Background

At a time of unprecedented global challenges, sustainable finance is a driving force for social and economic resilience. Public and private finance are essential for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and from the wide-ranging effects on the achievements of the SDGs. Rallying private sector participation and strengthening private and public sector networks for achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth take on new urgency. National resource mobilization and increased commitments from private investors and enterprises will be needed for recovery, while maintaining progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In order to achieve transformational changes in health, climate, energy, environment, finance, education, agriculture, gender equality, and the eradication of poverty in all its forms, greater private sector engagement and investments are critically needed.

 

In this context and in response to this need, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) developed the SDG Impact as a Sustainable Finance Hub (SFH) flagship initiative to empower investors with clarity, insights and tools to achieve the SDGs. SDG Impact aims to provide investors, businesses and others with unified standards, tools, and services required to authenticate their contributions to advance the SDGs and to identify SDG investment opportunities in emerging economies and developing countries. In this context, the SDG Impact introduced an impact intelligence tool - the SDG Investor Maps – to be produced by UNDP Country Offices as a dynamic tool containing a range of market-specific investment opportunities for SDG-aligned capital deployment.

 

Government of Sierra Leone in collaboration with UNDP is implementing a joint programme on recommendations of the Sierra Leone Integrated Financial Framework Report, to promote integrated planning and financing for sustainable development, to accelerate attainment of the SDGs and middle level income status by 2035. Through this Programme, the Government of Sierra Leone is expected to establish a functional and sustainable integrated planning and Public Financial Management ecosystem that contributes to accelerated achievement of the SDGs targets and the National development priorities as defined in the MTNDP. Specifically, the joint Programme supports the Government of Sierra Leone to achieve a private sector-led economic growth and employment creation, by facilitating creation of conducive policy environment, strengthening PFM processes, providing platforms for dialogue and generating evidence for private –public collaboration. The specific objectives of the joint program are: (i) development of integrated financial and planning systems for implementation of development agenda; (ii) strengthening public financial management processes to ensure budget effectiveness and efficiency; and (iii) promoting private-public partnerships and collaborations in the context of the national development Plan and SDGs.

 

At present the Government of Sierra Leone is piloting the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) and developing internal capacities to ensure SDG-aligned integrated planning and financial management processes and policies. The INFF is a holistic and integrated approach to development financing, provided by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development to help countries strengthen planning processes and overcome existing impediments to financing sustainable development and SDGs at the country level. The INFF provides a layout of a full range of financing sources – domestic and international sources of both public and private finance – and allows countries to implement strategies to increase investment, manage risks and achieve sustainable development priorities, as identified in a country’s national sustainable development strategy.

 

The present SDG Investor Map initiative will contribute to the expansion of the current INFF initiative by providing comprehensive market intelligence across priority sectors where development needs and policy priorities overlap and private capital can make a difference to people and planet. This will help determine the investment themes that could benefit from private sector investment flows to generate development outcomes. The SDG Investor Map will strengthen the Assessment and Diagnostics Pillar of the INFF by providing new insights into the financial landscape and information on business opportunities to attract and maintain private investors towards the emerging priorities from the global “cost of living crisis” (agriculture and agribusiness, energy and finance) through Public-Private partnerships. This follows the Joint SDG Fund’s spirit, as it will make it possible to identify business models and deploy innovative financing instruments to increase the flow of resources available and advance SDG and national development priorities.

 

The INFF was informed in 2019 by Development Finance Assessment commissioned by UNDP for the government of Sierra Leone. The DFA was an inception tool for the INFF process which provides a broader picture of the development finance landscape and identifies related shortcomings and opportunities to inform enhancement of development finance and strategies for delivery of long-term development results in the country. In that regard, the DFA Sierra Leone has assessed the government’s existing financing strategies, policies and institutional structures and identified specific roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders for implementation of the DFA recommendations (INFF road map). The DFA has identified challenges in Mobilisation and management of public financial sources which include over-reliance in traditional and unstainable sources of development finance such as limited private sector participation, resulting from lack of incentives to encourage private investment and financing flows towards national development priorities and the SDGs. These challenges to development financing have resulted in a financing gap, which the MTNDP financing strategy estimates a shortfall of $1.55billion throughout the MTNDP implementation period. The situation has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in oil prices and the government needs to implement deliberate strategies to ensure mobilization of alternative sources of development finance, specifically private capital. The entire process aims to facilitate private investments in the key sectors for economic growth and sustainable job creation and match those with related public investments to improve productivity in the productive sectors. 

 

The overall exercise will be a collaborative work between Government, led by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED), UNDP, private sector networks and partners. The process is intended to identify investment opportunities and determine the conditions for promoting private investments for mobilizing development financing.

