Vacancies

TERMS OF REFERENCE                                                                                                                      

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable settlements and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

Following the translation of UN-HABITAT priorities into seven new thematic branches, the Urban Planning and Design Branch (UPDB) was created in December 2011. The Branch has three Units which are closely related: (1) Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit (RMPU), (2)
City Planning, Extension and Design Unit (CPEDU), and (3) Climate Change Planning Unit. To implement the UN-Habitat’s 2014-2019 Work Programme, all the three Units will continue to work in synergy, across other UN-Habitat branches and Units as well as a range of partners.

Different approaches to planning have been tested and implemented worldwide. While there are valuable lessons learnt from these diverse efforts, the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP) are designed to fill a critical gap by providing a global reference framework based on universally agreed principles. The Guidelines were approved by the Governing Council of UN-Habitat in Resolution 25/6 of 23 April 2015 and are informed by two years of wide ranging consultations, three Expert Group Meetings and a Compendium of Inspiring Practices. These Guidelines complement the International Guidelines on Decentralisation and the Strengthening of Local Authorities (2007), as well as the International Guidelines on Access to Basic Services for All (2009), which were previously adopted by the UN-Habitat Governing Council and which have been referenced in a number of countries.

The Guidelines prescribe how urban and territorial planning can promote goals of sustainable development in the dimensions of social development, sustained economic growth and the environment. The Guidelines emphasize that urban and territorial planning must be understood both as a product (the plans and associated rules and regulations) and a process (the mechanisms to elaborate, update and implement the plans) at different geographical scales. Thus urban and territorial planning is both a technical tool and an integrative and participatory decision-making process, the implementation of which requires technical knowledge, improved coordination and consensus-building approaches. It is an iterative process that requires continuous monitoring, periodic adjustments and sufficient capacities at all levels. It is grounded in appropriate regulations and enforceable legal and institutional frameworks as well as sustainable technologies and financial mechanisms. The Guidelines are applicable throughout the multiscale continuum of spatial planning i.e.

• At supranational and transboundary level
• At national level
• At city-region and metropolitan level
• At city and municipal level
• At neighbourhood level

The Resolution calls upon international financial institutions, development agencies and UN-Habitat to assist interested member States in using and adapting the Guidelines to their territorial and national contexts, where appropriate, and further developing tools and monitoring indicators as part of their support for the implementation of the Guidelines. For increased uptake of the Guidelines, UN-Habitat is supporting implementation of IG-UTP at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels:

• At the global and supra-national regional levels, the focus is on exchange of experience, and other forms of knowledge management (developing a database, collection of cases/practices, visit exchanges), tool development, monitoring and reporting, awareness raising, comparative evaluations, policy dialogue and capacity development;
• At the country and sub-national levels, the focus is on the localized adaptation (national, provincial/state, metropolitan, city levels) of the IG-UTP, the review and adjustment of the legal, regulatory and governance frameworks, the application of the adapted Guidelines to concrete city situations and capacity development.

Based on twelve principles, the IG-UTP provides action-oriented recommendations to four stakeholder groups: national governments, local authorities , civil society and professional planners. The recommendations are of a general nature and intended to be a source of inspiration when reviewing, developing, implementing and monitoring their national urban policies and urban and territorial planning frameworks. While the Guidelines serve as a compass, it is necessary to develop a companion to operationalize them for different phases in the process of adjustments in the planning system: Diagnosis, Formulation, Implementation and Monitoring & Evaluation. It is therefore envisaged to develop an IG-UTP Handbook inclusive of monitoring indicators that would unpack the Guidelines and serve as a comprehensive Technical Assistance toolkit to support the adaptation and implementation of the Guidelines in distinct national and sub-national contexts.  

IG-UTP HANDBOOK

The IG-UTP Handbook will consist in a ‘step-by-step guide’ to assist in using the set of resources and tools that have been and are currently being developed such as the approved Guidelines, the Compendium of Inspiring Practices (available on online), the IG-UTP Learning Materials (drafting on-going). Indicative tools to be developed as part of the assignment include the IG-UTP Assessment Framework, IG-UTP Prioritization Matrix, IG-UTP Inventory of Tools and the IG-UTP Monitoring Framework. These tools aim to support a) national governments b) local authorities c) civil society associations and d) planning professionals throughout the policy-making and planning cycles as shown in the table below:

Applications should include:

• Technical Proposal (4000-8000 words), see instructions above
• Summary CV (maximum 5 pages), indicating the following information:
  • Educational Background (incl. dates)
  • Professional Experience (assignments, tasks, achievements, duration by years/ months)
  • Other Experience and Expertise (e.g. Internships/ voluntary work, etc.)
  • Expertise, relevant publication list and referees
  • Expectations regarding remuneration
• UN Personal History Form* (please use the United Nations standard personal history form available upon request or via: http://mirror.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=24&catid=435&id=3867
•  
• Proof of relevant work (at least two)

All applications should be submitted to:
UN-Habitat
P.O. Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Email: jayne.kimani@unhabitat.org and cc: manka.bajaj@unhabitat.org
Subject: Guidelines Handbook LASTNAME

Please be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the
UN-HABITAT e-Roster in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the e-Roster
through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org

Deadline for applications: 28 February 2016

UN-Habitat does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or  companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and requesting the payment of a fee, please contact: recruitment@unon.org

* It is advisable to also register in the consultant roster at https://inspira.un.org. After registration in My Consultant Roster, go to My Applications and Create Draft Application. Fill out your details and click View/Print PHP. The completed form is equally acceptable as your UN Personal History Form.