UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels offers a spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in its Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in UNDP’s Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages; represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora, including public-private, government and civil society dialogues; and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

BPPS’s Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, with the support of the Vertical Fund Programme Support Oversight and Compliance Unit, works with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate nature, climate, energy and waste related concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies, support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and oversee the implementation of the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste. This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses:

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests;
• Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems;
• Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS;
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation;
• Sustainable Energy;
• Extractive Industries;
• Chemicals and Waste Management;
•  Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy; and SCP approaches.

This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.

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 recognised 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 (CBD) adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This included numerous targets with relevance for financing. Target 19b on resource mobilisation includes reference for countries to design and implement national biodiversity finance plans.

The Global Programme on National Biodiversity Finance Plans created a global programme to support countries to design a national Biodiversity Finance Plan. A Biodiversity Finance Plan includes a system analysis of a country’s economy including to map existing financing mechanisms, subsidies with potential 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 active sharing of experiences across countries and includes a knowledge sharing platform and the provision of continuous technical support to country teams.

UNDP Environmental Finance Analysts are going to provide technical services and support to countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region that are designing or implementing their national biodiversity finance plan.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

• Provide technical support and undertake reviews and impact monitoring of BIOFIN methodological outputs and processes, such as: workplans, bi-annual reports, inception reports, Policy and Institutional Reviews, Biodiversity Expenditure Reviews, Financial Needs Assessments, and Biodiversity Finance Plans;
• Support Technical Advisors in assisting National BIOFIN teams and government counterparts in identifying, developing and implementing the right mix of finance solutions, tailored to the country context;
• Collaborate to the early implementation of finance solutions identified during the early stages of the Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) design.

Implementing finance solutions

• Collaborate to the Technical Advisor in assisting national teams and government counterparts in identifying, developing and implementing the right mix of finance solutions, tailored to the country context;
• Collaborate to the Technical Advisor in designing and reviewing finance solution proposals developed by national teams following the Finance Solution Proposal template;
• Provide feedback for the development of terms of reference, country workplans, selected Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities, bi-annual reports, inception reports, final reports and other relevant documents;
• Provide feedback on technical documents related to finance solutions, such as feasibility studies, concept notes, policies, laws, regulations, by-laws, organisational charts/HR Plans, resource mobilisation plans, enforcement strategies, economic valuations, advocacy plans, or any other technical reports that are required;
• Travel to countries as needed to support the design and implementation of finance solutions and engage with key stakeholders to develop opportunities of collaborations for finance solution implementation;
• Provide support to the development of tailored guidance materials or other knowledge products on selected finance solutions, and provide inputs into project proposals for resource mobilisation as required;
• Guide national Teams to relevant experts, knowledge platforms, tools and other guidance material related to the prioritised finance solutions/mechanisms;
• Collaborate to the Technical Advisor in assisting national teams to identify opportunities to promote gender equality and sustainable livelihoods when designing biodiversity finance solutions.

Capacity development

• Collaborate to the Technical Advisor in engaging in capacity assessments and capacity development of national stakeholders as required, helping to build up a large pool of experts in each country that possess the basic skills to implement the BIOFIN tools;
• Collaborate to the Technical Advisor in strengthening the capacity of a wider group of national stakeholders on prioritised finance solutions to beginner/intermediate level (as relevant), and support the process of institutionalisation with national training institutes and universities;
• Provide inputs to global, regional, and national technical workshops, regional conference calls, technical webinars, and website discussions as requested by the global BIOFIN team.

Knowledge management

• Enable countries to share experiences through virtual and on site discussions;
• Write up articles, case studies, and other materials emerging from the national biodiversity finance plan process, summarizing key experiences and lessons from core countries;
• Collaborate to the continuous improvement of the national biodiversity finance plans, methodology and specific tools and other materials provided to core and non-core countries as part of BIOFIN’s methodology development objectives;
• Deliver high quality inputs for bi-annual donor reports on progress and impact in country projects within given deadlines, and provide other inputs as required for briefing notes, case studies, knowledge management products, press releases, and other media products develop by the global BIOFIN Team.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Environmental Finance Analyst will work from his/her home-base within LAC with the expectation to support the countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region time zone.
• The Environmental Finance Analyst for the Latin America and Caribbean Region will work under the supervision of the BIOFIN Regional Advisor for Latin America and Caribbean. The Environmental Finance Analyst for the Latin American Region will work with the global BIOFIN Team, national Teams, UNDP Country Offices, core and donor country governments, other international/multi-lateral organizations, and contractors.
• The incumbents will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment.
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the incumbents are expected to be reasonably flexible with their availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones where applicable.
• The incumbents will be responsible for providing their own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, relevant software, etc.) and shall have access to a stable, secure, and reliable internet connection.