UNDP Jobs - 87587- Climate Finance Innovation Specialist

Climate Finance Innovation Specialist

Location :

Home Based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Nov-2019

Application Deadline :

22-Oct-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

42 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

The Arab region has a varying range of country contexts and economic capacities. At the same time, the region is home to rising levels of conflict and the world’s largest population of refugees and displaced people. Simultaneously, it is now the planet’s most water scarce and food import-dependent region, and the only region where malnutrition rates have been rising. Climate change exacerbates these trends, and by 2030 temperatures could rise by a further 2 degrees Celsius, as the region emerges as a global hotspot for drought. Development in the Arab region has always been complex, but climate change is now acting as an accelerator of fragility, disrupting ecosystems and triggering displacement.

In 2015, governments around the world adopted three major agreements that set out their vision for the coming decades: a new set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the ‘financing for development’ package. It has been estimated that achieving the goals set in the countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement will require over $53 trillion of new investments by 2030. Mobilizing this magnitude of capital in turn requires new and innovative solutions that lower the risk investors face in scaling up sustainable energy and climate investments in developing countries.

The region’s financial systems need reshaping to achieve the ambitious goals of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement and to finance an inclusive, prosperous and environmentally sound future. However, today’s momentum remains inadequate to deliver the transformation needed to finance sustainable development. Fostering private participation in low-carbon markets can not only addresses near-term development needs, but also ensure the longer-term viability of these markets. Thus, a unique opportunity exists for public and private actors to work together to increase climate change-related private capital flows to developing countries.

To this end, UNDP and UNEP have initiated the Climate Finance Innovation project to help countries in the region scale up investments to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. The project is focused on three main aspects:

Activity 1: Development of a sustainable finance diagnostic toolkit

Activity 2: Assessment of private finance to fund the investments required for the transition to green, low carbon, climate resilient development pathways.

Activity 3: Design of a Climate Finance Innovation Platform.

Under the Activity 3, UNDP is looking for a Climate Finance Innovation Specialist to help explore the ways of scaling up private financial flows to achieve the SDGs and the Paris Agreement along with NDCs implementation in the Arab region countries through innovative solutions and models for public-private finance partnerships.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of the assignment is to explore the models for establishing a regional platform to be served as a marketplace for generating solutions, public-private partnerships and new investments for scaled up climate finance, that would be operationalized from through UNDP-UNEP cooperation.

The platform would carry out the following:

Convene UN agencies, IFIs, government and private sector to act on assessment findings, with a view to scaling up private finance to achieve environment SDGs and the Paris Agreement
Develop bankable investment projects for private financing to achieve goals of climate action and ecosystem resilience while also generating co-benefits across SDGs and broader goals of crisis recovery and resilience in the Arab region
Generate innovative solutions and models for public-private partnerships to achieve local results across key finance sectors.

Competencies

Corporate

Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional

Proven technical and intellectual skills in understanding and interpreting regional, national and local green financing issues;
Ability to understand and analyze and political dynamics in the region;
Demonstrated ability for facilitation and coordination skills;
Demonstrated entrepreneurial abilities and demonstrated ability to work in an independent manner;
Background knowledge about the SDGs, United Nations and UNDP;
Good teamwork and interpersonal skills;
Flexibility and ability to handle multiple tasks and work under pressure;
Excellent drafting and formulation skills;
Excellent computer skills especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint;

Leadership

Demonstrated ability to think strategically and to provide credible leadership;
Demonstrated intellectual leadership and ability to integrate green finance with broader strategic overview and corporate vision;
Demonstrated flexibility in leadership by performing and/or overseeing the analysis/resolution of complex issues;
Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience.

Managing Relationships

Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain strategic partnerships;
Demonstrated well developed people management and organizational management skills;
Excellent negotiating and networking skills with strong partnerships in academia, technical organizations and as a recognized expert in the practice area.

Managing Complexity

Ability to address global development issues;
Demonstrated substantive leadership and ability to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives.

