UNDP: Research and Content Support for Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Financing – Maputo

Organization Mission

Who we are?

UNDP has worked in Mozambique since 1976, with the formalization of a cooperation agreement between UNDP and the Government of Mozambique. The Standard Basic Framework Agreement was signed in 1976, in less than a year after Independence, and establishes UNDP’s presence in the country.

What do we want to accomplish?

Programme priorities have been defined with national counterparts. UNDP focus is aligned with UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025, namely, a) Structural transformation accelerated, particularly green, inclusive, and digital transitions, b) No one left behind centering on equitable access to opportunities and a rights-based approach to human agency and human development, c) resilience built to respond to systemic uncertainty and risk and its six signatures solutions, Poverty and inequality; Governance; Resilience; Environment, Energy and Gender equality, focusing on three interlinked and transformative pillars:

Supporting resilient and inclusive economic recovery and diversification, and sustainable livelihoods;

Strengthening climate resilience and the sustainable use of natural resources;

Promoting inclusive governance, justice, human rights and peace and social cohesion.

We are working with the Government of Mozambique, academia, civil society, private sector, and other national and international partners to help find solutions to persistent and emerging development challenges.

Context

Mozambique faces a persistent structural financing gap that constrains inclusive economic transformation. Despite significant natural resource wealth and a growing micro and small enterprise sector, access to affordable finance remains one of the most critical barriers for entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and communities — particularly women and youth — who operate largely outside the formal financial system.
The financial ecosystem — comprising commercial banks, microfinance institutions, mobile money operators, and fintech players — remains fragmented. At the same time, investment flows from the extractive sector, including TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, and ENI, are generating local content obligations that, if strategically structured, could serve as complementary development finance instruments. Development finance institutions such as the African Development Bank and the World Bank, alongside the European Union, operate programmes relevant to financial inclusion — yet the potential for synergistic collaboration with government counterparts remains largely untapped.
UNDP Mozambique’s Inclusive Growth Unit is organising a Multi-Stakeholder Breakfast Dialogue — Co-designing Solutions to the Financing Gap for Development in Mozambique — to be held during the first week of July 2026 in Maputo. The event will bring together 25 senior representatives from financial institutions, extractive industry companies, development finance institutions, government ministries, private sector associations, and UN agencies. The dialogue will use the World Café methodology across four thematic tables: closing the access gap, blended finance and DFI leverage, local content as development finance, and digital finance innovation.
To ensure participants are well-prepared and Table Hosts are fully briefed, UNDP Mozambique seeks an Online UN Volunteer with expertise in economic research and policy writing to develop the background analytical content for the event.

Key Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Inclusive Growth Unit at UNDP Mozambique, you will research and produce the analytical background content that will underpin the Multi-Stakeholder Breakfast Dialogue on Financing Development in Mozambique, scheduled for the first week of July 2026 in Maputo.
Specifically, you will produce:
Four thematic briefing notes — one per World Café table — each of 1 to 2 pages, written in accessible language for a senior mixed audience of financiers, government officials, and private sector representatives. Each note will cover: the current landscape, key challenges and bottlenecks, promising innovations or models from Mozambique and comparable contexts, and two to three provocative discussion questions to stimulate the table conversation. The four themes are:

Table A — Closing the Access Gap: financial products and mechanisms for underserved entrepreneurs and communities
Table B — Blended Finance and DFI Leverage: structuring public and multilateral resources to de-risk private investment
Table C — Local Content as Development Finance: transforming extractive industry obligations into SME financing vehicles
Table D — Digital Finance and Fintech Innovation: mobile money, fintech, and the enabling conditions required for scale

One scene-setting overview note (maximum 2 pages) on the overall financing landscape in Mozambique, to be used by the lead facilitator during the opening session and shared with all participants in advance of the event. This note should situate the financing gap in Mozambique’s current economic and institutional context and frame the four thematic areas of the dialogue.
All documents must be evidence-based, drawing on publicly available data, reports, and literature from sources such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, IMF, Bank of Mozambique, FSDMoç, and relevant academic research.

Required Skills and Experience

Candidates should have strong research and analytical skills. Background knowledge and working experience in [blended finance instruments, local content frameworks, fintech ecosystems or digital financial services in emerging markets] is desirable. A degree in a related field is considered an asset.