Technical Specialist - UNCDF Ghana

UNCDF makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 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.

UNCDF is bringing its expertise in promoting a green and climate resilient local communities and economies for returnees, youth and women to support job creation in regions of departure, transit and return in Ghana, creating local ecosystems that facilitate the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and enabling the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development under  the “Boosting  Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana” programme to be funded by the European Union Trust Fund for Africa.

This programme will contribute to addressing the root causes of irregular migration through green and climate resilient local economic development and improving future prospects of beneficiaries, by creating employment and enterprise opportunities in selected sectors and regions (Ashanti and Western). The action aims at supporting job creation in regions of departure, transit and return of Ghana, creating local financial ecosystems that facilitate the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and enabling the transition of local economies to green and climate resilient development.

The programme will use the lessons learnt from UNCDF experiences in (i) Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRGs) which support investments for green and resilient local economies as well as (ii) Youth finance which introduces best practices to advance financial inclusion.

The PBCRG provides a country-based mechanism to increase awareness and response to climate change at the local level, integrate climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems in a participatory and gender sensitive manner, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation. The PBCRG is currently being implemented in the 14 countries around the world called, the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL). This mechnism combines PBCRGs with technical and capacity-building support. It uses a demonstration effect to trigger further flows for local adaptation, including national fiscal transfers and global climate finance for local authorities, through their central governments. Since its global scale up in 2014, LoCAL has engaged 99 local governments in 13 countries, representing over 6 million people. Between 2014 and 2017, it delivered close to USD 14.5 million, with grants and technical assistance to countries totaling USD 9.8 million. During the same period, 507 climate change adaptation interventions were finalized across 11 countries using grants, with another 68 under implementation or being planned.  With the use of the PBCRG approach, UNCDF will support the implementation of Result 1 “Local economies are stimulated and short-term job opportunities for youth, women and returnees are created through green and climate resilient investments” under the programme. 

UNCDF has also developed great expertise in youth finance by bringing access to financial services to nearly 1,000,000 youth in 8 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Financial Services Providers (FSPs) participating in the programme mobilized USD 23M in savings and granted USD 66M in loans to 330,700 young entrepreneurs. UNCDF has also worked in Ghana by supporting FSPs to expand access to savings, and particularly, to link informal savings groups to banks and other formal financial institutions. Simultaneously, UNCDF has expanded its support across countries to develop digital financial services for smallholder farmers, women, families with children, pensioners, and micro, small and medium enterprises. These efforts have led to creative approaches to the development of human-centric services and have fostered an innovation ecosystem around financial services. This UNCDF programme approach will be utilized in implementing Results 3 “Increased access and usage of financial services, leveraging remittances and digital solutions, adapted to the needs of (i) youth, women and returnees benefiting from cash for work schemes and (ii) local communities and MSMEs”.  

The programme will be implemented in conjunction with SNV, using their model for youth entrepreneurs ‘Opportunities for Youth Employment (OYE) programme’, SNV’s most advanced multi-country programme thus far, which targeted 27,000 rural out of school youth in Tanzania, Rwanda and Mozambique. The programme has been implemented in the agriculture and renewable energy sectors. Currently, OYE has become a global SNV product and new OYE projects have started in other countries, such as Mali and Niger, both funded by EUTF.

SNV will support Result 2 “Employability of youth, women and returnees are improved through orientation support and assistance, to transition to skills development, for the benefit of green and climate resilient local economies” and Results 4 “SMEs, offering decent and sustainable jobs to youth, women and returnees, are incubated and/or accelerated and contribute to green and climate resilient local economies” whilst working closely with the two other result areas.

The main results under the UNCDF-EUTF agreement are the following:

