The United Nations University (UNU) is an international community of scholars engaged in policy-oriented research, capacity development and dissemination of knowledge in furthering the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The mission of UNU is to contribute, through research and capacity building, to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems that are the concern of the United Nations and its Member States.
For the past four decades, UNU has been a go-to think tank for impartial research on human survival, conflict prevention, sustainable development, and welfare. With more than 400 researchers in 12 countries, UNU's work spans the 17 Sustainable Development Goals' full breadth, generating policy-relevant knowledge to effect positive global change. UNU maintains more than 200 collaborations with UN agencies and leading universities and research institutions across the globe. For more information, please visit http://unu.edu
About Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (IAS)
United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is one of 14 research and training Institutes that comprise the think tanks in the UNU system. UNU-IAS is a UNU institute based at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo. The mission of UNU-IAS is to serve the international community through policy-relevant research and capacity development focused on sustainability, including its social, economic and environmental dimensions. Through its postgraduate education programmes UNU-IAS developes future international leaders with interdisciplinary understanding and skills needed to advance creative solutions to problems of sustainability. UNU-IAS builds on a strong tradition of UNU research and capacity development in Japan, undertaken in collaboration with a global network of professionals and scholars, particularly in Africa and Asia.
The Strategic Programme (SP) is a flagship programme implemented by the Strategy and Management Office
(SMO) in collaboration with Units of Thematic Programmes of the Institute and UNU-IAS partners under the Strategic Period 2020-2024. The Strategic Programme implements a research project on the governance for sustainable
Development focusing on synergies between climate change and sustainable development, budgeting and monitoring & evaluation system for SDGs. The SP promotes outreach activities on the knowledge of UNU-IAS through the channel of Global Environment Outreach Centre (GEOC). The GEOC was jointly established by the Ministry of Environment of Japan and UNU; its mission is to foster partnership between various stakeholders, such as international agencies, national governments, local governments, companies, nonprofit organizations and citizens, to create a sustainable society. GEOC's main activities include: (i) international partnership building, (ii) partnership building in Japan, and (iii) information sharing and communication.
Through postgraduate education UNU-IAS develops international leaders with the interdisciplinary understanding and technical skills needed to advance creative solutions to problems of sustainability. The institute offers master’s and doctoral degree programmes, and innovative short courses, in close collaboration with leading universities in Japan and other countries.
Responsibilities
Under the general supervision of the UNU-IAS Director and the direct supervision of Programme Manager of the Strategic Programme and GEOC, the contractor shall:
Conduct research activities of the Project, including:
Collect information on global policy trends in integrating the climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development agendas through various sources including the UN conference outcome documents and other international conference documents.
Collect information on good practices on multi-stakeholder partnership approaches at national and local levels in integrating the climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development agendas and identifying success factors.
Identify relevant stakeholders on good practices and conduct interviews to gather detailed information.
Analyse the global policy trends in integrating the climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development agendas including the perspectives of inclusion of youth and venerable sectors.
Prepare a report summarizing good practices and findings in Japanese and English.
Participate in regular project meetings within and outside of the institute.
Participate in the project's advisory committee meetings and reporting the research progress in Japanese.
Translate reports and project documents from Japanese to English and from English to Japanese.
Handle the research related communication within and outside of the institute in both Japanese and English.
Perform other duties requested by the Head of Programme and Administration
Key Performance Indicators
Timely and successful implementation of the research activities.
Creation of progress reports to present to the advisory committee meetings in Japanese.
Completion of final report summarizing policy trends, case study and analysis on good practice in both English and Japanese.
Completion of interviews with national and international stakeholders and creation of the reports of the interviews.
Participation to all planned advisory committee meetings and making presentations in Japanese.
Qualifications
Education and certification
Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, international relations, sustainable development, or other related disciplines
Experience
At least three years of working experience in government, academic or research institutions, consulting firms, and NGOs related to sustainability or environment, some of which preferably in an international and multi-cultural environment.
Excellent drafting, formulation, reporting and analytical skills as well as demonstrated ability to multi-task and to manage own workload and schedule to deliver timely results.
Excellent oral skills in both Japanese and English. This position requires native-level Japanese.
Good team player with strong interpersonal skills with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
ICT literacy and proficiency in Microsoft Office.
Experience in working for a UN organization is an advantage.
Experience in engagement of similar research tasks is an asset.
Language Requirements
Fluency in English and Japanese are essential.
Working knowledge of other UN official languages is an advantage.