Knowledge Management and Learning

Ability to strongly promote and build knowledge products;
Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from within and outside of UNDP;
Demonstrates a strong capacity for innovation and creativity in providing strategic policy advice and direction.

Judgment/Decision-Making

Mature judgment and initiative;
Proven ability to provide strategic direction to the project implementation process;
Independent judgment and discretion in advising on handling major policy issues and challenges, uses diplomacy and tact to achieve result.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

Master’s degree in climate change, energy, environment, green finance, or any other closely related field.

Years of experience

Minimum 10 years of previous working experience in climate change, energy environment, green finance, or any other closely related field with international or regional organizations;
5 years of previous working experience in developing assessment and strategies on green finance;
5 years of previous working experience in the policy development processes on green finance;
Previous working experience with the United Nations (UN) is an advantage;

Language Requirements

Language proficiency in both written and oral English is required. Knowledge of in other UN languages, particularly French and/or Arabic, is an asset.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

The individual is required to exhibit his or her full-time commitment with UNDP-RBAS;
S/He shall perform tasks under the general guidance of the Director of UNDP Regional Hub for Arab States and the direct supervision of the Regional Climate Change Specialist in the Climate Change, DRR & Resilience / Energy & Environment team. The supervision will include approvals/acceptance of the outputs as identified in the previous section;
The individual is expected to liaise and collaborate in the course of performing the work with other consultants, suppliers and UN colleagues;
The individual is required to provide periodical progress reports on regular and needed basis throughout the assignment to monitor progress;
The individual is required to maintain close communication with UNDP-RBAS on regular and needed basis at any period throughout the assignment to monitor progress. In the event of any delay, S/he will inform UNDP promptly so that decisions and remedial action may be taken accordingly;
Should UNDP deem it necessary, it reserves the right to commission additional inputs, reviews or revisions, as needed to ensure the quality and relevance of the work.

DURATION OF THE WORK

The duration of the work is expected to be 42 working days.

DUTY STATION

This is a home-based assignment with possibility two missions to Middle East and North Africa region countries. If unforeseen travel outside the consultant home based city is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. In such cases, the consultant shall receive living allowances not exceeding the United Nations (UN) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rate for such other location(s).

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL & DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Candidates that fail to submit the required information will not be considered.

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

Interested candidates shall submit above documents to the Job Advertisement Website: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm as one document not later than 8th October, 2019.

Interested candidates can find Procurement notice, letter of confirmation of interest and availability and P11 http://procurement-notices.undp.org/

Please do not submit financial proposal in this stage.Financial proposal shall be requested from Candidates who are considered technically responsive

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE BEST OFFERS

This selection criteria will follow the Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%; using the following evaluation criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum requirements will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

Criteria A: Master’s degree or equivalent in climate change, environment, green finance, or any other closely related field;
Criteria B: Minimum 10 years of previous working experience in climate change, environment, green finance, or any other closely related field with international or regional organizations;
Criteria F: Language proficiency in both written and oral English is required;

Shortlisted Candidates will be then assessed and scored against the following evaluation criteria:

Technical evaluation Criteria max 100 points (Weighted 70):

Criteria A: Master’s degree or equivalent in climate change, environment, green finance, or any other closely related field (20 points);
Criteria B: Minimum 10 years of previous working experience in climate change, environment, green finance, or any other closely related field with international or regional organizations (25 points);
Criteria C: 5 years of previous working experience in developing assessment and strategies on green finance; (15 points);
Criteria D: 5 years of previous working experience in the policy development processes on green finance; (15 points);
Criteria E: Previous working experience with the United Nations (UN) (15 points);
Criteria F: Language proficiency in both written and oral English (10 points);

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation

For those offers considered in the financial evaluation, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (PI / Pn)* 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.

Step II: Final evaluation

The final evaluation will combine the scores of the desk review and the financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight: [70%]
Financial Criteria weight: [30%]

Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.