Consultant: Internal Training Programme Consultant for Thematic Area of Urban Planning

BACKGROUND
Reflecting on the goals of the Habitat Agenda and specifically its commitment to adequate shelter for all and promotion of sustainable human settlements, and within the framework of the MTSIP, the Executive Director has identified three programmatic areas to prioritize UN-HABITAT’s work, namely urban planning, urban legislation and governance, and urban economy, job creation and finance. The identification of priority areas comes in a time when Member States and governing bodies have made a call for more prioritization of the agency’s work. In this context, the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has expressed its financial commitment of EUR 6.8 million to support the strengthening of UN-HABITAT’s substantive work in these three priority areas. A new project will be the vehicle through which UN-HABITAT deepens its knowledge, expertise and impact in these areas. To support the implementation of the project, the Executive Director has requested an internal training programme to further build and advance knowledge within the staffing body on these areas, deepen integration between the priority areas, begin a more far reaching process of continual staff learning, and support the institutional change of UN-HABITAT as it further focuses its efforts.
The internal training programme is currently under implementation and will be completed by April 2012. It has the following three outputs:

Increased awareness and knowledge of UN-Habitat staff of the priority areas;
Increased ability of staff to integrate the three priority areas in programming activities in support of sustainable urban development and advocate for them to Habitat Agenda Partners;
Tools and methodologies on the priority areas produced that are readily adaptable for utilization and application with Habitat Agenda Partners such as national and local authorities.

The training programme has been designed based on the understanding that all professional staff of UN-HABITAT should have the opportunity to advance their knowledge and understanding of the priority areas so as to benefit the organization as a whole. It is recognized that there are different levels of knowledge within the staff body on the priority areas, and thus different learning needs; some staff are highly knowledgeable and experts in their areas while other staff have less deep knowledge but also possess essential supporting skills and information that can be highly relevant to the different areas. As such the training programme has three different activities to address the different levels of knowledge and skill within the organization on the priority areas. These activities are:
i). UN-Habitat Learning Days. A two-day event to be held on 10 and 11 October, 2011 in Nairobi, targeting the broader staff body of the organization. The result of this event will be increased staff awareness and knowledge on the priority areas including the basic elements of each area and importantly the inter-linkages between them.
ii). Support Team Training. A second learning event (2 days duration) that will come after the Learning Days Event of October (specific dates to be determined) and cover a narrower group of staff who will be working more directly on the thematic area. The purpose of this training is to move beyond general concepts and knowledge communicated in the Learning Days Event to actually applying such against real world cases and issues. A problem-based learning approach will be applied for this activity.
iii). Core Team Training. It may seem counterintuitive at first glance to train the core teams as they are staff with expert level knowledge in their areas. However, learning is a continual process and that even at the expert level it is important to be exposed to new concepts, be challenged and engage in discussions and debates on a regular basis so as to ensure that UN-HABITAT remains at the cutting edge of knowledge. It is estimated that each priority area will have a core team of about 5 to 7 people who can participate in smaller and more focused learning events of their own choosing and design.
This consultancy is designed to support the development of materials and delivery of the UN-HABITAT Learning Days and Support Team Training for the thematic area of Urban Planning. Substantive background materials on the new UN-HABITAT focus with regards to the thematic area of Urban Planning will be shared with the consultant at the beginning of the assignment.