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

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.

BPPS’ Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste work 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 adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This included numerous targets with relevance for financing. Target 19 on resource mobilisation includes reference for countries to design and implement national biodiversity finance plans.

The GEF created a global programme to support countries to design a national Biodiversity Finance Plan. A Biodiversity Finance Plan includes a systems 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.

Position Purpose:

Under the overall supervision of the Senior Technical Advisor, the Project Manager, Global Programme on National Biodiversity Finance Plans will lead the GEF funded Umbrella Program for National Biodiversity Finance Plans to support countries developing the necessary diagnostics that will support the design and development of a national biodiversity finance plan. Working in collaboration with UNDP’s BIOFIN team, the CBD Secretariat, and the GEF Secretariat, this project, this global project aims to support a transformative process for biodiversity finance in all participating GEF-eligible countries. The project, which is typically coordinated through Ministries of Finance and Environment, supports countries in developing baseline diagnostics, increasing capacity, strengthening institutional arrangements for biodiversity finance, and prepare a finance plan to mobilize resources at scale to implement the GBF.

The incumbent is responsible for supervision of the designated programme personnel, promotes work environment that is conducive to innovation and engagement with a diverse set of stakeholders and ensures cross-unit cooperation, coordination teamwork, inclusion, and the empowerment of project personnel and of counterparts. The incumbent ensures a client-oriented approach and consistency with UNDP rules and regulations and good management practice. All managerial/leadership functions are performed in line with the established UN and UNDP management norms, rules, and regulations, and in conformity with UNDP’s internal accountability framework for senior managers which emphasizes, inter alia, the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and accountability in the personal and professional domains.

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.

• Lead the project at a global scale, working to maximise and showcase impacts and to strengthen relationships with stakeholders at all levels;
• Ensure the management and administrative requirements (technical, financial, communications, audits, evaluations, etc.) of the GEF are met.
• Establish and convene meetings of the Global Project Board.
• Manage and monitor risks and issues, submitting newly identified ones to the Project Board for consideration and decision if required.
• Ensure technical excellence of implementation/outcomes and outputs/products by providing inputs to, and critically reviewing these.
• Contribute to efforts advancing the Nature Pledge in implementing countries.

Knowledge Management and Capacity Building:

• Ensure all components of the project are implemented in a balanced manner, and in particular, coordinate activities related to the Global Knowledge Platform in close collaboration with UNDP’s team working on biodiversity finance, particularly with the BIOFIN Global team.
• Ensure alignment of national work with global methodologies such as the BIOFIN workbook and others.
• Work with UNDP staff and partner organisations to feed lessons learned from the project implementation.
• Synthesise learning from national implementation through web articles, blogs, webinars, regional and global conferences, dedicated knowledge products and inputs into the 2027 BIOFIN Workbook, Catalogue of Finance Solutions, MOOCs, E-learning module, GLOBE, and FIRE Database.

Leading and Overseeing the Development of Biodiversity Finance Plans:

• Review national Policy and Institutional Reviews, Biodiversity expenditure Reviews, Financial Needs Assessments and Biodiversity Finance plans where needed, ensuring a peer review system is in place across the team;
• Ensure that UNDP-specific processes (integrated work planning, budgeting, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, SESP, etc.) are met;
• Undertake cross-country analysis of policy reviews, expenditure analysis, financial needs, and biodiversity finance plans, identifying trends, gaps and generating global overview data. Develop at least one brief overview publication per year;
• Lead the organization of regional and global experience sharing events as outlined in the Project Document, in partnership with the BIOFIN Team;
• 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 Facility, TNC, TNFD, UNDP INFF, OECD and UNEP FI;
• Ensure timely delivery of required reporting to the GEF with high quality content.

Provide advisory support and technical guidance:

• Identify and source necessary technical expertise and support, and oversee the recruitment of international consultants and service providers, ensure necessary training and ongoing capacity building are carried out;
• Liaise with other relevant UNDP staff including in-country colleagues regarding the project, including to share information about trends and issues in the thematic area;
• Provide strategic guidance and technical oversight to support all countries, reviewing on a regular basis progress reports, deliverables, disbursements, and budgets to ensure implementation is on track, and troubleshooting and adapting management as required.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

• Supervise the Global Technical and Management Support Unit and any additional contractors as necessary;
• Organize periodic team calls,
• Ensure Performance Management and Development (PMD) and other evaluations are completed timely;
• Contribute to a positive team atmosphere including by delineating specific workflows of team members, identifying, and addressing any potential points of conflict and organise team building activities;
• Liaise with the Senior Management of the Nature Hub, UNDP Regional Hubs on a regular basis;
• Ensure regular communication flows with country offices are in place, including through a quarterly update message.

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

Core:

Achieve Results:

• Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively:

• Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously

• Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility

• Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination:

• Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner:

• Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

People Management: UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

Cross-Functional & Technical:

Agenda 2030: Planet – Nature Climate and Energy:

• Ecosystems and biodiversity: Biodiversity Finance

Agenda 2030: Planet – Nature Climate and Energy:

• Environmental Governance: Global Environmental Governance

Agenda 2030: Planet – Nature Climate and Energy:

• Environment: Environmental economics, including valuation, data collection and analysis, SEEA, macro and micro tools and policies

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

Business Management – Risk Management:

• Ability to identify and organize action around mitigation and proactively managing risks

Business Management – Portfolio Management:

• Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimising return on investment

Business Management – Partnerships Management:

• Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts, and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies