BIOFIN Environmental Finance Officer UNDP

Mission and objectives

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in some 170 countries and territories, supporting their own solutions to development challenges and developing national and local capacities that will help them achieve human development and the Sustainable Development Goals. Our work is concentrated on three main focus areas: Sustainable Development; Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding; Climate and Disaster Resilience. UNDP helps countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we promote gender equality and the protection of human rights. UNDP has enhanced its support to countries to work towards the eradication of extreme poverty, enabling us to build back better and work towards innovative solutions to the complex global challenges. We have refined our service offering through six signature solutions to provide a more integrated response to the development challenges that we are all facing in this complex global environment. This includes a mix of policy advice, technical assistance, catalytic financing and innovative programmes tailored to country specific needs to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through our six signature solutions on – poverty, governance, resilience, environment, energy, gender equality.

Context

The Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is a global project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financial support from the Government of Flanders, Belgium, Germany, EU, Norway, and Switzerland. BIOFIN supports countries with a methodology that provides innovative steps to measure current biodiversity expenditures, assess financial needs, identify the most suitable finance solutions, and supports implementation of these solutions to help achieve national biodiversity targets. In Zambia, the BIOFIN project is implemented at the national level by UNDP in partnership with the Ministries of Green Economy and Environment as well as the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. At present, some of the core activities of BIOFIN Zambia is working with the financial sector towards mainstreaming of green finance into the financial sector. Specific work streams include work on green bonds and green loans market development, green finance policy formulation for the financial sector as well as green finance tagging and reporting. BIOFIN Zambia seeks to recruit an Environmental Finance Officer who will work under the guidance of the Programme Specialist (Team lead). She/he will be responsible for data mining related to biodiversity finance and related facets such as climate change and land degradation.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the BIOFIN Country Team Lead, the BIOFIN Environmental Finance Officer will undertake the following tasks:

• Lead on data mining and research on various data requirements needed for policy formulation related to biodiversity finance and other related environmental facets such as climate change and land degradation;
• Assist the BIOFIN Zambia Programme Specialist in undertaking various consultations within the financial sector and other key stakeholders such as Government, international development institutions, academia, etc. on steps towards full development of Zambia’s green finance agenda;
• Assist the BIOFIN Zambia Team Lead in analyzing and proposing policy options to promote biodiversity investment and direct expenditure/budget decisions to support biodiversity and ecosystems management;
• Assist the BIOFIN Programme Specialist in the preparation for workshops, meetings, networking and presentations on a range of topics;
• Assist the BIOFIN Team Lead in report writing and document preparation, such as policy and information notes to communicate BIOFIN objectives and results to key stakeholders;
• Responsible for periodic reporting to stakeholders notably the BIOFIN Global Office, UNDP Country Office, Green Finance Mainstreaming Working Group and the Government of Zambia.