Main purpose of job:

The successful applicant will play a key role in shaping the Peruvian infrastructure system. This is an exciting position within the Embassy’s Technical Team on Climate, Nature and Infrastructure (CNI), and will involve collaborating with national stakeholders as well as UK government officials in London and across Amazon countries.

CNI works towards the objective of reducing deforestation and biodiversity loss, supporting sustainable livelihoods, and respect for indigenous peoples, while reducing vulnerability to environmental crimes. We have three strategic objectives:

–       Bio-economy – Development of the bio-economy to create economic incentives for forest users to halt deforestation, especially in peatlands.

–       Green Finance – Scale up of private sector investment into green products and activities, with a focus on the forest and land use sector.

–       Sustainable Infrastructure – Improvement in the investment environment (connectivity) in the Amazon through “greener, fairer, and faster” infrastructure.

On sustainable infrastructure our priorities are:

–       Defining a vision and its priorities for a nationwide sustainable and inclusive infrastructure development and strengthening the National Infrastructure Plan by adding a territorial approach that considers multisectoral, multidimensional and intertemporal views. This also involves strengthening the new Infrastructure Advisory Commission.

–       Building the capacity of Amazon regions to plan their infrastructure projects in line with the territorial, sustainable approach set out in the National Infrastructure Plan, building on the current pilot project to build the infrastructure planning capacity of the regional government of Loreto.

–       Implementing and institutionalizing international best practices and mechanisms to optimize project delivery in strategic execution entities, as well as in the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Audit Office, as rector and controlling bodies. The best practices and mechanisms include standardized contracting, Five Case Model for business casing, project management offices, and a new generation of government-to-government agreements. 

From a geopolitical perspective, we would like Peru to play a role as “middle power” by using its positive experience of working with the UK to influence the wider region.

Roles and responsibilities :

Will report directly to the British Embassy’s Economic and Infrastructure Policy Lead, working in several actions:

– Providing technical and administrative support to the infrastructure portfolio (technical assistance programmes and other sources of funding) of the CNI team.

– Providing administrative support to promote the institutionalization of UK best practices related to infrastructure in the Peruvian government, building capacities for high-level officials in key public entities like the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

– Planning and executing a wide variety of official missions related to infrastructure for British officials to Peru and Peruvian officials to the UK.

– Planning and developing the Infrastructure Task Force, the most important event of bilateral cooperation in infrastructure between the Peruvian and British governments.

– Providing technical and administrative support to the CNI team in terms of budget (working closely with the Program Manager), activity-planning, and as liaison with the Embassy’s communication team.

– Developing periodic economic reports for the Embassy and FCDO in London. 

– Engaging key stakeholders (diplomacy and policy advocacy) in the Peruvian government- particularly the Ministry of Economy and Finance- and other donors and multilateral organizations.

– Providing support to the wider CNI team as required.

We are looking for undergraduates, who are studying Economics or related fields and are at least in their 8th semester.  We are also open to recent graduates.

Good organisational skills are crucial. You will be required to support with the organization of strategic meetings and events.

Social and/or Diplomatic skills to work with stakeholders in commercial and policy advocacy.