Office/Unit/Project: UNDP Türkiye
Climate Change and Environment Portfolio
Shifting to Zero Waste Against Pollution (SWAP) Initiative

Title: Field Coordinator (FC)

Level: NPSA 9

Duty station (City and Country): Ankara, Türkiye

Type (Regular or Short term): Regular

Office- or Home-based: Office-based

Expected starting date: September 2026

Expected Duration: 6 months initially with possibility of renewal based on the satisfactory performance and availability of funding

2. Office/Unit/Project Description

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

UNDP positions itself as a development partner that brings global knowledge, through a multi-sectoral approach – the key comparative advantage of UNDP – and concentrates its work on 3 programmatic fields: i) Inclusive and Sustainable Growth, ii) Inclusive and Democratic Governance, iii) Climate Change and Environment.

CCE Portfolio focuses on three programmatic areas that complement each other: 1-Natural Resource Management contributing to sustainable environment management and conservation of natural resources in production landscapes, within the general framework of the ecosystems approach; 2- Climate Change and Disaster Resilience (including chemicals and waste) strengthening institutional capacities for analysis and risk management for resilience with a specific emphasis on climate change, and 3- Cooperation with relevant stakeholders to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The Shifting to Zero Waste Against Pollution (SWAP) Initiative aims to reduce chemical pollution in the value chain and improve resource efficiency by supporting pilot cities in emerging economies and Least Developed Countries towards a zero-waste vision in line with green chemistry, circular economy, and waste hierarchy principles for sustainable production and consumption. The comprehensive approach of the Initiative will be implemented in five cities: Freetown (Sierra Leone), Kocaeli (Türkiye), Montevideo (Uruguay), Tunis (Tunisia), and Tianjin (China). The total GEF-provided activity budget for the project is USD 28,035,000.

The Initiative foresees interventions to:

• Enable conditions and coherent policies to promote integrated planning and programming at the city level towards a long-term vision of zero waste and zero pollution.
• Explore special and diverse legal, fiscal, and financial steering instruments to promote sustainable investment and cost recovery to address the financial challenges for the transition to a zero-waste city.
• Enhance sustainable production and consumption by encouraging the private sectors to adopt BAT/BEP to eliminate harmful chemicals in products, promoting eco-design, sustainable consumption and services, building an ecosystem from upstream to downstream for the circularity of materials.
• Make information and knowledge accessible for raising awareness to every key stakeholder in the key value chains, including producers, retailers, consumers, citizens, and waste workers, through a whole-of-society approach.
• Build global networks and partnerships on zero waste, provide policy and technical advice through its clearing house, facilitate knowledge sharing, and raise awareness across countries and regions.

The Project Field Coordinator (FC) will allocate %100 of his/her time to the Shifting to Zero Waste Against Pollution (SWAP) Initiative Project for the whole project’s duration. The FC will provide support to the senior-most representative of the Project Management Unit (PMU) who is the Project Manager assigned by the General Directorate of Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. He/she is responsible for providing technical and coordination support for the mobilization of project inputs, as requested by the Project Manager, and facilitating collaboration among the project team, responsible parties, consultants, and subcontractors, without supervisory or decision-making authority. The field coordinator supports the project manager in presenting key deliverables, progress in the field, and documents to the board for their review and approval, including progress reports, annual work plans, adjustments to tolerance levels, and risk registers.

3. Scope of Work

Under the technical guidance and coordination of the Project Manager, the FC provides field-level coordination for implementation of the Project.

• Provide technical and coordination support for project components on city‑level pilots, private‑sector engagement, knowledge and learning activities.
• Provide technical inputs and administrative support to the Project Manager in the implementation of assigned activities.
• Provide inputs to planning processes and support the Project Manager by tracking progress of assigned activities against the approved workplan
• Provide process and administrative support to the Implementing Partner in areas such as procurement documentation, reporting inputs, and safeguards implementation, without any decision‑making authority or oversight of procurement processes.
• Provide time‑bound technical support for specific implementation bottlenecks.
• Maintain collaborative working relationships among key project partners and projects’ donors, through effective communication, consultation, and reporting.
• Monitor events as determined in the project monitoring plan, and update the plan as required.
• Provide support for completion of assessments required by UNDP, spot checks and audits.
• Support the Project Manager in monitoring progress, watch for plan deviations and make course corrections when needed within project board-agreed tolerances to achieve results.
• Ensure that changes are controlled and problems addressed in consultation with the Project Manager.
• Provide support to the Project Manager in facilitating coordination and communication among project stakeholders and tracking implementation of assigned activities.
• Coordinate technical inputs and day-to-day collaboration with UNDP-contracted project support personnel (e.g. Project Associate and Project Assistant) to ensure delivery of assigned support functions.
• Align the projects and field activities with UN values and UNDP priorities.
• Contribute to achievement and progress towards the achievement of country level and portfolio level development outcomes.
• Capture lessons learned during project implementation.
• Support the Mid-term review and Terminal Evaluation process.
• Monitor together with the M&E officer implementation plans, including the gender action plan, stakeholder engagement plan, and any environmental and social management plans.

All functions of the Field Coordinator are advisory and support in nature. The role does not include overall project management, decision-making authority, or responsibility for implementation, which remain with the Implementing Partner.

4.Institutional Arrangement

The Field Coordinator will operate under the direct technical guidance and coordination of the project manager assigned by the implementing partner, the General Directorate of Environmental Management under the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. The Field Coordinator will report to a UNDP Portfolio Manager. The Field Coordinator shall work in close coordination with the CCE Portfolio Administrator/Projects Implementation Administrator, the CCE Portfolio M&E Officer, and relevant Country Office staff within his/her scope of work.

The Field Coordinator is expected to work in the premises of the Directorate of Climate Change under the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, as requested.

5. Competencies

Core

Achieve Results

LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work

Think Innovatively

LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking

Learn Continuously

LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning

Adapt with Agility

LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process

Act with Determination

LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously

Engage and Partner

LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area
Name
Definition

Business direction and strategy
Strategic Thinking
Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP’s objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks, and opportunities, linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.

Business Development
Human-centered Design

Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

Business Development
Knowledge generation

Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

Business management
Working with Evidence and Data

Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making.

Business management
Communication

Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.

Business management
Risk management

Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks.

6. Minimum Qualifications of the Successful NPSA

Min. Education requirements: Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences or related field is required, or
A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Min. years of relevant work experience: Minimum 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services, and/or hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects.

Required skills: Excellent command of office software, such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases.
Experience in project cycle management in the public or private sector or NGOs or international organizations.
Experience in at least one climate change, environment or chemicals and waste project.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section: Experience in budget planning and monitoring.
Experience in management of chemicals and waste projects.
Experience working in UN Organizations.
Experience in team management.
Experience in organizing and coordinating events and activities.
Additional years of experience working with international institutions/organizations.

Required Language(s): Fluency in Turkish and English

Professional Certificates: n/a

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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