Digital Finance and Investment Specialist - IPSA 10

Contract

This is a IPSA-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as International Personnel Services Agreement. It is normally internationally recruited only. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about IPSA-10 contracts.

Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in one file.

The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.

Office/Unit/Project Description

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN's capital investment agency for the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). 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 leverages digital finance in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve the vision of promoting inclusive digital economies. On that basis, the Inclusive Digital Economies Division of UNCDF adopted the strategy of ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’, which is based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The goal of UNCDF is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use digital services, which improve their quality of life and accelerate our progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs). To achieve this, UNCDF provides capital and technical support through Inclusive Digital Economy programmes to ensure that more households and small businesses gain access to services that expand opportunities and reduce vulnerabilities. The ability of UNCDF to provide risk capital directly to the private sector is helping bring new products and services to under-served and hard to reach markets and spurring innovations. Through flexible grant and loan instruments UNCDF supports a wide range of products and services in various sectors ranging from finance to agriculture, education, health and transportation. This entails working with the public and the private sector to ensure that the services match in particular the needs of key segments such as youth, women, migrants, refugees, and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The Digital Finance and Investment Specialist of IDE will work closely with the Director and focus on driving initiatives to increase pipeline of investments and coordinate closely the contribution of IDE to UNCDF’s portfolio of investments in the digital economy.

Institutional Arrangement

The IPSA holder shall be working under the direct guidance and supervision of the Inclusive Digital Economies Practice Director. During the engagement, s/he is expected to closely coordinate with IDE’s Regional and Disciplines’ Leads, and work directly with UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub Team in NY and LDC IP team of UNCDF. S/He also may be required to periodically provide updates to the Senior Management on the status of the work or any issues during the formulation of the joint offer of UNCDF and UNDP.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of this contract is to engage an IPSA to support IDE in developing its pipeline in the investment agenda. The IPSA holder will work closely with the IDE team and the LDC Investment Platform team. The IPSA holder’s responsibilities will cover the following key areas:

• Lead the development of IDE’s contribution to the UNCDF’s portfolio of investments in the digital economy agenda.
  • Coordinate the growth of IDE’s investment portfolio in inclusive digital economies with LDCIP.
  • Monitor the growth of investment transactions utilizing different financial instruments at UNCDF’s disposal (grants, loans, guarantees, third party fund investments, etc.).
  • Coordinate progress and opportunities moving IDE Investment agenda forward together with LDCIP.
  • Support country and regional teams in managing the process of IDE’s investments in the digital economy, including managing consultants hired to support in pre-assessment, undertaking due diligence missions, and implementation and monitoring of investments.
• Support the organization of the IDE investment agenda and increase pipeline of investments in the digital economy.
  • Build, continuously improve and oversee the right resources, processes, systems and trainings for IDE investment management including monitoring and results measurement.
  • Support in institutionalizing investment continuum and different financial instruments in various processes and projects.
  • Research and help identify opportunities for UNCDF to engage with new and existing partners taking forward IDE investment agenda.
  • Support the formulation of new projects, including desk research, documentation, drafting concept notes and project documents.
• Support partnerships within UNDP and the UN system in advocating, facilitating and implementing digital financing solutions in support of the SDGs.
  • Assist in the scale-up of existing digital finance models supported by the practice.
  • Help prepare high-quality concept notes, proposals and project documents to drive digital finance innovations to unlock SDG financing in LDCs.
  • Support resource mobilization strategy at the global, regional and country levels in line with research to ensure proposals are aligned to LDC country priorities, comparative advantages of IDE and funders’ interests.
  • Conduct analysis and research on donors, preparation of briefs on possible areas of cooperation in support of digital finance innovations to unlock SDG financing.
  • Support the formulation of new projects, including desk research, documentation, drafting concept notes and project documents.

Competencies

Required skills and Competencies

• Knowledge and experience in digital finance and digital economy, inclusive finance and impact investment finance or related fields.

Desired additional skills and competencies

• Networking capabilities and ability to engage with a range of actors to build common agendas.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Academic Education

• Master’s Degree in economics, development studies, finance, business, public administration or related field.

Minimum years of relevant Work Experience

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in digital finance and inclusion, inclusive finance, impact investment or related fields of finance, development, research and advocacy;

• Proven experience and knowledge on the SDG financing agenda and the development finance areas is required.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

• Full working proficiency in English is required. • Working proficiency in French considered an asset