UNDP

UNDP is hiring a Project Specialist – Climate and Decentralization

UN Jobs SpecialistJanuary 11, 2024

0 52 8 minutes read

Location : Maputo, Mozambique

Closing Date : 01/17/2024, 06:59 AM

Vacancy Open to : Internationals

About UNCDF

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: inclusive digital economies, connecting individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyse participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; local development finance, that capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and investment finance, that provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to Sustainable Development Goal-SDG 1 , eradicating poverty, SDG 13, Climate Action and SDG 17 partnerships for the goals . By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a broad diversity of SDGs.

Background about the Vacancy

This support is facilitated throughout the following, locally owned, country programmes:

Career 2

The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) – with the Mozambican Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) as the lead governmental partner – and the Building Local Climate Resilience in Mozambique Plus (MERCIM+) – which has the Mozambican Ministry of Land and Environment as the lead governmental partner. Both programmes focus on enabling climate financing and adaptive strengthening. The approach is to integrate climate change adaptation and resilience into local governments’ planning, budgeting, and public financial management. Working through existing national government networks and the regular intergovernmental fiscal transfer systems, performance-based climate resilience grants are awarded to local governments, who meet the minimum conditions and performance indicators, so to finance local climate adaptive, social inclusive and gender responsive infrastructures and investments. Communities are involved in the identification and prioritization of these investments, so that they are tailored to their needs, thus ensuring that the LoCAL and MERCIM programmes are participatory and inclusive in nature.

Within the Local Development for the Consolidation of Peace in Mozambique Programme (DELPAZ), supporting the Mozambique Peace Process, UNCDF facilitates the Local Governance subcomponent. The same approach, of working within existing local government networks, to increase awareness and strengthen local capacities in planning, budgeting and public financial management is applied. In this subprogramme’s case, the focus is given to promoting, dialoguing on, and incorporating peace building, decentralization, the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, civil society, and gender empowerment/responsiveness. The subprogramme thus reinforces inclusive and participatory local governance and development in Mozambique on the thematic of peace. Further these grassroot local governance capacity building activities set the foundations for, and feed into, local economic development actions, which are implemented by the partners from DELPAZ’s other subprogrammes which are focused on Local Economic Development. UNCDF/DELPAZ also takes on several cross-cutting roles so to ensure the unity of the DELPAZ programme with regards to its impact.

Objectives and aims

In the context of the ongoing and expanding UNCDF programme in Mozambique, 54 districts in 9 provinces are currently part of the UNCDF programmatic focus. To facilitate the effective provision of technical support to the expanding programme, UNCDF seeks to recruit a Project Specialist – Climate and Decentralization to provide general technical support to the LoCAL, MERCIM + and DELPAZ programmes. The tasks that the consultant is expected to perform are described below.

Duties and Responsibilities

Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (50%)

Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts at central and local levels on programme implementation and adaptation to climate change (e.g. Related to NDC, NAP, PCDF and linkages to LoCAL, MERCIM+ and DELPAZ etc);
Providing technical assistance and capacity building support to national and subnational government authorities and UNCDF Mozambique programmes in areas such as mainstreaming of climate change issues into public planning and budgeting, implementation of adaptation measures; cost benefit analysis of adaptation measures, undertaking annual performance assessments and reporting, developing templates, etc.;
Support the technical dialogue and provision of policy and technical advisory services to national and local government counterparts in relation to decentralization and climate change, climate finance and (direct) access to international climate finance;
Identify the capacity gaps in local government performance and take a leading role in the design and delivery of training courses and other supportive materials or messages to strengthen local governments capacity in the identified areas;
Provide support and guidance to the provincial government teams and the district technical teams to improve the integration of climate change adaptation actions in sectoral plans at the district level, especially the District Development Plan and Social and Economic and Development Plan;
Provide support and guidance to the provincial government teams to strengthen the current capacity of districts to implement their Local Adaptation Plans;
Support the technical teams to capacitate the provincial and district government-based staff to integrate and use the Measuring Reporting and Verification monitoring system, piloted in the MERCIM+ project;
Assess & propose ways to strengthen national policies, based on experiences of the sustainable integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation actions in the local public expenditure management;
Design and support the implementation of Climate Risk Vulnerability Assessments at the district level;
Provide support and guidance to the LoCAL gender specialist to design and deliver specific training and capacity building sessions;
Provide technical support to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment is both a means and a goal of inclusive local governance and development activities, fully informing the design, planning and implementation of all UNCDFs government-led interventions
Advise the best ways/methodologies to integrate and align with the SIDA and the EU Gender mainstreaming manuals and strategies in all UNCDF Mozambique programmes.

