Senior Adviser Innovation, (Chief of Innovative Finance Hub) P5 - Office of Innovation, Helsinki, Finland

Contract

This is a P-5 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 110,869 USD and 138,944 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovate.

The incumbent is placed within the Innovative Finance Hub in Helsinki, reporting to the Principal Advisor, Innovative Financing, PFP. He/she will work closely with other divisions specifically the IF4C division of PFP as well as OED, PPD, PG, DFAM, Legal and SD.

UNICEF recognizes that innovation is a key feature of its current and future strategy to solve the complex challenges (i.e. conflict and displacement, urbanization, disease outbreak, disasters, and climate change, among others) faced by millions of children and adolescents across the globe. What is needed now to deliver on these challenges for children, is a platform capable of fostering a truly experimental, enabling culture to co-create innovative financing approaches not just from the top down, but also the grassroots - and to bring them to scale, via a sustainable, transparent process, while accessing the untapped global financial solutions.

Further, the governments of the world have set out an ambitious agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals. The annual financing gap to achieve the SDGs by 2030 sits at USD 3.9 trillion, which shows that the current approach is not working. Although the sheer size of the global financial markets represents an enormous, untapped reservoir of potential support for achieving the SDGs, very little of this global financing is being channeled towards the needs of sustainable development or, more specifically, towards meeting the needs of children, and certainly not at the scale and speed necessary. We need to imagine, encourage, and create ways of thinking to bridge the gaps – particularly between philanthropic funding and financing options through the use of new financial structures (e.g. blended funds, loans/guarantees, impact bonds). The Hub is an integral part of Innovative Finance for children (IF4C) strategy with the objective to implement customized, ‘fit for purpose’ innovative finance instruments to Align, Amplify, Accelerate and Access new sources of financing and funding and Apply new alternative solutions for children over the next 4 years.

In the first year of implementation, IF4C has set up a clear governance mechanism as well piloted some key transactions including the WB bond, Today and tomorrow, the RUTF window and the Polio outcome financing as well as the launch of Child Lens investing Framework (CLIF). The Innovative Finance Hub is part of leveraging, adapting, and replicating the above child focused pilot transactions within the collaborative mechanisms and governance in place. This will also include a closer engagement, in coordination with PPD and PFP with stakeholder like the National Committee, Regional and Country offices, other UN agencies and the Executive Board.

Underpinned by the UNICEF Global IF4C Strategy the Innovative Finance Hub in Helsinki will develop new transformational strategies, standards & frameworks:

• To re-define innovative financing & impact standards and concepts to include the needs of children
• To co-create fintech & cutting-edge technologies to leverage new, innovative resource channels for children.

The Innovative Finance Hub in Finland will contribute to reimagine how UNICEF operates, accelerates and streamlines finding new sources of funding and financing to fill the SDG gap - to protect gains made, rebuild from losses from COVID-19 and radically accelerate progress towards the SDGs for children. Chief IF Hub Finland will be at the forefront of building an IF Hub platform that, in coordination with other IF initiatives and streams, will:

• Unlock the $40 trillion ESG market to meet funding and financing gaps for children.
• Better integrate children’s needs into business investment decisions
• Catalyze a global pipeline of investable high-impact child-aligned projects.
• Convene industry experts to incubate and build game-changing new social goods constructs.

The aim is to build a genuine, global thought leadership around innovative financing that not only be transformational for UNICEF business model but also serve as a catalyst for change within the development finance and the development community at large.

Purpose for the job

The incumbent will be leading the Global Innovative Finance Hub from Helsinki to drive IF approaches and efforts in line with UNICEF IF4C strategy and Strategic Plan and connecting to the wider development finance and impact investing ecosystem and community. Complementarily, this Chief of Hub/Sr. Advisor will work closely with the Principal Adviser and other parts of the UNICEF HQ offices, Country and Regional Offices to build a Centre for Excellence of child-aligned credible, sustainable standards and indicators for investing and defining impact criteria/metrics. This role aims to feed the appetite of a wide range of investors and financial institutions, bridging the gap between public and private actors through the tools of Innovative Finance to generate exponential impact for children and young people and accelerate SDGs reach.

