Duties and Responsibilities
Following ESCAP’s mandate to support its member States in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and in collaboration with technical partners, ESCAP is supporting countries in the Asia-Pacific region to accelerate policy development on efficient, climate-friendly, and sustainable cooling. The Solomon Islands is increasingly exposed to rising temperatures, climate variability, and growing cooling needs across key sectors, including buildings, health facilities, cold chains for fisheries and agriculture, and urban infrastructure. At the same time, the country faces constraints related to energy access, electricity system capacity, affordability, and climate resilience. Addressing cooling demand in a sustainable manner is therefore critical to national development, energy security, and climate objectives. In line with global initiatives such as the Global Cooling Pledge, as well as national climate and development priorities, the Government of the Solomon Islands, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Asia Clean Energy Partners, is initiating the development of a National Cooling Action Plan (NCAP). The NCAP will provide a strategic framework to assess current and future cooling demand, identify priority sectors and interventions, and define policy, regulatory, and implementation pathways to support sustainable cooling in the Solomon Islands. The NCAP development process will follow a modular methodology and will include data collection and analysis, stakeholder consultations, scenario development, policy formulation, and validation through multi-stakeholder engagement. Strong national coordination and in-country technical support are essential to ensure that the NCAP reflects national circumstances, priorities, and institutional arrangements. Objective: Under the supervision of the Section Chief of the Energy Division of ESCAP, the project manager, and collaborating partners, the consultant will play a substantive and coordinating role in supporting the development, validation, and finalization of the National Cooling Action Plan for the Solomon Islands. The consultant will: • Coordinate activities and information exchange among the Government focal point, relevant ministries and agencies, utilities, private sector and civil society stakeholders, and the ESCAP/technical partner team, including support to the national steering mechanism. • Provide national-level data and contextual inputs, including maintaining a data inventory and data-gap log, and supporting validation of key assumptions used in the NCAP analysis and drafting process. • Support the organization and conduct of stakeholder consultations and workshops to validate findings and recommendations, including preparation of brief consultation summaries and action points • Support the finalization and submission of the National Cooling Action Plan to the Government of the Solomon Islands. Duties and responsibilities: • Support the preparation of national inputs to the National Cooling Action Plan for the Solomon Islands, including participation in consultations with relevant stakeholders and preparation of short briefing notes for the Government focal point as needed. • Collaborate with government institutions and other stakeholders to collect, validate, and provide data and information required for the NCAP, including inputs related to cooling demand, energy use, sectoral characteristics, and policy context across priority sectors (e.g., buildings, energy, trade, environment, health, fisheries/agriculture). • Organise and support interviews and consultations with government officials, utilities, industry actors, research institutions, port/customs and other relevant stakeholders to address data gaps and validate assumptions, in coordination with ESCAP and technical partners. • Support the organisation and facilitation of virtual and/or in-person stakeholder consultations and steering/working group meetings to review key findings, scenarios, and proposed policy measures under the NCAP. • Provide inputs to the drafting and revision of the NCAP document, including sectoral overviews, identification of priority actions, and alignment with national development, energy, and climate objectives, inputs to the implementation and governance framework • Ensure that NCAP recommendations are aligned with the socioeconomic, policy and regulatory development contexts and aspirations of the Solomon Islands, and that recommended actions are practical, implementable and cognizant of financing and capacity constraints.
Qualifications/special skills
A university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in energy, environmental studies, climate change, economics, engineering, public policy, or a related field. At least 5–7 years of relevant professional experience in energy, climate change, sustainable development, or related fields, including demonstrated experience coordinating with government ministries/agencies and facilitating stakeholder consultations. Experience working in the Solomon Islands (or comparable SIDS contexts) is highly desirable. Familiarity with cooling, refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC), energy efficiency, and Montreal Protocol/Kigalirelated processes is an asset.
