Climate Finance Specialist

The incumbent will report primarily to the project Regional Coordinator and International Agriculture and Climate Change Specialist. Additionally, s/he would work under the technical supervision of the FAO Lead Technical Officer (LTO) and the overall administrative supervision of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, FAO Representatives in participating countries, the FAO-GCF Coordination Unit, and in close collaboration with dedicated project staff and operational partners at regional and country level.

Climate change, Adaptation, Mitigation, Foresight analysis and modelling, Agriculture and land use

Responsibilities:

The consultant is expected to undertake the following specific tasks:

• Lead elements of the project related to the assessment, selection and design of innovative finance instruments to facilitate access to climate finance for agriculture sector prioties.
• In collaboration with the regional project team review the project document and revise/update project implementation plans for project activities related to the assessment, seletion and design of innovative finance instruments to facilitate access to climate finance for agriculture sector prioties.
• Lead preparation of an assessment of the latest experiences with traditional and innovative finance instruments to promote public and private sector investment in climate smart agriculture practices and technologies in Southeast Asia including the following sub-activities:
• Develop the methodology and approach to assess the state of play of different financial instruemnts being used to scale investment in agriculture in Sounteast Asia including but not limited to grants, green bonds, soft and commercial loans, mezzanine finance, convertible debt, equity, venture capital and blended instruments;
• Coordinate with project country teams at the national level and the regional project team to collect data and organize consultations in line with the assessment methodology;
• Organize consultations with different stakeholders and institutions as required;
• Highlight lessons learned and recommendtions for specific actions that can increase the access of the agriculture sectors to climate finance based on the assessment as well as specific examples to be replicated or followed;

Lead the drafting of the assessment

• Support the regional project team in organizing a regional level multi stakeholder workshop with government, civil society organizations, women’s groups, and public and private sector actors to identify high impact investments in agriculture value chains with regional potential and identify specific finance models at national/regional levels to support climate related investments in the agriculture sector consistent with the national and regional agriculture and climate change investment plans and priorities.
• Foster and coordinate partnerships with relevant organizations and institutions engaged in the development and roll out of innovative finance models to promote public and private sector investment in climate smart agriculture practices and technologies in Southeast Asia.
• Support capacity building events and knowledge exchange events organized by the project on topics related to climate finance and innovative finance instruments to facilitate access to climate finance for agriculture sector prioties.
• Review climate-smart options assessment outputs and reports and specific project idea notes/concepts and advise on potential financial models and partnerships that could be integrated to make the projects more financially viable and sustainable.
• Provide inputs to specific project concept notes as required.
• Respond to country requests for support on issues related to climate finance as required.
• Prepare knowledge products on climate finance options in agriculture.
• Undertake regional and international duty travel for the project activities.
• Represent FAO and the project at national and regional level events as required.
• Perform other duties as required.

Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following:

Minimum Requirements:

• Advanced university degree in finance and economics, climate change, land use management, agricultural economics, development economics, project management and business administration, or a related topic.
• At least five years of relevant experience in developing guidance and vehicles to channel public and private finance to address issues associated with food and agriculture systems and climate change, and in working in an international organization or setting on topics related to climate change and agriculture and/or natural resource management
• Working knowledge (level C) of English and limited knowledge (level B) of one of the other FAO official languages (for COF.REG).

Source: https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2401689