How can you make a difference?

The Senior Advisor / Chief of Innovative Finance Hub responsibilities will include coordinating and managing the following:

1. Manage and enhance the IF Hub’s operational model
   • Recruiting and managing a team composed of dedicated staff on innovative finance.
   • Maintain the key interlocutor position for Innovative Finance with the Finnish government.
   • Provide expertise and leadership in structuring and supporting the adoption and use of child focused standards, criteria and KPIs connected to financial investments, public and private, in line and coordination with the overall IF4C structure, governance and strategy.
   • Manage a global incubator team that will develop new fintech and cutting-edge technologies that can reach scale with clear revenue generating targets – including but not limited to leverage the use of digital payments, gaming, and crypto financing.
2. Support the Innovative finance capacity building and stakeholder engagement in IF4C in close collaboration with UNICEF PFP and PPD teams.
   • Develop Innovative and Development Financing capacity building and training modules, internally and externally, as well as network of experts and best practices around IF4C.
   • Host relevant events and workshops, including financial and development ecosystem in Finland, to create new partnerships and alliances around innovative finance.
   • Create an IF network with existing and new relevant stakeholders– including governments, private sector, civil society, foundations, etc. in close collaboration with PPD, PFP, and UNICEF Finland.
3. Provide global leadership in developing and implementing child lens investing framework and solutions.
   • Lead Innovative Finance Hub to become a catalyst for implementing and facilitate adoption of child lens investing, in collaboration with US Impact Fund, UNICEF Divisions, Regional Offices and Country Offices, bringing in expertise for RD/concept development, setting standards to influence market alignment and developing criteria for sourcing impact investing opportunity as well as reporting on the impact on children.
4. Key task areas and functions to be focused on also include:
   • Raising staff and leadership awareness and provide capacity and skills on how innovative financing can help address the scale of programmatic challenges.
   • Understanding the asks/projects and helping to develop financial funding structures which would support them, while looking to leverage both the IFIs, Development Banks and private sector and new generation of partners.

Help drive organizational, results oriented change and ultimately expand UNICEF’s assistance to children and youths. The incumbent will contribute to the overall IF4C strategy and results including;

• Align a greater share of the capital markets towards the Sustainable Development Goals for children.
• Amplify impact for children by using UNICEF-driven alternative/innovative.
• finance instruments, scaling up current UNICEF and National Committee-driven financing initiatives building on current experiences and applying them in new contexts and on a wider scale.
• Accelerate additional capital for children through new-impact investment products, expanding partnerships with public and private sector partners to create new child-aligned impact investing opportunities in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Access global insurance and risk finance markets to protect the most vulnerable, piloting new child-focused risk financing instruments and innovative insurance products to protect children and their families from the negative impacts of unexpected events, including natural hazards and catastrophes.
• Apply new innovative solutions that add value for children over the next four years. This includes using cutting-edge technologies to leverage new resource channels for children (e.g., cryptocurrency donations and transactional fundraising opportunities.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in relevant field, e.g. Certified Financial Planning and Investment, Public Policy, Business Administration, Finance, Development.
• A minimum of ten (10) years at national and international level in public or private investments, including infrastructure, project management, consulting, research, budget, development, or equivalent experience.
• Successfully demonstrated capacity and recognized leadership in public fora, including development, humanitarian and impact investing arenas, media, and networks and public speaking.
• Proven ability to manage medium to large multicultural and multidisciplinary teams and to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas as well as to manage projects.
• An in-depth understanding and relevant experience of UNICEF initiatives and programming especially at country and regional level is highly desired.
• Strong background and proven professional experience in innovative financing solutions and public-private partnership.
• Strong capacity to work effectively in inter-divisional teams, previous solid experience with external government and non-governmental partners and stakeholders.
• Strong capacity to distill and translate multifaceted and critical issues for organizational attention.
• Experience in/knowledge of the UN system and knowledge of UNICEF’s work would be an asset.
• Strategic thinking and analytical ability.
• Excellent organizational, leadership, interpersonal and public speaking/communications skills.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others. (8) Nurtures, leads, and manages people

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.