Environmental and Social Safeguards Associate

The Environmental and Social Safeguards Associate supports the screening, assessment, and management of environmental and social risks throughout the programme cycle in Gaza. The role involves ensuring compliance with UNDP Social and Environmental Standards, providing technical support, quality assurance, capacity building, and reporting to enhance safeguard implementation and risk mitigation.

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), ensuring timely completion and quality assurance of required SES documentation.
• Review and provide technical feedback on the Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP) for all new projects and programmes, Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), and related safeguard documents to ensure alignment with UNDP SES requirements and donor frameworks (e.g., GCF, GEF, WB ESF, KfW).
• 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. Ensure high levels of information security related to grievances, allegations and feedback to safeguard the integrity of UNDP/PAPP programming.
• 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 to ensure SES safeguards, requirements, risk identification and mitigation measures are effectively implemented during project execution.
• Support project appraisal committees, mid-term reviews, evaluations, and quality assurance processes, ensuring safeguards are systematically addressed. As required, support field visits and desk reviews to assess SES implementation, identify non-compliance or gaps, and provide actionable recommendations.
• Support the management of SES-related incidents and grievances, including reporting, escalation, monitoring and follow-up, alongside other risk areas as part of the Adaptive Management and Risk Mitigation Strategy and in accordance with UNDP policies and procedures.
• Support the implementation, monitoring, and reporting of Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), Environmental and Social Management Frameworks (ESMFs), and other agreed mitigation measures to ensure compliance with approved SES commitments and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).
• Support the operationalization, monitoring, and continuous improvement of the Stakeholder Response Mechanism (SRM) for Gaza and the broader PAPP portfolio, including tracking cases, facilitating timely responses, analyzing trends, and reporting of trends and lessons learned.
• Prepare consolidated SES compliance reports for internal UNDP use and for submission to donors (quarterly, annual, and ad hoc).
• Compile lessons learned, best practices, and case studies related to SES implementation, with emphasis on fragile/conflict-affected contexts.
• Contribute to corporate knowledge platforms (e.g., UNDP Teamwork, regional CoPs) to share country office experiences and tools.
• Support the development and maintenance of a repository of SES-related resources, including templates, guidelines, and training materials.
• 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, ensuring timely follow-up of screening requirements, assessments, management plans, incidents, grievances, and corrective actions as part of the UNDP/PAPP Adaptive Management and Risk Mitigation Strategy.
• Support the development, implementation, monitoring, and periodic update of the PAPP SES Capacity Assessment and Action Plan, including identification of capacity gaps, training priorities, and institutional measures to strengthen compliance with UNDP SES and related corporate requirements.
• Provide targeted capacity-building support to project teams, implementing partners, contractors, and consultants to strengthen understanding and application of SES requirements, due diligence processes, stakeholder engagement, and risk management measures.
• 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 (Programme staff, engineers, contractors).
• 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 (manuals, toolkits, e-learning) 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.
• Perform any other duties agreed to within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Requirements

• 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.
• 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.
• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc), database packages, and web-based management systems.
• Solid knowledge of result-based management and project implementation.
• Experience from previous UN assignments, International /local NGOs.
• Experience in stakeholder engagement is an asset.
• Experience working in conflict or transition context with capacity to work effectively with staff, partners, contractors, and communities.
• Demonstrated experience in integrating cross-cutting issues (gender equality, human rights, social inclusion, climate risk) into safeguards assessments and programming.
• Strong analytical, drafting, and reporting skills, with ability to synthesize complex information into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Fluency in both English and Arabic languages is required.

Skills

• Environmental Safeguards Policy
• Social Safeguards
• Risk Screening
• Safeguard Instruments
• ESMPs
• ESMFs
• Programme Management
• Project Management
• Occupational Health and Safety
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Grievance redress mechanisms
• Result-Based Management
• Project Implementation
• Field Experience
• Capacity Building
• Reporting
• Analytical Skills
• Drafting Skills
• Office Applications
• Database Management
• Web-based Management Systems

Languages

English, Arabic