Individual National Consultant, Climate Finance - UNDP

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established in 2010 as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), designed to disburse new and additional resources for addressing climate change. Access to Fund resources is through national, regional and international implementing entities accredited by the Board. The Fund liaises with individual countries through a nominated national institution known as the National Designated Authority (NDA). In Ghana, the Government nominated the Economic Strategy and Research Division (ESRD) at the Ministry of Finance to be its NDA.

The Fund, through a Readiness Programme provides grant resources to countries; aimed at strengthening national capacities to effectively and efficiently plan for, access, manage, deploy and monitor climate financing in particular through the GCF. In line with this, Ghana has obtained Readiness Support from the GCF with focus on strengthening NDA capacity in coordinating and monitoring climate finance, stakeholder engagement, enhancing direct access and mobilizing resources from the private sector.

This current Readiness and Support Programme will build on a previous GCF Readiness Programme implemented through UNDP, UN Environment, and World Resource Institute (WRI) from 2015 to 2017 and funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

The NDA is expected to approve all GCF project activities which are aligned with national climate change priorities which will be outlined in the GCF Country Programme document to be developed in Ghana. GCF emphasizes on the adequate engagement of the relevant stakeholders at different stages of the formulation and approval processes. To ensure that the stakeholders are engaged as desired, it becomes important to have a necessary country coordination mechanism and multi-stakeholder engagement processes which are transparent and appropriate for Ghana.

Thus, in line with GCF’s suggested Stakeholder Engagement policy and protocol, a Consultant will be procured to review, and assess existing climate related country coordination mechanisms for engaging stakeholders, identify the gaps, and identify strategies to enable the NDA to engage stakeholders effectively and efficiently.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of the consultancy is to prepare a comprehensive and inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement strategy that aims to build upon existing engagement modalities and aims at strengthening roles, responsibilities and the process of engagement of key or relevant stakeholders to ensure adequate representation and create awareness at all levels of government and the general populace on GCF activities.

The specific objectives of the consultancy include;

• Review and take stock of the existing climate related national mechanisms for stakeholder engagement and coordination, engagement strategies;
• Design and undertake a survey to assess the impact and effectiveness of existing climate related coordination mechanisms and roles and responsibilities at the national and sub-national level; and
• Design, disseminate and hold consultations on engagement strategies aligned with GCF’s best practices for country coordination and multi-stakeholder engagement on all GCF and climate finance-related activities including, but not limited to, processes for country programming, sectoral programme prioritization and selection, proposal development and disclosure.

The consultant will undertake the work in close consultation with the Economic Strategy and Research Division at the Ministry of Finance (Ghana NDA) and its Technical Advisory Committee, UNDP Country Office as well as other relevant national stakeholders in climate change policy and finance.

Competencies

Compliance of the UN Core Values:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism; and
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Important Note:

The Consultant is required to have the above mentioned professional and technical qualifications. Only the applicants who hold these qualifications are advised to submit their respective bid proposals. 

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in public administration, social science, or environmental studies or related field

Experience:

• At least 8 years of relevant working experience on issues of climate policy and/ or climate finance including:
• First-hand knowledge of policy dialogues and policy analysis on the issue of climate change policy/finance and environmental policies
• Experience in holding multi-stakeholder engagement exercises in Ghana
• Demonstrated understanding of various climate and environment-related coordination and engagement strategies and mechanisms
• Designing and implementing assessment tools, particularly in engaging multiple stakeholders.

Language:

• Fluent in English.