International UNV Specialist: Programme Officer for LoCAL MENA Region in Tunis

Mission and objectives

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 46 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

The Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) facility of the UNCDF was designed and launched in 2011 with the aim of promoting climate change-resilient communities and local economies by establishing a standard and internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities (LGAs) in LDCs and to increase local resilience, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the specific goals of poverty eradication (SDG1) and climate action (SDG13).

LoCAL increases awareness and capacities to respond to climate change at the local level, integrates climate change adaptation into local governments' planning and budgeting systems, in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner, and increases the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation.

LoCAL focuses on the delivery of four outputs that will directly contribute to increasing local governments’ access to climate finance and building resilience to climate change:

• Output 1 – Awareness and capacities to respond to climate change adaptation at the local level are increased;

• Output 2 – Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) is mainstreamed into government’s planning and budgeting systems and investments are implemented in line with the Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRG) mechanism;

• Output 3 – The PBCRG system is effectively and sustainably established in participating countries and leads to an increased amount of CCA finance available to local government and local economy;

• Output 4 – The role of local authorities and of the PBCRGs in addressing climate change are increasingly recognized at international level, through outreach, learning and quality assurance.

Context

LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) with technical and capacity-building support. PBCRGs ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level and offer strong incentives for general performance improvements targeting areas of importance for enhanced resilience. The PBCRG can be seen as an earmarked cross-sectoral grant with conditions attached to the use of its funding for climate change adaptation beyond business as usual. Combined with regular grant allocations, PBCRGs enable 100 per cent of the investments in climate-sensitive sectors to become climate resilient over time.

The PBCRGs consist of a financial top-up to cover the additional costs of making investments climate resilient and/or of additional investments for climate change adaptation. These grants complement regular allocations made by the central level to local governments through the respective intergovernmental fiscal transfer system. They include a set of minimum conditions, performance measures and a menu of eligible investments.

The Programme operates in three distinct phases:

 Phase I: Piloting, consists of an initial scoping analysis, followed by testing in two to four local governments.

 Phase II: Consolidating, takes place in 5–10 local governments in a country. It involves collecting lessons and demonstrating the mechanism’s effectiveness at a larger scale.

 Phase III: Scaling-up, is full national roll-out of LoCAL based on the results of the previous phases and lessons learned. LoCAL is gradually extended to all local governments, with domestic or international climate finance, and becomes the national system for channeling adaptation finance to the local level.

LoCAL in Mediterranean countries

The Mediterranean region has been identified as a climate change hotspot, warming some 20% faster than the global average and causing a wide range of negative impacts on the environment, the availability of food and water, human health and security. In urban areas, climate change impacts are aggravated compounded, given the by high population density. In the Mediterranean, in 2018, 60% of people already lived in urban areas, and continued urbanization trends are expected to further exacerbate the climate crisis and put further pressure on natural resources and the environment

UNCDF has been selected as implementing partner by the European Union (DG NEAR) to seek to alleviate key bottlenecks to finance urban and local priorities as identified in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions and other climate policies to truly localize climate actions. within the Programme “Advancing Climate Adaptation in the Southern Mediterranean (ACA-MED)”.

UNCDF will implement the second component of the programme ACA-MED: “Reinforcing the capacities of local authorities and increasing climate finance for adaptation at the local level”. Six countries of the region (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine) benefit from the design and the pilot of the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL).

Within this programme context, UNCDF is seeking a Programme Officer, IUNV, based in Tunis, Tunisia.

Task description

The Programme Officer will report directly to the Programme Management Specialist for MENA Region, and work under the overall guidance of the LoCAL Global Programme Analyst, P-2 and in close collaboration with the LoCAL global Facility and LTF colleagues across the region. The incumbent will work in close collaboration with the operations, programme and project staff in UNCDF Tunisia and in UNCDF Regional Offices and HQ offices to exchange information and ensure excellent and consistent service delivery.

In carrying out his/her work, the Programme Officer will work closely with national and subnational governments and partners to ensure the good delivery of the action, the reporting, and the monitoring and evaluation.

The Programme Officer will be part of the network of 30+ LoCAL country programmes and benefit from the links with this network.

Under the supervision of the Programme Specialist, the Programme Officer will:

• Ensure the effective implementation of LoCAL in target countries in close collaboration with the Programme Specialist, UNCDF national teams and the LoCAL Facility (global team);

• Contribute to the provision of technical assistance for LoCAL in target countries (e.g. writing terms of reference, letters of agreement, memorandum of understanding, official letters, support recruitment and management of consultants, etc);

• Contribute to quality monitoring, evaluation and reporting (e.g. preparation and monitoring of the annual work plans, organization and participation in field missions, contribution to the preparation of the quarterly and annual reports);

• Contribute to the organization of events, meetings, conferences, etc., including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations, etc.

• Collect intelligence on technical and financial partners, identify opportunities for collaboration with key stakeholders and support the development of partnerships for LoCAL in assigned countries.

• Facilitate the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of programme/project concepts and full-fledged proposals for financing;

• Contribute to operations activities, including finance, planning, human resources, procurement, transport, IT, security, administration and ensure they follow UNCDF’s rules, regulations, policies and procedures

• Collect and compile program activity information, evaluating progress toward achievement of annual work plans and related program outcomes.

• Include inputs from relevant evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations into programme formulation, knowledge and outreach products.

• Identify relevant good practices, evaluation findings, lessons learned, conclusions and recommendations for the development of knowledge products and capacity development tools.

• Contribute to the knowledge and communication efforts of LoCAL based on lessons learned and results achieved from target countries (e.g. collecting stories from the field, photos/videos, webpage, as appropriate);

• Support partnership building efforts for effective positioning in the UN System and with development partners networks;

• Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of programme/project concepts and full-fledged proposals for financing;

• Perform any other duties as it may be required.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work.

As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);

• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;

• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.

• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;

• Coordinate with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;

• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Results/expected outputs:

• As an active UNCDF/LoCAL team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNCDF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including by pursuing the following key results of the Project and related activity results:

o LoCAL in assigned countries is effectively, efficiently and transparently implemented in line with UNCDF project management regulations;

o Government partners at national and subnational levels and communities benefit from quality and timely provision of technical assistance and capacity building support;

o LoCAL in assigned countries is effectively and efficiently monitored, assessed and reported on;

o LoCAL experience in assigned countries is well documented, best practices identified and lessons learned and disseminated through various communication channels;

o LoCAL in assigned countries is strengthened as a result of in-country technical and financial partnerships.

• Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment;

• A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.

A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed.