Job Opportunity for Consultant Urban Designer – Tactical Placemaking at UN Habitat in Jaipur

About the Organization

UN-Habitat is the coordinating agency within the United Nations System for human settlement activities and in collaboration with governments is responsible for promoting and consolidating collaboration with all partners, including local authorities, private and non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, Goal 11 of “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, as well as the task manager of the human settlements chapter of Agenda 21 and focal point for the monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted during the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), in Ecuador, Quito, 2016.

Job Description/Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Country Programme Manager, the Urban Design Consultant – Tactical Placemaking will work under the guidance of the Senior Urban Planner, and will be responsible to undertake the following activities:

Project coordination, implementation and stakeholder consultations

• Conduct a thorough review of the site selected for the tactical placemaking action implementation through a site context appraisal; study the proposed urban design interventions, plans and schematics already developed by the project team.
• Conduct mapping of beneficiary communities and groups which will be directly impacted with the tactical placemaking actions by building on the existing stakeholder mapping of state, district and municipality level stakeholders.
• Prepare a work plan for the implementation of tactical placemaking actions in the selected site.
• Develop a methodology for the design and implementation of tactical placemaking actions by contextualising UN Habitat knowledge resources, including-
• Gathering participation from civil society organizations, community, public sector entities, the private sector based on the stakeholder mapping
• Development of participatory spaces and citizen dialogue (with the participation of local authorities) during the process of collective construction of tactical placemaking actions on the site
• Gathering community participation for co-creation of the tactical placemaking actions, giving beneficiaries the spotlight
• Estimation of logistical requirements for the implementation of different types of tactical placemaking actions
• Identification of approvals needed from government authorities and process to obtain them.
• Support the Senior Planner in organizing and executing the Block-by-Block workshop to co-create urban design on selected site with identified beneficiaries.
• Prepare conceptual design of the tactical placemaking actions intended to be executed on the site to reflect the existing schematics; and cost estimates of the materials used.
• Liaise with the contractor selected by the district government to procure materials.
• Facilitate tactical placemaking actions implementation on ground.
• Identify and train community volunteers that can be actively engaged in the implementation of the tactical placemaking actions.
• Develop questionnaire for pre- and post-implementation user perception surveys and execute the surveys.
• Attend working meetings that are convened and delegated to the consultant by the Senior Urban Planner/Project Manager for the execution of tactical placemaking actions.
• Provide information to project team regarding any impacts that the execution process may have.

Outputs

• Tactical Placemaking Implementation Work Plan
• Documentation of tactical placemaking implementation methodology, including BoQs
• Report on design of the tactical placemaking interventions
• Stakeholder and community beneficiary mapping report
• Post completion report of the tactical placemaking pilot including Block-byBlock workshop

Knowledge management and documentation of lessons learned:

• Prepare a communications strategy of tactical placemaking actions, considering the expected impact the tactical placemaking actions will have at community level, as well as the engagement with local government.
• During implementation, conduct a visual documentation of the existing conditions and the execution of the tactical placemaking actions. Record user responses and experience during and after implementation
• Document lessons and recommendations from the community for permanent design solutions based on the pilot.

Outputs

• Communications strategy for tactical placemaking actions
• Engagement materials for stakeholders’ participation
• Visual documentation of the existing conditions; user responses post implementation documentation
• Report on lessons learnt including pre-post user perception surveys, design recommendations
• Undertake any other related tasks, as may be required by the Country Programme Manager, UN-Habitat India.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, urban planning, transport planning, or any other related field. A first-level university degree in combination with additional two years of qualifying experience may accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Work Experience: Minimum of two (02) years of relevant work experience in tactical placemaking, community engagement, urban planning and urban design. Demonstrated capacity to implement tactical placemaking projects, supervise graphic representation of ideas and concepts and familiarity with graphic design packages are required. Experience Page 5/6 in working with government institutions at national and local level in India is an advantage. Experience in working with teams and with partners is required. Experience within the United Nations common system will be an advantage. Proficiency in design and illustration software is necessary.