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Environmental Finance Analyst for the Latin America and Caribbean Region – IPSA 9 (Home Based)

United Nations Human Settlements Programme

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JOB DESCRIPTION

Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP:  we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a ‘leave no one behind’ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Office/Unit/Project Description

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.

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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.

Duties and Responsibilities
Contribute to the design of national Biodiversity Finance Plans
  • 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

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  • 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.
Competencies
Core
Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible
Act with Determination:  LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies 

Thematic Area Name Definition
Planet Nature Climate and Energy Ecosystems and biodiversity: Biodiversity Finance
Planet Nature Climate and Energy Environmental Governance: Multilateral Environmental Agreements (e.g. CBD and UNCCD)
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
Partnerships management Relationship management Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.
Business Management Communication Ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.

Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media, and other appropriate channels.
Business Development Knowledge Generation Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need
Business Management Project Management Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
Required Skills and Experience
Min. Education requirements
  • Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in public finance, private finance, economics, environmental economics, public administration, financial management, natural/environmental sciences, social sciences with a specialization in environmental finance and development, or other closely related field is required, or
  • A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the said fields, with two additional years of relevant experience will be taken into consideration in lieu of advanced university degree.
Min. years of relevant work experience 
  • Minimum 2 years’ (with Master’s degree) or 4 years’ (with Bachelor’s degree) of demonstrated experience in public or private sector finance, sustainable development/environmental finance, resource mobilisation, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, or a related field.
Required skills 
  • Prior experience in project management;
  • Work experience in the developing country context;
  • Experience in planning and conducting exchange workshops and technical trainings at the international level;
  • Applicant must be based in a country in the LAC region.
Desired skills 
  • Prior experience in designing or implementing environmental finance mechanisms is an asset.
  • Prior experience in the development of technical knowledge materials would be an advantage.
  • Experience with UNDP policies, procedures, and practices particularly in relation to project development and implementation.
  • Working experience in an international organization is an advantage.
  • Previous country experience in the Latin America and Caribbean region is an advantage.
Required Language(s) 
  • Fluency in English and Spanish.
  • Good command of Portuguese and/or French is an asset.
Disclaimer
Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.
UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications.
Applicant information about UNDP rosters
Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
Non-discrimination
UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.
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