Green Infrastructure Investment Ecosystems Manager

Location : Freetown, SIERRA LEONE

Application Deadline : 22-Oct-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

Type of Contract : NPSA (Regular)

Post Level : NPSA-11

Languages Required : English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

07-Nov-2022




Duration of Initial Contract : One year

Expected Duration of Assignment : Initial duration of one year

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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.

Background

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

•  Personal CV - indicating all part positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) references.
•  Cover letter - indicating why the candidate considers him/herself to be suitable for the position.

The UN Secretary-General established the UN SDG Action Campaign to inspire people and organizations from all backgrounds and every part of the world to take actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, while holding decision-makers to account for progress society-wide. The UN SDG Action Campaign is hosted and supported by UNDP and is based in Bonn (Germany) with a lean team that marshals rapid support for new initiatives as opportunities arise and provides partners with on-demand strategic creative services that inspire SDG local action.

The UN SDG Action Campaign is working closely with cities and local governments to showcase how they are actively contributing to implement Agenda 2030, accelerating transformative action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for all, and everywhere. The UN SDG Action Campaign, together with the office of UNDP in Sierra Leone are supporting the city of Freetown to implement a component of their #FreetownTheTreeTown project, one of the winners of the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, is among the world’s rainiest cities. They have also experienced rapid tree loss in recent years, estimated at some 555 hectares – or 500,000-plus trees – annually since 2011. The national government oversees the legal framework governing urban greening and land use, limiting Freetown’s options for curbing tree loss, and requiring reforestation. Heavy rains, coupled with this deforestation, have resulted in devastating landslides, including an event in 2017 which claimed nearly 1,000 lives.1 #FreetownTheTreetown is an initiative to reforest the city and surrounding areas to reverse tree loss and reduce disaster risks. The overall goal is to increase canopy cover by 50% from 2018 levels by the end of 2022.

In the first two years since its launch in January 2020, 560,000 trees have been planted, digitally tracked and ‘tokenised’, with 578 hectares of urban land in and around Freetown restored. The project is targeting the following objectives:

•  To improve the equitable distribution of trees and green space, as 35% of areas targeted for new trees or vegetation are informal settlements that currently have low coverage.
•  Planting by roadsides, schools and in residential areas (totaling almost 165 hectares to date) aims to reduce heat stress and improve air quality.
•  Planting in Freetown’s water catchment and greenbelt (104 hectares) aims to improve water security.
•  Planting in the upper water catchment and on high slopes around Freetown (280 hectares) aims to reduce the risk of flash flooding and landslides.
•  Mangrove reforestation (32 hectares) aims to reduce coastal erosion and flooding.

In addition to planting new trees, #FreetownTheTreetown is helping to discourage environmentally harmful practices, such as sand mining, and to reduce deforestation and mangrove destruction in targeted areas. The full ecosystem services from the trees planted during the initial three-year campaign will come later, around 2030, once they are more established. There has already been a discernible reduction in flooding and landslide risk because of planting in the upper catchment areas. The campaign has also directly or indirectly created over 1,000 green jobs along the value chain, from workers in tree nurseries to community growers – of whom 80% are youths and 48% are women.

Within this context, the UN SDG Action Campaign is seeking to recruit a Green Infrastructure Investment Ecosystems Manager to support the implementation of the #FreetownTheTreeTown project in the City of Freetown in Sierra Leone. H/She will support UNDP in the implementation of the Global Mayors Challenge in the City of Freetown.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Green Infrastructure Investment Ecosystems Manager will work with the UNDP-UN SDG Action Campaign Network to implement the following functions:

•  Project Management, Research, and Analysis:
  •  Manage a complex, multiyear project to develop and execute #FreetownTheTreeTown impact investment strategy involving external and internal stakeholders
  •  Manage the relationship, timeline, and deliverables an internal impact investment advisory team and external Consultants.
  •  Optimize the expertise of an external Investment Advisory Committee by coordinating meeting agendas, follow-ups, and corresponding with committee members.
  •  Prepare deliverables that synthesize the project’s status for the Project Steering Committee and City Government.
  •  Conduct research and analysis of macroeconomic trends, the carbon market and key investment themes, by impact area and asset class, that will affect existing investments and inform future ones.
•  Advise on new investments for the project, including but not limited to:
  •  Build a pipeline of nature-based capital investment opportunities by impact theme and asset class.
  •  Conduct due diligence and full analysis of select new investment opportunities, and draft recommendation memos to present to the Investment Committee.
•  Manage Existing Investments:
  •  Manage achievement of the existing 1 million tree target under the #FreetownTheTreeTown campaign and ensure funding pathways to grow existing trees to establishment
  •  Build, review and disseminate quarterly reports and statements from partner organizations, participate in quarterly / annual meetings and calls, and tracking the monthly performance of all investments under the #FreetownTheTreeTown campaign.
  •  Review data on #FreetownTheTreeTown investments for accuracy and write brief summaries for quarterly reports and statements to investors and the City Council.
  •  Ensure accurate tracking of investments, reporting and information sharing internally.
•  Support NBS for Adaptation through Funding Social Enterprises
  •  Build a pipeline, evaluate, and execute new opportunities to make direct equity investments into social enterprises for Nature-based climate adaptation projects at community-level.
  •  Streamline the direct investment process and documentation to ensure both transparency and inclusion, with a focus on youth-owned and women-owned social enterprises.
  •  Co-create a strategy around co-investment partnerships: identify highly aligned investors, lenders, and donors that complement the #TreeTown impact investment strategy and natural capital regeneration offerings. Cultivate relationships that result in sourcing new social enterprise clients and a productive co-investment community.

