UNDP Jobs - 50528- Public and Private Finance Expert

Public and Private Finance Expert

Location :

Home-based, INDONESIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

30-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

23-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

100 working days

Languages Required :

Expected Duration of Assignment :

100 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. 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.

Background

National governments have demonstrated their clear commitment to fulfilling their biodiversity conservation mandates in ways that promote national socio-economic development goals. Given the many pressing development priorities that governments face, this requires finding innovative sources of funding for biodiversity & ecosystem management that can be sustained over the long term. Countries need to drastically scale up their efforts in securing resources if they are to achieve the 20 Aichi Targets defined in the Convention for Biological Diversity’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2020. There is a growing understanding that detailed national-level finance assessments are required to provide more robust information on the biodiversity finance gap. In this context, the European Union & the Federal Ministry of Environment of Germany are providing resources for a global project called ‘Building Transformative Policy & Financing Frameworks to Increase Investment in Biodiversity Management’ (BIOFIN) that provides countries with a methodology for:

Integrating biodiversity & ecosystem services in sectoral & development policy, planning & budgeting:

Component 1 will enable participating countries to analyze current policies, institutions & expenditures that affect biodiversity & ecosystem services both positively & negatively, in order to evaluate their impact & effectiveness, & to understand key opportunities for mainstreaming, for example, the removal of perverse incentives. Decades of development experience have taught us that it is important to mainstream biodiversity into national development plans, as well as into the policy, planning & financing frameworks of other key sectors. This component takes this process a step further by providing a workbook to tool that enables an analysis of the specific threats posed by sectors to biodiversity; as well as the quantified benefits that ecosystems provide to these sectors & society in general as a basis for making the case for & initiating a transition from a business-as-usual scenario to a sustainable ecosystem management scenario in these sectors (which will in turn have a bearing on the costs of addressing biodiversity loss). It also lays the groundwork for an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of current expenditure & recommendations to improve this.

Assessing the financing & governance needs for the management & conservation of biodiversity & ecosystem services:

Component 2 involves an evaluation of the existing investment in biodiversity management across all sectors of government that impact or depend upon biodiversity & ecosystems, as well as the private sector. It will develop & pilot a workbook tool that enables countries to find answers to several fundamental questions in this regard, including: (a) what are the cost coefficients for the delivery of basic biodiversity management functions against which cost-effectiveness can be assessed? What opportunities & barriers exist to improved cost-effectiveness? (b) How much would it cost to remove the above barriers? What other options are available? What are the costs of inaction? (c) What financing is hence required at a national level to meet national targets set in terms of the global biodiversity targets adopted under the new CBD Strategic Plan for the period 2011-2020? To address these questions in a comprehensive & rigorous manner, costed action plans will be developed for addressing the gaps & barriers, building on the pilot countries' development of their new NBSAPs, & providing useful data for use in the context of the CBD’s Resource Mobilization Strategy.

Identify access, combine & sequence different sources of funds to meet biodiversity-financing needs:

Once the costs of biodiversity management have been projected, the revenue side of the funding equation will need to be addressed. A third workbook tool will be used to support countries to identify, access, combine & sequence sources of funds, domestic & international, public & private, to meet their biodiversity financing needs. A large number of potential financing instruments exist, including innovative financing & market mechanisms, such as carbon markets, biodiversity offsets & payments for ecosystem services, including sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. The workbook will enable an assessment of the suitability of different funding options, & enable the development of specific strategies for each pilot country to tap into these sources. Particular attention will be paid to the potential risks & barriers related to the implementation of innovative financing instruments, given country-specific circumstances, ways & means to overcome these barriers when possible, & the potential need for environmental & social safeguards.

Initiate implementation of the resource mobilization strategy at national level:

This additional component provides an optional extra in the context of the BIOFIN project as a whole. Where resources are available to support this, countries will undertake an additional component of work that involves mapping out a concrete framework of steps to implement the BIOFIN assessment results. This will be based on analysis of the process and policies needed to incentivize the necessary expenditures to be realized. These could range from laws and regulations, taxes and fees, identification of legal thresholds, removal of perverse incentives, detailed feasibility study and implementation plan for a new financial mechanism, certification processes, public-private-partnerships, voluntary agreements, awareness raising campaigns, behaviour change through education and training measures etc. Based on the type and amount of expenditures identified as necessary and the national context, relevant elements will be identified and developed for the particular national circumstances in terms of existing policies and regulations.

Through implementation of the BIOFIN project, countries seek to transform national biodiversity finance by mobilizing innovative finance mechanisms that will allow countries to implement their NBSAP & achieve the Aichi Targets. Specifically, the BIOFIN project components will feed directly into national NBSAP projects, while the NBSAP projects in turn will provide the platforms through which the initiative’s results (on mainstreaming, national finance needs assessments & national resource mobilization plans) are integrated into decision-making processes.

