Finnish Junior Professional Officer Programme - Programme Analyst (Green Finance for Youth Employment), Nairobi

Job Title : Finnish Junior Professional Officer Programme - Programme Analyst (Green Finance for Youth Employment)

ID : 29382

Location : NAIROBI

Date of issue : 07/02/2025

Close Date : (Midnight, Rome Time) 08/01/2025

Organizational Unit : East & Southern Africa Div.

Full/Part Time : Full-Time

Regular/Temporary : Regular

Assignment Duration : 2 Years

Grade : P-2

Organizational Setting

This post is opened in the context of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme sponsored by the Government of Finland.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

The Department for Country Operations (DCO) oversees the origination, design and management of IFAD investments, including sovereign and non-sovereign operations, as well as the design and implementation of non-lending activities within country programmes, including policy engagement and South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) . DCO is the department that primarily interfaces with governments, the private sector and other stakeholders to deliver IFAD's programme of work and to provide oversight to ensure quality of the portfolio.

DCO is led by an Associate Vice-President and is composed of five (5) regional divisions: Asia and the Pacific Division (APR), East and Southern Africa Division (ESA), Latin America and Caribbean Division (LAC), Near East, North Africa and Europe Division (NEN) and West and Central Africa Division (WCA), the Private Sector Operations Division (PSD), and two (2) units: the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Unit (SSTC) and the fragility unit (FRU).

The JPO will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and work as part of IFAD's Kenya Country Office team.

Job Role

The The Green Finance for Youth Employment (GFYE) is a project in Kenya, financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by IFAD over four years (2024-2027) through its programme and partners in the country. The project aims to create decent jobs for youth in green value chains operating in rural Kenya by improving the opportunities of rural youth and youth-employing local enterprises to access loan-based financing for their income generating green projects. The JPO will support IFAD's supervision and coordination role in the implementation of the GFYE Project, as well as provide support to the overall IFAD portfolio in Kenya.

By supporting the planning, coordination and delivery of the GFYE Project and other IFAD initiatives in Kenya, the JPO will get exposure to a range of rural development projects and the stakeholders involved. This will include close collaboration with the Government of Kenya, Project Management Units (PMUs) and partners, rural producers and their organisations, national and international partners, donors, as well as IFAD colleagues from both operational and technical departments.

During the assignment, the JPO will have the opportunity to work intensively on the GFYE project - focusing particularly on youth and rural finance - as well as supporting IFAD's country programmes, partnership building and policy engagement in Kenya. Depending on the profile of the JPO, the individual will also engage in analytical work to support evidence-based decision-making and contribute to knowledge generation and dissemination. The JPO will have the opportunity to participate in selected events and missions, such as the ESA regional workshop.

Key Functions and Results

Assist with IFAD's Country Programme Support in Kenya, with a particular focus on IFAD's supervision and implementation support role within the Green Finance for Youth Employment Project (GFYE). This will include tasks such as:

• Support the management and oversight of the grants within the GFYE Project, ensuring full compliance with donor requirements and IFAD's internal policies.
• Support the coordination between project stakeholders and technical partners.
• Support partnership building with Finnish private sector entities in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, such as Business Finland.
• Review project planning, such as Annual Work Plan and Budgets and Procurement Plans of technical partners.
• Support the coordination and implementation of capacity building activities of the GFYE project, ensuring alignment and synergies with the capacity building initiatives of the RK-FINFA Project.
• Support Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) in developing and providing effective green financing products for low-income young producers, young entrepreneurs, and youth-employing SMEs.
• Collaborate with the National Treasury of Kenya to design and pilot a "Youth Green Guarantee" product.
• Support the development of an eligibility system for youth to participate in capacity building and project-supported lending.
• Ensure adherence to Finland's cross-cutting principles, including gender equality and non-discrimination with an emphasis on disability inclusion, climate resilience, low emission development, protection of the environment and safeguarding biodiversity.
• Contribute to communication and visibility efforts relating to the GFYE Project, including promoting the Youth Green Guarantee product to PFIs and project beneficiaries.
• Support the Monitoring and Evaluation of the GFYE Project.
• Contribute to regular GFYE progress and completion reports, including collecting and incorporating input from technical partners and PFIs.
• Assist in planning and executing RK-FINFA/GFYE supervision and implementation support missions, focusing on project achievements, challenges and impact assessment.
• Provide technical and operational support to ensure project alignment with Kenya's Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) and IFAD's priorities.
• Contribute to project implementation support and supervision in Kenya, through the preparation of, participation in and reporting on IFAD-led implementation support and supervision missions. This entails contributing to the terms of references (ToRs), assessing selected project components, drafting of minutes and reports, and discussing mission reports with IFAD internal reviewers.
• Monitor the execution of IFAD's projects in Kenya and compliance with key performance indicators/parameters.
• Support compliance of country programmes with IFAD policies and requirements, such as the Operational Results Management System (ORMS), Annual reviews, COSOP Review, Mid Term Reviews, etc.
• Provide tailored implementation support to projects between missions and follow up on agreed actions, including discussing with Project Management Units on how to address issues and challenges in a timely manner.
• Work closely with the Country Director on strategic aspects, such as reporting on the country-level UN framework and its objectives, engagement in donor/sector working groups (especially in line with JPO specialisation) and alignment with the Kenya COSOP.
• Contribute to IFAD Kenya's knowledge management agenda by generating technical inputs (papers/posters/blog posts) to showcase lessons from the portfolio.
• Contribute to cross-country learning within ESA and beyond, through technical presentations and appropriate communication of findings from missions and projects.
• Contribute to the preparation of missions, including visits by senior management to Kenya.
• Contribute to the organisation and participation in thematic events and workshops.
• Support the internal reporting on country level engagements in appropriate channels.

