About UN-Habitat
UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable and resilient towns and cities. It is the focal point agency for all urbanisation and human settlement matters within the UN system. UN-Habitat envisions well-planned, well-governed and efficient cities and towns, with adequate housing, infrastructure and universal access to employment and basic services such as water, energy, and sanitation.
The Urban Practices Branch (UPB) is the tools and methodology production centre of the UN-Habitat that develops normative guidance and cutting-edge tools through communities of urban practices and is the operational level responsible for undertaking technical cooperation projects, such as the construction of water and sanitation facilities, shelter and other work.
The Planning, Finance & Economy Section (PFES) is responsible for supporting urban and territorial planning at all scales, including through the development of planning policy, norms and guidelines, urban design and public space design, urban finance (municipal finance and urban development/projects finance), and local economic development.
UN-Habitat – Urban Planning and Design Lab
The Urban Planning and Design Lab (Urban Lab) is an initiative from UN-Habitat to promptly respond to the requests of national and local governments to support sustainable urban development. The Urban Lab is the integrative facility of the Agency where innovative processes and partnerships are translated into tangible and transformative solutions to complex urban challenges. Throughout, the Urban Lab acts as a neutral broker, managing knowledge in complex stakeholder settings to resolve multi-sectoral, multi-scalar and multi-stakeholder challenges.
The Lab brings together a multidisciplinary team of urban planners, environmental, data-science, mobility, legal and financial experts, providing a holistic and proactive approach to sustainable urbanization. Hence, the Lab captures the necessary thematic disciplines, experts, actors and stakeholders.
In this context, the Urban Lab applies an integrated approach to systemic and strategic planning to deliver transformative change for sustainable urbanization and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
The Urban Lab falls under the Planning, Finance and Economy Section, which is part of the Urban Practices Branch and Global Solutions Division
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision of the Head of the Urban Lab and the direct supervision of the Programme Manager, in coordination with the UN-Habitat Regional Offices and in close collaboration with UN-Habitat thematic Sections, the incumbent of the post will have to fulfil the following duties and responsibilities:
• Provide technical expertise in relation to the Naryn project in Kyrgyzstan by developing strategic plan documents and urban design proposals in selected areas.
• Provide technical expertise in relation to the Azerbaijan project by developing design proposals for the selected villages in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur Region.
• Provide technical expertise in relation to the normative production of the My Neighbourhood guideline.
• Develop training material and capacity reinforcement activities for urban design principles.
• Provide technical inputs for programme development on sustainable neighbourhood design.
• Provide technical expertise in relation to sustainable urban and regional development for Urban Lab projects.
• Advise and work with the Urban Lab team to analyse, collect, compile and interpret data to guide and inform the urban planning and design projects.
• Support and contribute to the development of methodologies and guidelines to be tested and implemented in the Urban Lab projects.
• Develop planning analytic and diagnostic maps, drawings, and related reports for partner cities.
• Develop clear planning proposals, drawings, and related reports for partner cities.
• Develop and organise participatory, multi-stakeholder processes tailor-made for the projects in a specific context.
• Provide input to Urban Lab and PFES documents and publications.
• Support the technical development of country proposals and development frameworks.
• Contribute to the development of the Urban Lab and PFES project portfolio on urban planning and design.