??Institutional Arrangement

Under the overall guidance of the Mayor of Freetown and through the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, the Green Infrastructure Ecosystems Manager will serve as the Project Lead and will directly report to the Team Leader, Mayor’s Delivery Unit, Office of the Mayor, Freetown City Council and the Project Manager, UNDP HQ based in NY. The Project Lead will closely manage relationships with #FreetownTheTreeTown Component Leads, Third-Party Fund Manager, Project Technical Advisors, the Mayor’s Delivery Unit, FCC Climate and Disaster Risk Unit, Delivery Associates, and the technical team UNDP Country Office in Sierra Leone.

Competencies

Core:

Achieve Results: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Act with Determination: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

Engage and Partner: Political savvy, navigate complex landscapes, champion inter-agency collaboration.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Business Direction & Strategy

Strategic Thinking

•  Ability to develop effective strategies and prioritized plans in line with UNDP's objectives, based on the systemic analysis of challenges, potential risks and opportunities; linking the vision to reality on the ground, and creating tangible solutions.
•  Ability to leverage learning from a variety of sources to anticipate and respond to future trends; to demonstrate foresight in order to model what future developments and possible ways forward look like for UNDP.

Business Acumen

•  Ability to understand and deal with a business situation in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome.
•  Knowledge and understanding of the operational frameworks in the organization and ability to make good judgments and quick decisions within such frameworks.

System Thinking

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

Finance

Financial process and innovation

•  Financial and business process engineering expertise required to innovate, design, change and implement new financial business models, financial instruments, financing opportunities, business processes, policies and procedures,and technological solutions.

Management and cost accounting

•  Ability to produce periodic qualitative and quantitative performance reports to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring. Ability to use a range of costing techniques and analyse cost related data to provide quantitative information to the users of reports.

HR People Strategy & Planning

HR Strategic Planning

•  Ability to develop integrated HR strategies, governance structures, polices and procedures.

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education requirements:

•  Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance or Accounting, or a
•  Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance or Accounting with nine (9) years of relevant work experience, is required.

Min. years of relevant work experience:

•  A minimum of seven (7) years with Master’s Degree or nine (9) years with Bachelor’s Degree of relevant professional work experience in managing projects on agricultural products marketing and distribution, or projects related to environmental management and or climate adaptation implemented by the public sector is required.

Required skills:

•  Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.) is required.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies Section:

•  Proven experience in working with local governments is an advantage.
•  Experience working with development finance institutions and other renowned private entities operating in the development finance investment space is an advantage.
•  Working experience in emerging markets will be an asset.
•  Experience in Financial and Investment Management is an advantage.
•  Experience in ESG and climate finance is an advantage.
•  Leadership experience working with high-level government officials and decision makers in the global investment area, is a plus.

Required Languages:

•  Proficiency in the English language is required.
•  Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.

Professional Certificates:

•  Having a Project Management Certification is an advantage.

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Communications and Reporting Specialist

Location : Freetown, SIERRA LEONE

Application Deadline : 22-Oct-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

Type of Contract : NPSA (Regular)

Post Level : NPSA-10

Languages Required : English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

07-Nov-2022

Duration of Initial Contract : Six months

Expected Duration of Assignment : Initial duration of six months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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.

Background

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

•  Personal CV - indicating all part positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) references.
•  Cover letter - indicating why the candidate considers him/herself to be suitable for the position.

The UN Secretary-General established the UN SDG Action Campaign to inspire people and organizations from all backgrounds and every part of the world to take actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, while holding decision-makers to account for progress society-wide. The UN SDG Action Campaign is hosted and supported by UNDP and is based in Bonn (Germany) with a lean team that marshals rapid support for new initiatives as opportunities arise and provides partners with on-demand strategic creative services that inspire SDG local action.

The UN SDG Action Campaign is working closely with cities and local governments to showcase how they are actively contributing to implement Agenda 2030, accelerating transformative action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for all, and everywhere.

SDGs are genuinely interlinked with service provision at local level. To be able to deliver on Agenda 2030, local and regional governments are innovating on the way they plan, design and implement public policy. Within this context, the UN SDG Action Campaign is seeking to recruit a Communications and Reporting Specialist to contribute to the design of contents and communications tools to highlight the role of local and regional governments in implementing Agenda 2030.

