JOB AT UNDP RWANDA : Technical Specialist : ( Deadline : 12 Mars 2019 )

JOB AT UNDP RWANDA : Technical Specialist : ( Deadline : 12 Mars 2019 )

Agency : UNDP

Title : Technical Specialist

Job ID : 21609

Practice Area – Job Family : Environment and Energy

Vacancy End Date : 12/03/2019 (Midnight New York, USA)

Duty Station : Kigali, Rwanda

Background

II. Job Purpose and Organizational Context

Over the last two decades, Rwanda has made considerable progress in implementing its policies and strategies, achieving significant development outcomes and sustaining some of the highest economic growth rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the government is finalizing its Vision 2050 strategy, with the aim of ensuring that Rwanda achieves upper middle-income status by 2035 with a good quality of life and decent jobs for its people and high-income status by 2050. Since July 2017, Rwanda is implementing the 7-year National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) which will run until 2024. NST1 is the key national strategic planning document for the remainder of Vision 2020 and for the first four years of the journey under Vision 2050. It integrates and mainstreams the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the African Union Agenda 2063 and its First 10-Year Implementation Plan, and the East African Community (EAC) Vision 2050.

Realizing the ambitious visionary agenda set out in Vision 2050 and the NST1 requires significant investments and financial resources. With current trends, less will come through traditional development assistance, with a shift towards new financing mechanisms from a variety of sources. Considering this rapidly changing development finance landscape and the fact that 45 per cent of Rwanda’s development budget is currently externally financed, achieving NST1 and Vison 2050 goals will depend largely on the country’s ability to tap into non-traditional external finance sources and to diversify its development finance portfolio. This includes establishing new partnerships for innovative financing mechanisms, leveraging private sector resources, mobilizing diaspora and impact investing, increasing the role of capital markets and promoting green finance. The change requires innovative approaches and policies; as well as building the national capacity to mobilize, sequence and make effective use of a wider variety of financing sources and to steer progress across sectors.
In this context, at the request of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), and as part of UNDP’s support to the Government of Rwanda in the area of innovative development policies and finance, UNDP Rwanda is seeking to recruit an International Technical Specialist (hereinafter “the Specialist”) to be based within the External Finance Division (EFD) of MINECOFIN. The Specialist will support and build the external resources mobilization capacity of Rwanda, providing capacity building and advice in the areas of innovative financing mechanisms, effective development cooperation and resources mobilization of traditional and non-traditional sources of development finance. She/he will also support the Development Partners Coordination Group (DPCG) Co-Chairs (in their capacity as co-chairs of Rwanda’s development cooperation fora). In addition, the Specialist will work closely with the EFD staff and other relevant Directorates, providing advisory and technical support, as needed.

Duties and Responsibilities

III. Duties and Responsibilities

In this section list the primary responsibilities of the position (Typically five). As needed add additional context below the responsibilities.

Provide policy advice, cutting-edge knowledge and capacity development support to MINECOFIN in enhancing effective and systematic external development finance mobilization and provide advice on different alternative/innovative finance sources, including non-traditional ones, to fund Rwanda’s development projects (60%);
Provide policy advice and capacity development support to the Ministry for effective development cooperation (20%);
Provide advisory support to enhance the Government-Development Partners dialogue through the existing coordination architecture responding to Rwanda’s needs, including supporting the implementation of country-level development cooperation monitoring and mutual accountability framework (10%);
Work closely with the Development Partners Coordination Group (DPCG) Co-Chairs to support donor coordination and dialogue (10%)
Provide policy advice, cutting-edge knowledge and capacity development support to MINECOFIN in enhancing effective and systematic external development finance mobilization and provide advice on different alternative/innovative sources, including non-traditional sources of financing for Rwanda development projects (60%)

Support the Ministry on the development and implementation of appropriate strategies and interventions for systematic external resource mobilization in responding to strategic financing requirements guided by the macroeconomic framework and debt management strategy. This includes providing advisory support and working closely and directly with all relevant Ministry departments and units;
Advise on different innovative financing options including non-traditional sources that could help finance Rwanda’s development needs;
Provide cutting-edge knowledge on approaches and steps on strategic actions for deepening and broadening financing options for Rwanda. In this context, provide advisory support on innovative financing/alternative sources of financing to support the NST1 resource framework;
Provide strategic advice to the ministry, UNDP and other partners to establish an Innovative Finance Facility to identify, test and scale-up innovative financing solutions that use non-traditional sources and mechanisms of finance and nurture partnership opportunities with a variety of actors to diversify sources of development finance and improve private sector participation in development finance;
Provide advice to UNDP, MINECOFIN and FONERWA to reinforce Rwanda’s positioning as a climate finance institution in Africa. This includes provision of advice relating to the establishment of a green investment bank.
Facilitate the continued sharing of best practices in resource mobilization strategy, institutional framework, systems and approaches across countries to ensure that Rwanda stays abreast of relevant practices;
Act as an in-house advisor to the Ministry on development finance and resource mobilization, working alongside key Ministry staff to support on-the-job learning and skills development.
Provide policy advice and capacity development support to the Ministry in effective development cooperation (20%)