To meet the required tasks, the JPO is expected to travel frequently and to rural areas in Kenya. Official trips will include both larger missions (usually 4-8 people) as well as targeted visits with specific implementation support or analytical needs (1 or 2 people).

Working Relationships

Direct supervisor: Country Director Kenya

The JPO works under the overall policy and management guidance and direct supervision of the Country Director for Kenya.

JPO will benefit from the following supervision modalities:

• Structured guidance at the start of the assignment, with increasing responsibilities over time.
• Establishment of a work plan with clear key results within the first month of the assignment.
• Regular feedback and performance discussions to support the JPO's professional development.
• Annual performance appraisal and development with the supervisor.

Job Profile Requirements

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master's equivalent) from an accredited institution in agricultural economics, rural development, international development, political science, economics, climate & environmental studies, or a related field.
• Degree must be an accredited institution listed on https://www.whed.net/home.php

Experience:

• Prior work experience in a development country context and/or international organisation is considered an asset.

Languages:

• Required: English (4 - Excellent written/verbal)
• Knowledge of Finnish or Swedish

Organizational

• Strategic thinking and organizational development: Personal influence
• Demonstrating leadership: Personal leadership and attitude to change
• Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating: Continuously seeks to learn, shares knowledge and innovates
• Focusing on clients: Focuses on clients
• Problem solving and decision making: Demonstrates sound problem solving and decision-making ability
• Managing time, resources and information: Manages own time, information and resources effectively
• Teamwork: Contributes effectively to the team
• Communicating and negotiating: Communicates effectively: creates understanding between self and others
• Building relationships and partnerships: Builds and maintains effective working relationships

Technical

• Programme management and problem-solving skills, including high sense of proactive initiative-taking and good judgement.
• Conceptual and analytical skills, including ability to analyse and synthesize qualitative and/or quantitative information from a variety of sources and filter out key insights and recommendations.
• Clear, succinct and convincing written and verbal communication, including highly professional, balanced and diplomatic language (e.g. for drafting of reports, briefings, etc.).
• Interpersonal skills and ability to deal patiently and tactfully with colleagues and partners, including senior officials (e.g. high-level meeting participants).
• Thematic expertise relating to IFAD's mandate and the GFYE Project, e.g., in agricultural and rural development, rural finance or youth initiatives.
• Time management, including adherence to deadlines under time constraints and pressure.
• Command of MS Office applications, and other computer skills are welcome (GIS, Stata, Indesign, etc.).

Other Information

Training components:

• On the job trainings in internal regulations, rules, procedures and standards.
• Participation in mandatory trainings organised by People and Culture Division ( PCD ) .
• Participation in risk trainings organised by PC D and external training providers.
• Participation in in-house training offered by other IFAD Divisions.
• Direct coaching by Country Director.
• Use of yearly JPO training funds for internal/external training opportunities incl. yearly donor specific joint JPO Programme trainings.

Learning elements: The JPO will gain exposure and experience in:

• Contribute to the full project cycle of an international financial institution and working with a range of stakeholders, including governmental representatives, UN agencies, donors, NGOs, civil society and private sector.
• Exposure to a range of technical specialists will allow learning in terms of management and thematic areas.
• Under the supervision of the Country Director, the JPO will work independently while gaining professional experience through the execution of dedicated tasks related to project management, as well as the design and implementation support of IFAD's lending and grant portfolio. Additionally, the JPO will gain a comprehensive understanding of the operations of a UN agency and Development Financial Institution.
• The learning will be achieved through structured courses, on-the job coaching, assignments of increasingly responsible tasks and gradual exposure to many facets of IFAD's work. It will be gradual and will continue throughout the two-year duration of the assignment.

Note: This post is opened in the context of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme sponsored by the Government of Finland.

General requirements for the JPO Programme of Finland:

Please read the vacancy carefully. In addition to the job specific requirements outlined in the above vacancy announcement, the following requirements are applicable:

• Finnish citizenship
• Knowledge of Finnish or Swedish
• Maximum of 32 years of age at the time of application
• Master's degree