UNDP is seeking an Environmental Finance Specialist to provide technical services and support to countries in the Pacific region that are designing or implementing their national biodiversity finance plans. UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Design of national Biodiversity Finance Plans

• Support the development of Terms of Reference, workplans, and reports by national teams.
• Provide technical support and undertake reviews and impact monitoring of BIOFIN methodological outputs and processes, such as workplans, bi-annual reports, and inception reports.
• Conduct Policy and Institutional Reviews, including an assessment of the existing landscape of financing mechanisms and drivers of biodiversity loss and gain.
• Conduct Biodiversity Expenditure Reviews, including an in-depth assessment of major government programmes to define their biodiversity relevance.
• Carry out Financial Needs Assessments by costing the main national biodiversity targets from the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans/Global Biodiversity Framework (NBSAP/GBF).
• Guide countries on the use of the Catalogue of Financing Solutions and the E-learning module on biodiversity finance.
• Develop Biodiversity Finance Plans—an action agenda with priority financing solutions to bridge the financing gap of the country.
• Travel to countries as needed to support the design of national Biodiversity Finance Plans, ensuring a strong coalition of actors and jointly working with the Ministry of Finance.
• Advise on linkages with related initiatives such as Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFF), Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, and development banks.
• Develop tailored guidance materials or other knowledge products on selected finance solutions and provide inputs into project proposals for resource mobilisation as required.

Implementing Finance Solutions

• Identify opportunities for the early implementation of finance solutions emerging from the Policy and Institutional Review (PIR), the Budget and Expenditure Review (BER), and the Financial Needs Assessment (FNA), or from emerging needs and opportunities (e.g. natural disasters, new major government programmes).
• Support the design and review of finance solution proposals developed by national teams.
• Provide feedback for the development of terms of reference, country workplans, bi-annual reports, inception reports, final reports, and other relevant documents.
• Provide feedback on technical documents related to finance solutions such as feasibility studies, policies, laws, regulations, organisational charts, resource mobilisation plans, enforcement strategies, and other technical reports.
• Travel to countries as needed to support the design and implementation of finance solutions and engage with key stakeholders to develop opportunities for collaboration.
• Guide national teams to relevant experts, knowledge platforms, tools, and other guidance materials related to the prioritised finance solutions/mechanisms.
• Support national teams to identify opportunities to promote gender equality and sustainable livelihoods when designing biodiversity finance solutions.

Capacity Development

• Engage in capacity assessments and capacity development of national stakeholders to build a large pool of experts in each country to implement UNDP Nature Hub biodiversity finance tools.
• Strengthen the capacity of a wider group of national stakeholders on prioritised finance solutions and support the process of institutionalisation with national training institutes and universities.
• Provide inputs to global, regional, and national technical workshops, conference calls, webinars, and website discussions as requested by the global Nature Hub biodiversity finance team.

Knowledge Management

• Enable countries to share experiences through virtual and onsite discussions.
• Lead the development of knowledge materials of thematic priorities.
• Write up articles, case studies, and other materials summarizing key experiences and lessons from core countries.
• Develop guidance documents and training materials to enhance the BIOFIN methodological toolkit and implementation packages.
• Deliver high-quality inputs for bi-annual donor reports on progress and impact in country projects, and provide inputs for briefing notes, case studies, and media products developed by the global BIOFIN Team.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Environmental Finance Specialist for the Pacific Region will work from their home base within the Asia/Pacific region.
• The Environmental Finance Specialist will work under the supervision of the BIOFIN Regional Advisor for Pacific and with the global BIOFIN Team, national teams, UNDP Country Offices, and other stakeholders.
• The incumbent will be given access to relevant information necessary for the tasks and will be responsible for their own working station, including a laptop, internet, and relevant software.

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education Requirements

• Advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in public finance, private finance, economics, environmental economics, public administration, financial management, natural/environmental sciences, social sciences with a specialization in environmental finance and development, or a related field.
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s) in the said fields, with two additional years of relevant experience will be considered in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Min. Years of Relevant Work Experience

• Minimum 5 years (with master’s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor’s degree) of demonstrated experience in environmental-related public or private sector finance, sustainable development, environmental finance, resource mobilisation, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, or a related field.

Required Skills

• Prior experience in designing, reviewing, and implementing conservation, environmental, or sustainable finance.
• Experience in developing countries and with international organisations.
• Expertise in planning and conducting workshops and technical training on environmental finance.
• Candidates must be located within the Asia/Pacific region.

Desired Skills

• Prior work experience with governments, public policies, or financial regulations is desired.
• Experience with UN and/or UNDP policies and practices is an advantage.
• Previous country experience in the Pacific region is an advantage.
• Knowledge of any other UN language is an asset.

Required Language(s)

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.