• Result 1 (R1): Local economies are stimulated and short-term job opportunities for youth, women and returnees are created through green and climate resilient investments. The first set of activities under Results 1 will aim at informing and participatory planning to help MMDAs and communities to identify and select local resilient investments to be financed by the performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) and by the diaspora through a crowdfunding platform to be developed under Results 3. MMDAs will benefit from assistance to undertake or utilise risk assessment and establish local information systems for risk informed planning, in partnership with universities and research institutes. Awareness and sensitization activities will be undertaken. Needs and capacity gaps will be assessed and addressed through targeted capacity building activities.
• Result 2 (R2): Employability of youth, women and returnees are improved through orientation support and assistance, to transition to skills development for the benefit of green and climate resilient local economies (cash for work beneficiaries). The activities under Result 2 will facilitate prospective cash for work beneficiaries from the targeted MMDAs to be called upon to apply, and returnees included among the list of prospective beneficiaries. Beneficiaries will be selected based on targets to be reached in consultation with MMDAs and UNCDF. Coordination and synergies will be ensured with the activities undertaken by UNCDF’s joint Programme partner SNV, for broader activities under Result 2 and Result 4 “SMEs, offering decent and sustainable jobs to youth, women and returnees, are incubated and/or accelerated and contribute to green and climate resilient local economies”.
• Result 3 (R3): Increased access and usage of financial services, leveraging remittances and digital solutions, adapted to the needs of (i) youth, women and returnees benefiting from cash for work schemes and (ii) local communities and MSMEs. The activities under Result 3 will facilitate access and usage of targeted beneficiaries (youth, women, returnees, MSMEs) to financial services. The action will focus on the Diaspora and will leverage it to advance financial inclusion of Ghana’s most vulnerable groups.  In particular, the activities under R3 will aim to build financial capabilities of clients; support the supply-side to provide financial services adapted to the target’s needs as well as test and pilot innovative financial solutions (e.g. crowdfunding) to better channels investments at the local level.

The Programme team located in Accra will be responsible for the daily management of the project including overall gender-sensitive monitoring of project implementation and substantive and financial reporting, working in close coordination with the LoCAL and Youth Finance Programme Managers, based in Brussels, Belgium and Dakar, Senegal respectively and their respective teams of technical experts. The programme team will include the following technical staff: National Technical Specialist (local government finance Expert), an International UNV Climate Change Expert, Financial Inclusion Expert, National UNV Field Officers, Finance and Administrative Assistant and a Driver. 

The National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will work under the daily supervision of the Programme Management Specialist, and under the technical and overall supervision of the LoCAL Programme Manager. The National Technical Specialist will be part of the 14 country LoCAL programme and benefit from the links with this network.

As part of the Project team, the National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will contribute to the effective delivery of the Programme’s activities under Results 1 and 2 (cash for work beneficiaries) and will work closely with the two other expected results of the programme. Result 2 will be implemented in partnership with SOS The Netherlands / Ghana, under the oversight of UNCDF. 

In carrying out his or her work, the National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will work closely with the central government counterparts to establish and deploy a performance-based climate resilience grants system (PBCRGs) that will contribute to climate resilience at a local level in Ghana and impact positively on women, returned migrants and youth employment.

This position will be based in Accra, Ghana. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the daily supervision of the Programme Management Specialist, with overall and technical supervision of the LoCAL Programme Manager and in close collaboration with the national counterpart, the National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will contribute to the daily implementation of the project including overall gender-sensitive planning, oversight and monitoring of project implementation and substantive and financial reporting.

The National Technical Specialist (local government finance) will oversee the team of field officers on a daily basis and provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to the national counterpart, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and MMDAs in relation to Results 1 and 2 and with a focus on the PBCRGs.

Summary of key functions:

• Programme implementation, including team management (20%)
• Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (60%)
• Knowledge management and communication (10%)
• Networking and partnership building (10%)
• Programme implementation including team management (20%)
• Contribute to the day-to-day management and monitoring of the programme, including effective and regular use of the ATLAS platform and effective programme implementation;
• Contribute to the management of the risk log of the project;
• Document progress towards the achievement of outputs and contribute to the preparation and timely submission of comprehensive technical and financial reports in line with contractual agreements including semi-annual reporting;
• Provide effective technical direction to and empowerment of supervisees, including through coaching and mentoring;
• Role-modelling of UN values and encouraging supervisees to act ethically both in their relationships with each other and in the business decisions and actions they take;
• Ensure effective performance management of supervisees (including annual individual performance plans of supervisees completed on time; regular meetings with supervisees organized during the year to monitor progress towards agreed goals, provide feedback and support; annual reviews (mid-term and annual) held on time; facilitating learning and development);
• Support to supervisees in implementing various arrangements in place to ensure their safety and security and in maintaining their health and well-being.
• Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (60%)
• Oversee the day-to-day implementation of the activities related to Result 1 and 2 with a focus on local government finance and local economic development
• Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts at central and local levels;
• Provide technical advice and capacity building support (“learning by doing”) and support for the preparation of local government development and investment plans and budgets that foster job creation, gender equality and green and climate resilient local economies;
• Provide technical advice and capacity building support for the delivery of investments through “cash for work” programmes and procurement to local SMEs, employing youth, returned migrants and women;
• Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice for the design and implementation of the performance-based climate resilience grants mechanism that can be up-scaled nationwide and harness international climate finance;
• In partnership with SOS The Netherlands / Ghana, ensure that the outputs of Results 2 under the oversight of UNCDF, i.e. delivering core employability life skills and technical training in skills development, are realized for the cash for work beneficiaries;
• Lead, together with the Programme Management Specialist, the technical dialogue and provision of policy and technical advisory services to national and local government counterparts in relation to local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development in support of women, returned migrants and youth employment.

Knowledge management and communication (10%)

• Identify key knowledge constraints and organize learning, knowledge exchange, training, workshops, etc. to build awareness and capacities in relevant themes (i.e. local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development in support of women, returned migrants and youth employment, etc.);
• Contribute to the implementation of the Communication and Visibility Plan of the Programme, in collaboration with the Project team, partners and technical consultants;
• Identify, collect and disseminate best practices and lessons learned from the Programme in areas of specialty;
• Manage the process of convening national and regional stakeholders to share lessons learned on selected themes.

Networking and partnership building (10%)

• Builds effective and efficient partnerships at the operational level with national counterparts and EU Delegation to coordinate selected activities in-country;
• Maintain close working relationships with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, and other key stakeholders at various levels in order to generate interest in and execution of the PBCRGs and its key results areas to expand the mechanism in Ghana;
• Organize consultative meetings, seminars and workshops to drive analytical and policy work of the Programme;
• In coordination with the PMS, serve as the UNCDF focal point in working groups and steering committees on the issue of local government finance, performance-based grants and local economic development and provide inputs for conducive policy and regulatory environment;
• Support the PMS to mobilize additional resources based on programme requirements and new opportunities.

IV. Impact of Results

The incumbent will pursue the following key results of the Programme and related activities:

Result 1: Local economies are stimulated and short-term job opportunities for youth, women and returnees are created through green and climate resilient investments

A.1.1. Strengthen capacities (“learning by doing”) of MMDAs in the preparation of climate risk informed, participatory and gender-sensitive local economic development planning.

A.1.2. Deliver green and resilient local infrastructure / investments (including those to be co-financed by the diaspora) under the oversight of MMDAs, through cash for work (benefitting the youth, women and returnees) and procurement to local SMEs.

A.1.3. Design and deploy a performance-based grants system (PBGS) that can be scaled up and attract various sources of finance, including private finance, international finance and diaspora funds to build resilient local economies.

Result 2: Employability of youth, women and returnees is improved through orientation support and assistance, to transition to skills development programmes, for the benefit of green and climate resilient local economies (cash for work beneficiaries)

A.2.1. Carry out needs’ assessment of the target beneficiaries (cash for work applicants and participants), analysing existing programmes in the target MMDAs, in order to inform core employability training, coaching and mentoring activities, in line with market opportunities and trends (in complement to SNV A 2.1).

A.2.2. Deliver core employability life skills and technical training for the cash for work beneficiaries of the investments of the 9 MMDAs (in complement to SNV A 2.2).

A.2.3. Support beneficiaries that participate in the cash for work programme to participate in skills development programmes with a view to ultimately start a viable business and/or join running green SMEs (in complement to SNV) A 2.3.

TECHNICAL

Candidates will be assessed on their work experience in the following areas:

• Deep knowledge and understanding of key concepts related to local government finance, including decentralization, and local economic development;
• Experience in policy, regulatory and technical advice and project management related to the fields of local government finance, performance-based climate resilience grants and local economic development or equivalent;
• Proven experience in project management ;
• Relevant technical experience with policy and regulatory bodies and central and local governments in developing countries;
• Work experience with environmental sustainability and climate change in developing countries and Ghana;
• Experience with addressing gender equality as project objective and/or cross-cutting issue ;
• Experience working with local communities, youth and women.

PROFESSIONAL

• Experience forming, leading or being part of teams, working with other stakeholders to achieve common goals;
• Strong client orientation, recognizing the importance of providing appropriate, user-friendly and affordable services;
• Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and communicates with management to develop new projects or services;
• Comfortable advocating and advancing an agenda, including with high level counterparts and other stakeholders;
• Experience managing project teams and/or consultants, including recruiting, hiring and managing and evaluating international and national expertise;
• Takes on new approaches and fosters innovative thinking;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities, and resolve problems;
• Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude and responds positively to feedback.

FUNCTIONAL

• Proven ability to manage projects and managing for results;
• Excellent speaking and proficient writing skills in English are necessary;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills;
• Strong general IT skills, including ability to work regularly with MS Office Suite;
• Proven cross-cultural communication, able to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment;
• Demonstrated broad knowledge of development issues, especially in the areas of poverty alleviation and local development.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Builds and promotes teams and partnerships;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Creates and promotes open communication;
• Demonstrates ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrates political acumen and calculated risk-taking;
• Builds confidence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Conducts fair and transparent decision making;
• Treats all persons fairly without favoritism;

Shows strong corporate commitment