Application Process

Applicants are requested to apply online at http://jobs.undp.org by 2nd August 2022. The application document can be accessed on https://procurement-notices.undp.org. Candidates are invited to submit applications together with their CV for these positions. UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that will consider the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals. Qualified women and members of social minorities are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants should send an email to:  Vendors.sle@undp.org  for any inquiries

 

Duties and Responsibilities

The work will be an iterative research-intensive process with close interaction and cooperation with multiple public and private sector stakeholders. The SDG Investor Map process entails undertaking secondary data research (on existing development needs, policy priorities, and market opportunities) and conducting in-depth consultations with public and private sector stakeholders to verify findings and contribute new insights in line with steps defined in the SDG Investor Map Handbook. The process follows an 8-step process outlined in the Handbook, which filters down from national priorities based on sectors, subsectors, and districts. The data will then be analyzed to distil Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) and data-backed business models. The standard SDG Investor Map steps are:

  • Collect information on national sustainable development needs and policy priorities
  • Synthesize needs and policies into a set of national priority sectors
  • For each sector, collect information on sectoral SDG needs and sectoral investment policies
  • Synthesize needs and policies into a set of priority subsectors
  • Identify the subregions most aligned to each subsector
  • Synthesize information into a set of priority subregions
  • With this context, identify potential business models that could tackle sub-sectoral and subregional SDG needs whilst capitalizing on policy and investment momentum
  • For each business model, add a range of supporting information that can help investors to perform due diligence and eventually shape impactful deals.

The findings of the SDG Investor Map will be synthesized in an Excel template and uploaded into the SDG Investor Platform where investors can search for the market intelligence on investment opportunities in the Country. Prospective applicants are encouraged to review the SDG Investor Map methodology and study in-depth the results from other countries’ SDG Investor Maps to appreciate the methodology, approach, process and final results prior to submitting the application, which must firmly build on the global methodology.

Overall, building on the findings of the INFF approach and other previous efforts, the key responsibilities of the consultant team, composed of an International Lead Consultant and a National Consultant, are:

  • Conduct the research and synthesis of the SDG Investor Map according the 8-step methodology in the SDG Investor Map Handbook and propose a specific methodology for the rapid assessment of private sector capacities, building on the below direction
  • Contribute to identify key documents and data sources
  • Organize and conduct interviews and consultations with public sector stakeholders
  • Organize and conduct interviews and consultations with private sector for fact-finding and to verify findings
  • Identify a long- and shortlist of Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) through co-organizing and co-leading the workshops required in steps 7-8 of the SDG Investor Map Handbook
  • Facilitate and produce the SDG Investor Map Excel spreadsheet with comprehensive data points that will eventually be uploaded to the SDG Investor Platform
  • Produce the final narrative report on the Sierra Leone SDG Investor Map and the integrated rapid assessment on private sector capabilities.

The specific responsibilities of the National Consultant are as follows. He / she will work together and under the guidance of an International Lead Consultant:

  • Under the guidance of the International Lead Consultant, undertake in-depth analysis of public and donor development statistics (e.g., human development databases, ease-of-doing-business data, private investment flows) at subsector and subregion levels.
  • Support the International Lead Consultant in key desk research activities (e.g., reviewing national, subnational, and ministerial development plans; and assessing investment promotion strategies).
  • Support the International Lead Consultant in consultation with UNDP to prepare investor interviews and consultations (e.g., shaping interviewee longlist and performing background research on interviewees).
  • Support the International Lead Consultant in undertaking structured interviews and carrying out consultations with national, regional and international investors to deepen learnings from desk research and collect relevant data.
  • Support the collation of insights from multiple research sources into a master document, ensuring that data collected is of comparable breadth and depth (testing for the mutual exclusiveness of datapoints).

Competencies

Corporate: 

  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
  •  Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN and UNDP; 
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability
  • Treats all people fairly; 
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and has zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional

  •  Strong local networks: within the financial and corporate industries (banks, non-bank financial institutions, impact funds, HNWI, relevant philanthropies, development finance institutions), with relevant businesses, investment promotion agencies etc.
  •  Strong ongoing knowledge of market context, of national development needs, and economic/ political priorities
  •  Knowledge of the SDGs
  • Knowledge of the local investment landscape, and close familiarity with needs of global investors
  •  Expertise in gathering and comprehensively analyzing country-level data as basis for identifying investment opportunities and developing data analytics on market sizing and defining key country hotspots 
  • Data analysis expertise, ideally with extensive expertise in research and an understanding of statistics 
  • Excellent advocacy skills relating to finance, business climate.
  •  Excellent analytical skills 
  • Ability to facilitate multi-stakeholder sessions 
  • Ability to navigate sensitive political environments 
  • Strong communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products

Client Orientation and Communication 

  • Strong oral and written communication skills;
  • Excellent interpersonal and networking skills and the ability to establish and maintain effective working relations;
  •  Supports and encourages open communication and responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view;
  •  Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
  •  Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and to communicate sensitively across different constituencies and awareness of political sensitivities;
  •  Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors

 

 

Required Skills and Experience

Master’s degree in the field of Statistics, Finance, Economics, Business studies or other relevant fields (PhD will be added advantage)