Advise the Ministry on the development and implementation of appropriate strategies and interventions to strengthen capacities to manage, monitor and coordinate development cooperation, including effective systems and procedures;
Support the Ministry to implement the revised Aid Policy and maintain and implement an updated Manual of Procedures
Provide strategic advice to the ministry to develop a comprehensive development finance resource mobilization strategy for NST1;
Provide support to the Ministry to implement the roadmap for strengthening the reliability, usefulness and value of the Development Assistance Database (DAD), transition the system to full national ownership, complete system integration with other government systems, and expand the scope of DAD to capture other external development finance flows,
Advise the ministry on the requirements to strengthen the external development cooperation monitoring framework and produce annual external development finance reports.
Support Government in strengthening capacities for planning and M&E and the mainstreaming of the SDGs
Act as an in-house advisor to the Ministry on development cooperation issues, working alongside key Ministry staff to support on-the-job learning and skills development for effective development cooperation management.
Provide advisory support to enhance the Government-Development Partners dialogue through the existing development coordination architecture responding to Rwanda’s needs (10%)

Provide advisory support to enhancing the Government-Development Partners dialogue through the existing coordination architecture responding to Rwanda’s needs, including supporting the preparation of annual Development Partners Retreat (DPR) and quarterly Development Partners Coordination Group (DPCG) meetings and following-up on the recommendations for strengthening the functioning of the Sector Working Groups. In partnership with MINECOFIN staff, act as a member of the joint secretariat for in-country coordination structures and work alongside MINECOFIN staff to implement recommendations arising from these fora.
Provide technical advice to the ministry for effective engagement of all relevant partners and quality dialogue on development cooperation. This includes increasing the engagement of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), development finance institutions, foundations, the private sector and other potential partners in policy dialogue on development co-operation and increasing focus on issues related to leveraging diverse development finance sources in national priority areas;
Provide neutral and impartial technical advice to both the government and its Development Partners in the design and implementation of mechanisms and approaches to strengthen the development cooperation mutual accountability, and monitoring framework.
Work closely with the DPCG Co-Chairs, support dialogue and facilitate coordination of development partners’ interventions (10%)

Provide analytic and advisory support to the DPCG Co-Chairs of the in-country development cooperation mechanism. This includes the preparation of regular briefs, speeches and high-quality reports;
Support the secretariat to the donor coordination forum. This includes review agenda and minutes and follow up of agreed actions.
Respond to requests for information and advice on effective development cooperation and development finance from Rwanda’s development partners, including private sector, DFIs and national and international civil society stakeholders. This may include, for example, support to the preparation of joint plans and statements where appropriate;
Maintain regular contact with interested representatives of national and international development actors in Rwanda, facilitating as appropriate their involvement in country-level processes relating to effective development cooperation.

Competencies

IV. Competencies and Selection Criteria

Core

Innovation

Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Level 5: Creates new and relevant ideas and leads others to implement them

Leadership

Ability to persuade others to follow

Level 5: Plans and acts transparently, actively works to remove barriers

People Management

Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Level 5: Models high professional standards and motivates excellence in others

Communication

Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Level 5: Gains trust of peers, partners, clients by presenting complex concepts in practical terms to others

Delivery

Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Level 5: Critically assesses value and relevance of existing policy / practice and contributes to enhanced delivery of products, services, and innovative solutions

Technical/Functional

Results-Based Programme Development and Management

Contributing to results through provision of information

Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Building Strategic Partnerships

Identifying and building partnerships

Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches

Developing new approaches

Level 5:Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Resource Mobilization

Implementing resource mobilization strategies

Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

In-depth knowledge of the subject matter

Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Client Orientation

Contributing to positive outcomes for the client

Level 5: Originate: Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Required Skills and Experience

V. Recruitment Qualifications

Education:

Advanced degree in economics, finance, public administration or a development-related field.

Experience:

A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in development finance and resource mobilization in both the public and private sector at national and international level, ideally related to innovative sources of finance, blended financing in development institutions, equity and impact funds, other financial institutions, and advisory firms
Recognized expertise in all aspects of resource mobilization with a track record of drafting resource mobilization strategies and action plans, capital raising and developing public-private partnerships.
Solid knowledge and understanding of a variety of sources of external finance, including DAC, non-DAC, South-South Cooperation, International
Financial Institutions, sovereign funds, philanthropic organizations, remittances, impact investing and blended finance, capital markets etc.;
In-depth understanding of global development and best practices in development finance, combined with demonstrated experience in supporting development cooperation and management at the country level;
Prior experience with UN agencies or other development institutions and/or the private sector, and relevant experience in developing countries will be an asset.
Language Requirements:

Excellent written and spoken English is required;
A working knowledge of French is an added advantage.

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