job Description
Description of assignment title: Climate Change and Urban Environment Assistant
Assignment country: Zimbabwe
Expected start date: 08/09/2025
Sustainable Development Goal: 7. Affordable and clean energy
Volunteer category: National UN Community Volunteer Part time
Host entity: UN-HABITAT ZWE
Type: Onsite
Duration: 12 months (with possibility of extension)
Number of assignments: 1
Duty stations: Harare
Mission and objectives
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination, and poverty.
Context
This position is located at UN-Habitat office in Harare that will be operated under the Regional Office for Africa (ROAF). The volunteer will be supervised by the Lead of the Urban Energy Solution Team of the Urban Basic Services Section (UBSS) of UN-Habitat in Nairobi. UBSS is responsible for proposing urban basic service solutions (water, sanitation, energy, mobility, waste management, drainage serves etc.) including normative, advocacy and operational activities.
Lack of access to adequate, affordable, reliable, safe and environmentally sound energy is a severe constraint on sustainable development. Currently, 780 million people lack access to modern energy (electricity) to meet their basic needs. 2.4 billion people without access to clean cooking fuels. 75 % of the buildings that will be standing in Africa in 2050 are yet to be built and effort should be made to make these buildings green and environmentally friendly. Access to reliable energy improves productivity and wealth, as energy services are needed to pump water, to provide adequate sanitation, to improve basis infrastructure and services.
UN-HABITAT's Basic Services Section’s main focus is improving delivery of basic services (water, sanitation, waste management, mobility and energy) in African, Asia and Latin America, and promoting policy dialogue, information exchange, water education and awareness raising.
UN-HABITAT is also in charge of the promotion of sustainable human settlements development that is environmentally sound. This is done through the promotion of low carbon interventions such as energy efficient design of building, renewable energy technologies and practices, and by assisting national and local governments in adopting building codes that are environmentally friendly.
This assignment aims at providing support to the implementation of the Harare Sustainable City Initiative (HSCI), a project managed by UN-Habitat in collaboration with three main implementing partners: Zimbabwe Sunshine Group, Soberlife and Green building council of Zimbabwe.
HSCI aims at showcasing good examples of integrated sustainable waste management, resource recovery from waste, urban renewable energy generation for productive uses, and mainstreaming energy and resource efficiency into building policies and building practices.
HSCI will demonstrate tangible sustainable zero waste practices, clean energy solutions and energy efficiency principles to encourage replication and upscaling. The project main targets are the citizen of Harare with particular attention to the urban and peri urban poor.
The main objective is: To provide better living condition to Harare citizens by increasing and improving their access to sustainable waste to wealth services, clean energy provisions and to promote energy and resource efficiency in Zimbabwe’s built environment.
Specific objectives are:
1. To promote sustainable waste to wealth practices in the greater Harare.
2. To increase access to clean energy by the urban and peri urban poor in Harare; and
3. To achieve energy and resource efficiencies in Zimbabwe’s built environment.
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