Biodiversity Finance Analyst

Background

UNDP is the lead knowledge organization for sustainable development in the United Nations system, catalyzing collective action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP's policy work at headquarters, regional, and country office levels provides a range of in-depth local knowledge, global perspectives, and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in its Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of global and field-based technical expertise covering a wide range of knowledge areas and supporting the key activities and organizational capacities envisaged in UNDP's Strategic Plan. 

UNDP's Strategic Plan 2022-2025 underlines our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, supporting countries on their journey towards the MDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Bureau of Policy and Programme Support's Global Policy Network, the UNDP's Nature, Climate Change, Energy and Waste (NCE&W) clusters are promoting and supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement). Clutters promote and scale up integrated approaches to whole-of-governance and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequality, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance related peace and security agendas. 

Over the past decades, biodiversity financing tools and solutions have demonstrated their importance for achieving biodiversity and broader sustainable development goals. Improving the choice, design and implementation of effective and well-tailored financing solutions will enhance countries' chances of achieving national and global biodiversity targets. Biodiversity financing plans are increasingly recognized as a relevant tool to help countries identify and close the biodiversity financing gap, notably through the work of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative www.biofin.org. In December 2022, the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Montreal-Kunming Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework includes several objectives relating to financing. Target 19 on resource mobilization refers to the design and implementation by countries of national biodiversity financing plans. 

The GEF has created a global programme to help countries develop a national biodiversity financing plan. A biodiversity financing plan includes a systemic analysis of a country's economy, including mapping existing financing mechanisms, subsidies likely to have adverse impacts on nature, drivers of biodiversity loss and gain, public and private expenditure to achieve biodiversity targets and a country's national biodiversity financing needs. The biodiversity financing plan itself consists of a series of actions aimed at significantly increasing available financing, making it more sustainable, or progressively eliminating harmful financial flows and improving the effectiveness of available spending. The programme enables the active sharing of experiences between countries and includes a knowledge-sharing platform and the provision of ongoing technical support to country teams.

The implementation of the project in Liberia is part of the GEF8 framework programme for the development of the first national biodiversity financing plan. The overall implementation of the project will be led by the project manager/lead financial expert with the support of a technical team and in coordination with a government project manager and the national steering committee.

To implement the GEF8-BFP framework programme at national level, UNDP is recruiting a national team comprising a senior financial expert (project manager), a project assistant, a policy expert and a Analyst in biodiversity financing.

The Biodiversity Finance Analyst will lead the production of the Biodiversity Spending Review, the assessment of financial needs and support the development of the Biodiversity Finance Plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. For the Policies and Institutional Review (PIR):

• Support the policy expert in drawing up an inventory of existing biodiversity funding mechanisms in the country;
• Support the policy expert in reviewing existing economic evaluation studies relevant to the BIOFIN process.

2. For Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER):

• Carry out a literature review to identify existing studies/information/databases on biodiversity spending, including an overview of previous studies on environmental spending;
• Draw up a proposal for a national definition of “biodiversity expenditure” based on the BIOFIN methodology or other methodologies; 
• Develop a work plan for the Biodiversity Spending Review to be discussed with the national BFP team and the GPMTSU;
• Determine a target list of organizations to be included in the analysis based on the work of the PIR;
• Collect data for the literature review to map existing studies/information/databases on biodiversity spending, including an overview of previous reviews of environmental spending; 
• Establish, with the support of the lead financial expert (project manager), a system for classifying biodiversity-related expenditure by category (GBF objectives, BIOFIN categories, NBSAP themes, etc.) and a system of coefficients/allocations for estimating the contribution of mixed actions to biodiversity; 
• Collect data from target organizations to review budgets and expenditure. Follow existing methodologies for guidance (including mapping of funding sources, biodiversity-based grants and income, etc.);
• Develop tools or an Excel tool to analyze total biodiversity expenditure filtered by key strategic groups using existing methodology (or national categories as in NBSAP);
• Coordinate the compilation of relevant data and liaise with relevant ministries and partners as appropriate and complete all BIOFIN data entry forms for the BDA; 
• Support the organization of bilateral consultation meetings, interviews and discussions with stakeholders at national level to define and validate the attribution of biodiversity importance in all relevant spending; 
• Applying the budget projections and other assumptions, estimate future core funding under a "Business-As-Usual" scenario: an analysis of the estimated funding projected into the future;
• Based on international best practice and BIOFIN or other methodologies, work closely with the lead financial expert (project manager) to develop and implement a specific private sector data collection strategy and organize specific consultation meetings with private sector stakeholders (e.g. chamber of commerce, multinationals) on biodiversity expenditure tracking; 
• Based on the results of the research, analysis and national consultation workshop, develop, with the support of the Senior Financial Expert (Project Manager), the draft BIOFIN Biodiversity Spending Review for review by the Global Project Management and Technical Support Unit (GPMTSU); 
• With the assistance of the Senior Financial Expert (Project Manager), develop the final version of the Biodiversity Expenditure Review for review by the GPMTSU and present at the validation workshop.

