Sustainable Finance Specialist (Project Lead)

UNDP’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlights our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP’s Nature, Climate Change, Energy, and Waste (NCE&W) Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.

In recent decades, biodiversity finance tools and solutions have demonstrated their importance for achieving biodiversity goals and broader sustainable development objectives. Improved choice, design and implementation of effective, well-tailored finance solutions will strengthen countries’ chances of achieving national and global biodiversity targets. Biodiversity Finance Plans have become increasingly recognized as a relevant tool to help countries to identify and fill the biodiversity finance gap, including through the work of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative www.biofin.org. In December 2022, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This included numerous targets with relevance for financing. Target 19 on resource mobilization includes reference for countries to design and implement national biodiversity finance plans. 

The GEF created a global programme to support countries in designing a national Biodiversity Finance Plan. A Biodiversity Finance Plan includes a systems analysis of a country’s economy including mapping existing financing mechanisms, subsidies with potentially harmful impacts on nature, drivers of biodiversity loss and gain, public and private expenditures committed towards biodiversity objectives, and a country’s national financial needs for biodiversity. The biodiversity finance plan itself consists of a series of actions with the aim to significantly scale up available funding, green or phase out harmful finance flows and improve the effectiveness of available expenditures. The programme allows for the active sharing of experiences across countries and includes a knowledge-sharing platform and the provision of continuous technical support to country teams. 

The UNDP Namibia Country Office has organized its programmatic activity into three portfolios: Sustainable, Inclusive, and Green Growth (SIGG); Governance, Inclusive Institutions, and Civic Engagement (GRICE) and Sustainable Environmental Management and Enhanced Resilience to Shocks and Crises (SEMER) Portfolio. The SEMER portfolio can broadly be divided into three overlapping areas of work: (a) Climate Change (mitigation, adaptation, and reporting to UNFCCC); (b) International Waters (marine and freshwater) and (c) Natural Resource Management (sustainable land-use; human-wildlife interaction; sustainable mining, waste management).  The implementation of the project in Namibia falls under the GEF-8 Umbrella programme for the development of the first National Biodiversity Finance Plan. The overall implementation of the project will under SEMER, led by the Project Lead with the support of a technical team and in coordination to a government project director and the National Steering Committee.  

For the implementation of the GEF8-BFP Umbrella program at the national level, UNDP is recruiting a national team composed of a Sustainable Finance Specialist (Project Lead), a Project Support Assistant, a Policy Expert, and a Biodiversity Finance Specialist. 
 

Scope of Work 

The Sustainable Finance Specialist “Project Lead” will be responsible for the overall supervision and management of in-country activities, ensuring a proper work plan and budget is in place and implemented within set timelines, with an effective national team and strong partnerships. The Project Lead will work closely with the technical team of an Environmental Policy Expert, a Biodiversity Finance Specialist, and a Project Support Assistant, to ensure implementation mechanisms and technical working groups are established and meet regularly, that all planned workshops, technical studies, and other activities are organized in a timely manner, and that they meet expected quality standards. 

The Lead is expected to have senior experience and to provide substantial technical expertise in assuring horizontal integration and consistency of workstreams/studies, as well as advisory services and quality assurance of national products and processes throughout the duration of the national project. S/he will be responsible for relevant sections the production of the Policy and Institutional Review, the Biodiversity Expenditure Review and the Financial Needs Assessment. S/he will also lead the preparation of the Biodiversity Finance Plan and will oversee the identification and implementation of finance solutions as requested. S/he will also specifically be responsible for outreach activities to national (Government, donors’ delegation, academia, etc.) and relevant international stakeholders, and the preparation of synthesis reports, policy briefs, press releases, and briefing notes for Government, UNDP, etc.

