Technical Specialist Biodiversity Financing (Team Leader) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Background

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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.The Biodiversity Finance (BIOFIN) is a global initiative launched in October 2012 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to respond to the needs for detailed national level analysis regarding biodiversity finance and boost the mobilization of financial resources for parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to achieve the Aichi Targets. It is a global partnership seeking to address the biodiversity finance challenge in a comprehensive manner by building a sound business case for increased investments in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity, with a focus on the needs and transformational opportunities at the national level. In Zambia the implementation of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) started in 2015 to support Strategic Intervention #46 of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP-2) aimed at developing a comprehensive resource mobilization strategy for implementation of the NBSAP-2.

One of the key outputs of the BIOFIN initiative in Zambia was to develop a national biodiversity finance plan (BFP) which was aimed at identifying and prioritizing a mix of suitable biodiversity finance solutions to reduce the envisaged biodiversity finance gap in Zambia. These finance solutions are grouped under three categories as follows: Financial Sector reforms, Private sector reforms and the public sector reforms. As part of phase 2 which is focused on implementation, three key finance solutions were prioritized in Zambia’s Biodiversity Finance Plan namely;

(1) Green Bond Market Development;

(2) Green finance policy and implementation plan development, as well as;

(3) Development of Zambia’s green finance tagging and reporting for the financial sector.

Duties and Responsibilities

The BIOFIN Initiative in Zambia is now in the process of implementing the 3 agreed finance solutions as follows:

(i) Green Bond Market Development,

(ii) Development of the Green Finance Policy and Implementation Plan for Zambia’s financial sector, and

(iii) Development of a Green Finance Tagging/reporting system for Zambia’s Financial Sector. To support the implementation of these three finance solutions, the following shall be the duties and responsibilities of the Technical Specialist Biodiversity Financing:

• Lead and supervise the BIOFIN Zambia team (staff and consultants);
• Lead engagements with all key stakeholders with a focus on outreach related to the three finance solutions outlined above;
• Develop strategic linkages and collaborations with similar initiatives and other stakeholders to augment the work and resources of BIOFIN;
• Lead the coordination and supervision of technical staff and consultants recruited to work on specific finance solutions;
• Lead the review and provision of technical input into outputs of consultants recruited to work on various finance solutions;
• Lead the production of outreach products such as policy briefs and working papers in relation to each of the prioritized finance solutions. These are expected to be of high technical quality;
• Provide resource mobilization ideas in furtherance of BIOFIN Zambia work in Zambia;
• Lead the fulfillment of accountability requirements to BIOFIN Global , UNDP CO and the Government of Zambia in terms of reporting (technical and financial);
• Lead the development of technical proposals for other new finance solutions within the biodiversity finance plan;

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The Technical Specialist will be under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the following:

UNDP

• Technical Advisor on Environmental Finance for the African Region
• Head of Unit, Zambia Country Office Energy & Environment Unit

Government of the Republic of Zambia

• Director Climate Change Department, Ministry of Green Economy and Environment
• Chief Natural Resources Management Officer, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources