UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to development finance and investment capital. UNCDF focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis. It provides seed capital – grants and loans– and technical support to help development finance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development. Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported development finance institutions are women – and its expertise in development finance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges. All UNCDF support is provided via national systems, in accordance with the Paris principles. UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an
autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP. 

All stakeholders worldwide have recognized the critical role of the private sector in fostering economic growth, poverty reduction, and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”). At a time of tight public budgets and a need for local economies to deal with a global world, public funding alone is not a solution; if local development is to be successful and sustainable over the longer term, the private sector needs to be mobilized. Yet, despite the commitment of all UN Member States to mobilizing the private sector in the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and many other initiatives, concrete results on the ground have been insufficient.

The Local Economic Development Finance Initiative of Tanzania (LFI-T) is an innovative programme of the Tanzania Government designed by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) that strives to make an impact by ensuring that the Tanzania domestic financial sector is unblocked to enable and promote inclusive, gender equitable and sustainable local economic development (LED). The programme intends to achieve this goal through implementation of a Tanzania national development program to ensure long-term sustainability coupled with demonstration small and medium-sized LED infrastructure projects during a period of four years. 

Capacity development will include training of local Technical Support Providers, national and local government officials, bank officers, and project sponsors, as well as the provision of information-enabling resources and communication and management platforms to improve the local business-enabling environment. The demonstration infrastructure projects will be strategically selected as critical for unleashing economic potential, including both traditional and industrial infrastructure projects such as energy projects, transport, warehouses, and food processing plants.    

The LFI-T Programme aims to improve the ability and willingness of the relevant stakeholders in Tanzania to use domestic finance for LED and to create enabling national environments for sustained participation of the domestic financial sector in LED. There are five main outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Improved capacities of Tanzania public and private project developers to identify and develop small-to-medium sized infrastructure projects essential for inclusive LED.
• Outcome 2: Increased ability and willingness of domestic financial sector to provide financing for small to medium-sized LED infrastructure projects.
• Outcome 3: Improved Tanzania business-enabling environment for domestic resource mobilization for inclusive LED, insuring integration into existing government processes, programs, and structures.
• Outcome 4: Increased interest and support of the development community for Tanzania inclusive LED project development and finance.
• Outcome 5: Increased effectiveness and leverage of limited public sector funds, both of the host government and development partners, by mobilizing significant levels of private sector finance for catalytic LED projects.

The Tanzania LFI-T Programme will be implemented by the Government of Tanzania, through the Prime Minister’s Office for Regional and Local Administrations, in concert with the UNCDF Global LFI Programme, using the UNCDF International Technical Service Provider (TSP) that is selected to provide the overall technical support required for ensuring programme results.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the LFI-T Chief Technical Advisor and in close collaboration with the Government Programme Coordinator, the Specialist will be responsible for implementing the LFI-T Programme in collaboration with the International TSP. In addition, he/she will be responsible for ensuring the effective monitoring and evaluation of the LFI-T Programme. The Specialist will work closely in a dynamic responsive manner on a daily basis with the UNCDF CTA and the International TSP to ensure the compliance of specific activities with the programme document and UNCDF operational procedures. The Specialist will ensure that key programme results are delivered on time and to the budget; the programme is managed effectively and efficiently; and proper systems for programme monitoring and evaluation, knowledge generation and sharing are established and applied systematically.

1. Organization and facilitation of key programme activities related to developing and financing infrastructure projects (35%)

 • Provide implementation support for the process of identifying, developing, and financing projects in Tanzania.
• Facilitate interaction with  local stakeholders during project identification, development and financing (government officials, private sector banks, project sponsors, development partners, etc).
• Prepare and facilitate technical missions for development of LFI.
• Facilitate the required technical studies by engaging the project sponsors, consultants, local authorities and communities as appropriate, including the development of TORs and procurement processes.
• Support the establishment and operationalisation of the LFI-T Fund, including the preparation of and participation in discussions and negotiations with banks, investors and other stakeholders.
• Support the scaling up of the Tanzania LED Finance Programme Performance and Business-Enabling Environment Metrics.
• Contribute to the setting up of a system for monitoring project revenues, expenses, risk factors on an ongoing basis.

 

 • Provide support for the LFI-T capacity building and training programme, ensuring programme knowledge generation and dissemination, including support to the development of LFI-T tools and toolkits, case studies, briefs, research documents, and client impact evaluations.
• Support and ensure timely delivery of LFI training programmes, including scalable on-line tools with key government partners critical to achieving LFI outcomes, such as the Tanzania Investment Centre.
• Ensure  the implementation of the LFI-T stakeholder mobilization and communication plan and organise and coordinate outreach activities with a variety of stakeholders.
• Provide specialist and organizational support to set up communities of practice and knowledge-exchange mechanisms for TSPs and other experts to facilitate knowledge building and exchange among LED and LFI practitioners
• Provide specialist input to and ensure application of the processes and tools to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, training, and scaling up of LFI-T nationally, building the capacity of local stakeholders in the public and private sectors.
• Ensure regular updates and contributions on LFI issues through the UNCDF website and Teamworks, the UNDP internal online collaboration platform.
• Develop and implement tools and programmes for knowledge building and sharing in the framework of South-South cooperation.

