi-stakeholder workshops, including organisation and moderation.
• Coordinate participants' attendance and arrange any logistical needs for engagement events like workshops, focus groups, and exhibitions.
• Translate key documents in English and Tajik.
• Safeguard the cross-cutting issues that are considered in each project: Climate Change, Gender Equality, Human Rights, Youth, Children and Elderly Persons, and Disability.
• Engage in other activities with the Urban Lab and the Planning, Finance and Economy Section if required.
• Provide technical support to the team to collect local best practices in urban design.
• Understand the needs of local regulatory plans and identify the possible entry points to adapt the city-wide recommendations.
• Provide technical support to the project team to collect accurate data from city authorities to prepare urban plans and design projects.
• Provide technical support to city authorities and government entities with policy recommendations.
• Provide technical support to the project team with stakeholder engagement and communication.
• Review project outputs and provides technical recommendations.

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualifications: A minimum advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Architecture, Urban Planning and Design, or related field that is relevant for sustainable urban development is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two (2) years of experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree
• Experience: A minimum of 5 years of experience in urban planning and design with direct proven experience in drawing and preparing plans using computer-assisted tools is required.
• Experience working with government entities and/or international organizations will be an asset.
• Experience in the national system of regulatory plans (general and master plan) in Tajikistan and Central Asia will be considered an advantage. 

Closing: 02 August 2022