Background

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (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.

The Local Development Finance Initiative (LFI) is a global programme of UNCDF designed to unlock financial sectors to finance small and medium-sized infrastructure projects that are needed to accelerate local economic development and private sector development.

The Senior Investment Officer will work under the direct supervision of the Global LFI Manager/Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the CTA with development of programme strategies and methodologies 

• Provide support in the design and implementation of new and innovative approaches in local development finance and the development of relevant tools and methodologies for project finance, SME finance, Cluster business development services, SME business incubator and appropriate PPP financing and governance structures for local governments.

Organization and facilitation of key programme activities related to developing and financing infrastructure projects 

• Provide implementation support for the process of identifying, developing, and financing small scale infrastructure projects to be financed through PPP, project finance and SME finance. Projects identified must comply with UNCDF criteria for support to local economic developments;
• Interact with local stakeholders during project identification, development and financing (central and local government officials, private sector banks, project sponsors, development partners, etc.). Project sponsors can include local governments and other local institutions;
• Provide directly and facilitate provision of support services to project sponsors identified.  This includes feasibility studies, business plans, financial analysis, market assessment, financial advisory services and project finance transaction structuring. 
•  Support the establishment of co-financing relationships with local and international financial institutions, nurture relationships and manage activities needed to secure co-financing of LFI projects;
• Facilitate the required technical studies under guidance of the Global LFI Secretariat by engaging the project sponsors, consultants, local authorities and communities as appropriate, including the development of TORs that reflect project finance requirements and support of the procurement processes;
• Identify alternative financing sources, including the preparation of and participation in discussions and negotiations with banks, investors and other stakeholders;
• Participate in activities to promote LFI’s activities resulting in a project pipeline and/or strategic partnerships;
• Prepare and facilitate technical missions for projects and pipeline development;
• Liaise closely with teams from UNCDF local development finance projects responsible for measurement of transformative impact of investment projects, including in climate change, food security, women’s economic empowerment and local economic development. Exchange data and information to ensure that selected projects meet the criteria for transformational impact on local development in addition to financial criteria.

Organization and facilitation of key programme activities, related to capacity building and knowledge management 

• Provide support for the LFI capacity building and training programme, ensuring programme knowledge generation and dissemination, including support to the development of LFI tools and toolkits, case studies, briefs, research documents, and client impact evaluations. 
• Support and ensure timely delivery of LFI training programmes.
• Support and ensure the implementation of the LFI stakeholder mobilization and communication plan and organise and coordinate outreach activities with a variety of stakeholders. 
•  Provide specialist input to and ensure application of the processes and tools to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, training, and scaling up of LFI nationally, building the capacity of local stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

Project Management & Resource Mobilization 

• Support efforts of UNCDF to mobilize additional resources locally for LFI.
• Ensure the delivery of the key results on time and to budget as assigned by the CTA.
• Timely planning, budgeting and reporting in accordance with the guidelines of the Implementing Partner, UNCDF and Global LFI Secretariat.
• Exercise financial management of the project, including timely submission of requests for disbursement of funds and other forms
• 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.

Impact of Results

• Improved ability and willingness of the relevant stakeholders to use domestic and private finance for LED and to create enabling national and international environments for sustained participation of the domestic financial sector in LED according to local development finance criteria;
• 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.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Building Strategic Partnerships

• 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.

 Innovation and Marketing New Approaches

• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Conceptualizes more effective approaches to programme development and implementation and to mobilizing and using resources.

  Client Orientation

• 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;
• Ability to work and excel in a small team environment;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Fair and transparent decision-making, and calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Banking or related areas, plus preferably a Bachelor Degree in Engineering, Accounting (or CPA), Finance or Economics.

Experience:

• Preferably a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience;
• Expert knowledge of private sector finance. Development finance knowledge is a plus;
• Demonstrated experience in funding and providing advisory services to SMEs. Demonstrated experience of developing investment analysis recommendations for review and approval by investment committees of a fund. Demonstrated experience in development of investment projects through the entire project development life cycle and the financing stages for investments through single purpose investment vehicles;
• Demonstrated experience in preparation of project financial analysis and creation/evaluation of advanced and complex Ms Excel financial models;
• Demonstrated experience in project proposals evaluation and assessment of feasibility for private sector funding. This involves the initial screening of project application package, desk review and evaluation of financials and business plans, preparing evaluation notes for presentation to the Management Team to determine a project’s suitability for investment, and detailed project concept notes to obtain clearance for full appraisal or fact-finding field trips;
• Demonstrated experience in; carrying out independent research on the investment climate, project sponsors, management, and economic, financial, marketing, technical, environmental and legal aspects of the project;
• Demonstrates ability to engage across multiple stakeholders, including project sponsors, government partners and financial institutions;
• Applies a broad knowledge of best management practices;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in development finance and seeks to develop him/herself personally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Language:

• Fluency in Engilish and Swahili essential.