• Ensure the delivery of the key results on time and to budget.
• Timely planning, budgeting and reporting in accordance with the guidelines of the Implementing Partner, UNCDF and UN Tanzania.
• Timely selection and recruitment of the project staff, consultants and other personnel in accordance with the project requirements.
• Exercise financial management of the project, including timely submission of requests for disbursement of funds and other forms (e.g. advance payments, request for direct payments, etc.) in line with the standard Guidelines for the implementation of NIM modality and UNCDF Operations Manual, preparation of statements of expenditure, and facilitation of the annual audit of the project operations.
• Ensure the procurement and asset management functions related to the project, in line with UNDP and UNCDF guidelines.
• Establish and maintain an effective and efficient project monitoring system providing regular feedback on the project performance and to update regularly risk and issue logs.
• Provide support to mid-term review and evaluation missions.
• Support efforts of UNCDF to mobilize additional resources for LFI-T.

 

IV. Impact of Results
• Improved ability and willingness of the relevant stakeholders to use domestic finance for LED and to create enabling national and international environments for sustained participation of the domestic financial sector in LED.
• Substantive partnerships strengthened with domestic financial providers, development partners in providing project development and credit enhancement support, and Technical Service Providers.
• Planning, implementation and reporting on project activities are done in an effective and timely manner, in accordance with guidelines of the Implementing Partner (IP) and of UNCDF.
• Administrative functions related to the project, including finance and procurement support, are ensured in accordance with rules and regulations of the IP and UNCDF.
• Planned programme outputs and outcomes are fully achieved in a timely manner, consistent with the expectations of private sector actors, and optimal output quality assured, through sound and efficient internal business, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation and reporting processes.
• Profile of UNCDF and its development partners as leaders in development finance strengthened.
• Substantive partnerships strengthened with leading private sector foundations and development partners.

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

 

Influencing the public policy agenda
? Understands the importance of mobilizing the private sector for development, the role of development partners in unblocking the economy and financial markets
? Builds consensus concerning UNCDF’s strategic agenda with partners on joint initiatives
? Dialogues with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global perspectives

 

Achieving results through programme design and innovative resourcing strategies
? Makes use of a variety of resources within UNCDF to achieve results, such as cross-functional teams, secondments and developmental assignments, and collaborative funding approaches
? Ensures the full implementation of country programme and financial resources to obtain results
? Strong programme management experience with emphasis on monitoring, evaluation and incorporating lessons learned into development finance projects and programmes

Building strategic alliances
? Makes effective use of UNCDF’s resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships
? Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations
? Strong networking capabilities and ability to associate him/herself with a range of actors (including policy makers, regulators, FSPs and donors) with a view to building relations and facilitating links
? Resource mobilization experience and record of success in reporting to and managing donor grants and reporting mechanisms.

 

Fostering innovation in others
? Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking
? Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources

 

Participating in the development of policies and innovative approaches and promoting their application throughout the organization
? Promotes UNCDF as a learning/knowledge sharing organization

 

Expert knowledge of development finance
? Possesses expert knowledge of advanced concepts in private sector development, financial inclusion as well as an in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures
? Deep technical knowledge and experience in finance good practices for industry building, and development of inclusive financial markets and products in emerging markets, especially through private sector partnerships
? Applies a broad knowledge of best management practices; defines objectives and work flows, positions reporting relationships in such a way as to obtain optimum effectiveness for the unit/branch
?  Keeps abreast of new developments in area of to development finance and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself personally
? Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
? Demonstrates expert knowledge of the current programme guidelines and on-line management tools, and manages the use of these regularly in work assignments

 

Meeting long-term client needs
? Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives
? Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services
? Advises and develops strategic and operational solutions with clients that add value to UNCDF programmes and operations

 

Core Competencies
? Managing complex projects and processes, with strong organizational and communication skills
? Developing programme activities, planning events, preparing presentations, and conducting training events
? Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents
? Building support and political acumen
? Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
? Building and promoting effective teams
? Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
? Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
? Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNCDF & setting standards
? Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning
? Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking

Master\s degree in economics, finance, business or public administration or related fields.

 

 • A minimum of 5 years of experience in development finance, business development, or related fields of finance, development, research, advocacy, and policy development.
• A minimum of 3 years of project management experience in the public or private sector, with demonstrated ability to successfully implement multiple activities concurrently.
• Experiences with similar assignments in developing countries, including LDCs is an advantage.
• Demonstrated ability to manage detailed programmes
• Knowledge of PowerPoint, excel, word, and comfortable with on-line applications
• Knowledge of financial modeling and credit analysis a plus
• Experience in developing presentations, arranging for events, conducting training programmes, and making presentations a plus

 

Strong English and Swahili, written and spoken.