Programme Specialist (Local Government Finance & Economic Development)

Closing date: Tuesday, 14 February 2023

Job Schedule : Full time

Agency : UNCDF

Grade : NOC

Contract Duration : 1 Year with Possibility for extension

Education & Work Experience : Master's Degree - 5 year(s) experience OR Bachelor's Degree - 7 year(s) experience

Other Criteria : (6) years’ with specialized license in the relevant area

Required Languages : Fluency in written and spoken English and in other major languages spoken in Uganda

Desired Languages : Knowledge of another UN language

Vacancy Timeline

2 Weeks

Mobility required/no mobility

no mobility required

Job Description

Background and Organizational Context

UNDP/UNCDF 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/UNCDF 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.

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in 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.

The Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility, designed and hosted by UNCDF, aims to promote green and climate–resilient communities and local economies by establishing a standard, internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local authorities in developing countries, particularly in the Least Developed Countries (LDC), Small Island Developing States and African nations, for its effective use. LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) – in the form of financial top ups to cover the additional costs of climate change adaptation – which ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level while offering strong incentives for performance improvements in enhanced resilience – with technical and capacity-building support. LoCAL responds to the Paris Agreement, advances NAP implementation and contributes to achieving climate-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)– with concrete action at the subnational level, where it is most needed.

Since its inception in 2010/2011, LoCAL was launched and deployed in 17 countries: Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, The Gambia, Ghana, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Tanzania, Tuvalu and Uganda. All the countries which started are still operating the PBCRGS as their country system, federating efforts of government and partners in making use of it, therefore working on sustained long term finance. Another 13 countries have expressed interest in deploying the mechanism and are currently being supported to scope and design the LoCAL mechanism and in identifying sources of finance to activate it: Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Fiji, Jamaica, Liberia, Sao Tomé e Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Zambia, bringing the total number of LoCAL countries to 30.

Over the same period, LoCAL has mobilized $125 million from partners, own resources, and parallel funding from governments for locally led adaptation; the majority of these funds are disbursed as performance-based grants for locally led adaptation. As of end 2021, PBCRGs had been delivered with capacity building and technical support to 304 local governments in 12 countries, representing a population of over $11.5 million.

LoCAL-Uganda

UNCDF has supported the Government of Uganda (GoU) to design the LoCAL-Uganda Mechanism, aligned with the Discretionary Development Equalisation Grant (DDEG), with aims of increasing the resilience of communities and local economies across the country, through regular, predictable, systemic and verifiable climate finance in support of local climate responses, through increased District access to climate finance to implement climate change adaptation investments in Uganda (outcome 1) and institutionalising a standard and internationally recognized country-based

Duties and Responsibilities

1. 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/Quantum 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 (incl. 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.
2. Policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts and key stakeholders (60%)

Oversee the day-to-day implementation of the programme’s activities with a focus on local government finance and local economic development (rural and urban), and on the effective use of PBCRGs;
Organize capacity building (“learning by doing”) and preparation of local government development and investment plans and budgets, ensuring climate change is mainstreamed within such processes;
Ensure target districts are fully acquainted with the LoCAL design elements and comply with minimum conditions and improve performance in target areas, including by undertaking gaps assessments and organizing capacity building workshops;
Ensure timely organization of the annual performance assessment (APA), in close collaboration with government counterparts, for instance by developing ToRs to engage third-party firms/consultants, workplan, etc.
Ensure successful implementation of the performance-based country mechanism (LoCAL) that can be up-scaled nationwide and harness international climate finance;
Ensure the timely and effective implementation of the activities as scheduled;
Provide policy, regulatory and technical advice to government counterparts at central and subnational levels;
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 grants and local economic development.
3. 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 grants and local economic development, both in rural and urban contexts);
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 lesson learned from the Programme in areas of specialty;
Manage the process of convening national and regional stakeholders to share lessons learned on selected themes.
4. Networking and partnership building (10%)

Builds effective and efficient partnerships at the operational level with national counterparts, including development partners, to coordinate selected in country activities;
Maintain close working relationships with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Water and Environment, OPM, 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 Uganda;

Organize consultative meetings, seminars and workshops to drive analytical and policy work of the Programme;