Indonesia has been selected as one of the pilot countries for this initiative. Further pilot countries include: Argentina, Ecuador, Seychelles, Malaysia, Uganda, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Peru, Botswana & Philippines. The project will be managed by UNDP through its Global Ecosystems & Biodiversity Programme. It will run for three years from 2014 to 2016, from UNDP’s Regional Centre in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Expert will be responsible to implement the BIOFIN process at the national level and to complete BIOFIN Workbook Part 1c: Public and Private Expenditure and Effectiveness Trends including following tasks:

Collect and analyse overall national and state budgets and expenditures related to biodiversity for the past full 6 years for which data exist. This analysis should include all medium-term strategic plans, annual budgets, annual audits (for expenditure), government statistics and any other sources of public sector financial data available. The study should also include an analysis of the National Targets of Indonesia Biodiversity Strategic and Action Plans (IBSAP) from 2010-2014. The calculations should include a comparison with the total government budget, total government expenditure, foreign loans and grants, and gross domestic product based on existing government figures and data from national and state statistics bureaus;
Collect and analyse national and state level private and non-profit expenditures related to biodiversity for the past full 6 years for which data exist (the same years as the public expenditure review). This analysis should include all major ODA assistance, local and national NGOs, and large scale environmental projects implemented by private companies including mining, agriculture, construction and other large private initiatives;
Analyse baseline Public and Private biodiversity-related expenditures collected in the above tasks and categorize these expenditures according to the strategies and targets of the revised Indonesia Biodiversity Strategic and Action Plans (IBSAP) and the 5 categories of Aichi targets (biodiversity mainstreaming and sustainable use strategies; protection strategies; restoration strategies; access and benefits sharing strategies; and implementation strategies.)

With reference to the results of Workbooks 1a and 1b. Specific activities should include:

Conducting a thorough review of public and private biodiversity finance actors, agents, and investors and reach consensus through peer review discussions within the steering committee;
Identifying the specific divisions; the relevant cost codes, cost centres or line items; and the total budget, biodiversity-related budget, total actual expenditures, total biodiversity expenditures for each selected finance actor;
Assess effectiveness (for significant finance actors) through an effectiveness review, including a calculation of the amount of ineffective expenditures, and for the remaining actors, identify categorical effectiveness of biodiversity-related expenditures;
Identifying negative biodiversity expenditures (adverse subsidies, investments that damage biodiversity, etc.), and calculate the amount of potential savings if these expenditures are eliminated;
Analyse baseline biodiversity expenditure by major IBSAP strategy group and by Aichi target categories (See above) by identifying the breakdown of biodiversity expenditures for all identified financial actors by these classifications; based upon these baseline expenditures, calculate an estimated future funding baseline under a “business as usual” scenario by developing a range of hypotheses about projected future “baseline” expenditures based on past expenditures, and in consideration of likely future trend, conditions, contingencies.

Analyse the effectiveness of the Biodiversity-Related Expenditures in the last 6 years at national and sub-national (2 districts and one province) level by:

Conducting a review of the public and private biodiversity finance actors, agents, and investors identified in the BIOFIN Workbook 1b
Together with the Public and Private Expenditure Review Expert 1 and other members of the national BIOFIN team, divide all actors, agents, and investors into “significant” and “other” categories through consensus via peer review discussions within the steering committee (results of workbook 1a and 1b);
Review the specific divisions; the relevant cost codes, cost centre or line items; and the total budget biodiversity-related budget, total actual expenditures for each selected finance actor as determined by the Public and Private Expenditure Review Expert 1; Conduct a detailed qualitative and quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of all “significant” finance actors through an analysis of expenditures and the outcomes of these expenditures using published and unpublished reports, statistics, and stakeholder discussions based on the institutions and actors identified in the Workbook 1b and the Biodiversity Expenditure review. Include where possible a discussion on the amount of ineffective expenditures and for the remaining actors (not identified as “significant”), identify categorical effectiveness of biodiversity-related expenditures (for example on a scale of 1-5);
Identifying negative biodiversity expenditures (adverse or biodiversity damaging subsidies, etc.); and discuss the impacts and the amount of potential savings if these expenditures were to be eliminated.
Analyse the effectiveness of biodiversity expenditure categorised by a) the previous Sectoral Strategic Planning 2010-2014 (Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Ministry of Environment and LIPI), selected district and province’s RPJMD b) the major Aichi strategy groups.
Review and provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the estimated future funding baseline under a “business as usual” scenario by identifying the projected future baseline scenario based on past expenditures, and a full analysis of likely future trend, conditions, contingencies.

Institutional Arrangement:

The expert will have close supervision and coordination with Fiscal Policy Agency – Ministry of Finance to build the workbook assessment;
The expert will interact, liaise with other IBSAP stakeholders, i.e.: Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Ministry of Environment, and LIPI;
The expert should have close coordination with the Sustainable Development Financing (SDF) project team;
The expert’s draft reports will be reviewed by BIOFIN National Focal Point and IBSAP stakeholders through forum group discussion/workshop/etc. With intensive communications;
The expert will report to the BIOFIN National Project Manager and Technical Officer for Natural Resources Management, UNDP Indonesia.

Competencies

Strong analytical, writing & communication skills.
Ability to prepare publications, reports & presentations.
Ability to work with a multidisciplinary & multicultural team.
Strong motivation & ability to work & deliver under short deadlines.
Focuses on impact & result for the client & responds positively to critical feedback.
Able to work independently with little or no supervision.
Familiarity with government strongly desired.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master Degree in finance, business (MBA), economics, public policy or a closely related field, or equivalent relevant work experiences.

Experience:

At least 8 (eight) years of experience for Master Degree;
Substantive experience in conducting studies on public and private expenditure review would be an advantage;
Experience in working with BAPPENAS, BAPPEDA, Ministry of Finance as well as other relevant line ministries are preferred;
Good knowledge on government planning systems and institutional roles;
Good knowledge on corporate social responsibilities;
Financial audit for any programme;
Good knowledge on UN conventions and sustainable development agenda;
Knowledge of UNDP policies & procedures an asset;
Sound understanding of MS Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

Language:

Proficient in Bahasa and English language, both spoken and written.