3. For the Financial Needs Assessment (FNA):

• Review available methodologies, examples from other countries, the latest NBSAP and national biodiversity reports to develop an initial work plan and outline of the biodiversity needs assessment; 
• Consult with the NBSAP team and government entities responsible for NBSAP implementation to obtain background information on government budgeting activities and processes; 
• Work with the lead financial expert (project manager) to review the scope of the NBSAP, its alignment with other national policies, and identify policy areas and activities that are not covered by the existing NBSAP;
• Review the activities listed in the NBSAP and other key strategic documents to determine whether they are sufficiently detailed and quantified so that their budgets can be estimated in detail.  If not, work with the NBSAP national focal points and other relevant stakeholders to clearly define the NBSAP actions so that they can be budgeted for; 
• Coordinate the compilation of relevant data and liaise with relevant ministries and partners as appropriate and organize a national consultation workshop to define the financial requirements of all major biodiversity programmes; 
• Draw up detailed calculations and complete all the data sheets relating to national financial requirements for biodiversity; 
• Organize a workshop to validate the assumptions and cost models and refine the analysis by organizing additional meetings if necessary; 
• Support the comparison of the results of future BER projections with FNA in as much detail as the categories allow and produce an estimate of the funding gap;
• Lead the development (with support from the team) of a draft report for the biodiversity financial needs assessment, to be discussed at the validation workshop and reviewed by the national project team and the GPMTSU; 
• Supporting the production of the final report on the biodiversity financial needs assessment.

4. For the Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP):

• Support the lead financial expert (project manager) in the design and preparation of the FPB; 
• Supporting detailed feasibility analyses on a range of funding mechanisms based on knowledge and experience.

5. For disseminating and communicating the project:

• Preparation of workshops, meetings, networking and presentations as required to complete the biodiversity spending review, financial needs assessment and stakeholder engagement;
• Provide substantive comments and feedback on how to improve existing methodologies.

6. For knowledge management and reporting:

• Document the decisions and assumptions made in carrying out the Biodiversity Spending Review and the Biodiversity Funding Needs Assessment; 
• To document the lessons learned from the BFP project, both in terms of institutional considerations and technical issues;
• Prepare reports and case studies, where appropriate, for submission to global meetings (e.g. CBD COP.

Institutional Arrangement

The Biodiversity Finance Analyst will report directly to the Senior Finance Expert (Project Manager).

Under the overall direction of the Senior Financial Expert (Project Manager), the Biodiversity Finance Analyst ("the Analyst") will lead the production of the Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER), the Financial Needs Assessment (FNA) and support the development of the Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) following the guidance provided by the latest version of the BIOFIN manual and supported by detailed data.

The Biodiversity Finance Analyst will also contribute, where possible, to all other national outputs, including policy and institutional reviews. The Biodiversity Finance Analyst could also contribute to assessing and developing detailed feasibility studies for priority financing mechanisms under the BFP and producing a summary for policy makers. The Analyst should contribute feedback on the BIOFIN methodological framework.

The Analyst will collect, explore and work with national and sub-national budget data and biodiversity expenditure from different organizations, agencies, ministries, NGOs and private sector actors to produce the FNA. For the Funding Needs Assessment (FNA), the consultant will produce a detailed and realistic costing of key biodiversity policies and plans - typically focusing on the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). 

The Biodiversity Finance Analyst will produce drafts and analyses that will be reviewed and ultimately validated by the Senior Financial Expert (Project Manager) and the global BIOFIN team.

The UNDP is entitled to intellectual property and other property rights on all documents directly related to the project. 

a)  The job is expected to last around 24 months.

b)  Indicate the target date for the start of work and the planned completion date, including, where applicable, the conditions for determining these two dates.

c)  Indicate the estimated timeframe for UNDP or the project's implementing partners to review the results, provide comments, certify approval/acceptance of the results, etc. 

d)  The FNA is dependent on the implementation of activities linked to the updating of the NBSAP. The consultant is invited to integrate his work with that of the teams in charge of updating the NBSAP to be able to assign a task to these activities as soon as possible. Any delay in the completion of the NBSAP work could delay the completion of the FNA and therefore the other stages and ultimately the delivery of the BFP.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

Knowledge Generation:

• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need.

System Thinking:

• Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Data storytelling and communications:

• Skilled in building a narrative around a set of data and its accompanying visualizations to help convey the meaning of that data in a powerful and compelling fashion.

Data Governance:

• Knowledge of data science, skills to develop data management tools, organize and maintain databases and operate data visualization technologies.

Data Collection:

• Being skilled in Data Sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey Administration, Presentation and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g. mobile data, satellite data, sensor data).

Data Analysis:

• Ability to extract, analyze and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in finance, economics, business management or related field is required. OR
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in a relevant field in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Certification in accounting, climate finance, economics. preferably with a focus on the environment or biodiversity.

Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years of experience (with master’s degree) or 4 years of experience (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience, in environmental finance, accounting, economics, management or a related field is required;
• Proven knowledge of the main software packages (MS Office) is required;
• Exposure to environmental issues or biodiversity is required;
• Proven experience of writing reports on the drafting of policies relating to the environment and communication skills is required; 
• Proven ability to work with a multidisciplinary and multicultural team is required;
• Proven experience of working with international and national experts and institutions is desired;
• Proven ability to prepare publications, reports and presentations is desired;
• Familiarity with government is desired;
• Previous experience in expenditure reviews is desired.

Required Language:

• Fluency in English is required. 

Professional Certificates:

• Relevant certificates in accounting, climate finance, economics is desired.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.