Project Management

• Oversee the identification, selection and supervision of national consultants and experts, in close collaboration with the UNDP Country Office, Senior Finance Expert, and the Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU); 
• Write/revise terms of reference for national BIOFIN team members;
• In consultation with the UNDP Country Office and GPMTSU elaborate/revise the work plan and budget and submit draft work plans/budgets timely;
• Supervise the work of national experts and institutions to ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget, and to high-quality standards; facilitate, guide, and monitor the work of the national team;
• Oversee the work of the Project Support Associate to ensure administrative requirements and budgets are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner and within UNDP and donor rules and regulations;
• Organize all relevant project workshops in a consultative manner, involving a wide variety of biodiversity finance stakeholders, including the government, private sector, NGOs, donors, and academia; 
• Discuss with the Ministries of Finance, Environment, and other key stakeholders the establishment of a national Steering Committee and follow up on the formal establishment and regular convening of the Committee and develop meeting reports to be shared with the Steering Committee, the UNDP CO and GPMTSU; 
• Maintain regular communication with the Ministries of Environment and Finance for the development and completion of all reports and products;
• Liaise the project processes and products with relevant national planning biodiversity and finance relevant processes, such as NBSAP updates and Global Biodiversity Framework implementation; 
• Ensure timely identification of risks in implementation at the national level and communication to the GPMTSU;
• Organize regular meetings of the national team and monthly calls with the Technical Advisor from the GPMTSU;
• Ensure participation of national team members in regional technical calls; 
• Participate in regional and global meetings organized by the GPMTSU.

Technical Tasks and Responsibilities 

• Act as principal technical contact for the project implementation with GPMTSU with regards to all questions and issues that arise during national implementation; 
• Provide key technical leadership on all finance issues and assure horizontal integration and consistency of workstreams/studies;
• Provide overall guidance and quality control for the four main deliverables of the project technical support to the national project team to complete all the deliverables of the BIOFIN methodology, in a consistent and high-quality manner; 
• Ensure drafts of all work are sent to the global Technical Advisor and GPMTSU regularly to provide backstopping and ensure feedback is adequately integrated into national reports;
• Research and write Develop the sections on subsidies and financing incentives in the PIR according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook);
• Provide technical support for the data collection, analysis, and conclusions of the BER;
• Support the data collection, modelling, quality checking, and validation of the FNA;
• Develop a Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU global BIOFIN team and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook). 

Reporting/Communication/M&E

• Signal any delays in national deliverables compared to the work plan to the UNDP Country Office and the GPMTSU; 
• Lead project monitoring, reporting, and evaluation at the national level, draft monthly and quarterly reports for review by the lead expert and submission to the global BIOFIN team; 
• Coordinate the development of workshop reports for the inception workshop and all technical workshops; 
• Review all technical reports as required; 
• Ensure alignment of national work with global methodologies such as the BIOFIN workbook and others; 
• Liaise with relevant initiatives and programs in UNDP and other organizations in support of the execution of the project, including BIOFIN, the NBSAP support programme, the GEF 7 Early Action Support Programme, the Nature Hub, and other organizations and initiatives; 
• Review the final reports of the National Policy and Institutional Review, Biodiversity Expenditure Review, Financial Needs Assessment, and Biodiversity Finance plan;
• Develop with the collaboration of the rest of the team members, of at least one brief overview publication per year, press releases, and web and media products.

The Project Lead shall be under the direct supervision of the SEMER Programme Specialist and is required to work closely with UNDP RTAs and national partners to identify potential projects to be developed in the area of natural resource management and biodiversity in line with national needs.

At the global level, the global umbrella programme will be supported by a Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU). 

UNDP shall be entitled to intellectual property and other proprietary rights over all materials that have a direct relation to the project.

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact 
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems 
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands 
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Business direction and strategy                 

• System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

2030 Agenda                

• Nature, Climate and Energy: Ecosystems and biodiversity: Biodiversity Finance. 

Administration & Operations       

• Events Management (including retreats, trainings, and meetings): Support offices with event management including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc.   

Partnership     

• Private sector resource mobilization: Ability to identify, develop, and manage partnerships that leverage private sector technical expertise and resources.

General (across the functions)             

• Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, and control resources, procedures, and protocols to achieve specific goals. 

Finance

• Financial Planning and Budgeting: Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP’s long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analyzing, and reporting.

Procurement

• Procurement: The ability to acquire goods, services, or works from an outside external source.