Organization: UNDP – United Nations Development Programme
Location: Port Sudan
Grade: Mid level – NPSA-10, National Personnel Services Agreement
Occupational Groups:
Operations and Administrations
Development Cooperation and Sustainable Development Goals
Banking and Finance
Environment
Project and Programme Management
Managerial positions
Closing Date: 2024-12-20

An overview

Office/Unit/Project Description

• UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels offers a spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in its Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in UNDP’s Strategic Plan.
• UNDP’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlights our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP’s Nature, Climate Change, Energy, and Waste (NCE&W) Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.
• In recent decades, biodiversity finance tools and solutions have demonstrated their importance for achieving biodiversity goals and broader sustainable development objectives. Improved choice, design and implementation of effective, well-tailored finance solutions will strengthen countries’ chances of achieving national and global biodiversity targets. Biodiversity Finance Plans have become increasingly recognised as a relevant tool to help countries to identify and fill the biodiversity finance gap, including through the work of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative www.biofin.org. In December 2022, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This included numerous targets with relevance for financing. Target 19 on resource mobilisation includes reference for countries to design and implement national biodiversity finance plans.
• The GEF created a global programme to support countries to design a national Biodiversity Finance Plan. A Biodiversity Finance Plan includes a systems analysis of a country’s economy including to map existing financing mechanisms, subsidies with potential harmful impacts on nature, drivers of biodiversity loss and gain, public and private expenditures committed towards biodiversity objectives and a country’s national financial needs for biodiversity. The biodiversity finance plan itself consists of a series of actions with the aim to significantly scale up available funding, green or phase out harmful finance flows and improve the effectiveness of available expenditures. The programme allows for active sharing of experiences across countries and includes a knowledge sharing platform and the provision of continuous technical support to country teams.
• The implementation of the project in Sudan falls under the GEF8 Umbrella programme for the development of the first National Biodiversity Finance Plan. The overall implementation of the project will be led by the Project Lead/Senior Finance Expert with the support of a technical team and in coordination to a government project director and the National Steering Committee.
• For the implementation of the GEF8-BFP Umbrella program at the national level, UNDP is recruiting a national team composed of a Sustainable Finance Specialist (Project Lead), a Project Support Associate, a Policy Expert and a Biodiversity Finance Specialist.

The Project Lead/ Sustainable Finance Specialist will be responsible for the overall supervision and management of in-country activities, ensuring a proper workplan and budget is in place and implemented within set timelines, with an effective national team and strong partnerships. The Project Lead will work closely work with the technical team of an Environmental Policy Expert, a Biodiversity Finance Specialist and a Project Support Associate, to ensure implementation mechanisms and technical working groups are established and meet regularly, that all planned workshops, technical studies and other activities are organised in a timely manner, and that they meet expected quality standards.

He/she is expected to have senior experience and to provide substantial technical expertise in assuring horizontal integration and consistency of workstreams/studies, as well as advisory services and quality assurance of national products and processes throughout the duration of the national project. He/she will be responsible for relevant sections the production of the Policy and Institutional Review, the Biodiversity Expenditure Review and the Financial Needs Assessment (FNA). He/she will also lead the preparation of the Biodiversity Finance Plan and will oversee the identification and implementation of finance solutions as requested. He/she will also specifically be responsible for outreach activities to national (Government, donors’ delegation, academia, etc.) and relevant international stakeholders, and the preparation of synthesis reports, policy briefs, press releases and briefing notes for Government, UNDP etc.

Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic technical direction and leadership.
• Oversee the identification, selection and supervision of national consultants and experts, in close collaboration with the UNDP Country Office, Senior Finance Expert and the Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU).
• Write/revise terms of references for national BIOFIN team members.
• In consultation with the UNDP Country Office and GPMTSU elaborate/revise the work plan and budget and submit draft workplans/budgets timely.
• Supervise the work of national experts and institutions to ensure outputs are delivered on time, within the set budget, and to high quality standards; facilitate, guide and monitor the work of the national team;
• Oversee the work of the Project Support Associate to ensure administrative requirements and budgets are managed and executed in a timely and appropriate manner and within UNDP and donor rules and regulations.
• Organise all relevant project workshops in a consultative manner, involving a wide variety of biodiversity finance stakeholders, including the government, private sector, NGOs, donors and academia.
• Discuss with the Ministries of Finance, Environment and other key stakeholders the establishment of a national Steering Committee and follow up on the formal establishment and regular convening of the Committee and develop meeting reports to be shared with Steering Committee, the UNDP CO and GPMTSU.
• Maintain regular communication with Ministries of Environment and Finance for the development and completion of all reports and products.
• Liaise the project processes and products with relevant national planning biodiversity and finance relevant processes, such as NBSAP updates and Global Biodiversity Framework implementation.
• Ensure a timely identification of risks in implementation at the national level and communication to the GPMTSU.
• Organise regular meetings of the national team and monthly calls with the Technical Advisor from the GPMTSU.
• Ensure participation of national team members in regional technical calls.
• Participate in regional and global meeting organized by the GPMTSU.

Provision of top level technical advisory

• Act as principal technical contact for the project implementation with GPMTSU with regards to all questions and issues that arise during national implementation.
• Provide key technical leadership on all finance issues and assure horizontal integration and consistency of workstreams/studies.
• Provide overall guidance and quality control for the four main deliverables of the project. Technical support to the national project team to complete all the deliverables of the BIOFIN methodology, in a consistent and high-quality manner.
• Ensure drafts of all work are sent to the global Technical Advisor and GPMTSU regularly to provide backstopping and assure feedback is adequately integrated into national reports.
• Research and write Develop the sections on subsidies and financing incentives in the PIR according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook)
• Provide technical support for the data collection, analysis, and conclusions of the BER.
• Support the data collection, modelling, quality checking, and validation of the FNA.
• Develop a Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) according to the guidance provided by the GPMTSU global BIOFIN team and written guidance documents (especially the BIOFIN Workbook)