Environmental Strategy Advisor (Menstrual Health Markets)

The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) brings together diverse expertise to help partners deliver impact worldwide. With hubs in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and expert teams operating globally, GPO leads multi-regional initiatives that advance sustainable development, climate action, and peacebuilding - including in some of the world’s most challenging environments. By leveraging our collective expertise and global networks, GPO supports UNOPS’ strategic priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals across more than 130 countries. We work closely with major global partners - including governments, international financial institutions, and UN agencies - to deliver a wide range of services, such as project management, fund management, hosting services, and HR support.

From Geneva, UNOPS facilitates the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), working with governments, other United Nations (UN) agencies and partners by providing quality servces, integrated solutions and management support through strategic, cost-effective and results-oriented approches. This includes supporting platforms and hosting high-profile, flagship initiatives and funds focusing on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, sustainable cities, environment, energy, climate and trade. UNOPS is a recognized resource for the UN system in Geneva – from fund management and oversight and advisory services, to providing hosting solutions to a range of global initiatives, as well as operational support to partner organizations.

From Geneva, UNOPS facilitates the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), working with governments, other United Nations (UN) agencies and partners by providing quality servces, integrated solutions and management support through strategic, cost-effective and results-oriented approches. This includes supporting platforms and hosting high-profile, flagship initiatives and funds focusing on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, sustainable cities, environment, energy, climate and trade. UNOPS is a recognized resource for the UN system in Geneva – from fund management and oversight and advisory services, to providing hosting solutions to a range of global initiatives, as well as operational support to partner organizations.

The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF) is a global fund dedicated to achieving adequate and equitable access to sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health for all, with particular attention to women and girls and people in vulnerable situations. Through its Capital M initiative, SHF strengthens menstrual health (MH) markets by promoting sustainable, market-based solutions that expand access to safe, quality and affordable menstrual products across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). SHF works with governments, the private sector, investors, financiers and other stakeholders to improve the enabling environment, strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem and facilitate access to finance.

With the menstrual health market in Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) at a critical growth inflection point, the decisions made now on menstrual product standards, supply chains, business models, product innovation, and policy and regulation will influence environmental outcomes for decades. SHF, as a key stakeholder in menstrual health market development, has a unique opportunity to help shape this environmental trajectory by providing the sector and market actors with relevant, actionable guidance. To do so effectively, SHF is seeking to establish an official position and an operational framework to support market actors to evaluate and implement systems-level pathways to more sustainable menstrual health markets. 

SHF has gathered foundational information on the Circularity, Climate, and Environmental (CCE) impact of the menstrual products value chains (covering both single-use and reusable products) and identified potential entry points for market-based interventions. Opportunities and potential actions to remove or limit this impact have been identified, as well as a list of potential actions that SHF could implement along the value chain to unlock them.  

To build on this foundation, SHF seeks to develop a prioritized strategic framework and practical guidelines that translate these insights into actionable programs. The scope of work includes identifying key action-research questions and leveraging secondary data collection to fill critical knowledge gaps. In particular, this overview will be complemented with a granular, quantified analysis of product-specific impacts. The objective is to define a clear hierarchy of environmental issues and map out the highest-leverage intervention points for SHF’s engagements with national governments, sector organizations and the private sector. 

This work will also develop a structured framework of policy and market entry pathways to support SHF in advising LMIC governments on how to integrate environmental considerations into menstrual health market development. This will include identifying relevant entry points across trade, industry, manufacturing, environment, investment, standards, procurement and health ministries; recommending the sequencing of policy and market interventions; and identifying priority areas for further research, pilot implementation and evidence generation to support country-level adoption and scale.

Reporting to the MH Country Markets Specialist and working closely with the wider team, the Environmental Strategy Advisor will oversee the strategic formulation of SHF's position and advisory roadmap on the environmental impacts of menstrual products across their value chains.

The Environmental Strategy Advisor will provide the strategic oversight, evidence base and institutional direction required for SHF to define an evidence-informed position on circularity, climate and environmental (CCE) considerations within menstrual health market development. The role exists to identify the critical knowledge gaps and strategic questions that must be addressed, guide the generation and synthesis of evidence needed to answer them, and translate these insights into a coherent strategic position and practical pathways for action. 

Through this work, the Environmental Strategy Advisor will enable SHF to strengthen its technical guidance, policy engagement and partnerships, support the integration of environmental sustainability considerations into menstrual health market development, identify priorities for future research and innovation, and establish a forward-looking roadmap to guide SHF's technical assistance and market-shaping efforts in low- and middle-income countries.

The Environmental Strategy Advisor will undertake the following functions:

Market research and analysis

• Review existing internal documentation, SHF work and intelligence in this area, as a starting point for further analysis 

• Define key action research areas required for SHF to answer in order to define a practical position and related levers for action on CCE impacts of menstrual products value chains

• Convene and consult a pool of technical experts to gather evidence on the environmental impact of menstrual product value chains

• Analyse and compare data across product types to quantify CCE impacts in absolute terms and relative weight within the value chain

• Map entry points across trade, industry, manufacturing, environment, investment, standards, procurement and health ministries where governments and market actors can intervene

• Consult with governments, industry and market actors to test and refine intervention and policy pathways

Prioritisation and Drafting

• Apply a prioritization matrix to weigh the urgency and scale of each environmental issue against SHF's ability to act on it

• Consult SHF technical team and leadership to validate priority areas for direct action, indirect guidance, or exclusion from SHF's scope

• Draft SHF's official position paper, incorporating feedback from internal review and expert input. This should include where SHF should act directly, indirectly by providing guidelines and recommendations (especially to Governments and the private sector), and which interventions should be left out. 

• Identify and outline priority recommendations for future research, policy development and pilot initiatives

Deliverables expected include: 

• Inception report and work plan - defining the scope, action-research questions, methodology, expert inputs required, and phased timeline (within 3 weeks of onboarding)

• Consolidated CCE impact analysis report - a quantified assessment of the environmental impact of menstrual products value chains, disaggregated by product type, with issues ranked by scale, impact and relative weight (mid-assignment)

• Structured framework of intervention and policy entry pathways that identifies how governments, industry and market actors can operationalize more sustainable menstrual health markets, including tailored recommendations for trade, industry, environment, health and associated ministries.

• Outline of priority recommendations for further research, policy development and pilot initiatives needed to strengthen SHF’s future advisory and technical assistance work.

• Recommended position concept note regarding the CCE impact of menstrual health products, including a list of actions for direct intervention, sector guidance and advocacy - intended for validation by SHF leadership ahead of external use (end of assignment) 

Required

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in environmental science, sustainability, environmental policy, natural resources management, or a related field is required.

• A Bachelor's degree in a related discipline in combination with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

  
  

Required

• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in environmental analysis, sustainability strategy, or related fields is required.

• Demonstrated experience in conducting action research, literature reviews, and producing evidence-based policy or strategy documents is required.

• Experience in life cycle assessment or equivalent methodologies to evaluate the environmental impact of products or value chains is required.

  
  

Desired

• Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder research workstreams or technical expert inputs, is desirable.

• Experience working in the consumer goods, FMCG, or health/hygiene product sector, particularly in relation to environmental or circular economy considerations, is desirable.

• Knowledge of or prior engagement with the menstrual health sector, including products, markets, or supply chains (disposable and/or reusable), particularly in LMICs, is desirable.

  
  

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