Local and regional governments are already responsible for over 65% of the SDG targets, most of them linked to basic service provision from water, sanitation, mobility, climate action, health or education. Cities and territories are playing a big part on the implementation of SDGs, that are becoming a new tool for strategic planning and budgeting in the mid to long-term. The Communications and Reporting Specialist will be supporting the local and regional governments’ exchange on SDG implementation, contributing to generate knowledge and replication of successful experiences to implement Agenda 2030 at local level. Finally, h/she will also support the communication and reporting needs of the Global Mayors Challenge project.

The Communications and Reporting Specialist will support UNDP cities and their partners to generate knowledge through the exchange of experiences, organizing international events and elaborating policy briefs and other communication materials. H/she will also liaise with the different UNDP project staff globally to collect information, monitor and lessons learnt issued from the Global Mayors Challenge project. The Communications and Reporting Specialist will support local and regional governments participants in enabling them to communicate their stories, analyzing project data and providing narratives for targeted public segments: including local population, central governments and the international community.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Project Manager, UNDP HQ and guidance from the technical team, UNDP Country Office in Sierra Leone in coordination with the Project Supervisor, the Communication and Reporting Specialist will do the following functions:

•  Analyse project data and link with SDG targets and Agenda 2030 narrative;
•  Promote exchange of experiences amongst participating local governments;
•  Elaborate “SDG stories” about how local governments are implementing Agenda 2030;
•  Conduct learning exercises, targeting the participating local governments;
•  Elaborate policy briefs and easy communicable knowledge materials on the lessons learnt by the project;
•  Elaborate reports and identify learning mechanisms together with partners;
•  Support project implementation and replication of experiences of local governments within UNDP global work;
•  Draft and design content for the project and UNDP social platforms;
•  Lead the design and implementation of external communications and outreach interventions of the Global Mayors Challenge;
•  Develop advocacy, visibility and promotional material that are necessary for the project;
•  Lead the design and development of necessary communications and awareness material/ documentation for wider dissemination and information sharing in coordination with programme beneficiaries and target communities;
•  Maintain and regularly update the project repository/archive of all communications material including photos videos and audios;
•  Assist the Project Supervisor in the drafting of programme updates, development of advocacy/ awareness raising information and related material;
•  Assist Project Manager in designing and implementing baseline surveys, public perception surveys, impact assessments/ tracking surveys including the development of survey report templates, design and layout of reports and related tasks;
•  Assist Project Manager in gathering information to prepare the project Metrics Reports;
•  Support the project team, including the UNDP Country Office staff in addressing their communications needs in regards to SDG local action; and
•  Perform any other relevant tasks as required.

Institutional Arrangement

The Communications and Reporting Specialist will report to the Project Manager, based in UNDP New York, working closely with the technical team in UNDP Country Office in Sierra Leone.

Competencies

Core:

Achieve Results: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

Think Innovatively: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

Learn Continuously: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

Adapt with Agility: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

Act with Determination: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

Engage and Partner: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

Thematic Area

Name

Definition

Business Management

Communication

•  Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
•  Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Digital Awareness and Literacy

•  Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skilfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed.

Business Development

Knowledge Generation

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

Communications

Campaign Management

•  Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns which lead to impactful change.

Creative direction and copywriting

•  Ability to creatively communicate concepts in an engaging and simple way.

Media Relations

•  Ability to develop media relations across all aspects of media work including relationships with media and preparing media materials such as messages.

Multimedia writing/editing

•  Ability to create and/or edit written content for multimedia.

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Education Requirements:

•  Master’s Degree in Communication, Journalism, International development, urban issues or any related field, or
•  Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, Literature, History, Social and Political Sciences or Urban studies with seven (7) years of relevant work experience, is required.

Min. years of relevant work experience:

•  A minimum of five (5) years with Master’s Degree or seven (7) years with Bachelor’s Degree of relevant work experience working in communications for public sector and public administrations at all levels is required.

Required skills:

•  Experience in the usage of computers and web-based management system and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) is required.
•  Excellent analytical and communication skills (written, verbal, interpersonal and intercultural) is required.

Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies Section:

•  Proven experience in working with local governments and their associations is an asset.
•  Experience working on Agenda 2030 or other UN global agendas will be an asset.
•  Proven professional experience focusing on client management and working with a diverse team will be an asset.
•  Demonstrated track record in media relations, including building strategic relationship with journalists, is an asset.
•  Experience in creating engaging and impactful knowledge products which appeal to targeted audiences, is a plus.
•  Experience in knowledge sharing, management and advocacy is an asset.
•  Demonstrated experience with campaigning initiatives and building networks is desirable.

Required Languages:

•  Proficiency in the English language is required.
•  Working knowledge of Spanish, French or Arabic languages is an asset.

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