Project Lead and Sustainable Finance Specialist

JOB DESCRIPTIONS 

Duties and Responsibilities  

 Lead, manage, coordinate, and develop effective project planning and implementation.

• Oversee the identification, selection and supervision of national consultants and experts, in close collaboration with the UNDP Country Office, Senior Finance Expert and the Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU);
• Write/revise terms of references for national BIOFIN team members;
• In consultation with the UNDP Country Office and GPMTSU elaborate/revise the work plan and budget and submit draft workplans/budgets timely;
• Supervise the work of national experts and institutions to ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget, and to high quality standards; facilitate, guide and monitor the work of the national team;
• Oversee the work of the Project Support Associate to ensure administrative requirements and budgets are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner and within UNDP and donor rules and regulations;
• Organize all relevant project workshops in a consultative manner, involving a wide variety of biodiversity finance stakeholders, including the government, private sector, NGOs, donors and academia;
• Discuss with the Ministries of Finance, Environment and other key stakeholders the establishment of a national Steering Committee and follow up on the formal establishment and regular convening of the Committee and develop meeting reports to be shared with Steering Committee, the UNDP CO and GPMTSU; 
• Maintain regular communication with Ministries of Environment and Finance for the development and completion of all reports and products;
• Liaise the project processes and products with relevant national planning biodiversity and finance relevant processes, such as NBSAP updates and Global Biodiversity Framework implementation;
• Ensure a timely identification of risks in implementation at the national level and communication to the GPMTSU;
• Organize regular meetings of the national team and monthly calls with the Technical Advisor from the GPMTSU;
• Ensure participation of national team members in regional technical calls;
• Participate in regional and global meeting organized by the GPMTSU.

Provision of technical advisory support 

• Act as principal technical contact for the project implementation with GPMTSU with regards to all questions and issues that arise during national implementation;
• Provide key technical leadership on all finance issues and assure horizontal integration and consistency of workstreams/studies;
• Provide overall guidance and quality control for the four main deliverables of the project, technical support to the national project team to complete all the deliverables of the BIOFIN methodology, in a consistent and high-quality manner;
• Ensure drafts of all work are sent to the global Technical Advisor and GPMTSU regularly to provide backstopping and assure feedback is adequately integrated into national reports;
• Research and write Develop the sections on subsidies and financing incentives in the PIR according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook) ;
• Provide technical support for the data collection, analysis, and conclusions of the BER;
• Support the data collection, modelling, quality checking, and validation of the FNA;
• Develop a Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU global BIOFIN team and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook).

Ensure effective reporting/communication/M&E

• Signal any delays in national deliverables compared to the workplan to the UNDP Country Office and the GPMTSU; 
• Lead project monitoring, reporting and evaluation at national level, draft monthly and quarterly reports for review by the lead expert and submission to the global BIOFIN team;
• Coordinate the development of workshop reports for the inception workshop and all technical workshops; 
• Review all technical reports as required; 
• Ensure alignment of national work with global methodologies such as the BIOFIN workbook and others;
• 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 Hub, and other organizations and initiatives; 
• Review the final reports of the national Policy and Institutional Review, Biodiversity expenditure Review, Financial Needs Assessment and Biodiversity Finance plan;
• Develop with the collaboration of the rest of the team members, of at least one brief overview publication per year, press releases, and web and media products.

Develop strategic partnerships

• Substantively contribute to the harnessing of effective partnerships and lead the identification and onboarding process for implementing partners; 
• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships and strategic linkages with implementing and development partners, government officials, businesses, NGOs, other national and regional stakeholders, and beneficiaries to support and ensure accurate interpretation of project objectives and promote inclusive project implementation; 
• Substantively contribute to project communications and visibility efforts. Make recommendations to the management team on activities with potential for scale-up, replicability and synergies; 
• Provide technical support to the implementing partners and act as a liaison between UNDP and the partners; 
• Support resource mobilization efforts and project development.

Facilitate knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing, and advocacy 

• Identify capacity building needs and opportunities. Ensure appropriate training, project workshops and other relevant activities are organized and implemented in a consultative manner, involving technical experts and stakeholders that may include the government, private sector, NGOs, donors, and/or academia; 
• Ensure project reports capture results, lessons learned and good practices for possible wider application; 
• Participate in and ensure sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice on development and project related issues. Support establishment of knowledge platforms for the project, facilitate innovative mechanisms for dissemination of knowledge from the project, and develop knowledge resources and products to share with project partners and to support UNDP’s engagement in this area; 
• Promote advocacy for UNDP’s work and opportunities for collaboration in addressing development trends in coordination with the project partners, stakeholders, and UNDP communications staff. 

Competencies

CORE

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact 
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems 
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands 
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion:   LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross Functional & Technical Competencies

Business Direction & 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 Direction & Strategy: Entrepreneurial Thinking  

• Identify and seize opportunities to service and add value to clients, create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners, develop clear service offers responding to client needs in line with UNDP’s organizational priorities and mandate.

Business Development: Human-centered Design 

• Ability to develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

Business Management: Project Management      

• Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.

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.

2030 Agenda: Planet Nature       

• Ecosystems and Biodiversity Programme: Nature-positive economy and Biodiversity Finance 

Finance: Financial Planning and Budgeting

• Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP's long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analyzing and reporting.

Required Skills and Experience  
 

Education:

• Advanced university degree ( master’s degree or equivalent )  in Environment/Natural Resource Management, Biodiversity, Economics/Finance, Development/Environmental Finance, Agricultural Economics or a closely related field is required. OR
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years’ (with master’s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant experience in the implementation of environment/biodiversity/finance projects;
• Experience in gathering and processing data and information;
• Experience in managing work teams and supervising technical assessments, reports and technical documents;
• Knowledge of key software packages (MS Office);
• Advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages;
• Experience in handling of web-based management systems;
• Experience in overall project implementation;
• Experience in analyzing reports and drafting reports is an added advantage; 
• Experience in dealing with international and national experts and institutions would be desirable;
• Prior experience with UNDP projects would be an asset; 
• Solid experience and knowledge in environmental or biodiversity related policies is highly desirable.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency English is required.