Project Associate

**Background**

UNDP has been working in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development. Together with the Government of India and development partners, we have worked towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, strengthening local governance, enhancing community resilience, protecting the environment, supporting policy initiatives and institutional reforms, and accelerating sustainable development for all.

With projects and programmes in every state and union territory in India, UNDP works with national and subnational government, and diverse development actors to deliver people-centric results, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. As the integrator for collective action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the UN system, we are committed to supporting the Government of India’s national development vision and priorities and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs for the people and the planet.

UNDP India’s new Country Programme (2023-2027) builds on our prior work and aims to provide an integrated approach to development solutions in three strategic portfolios:

- Strong, accountable and evidence-led institutions for accelerated achievement of the SDGs.
- Enhanced economic opportunities and social protection to reduce inequality, with a focus on the marginalized.
- Climate-smart solutions, sustainable ecosystems and resilient development for reduced vulnerability.

South-South cooperation, gender equality and social inclusion are promoted across the pillars. The programme is supported by a framework of renewed partnerships and blended finance solutions, strategic innovation and accelerator labs, and data and digital architecture.

You are invited to join a team of future-smart development professionals to support India in achieving the national and globally agreed goals. As part of the UNDP team, your focus will be to work with diverse stakeholders to find country-specific solutions that lead to sustainable development and reach those furthest behind first.

**Office/Unit/Project Description**

The Action for Climate and Environment (ACE) Unit at UNDP is organized around the thematic areas of climate change adaptation and mitigation, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, disaster management and resilience, and access to clean and efficient energy.

The ACE unit is currently supporting the Government of India in meeting national and global priorities on adaptation under several key multi-lateral agreements. In this context, UNDP is implementing a project in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to demonstrate an exemplar for India.

This project is primarily geared towards creating a model of climate change adaptation action that takes into consideration local knowledge that is further informed by the scientific information on climate change impacts. The premise being that local knowledge need to be better understood and evidenced throughout the adaptation process for better representation of the needs of small-scale producers. Hence, this project is designed to leverage capacities of local climate research community and involve them in the decision-making process for Climate Adaptation outcomes. The advanced and localized climate science to be integrated with local knowledge base -would be made available by the national technical institution like the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D). The project on Localizing Data Science for Climate Change Adaptation aims to demonstrate an exemplar for India and in turn, the region, that will enable interaction of various knowledge systems to develop robust and locally relevant climate adaptation actions which can be incorporated into policies and programmes.

**Duties and Responsibilities**

Reporting To: National Project Manager, UNDP India

The Project Associate (Gender) will support the project team in ensuring that gender responsive and transformative considerations are mainstreamed and integrated across the project - in all aspects of climate action. Given the objective of the project, the role of the Associate will mainly include (but not limited to) analytical, support strategic and coordination functions. He/She/They, along with the National Project Manager and the Gender Analyst will also engage closely with the National Centre for Excellence and the four Regional Labs in ensuring the climate policies and practices are well informed by relevant local knowledge and gender transformative approaches.

**Gender Mainstreaming in Climate Adaptation Planning**
- Support in conducting gender analysis to identify key common and differentiated climate vulnerabilities/opportunities and adaptive capacities of different genders and gender identities, especially small-scale farmers, marginalized communities etc.
- Facilitate discussions and consultations with women farmers, SHGs, and other local institutions to gather information on local knowl