Support Programme Management and Development (35%)

Provide effective support to programme supervision, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and completion activities, including the elaboration of concept notes and project proposals for submission to potential donors, in close collaboration with and under the leadership of the UNCDF Country Representative;
Build effective and efficient partnerships at the programmatic and operational levels with national counterparts to coordinate and ensure successful implementation of in-country activities;
Ensure close coordination amongst LoCAL, MERCIM and DELPAZ programmes’ teams and consultants and ensure synergies and complementarities with other climate-related projects and programmes;
Coordinate and ensure quality of monitoring and evaluation systems of program developments and implementation (including preparation and monitoring of the annual work plan, participation in field missions, contribution to the preparation of annual reports), identify problems and issues to be addressed and propose corrective actions, and identify and track follow-up actions; This includes managing and monitoring the implementation of the programme, through the effective use of the corporate ERP system, and manage the risk log of the project;
Coordinate the field monitoring of the government led programmes in each province and ensure the effective consolidation and reporting of monitoring information;
Support the preparation and timely submission of comprehensive technical and financial reports in line with contractual agreements and provide inputs for semi-annual reporting;
Support coordinating the implementation of audits, mid-term and final evaluations of the programme;
Provide active support and advice to the monitoring of the UNCDF programmes to ensure that results and impact are recorded and disseminated through the reporting system and through effective communications strategies;
Ensure that all infrastructural investment projects are subjected to an Environmental Impact Assessment and that the design of all projects includes elements of climate resilience thereby contributing to the climate change adaptation.

Knowledge management and communication (15%)

Identify key knowledge constraints and organize learning, knowledge exchange, training, workshops, etc. to build the awareness and capacities in relevant themes (i.e. climate finance, climate change, decentralization, etc.);
Lead the preparation of various written outputs and knowledge products on assigned countries, e.g., progress reports, draft background papers, analyses, sections of reports and studies, inputs to publications, etc.;
Support the implementation of the Communication and Visibility Plan of the programme, in collaboration with project team, partners and technical consultants;
Identify, collect, and disseminate best practices and lesson learned from the different UNCDF Mozambique programmes;
Analyze and research donor information and identify possible areas for cooperation in order to identify opportunities for new socio-economic development interventions at local level.

Institutional Arrangement:

Under the direct reporting line to the UNCDF Programme Manager under Local Transformative Finance Practice Area, the Project Specialist – Climate and Decentralization will ensure the effective delivery of the UNCDF Programme’s activities in Mozambique. The position might provide a supervisory role to consultants on the day-to-day implementation of the programmes. The Project Specialist – Climate and Decentralization will report to the UNCDF Programme Manager at the country level.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Technical and Cross-functional Competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy:

System Thinking:

Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Management: Results Based Management:

Ability to manage programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results.

Project Management:

Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

External Relations & Advocacy: Relationship management:

Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.

2030 Agenda: Peace:

Governance: Public Administration and Local Governance.

Nature, Climate and Energy:

Climate Change Adaptation: Public and private finance for adaptation solutions.
Climate change Policies: including international climate change regime and application, Climate Finance

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Environment, Climate Change or a Rural Development related area including Public Administration, Gender, Economics or Development Planning related field; OR
A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the above areas with additional 2 years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

Minimum of seven (7) years (with Master’s degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant professional experience in the areas of project management in a multilateral organization or governmental or civil society organization in a multicultural environment is required;
Working experience with local governments in district level development projects in Mozambique;
Proven experience in project management, with focus on managing for results is required;
Work experience with environmental sustainability and climate change and with addressing gender equality as project objective and/or cross-cutting issue in developing countries is a requirement;
In-depth practical experience in multidisciplinary development issues within the context of local development including fiscal decentralization and approaches to the public management of local finance, climate change adaptation and gender integration is required;
Experience working in multicultural setting at international organizations is required;
Understanding and experience of the current economic, social and political dynamics in Mozambique is desired;
Strong networking experiences on positions where the candidate associate him/herself with a range of actors (inter alia central and local governments; policy makers; regulators, donors, local communities, women and youth) with a view to building relations and facilitating links is desirable;
Relevant experience with international climate finance, particular with local climate public financial systems is desired;
Experience in doing analytical works is a plus.

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