Beginning in February 2020, the Youth Environment Living Labs (YELL) was jointly ideated by UNDP and UNICEF in Malaysia to reimagine youth participation in climate and environmental action in the country. The concept by the two UN agencies was supported by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment and Water. YELL’s concept is anchored on the Living Labs model that promotes sustainability through action learning. In July 2021, YELL was piloted after it received UNDP-UNICEF regional seed funding through the “Investing in 21st Century Skills, Engagement and Entrepreneurship for Young People across Asia Pacific” initiative. Through this seed-funding, YELL initiated its work focusing on building the YELL network and a resource hub, developing local narratives for climate and environmental action, and organising a series of extensive stakeholder engagements that provided insights to the development challenge and inputs toward the current model of YELL.

In attaining the 2030 Agenda, it is important to consider that any transformation to the way communities live and work should be mindful of any social aspects in ensuring the delivery of equitable outcomes and sustainable livelihoods, especially for disadvantaged communities, such as rural communities. Therefore, YELL wants to focus on moving youth from awareness to action, empowering young people with the knowledge, skills, and networks to address sustainability issues. YELL wants to prioritise youth that faces barriers of entry in taking their first steps by providing them with structured entry points. This also includes a focus on youth from low-income backgrounds, or who are otherwise marginalised.

YELL has two objectives:

• Address the knowledge and resource gaps among local youth from a diverse background that motivates them to take action to tackle the environmental and climate threats affecting their community; and ii)
• Strengthen the ecosystem of actors to support and hold the space for youth to engage as agents of change in environmental policy-and decision-making and in environmental actions

Therefore, UNDP and UNICEF are currently seeking to engage a qualified and experienced Project Manager who will be responsible for the overall project management and managing donor/partner relationships. S/he is expected to communicate objectively, able to initiate strategic conversation and partnerships with senior levels of the partners’ organizations and will also be responsible for providing leadership in the resource mobilization strategy in response to the emerging opportunities and challenges related to YELL. The person will be reporting to both the Head of Inclusive Growth & Prosperity and UNICEF Climate & Environment Specialist and is also expected to work closely with the YELL Project Coordinator to strengthen the execution and coordination of YELL’s activities and contribute to the objectives of this project.

Project Management – Financial, Administrative and Human Resources

• Overall lead for the Project Management Unit consisting of the YELL Coordinator, Youth Environment Community Facilitators, Communications Officer and Interns
• Undertake overall management of the project, including effective project implementation, progress documentation, human resource, and achievement of project outcomes;
• Work closely with UNDP and UNICEF’s focal points to provide and facilitate periodic reporting, in line with UNDP and UNICEF’s reporting requirements. Manage the project budget and facilitate budget approvals and revision processes as per UNDP & UNICEF policies and procedures;
• Ensure appropriate recording and accounting documentation as required by UNDP & UNICEF and the preparation of required financial reports. Facilitate transparent financial management of the project that is able to stand up to regular audits and evaluation;
• Prepare work plans, and produce timely reports – financial and progress reports – as required by UNDP and UNICEF and donor reporting systems; ensuring that UNDP and UNICEF rules and regulations concerning finance, procurement and human resources are adhered to; and,
• Support an environment of learning for staff within the programme.

Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

• Develop the necessary strategic documents concerning programme planning and implementation, such as policy papers, concept notes, etc;
• Provide strategic advice, direction and direct technical input to the UNDP & UNICEF senior management on youth in climate and environmental strategy in Malaysia while keeping them informed of emerging issues;
• Coordinate overall assessment for YELL, and ensure that the relevant baseline data collected for project monitoring and evaluation can take place;
• Oversee compliance with the monitoring and evaluation plan of the project;
• Ensure proper documentation of the project including efficient and effective collection, storage and analysis of information and data throughout the project, including sex and age-disaggregated data where relevant;
• Provide guidance to the project’s communication strategy in close collaboration with relevant partners;
• Ensure gender is integrated and mainstreamed throughout the project outcomes;
• Provide oversight to the Terms of References developed by the Project Coordinator for project consultants/experts hired on a short-term basis and ensure the proper delivery of technical services and submission of technical and other reports;
• Ensure the participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders in project-implementation, planning and design to ensure an inclusive, participatory and transparent process;
• Ensure higher-level engagement and coordination among strategic partners, donors and with government ministries and administrations;
• Ensure sustainability of the project intervention by promoting leadership and ownership of the youth group and youth organizations and through proper capacity building;
• Ensure the timeliness and quality of the YELL project outcomes as well as timely preparation of reports on achievements and challenges faced within the project;
• Ensure delivery of resources and results according to planned targets;
• Ensure the development of linkages between the Country Programme of UNDP and UNICEF and other relevant projects and programmes for mutually reinforcing impact;
• Ensure compliance with donors’ agreements; and
• Promote identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned for organizational sharing and learning.

Lead in partnerships and resource mobilization

• Establish and maintain partnerships with stakeholders (government, private sectors, UN agencies, donors);
• Identify emerging trends related to YELL within the development partners, corporates, academia, policymakers, philanthropists and foundations, and others in leveraging partnerships and opportunities for funding;
• Analyze, compile and keep an updated database of key stakeholders engaged in YELL financing and funding:  impact ventures, institutional and individual investors, potential donors and other funders for YELL-aligned investable projects;
• Identify and establish collaborations between YELL and key partners, including  donors and investment companies, who have a regional or global presence. These partnerships will aim to align YELL’s sustainability plan with UNDP and achieve the SDGs;
• In consultation with the UNDP and UNICEF Partnership & Corporate focals-points and senior management team, develop YELL’s partnership and resource mobilisation strategies and action plans that include securing new, diverse and additional resources for YELL. The strategy should respond to YELL’s funding needs;
• In consultation with the senior management, lead in negotiations with strategic partners, and ongoing management of key partnership action plans while identifying new partnerships and opportunities;
• Develop partnership proposals with potential donors and pitching materials for strategic alliances and partnerships on YELL, for targeted potential partners in Malaysia.
• Support the preparation of materials for MoUs, Financing Agreements or any other legal documents to effectively onboard new partners;
• Work closely with UNDP BRH Partnership Specialists and Private Sector Focal points and with UNICEF regional resources and networks to ensure the identified potential partners are aligned with UNDP and UNICEF’s due diligence policy including developing UNDP’s Risk Assessment Tools (RAT) and UNICEF’s HACT framework with comprehensive information about the partner as required; and
• Act as the focal point for the YELL partnership at the regional and global engagement or dialogues with national stakeholders.

Lead in advocacy, policy-level outcome discussion, knowledge-building, sharing and advocacy efforts in line with the national agenda

• Provide insights into the drafting of policy-centric communications products, policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/ materials for use in the development and presentation of YELL impacts and results;
• Link YELL impacts and results to relevant policies, including the Twelfth Malaysia Plan,  in line with the UNDP and UNICEF country programme action plan;
• Ensure advocacy materials, communications products, and package information are in compliance with UNDP and UNICEF guidelines and branding.
• Provide technical input on climate and environmental issues, with emphasis on the youth lens;
• Provide leadership and advocacy support to address policy-related issues and other challenges on climate and environment;
• Extract lessons learned to support programme improvement and feed into UNDP and UNICEF climate and environmental solutions policies and programming knowledge globally (Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing); and
• Perform other duties as assigned by management relevant to YELL.

• Multi-stakeholder engagement and funding: Knowledge and ability to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships, and remove any obstacles to resource mobilization and multi-stakeholder funding platforms
• Strategic engagement: Ability to capture and sustain attention, interest and agreement of high-level, influential policy and decision makers and secure their buy-in of high-level vision and objectives