SayPro TA – Project – Green Financing Facility Consulting Service

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a Temporary full-time position within the Global Mobility and Infrastructure Service/Division of Financial and Administrative Management home-based in the MENA region.
UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

Title: Project Officer Green Financing Facility
Duty Station: Home-based in the MENA region
Duration: 364 days
Contract Type: Temporary Appointment
Start date: as soon as possible

Organisational context

In 2007, the UN Climate Neutral Strategy was developed, and organizations committed to move their respective organizations to climate neutrality. Since then, UNHCR has continuously improved its efforts in promoting the careful use of energy resources by refugees, host communities, partner organizations and as a priority by UNHCR itself. In 2019, UNHCR developed its Global Strategy for Sustainable Energy 2019-2024 which aims to enable persons of concern to UNHCR to meet their energy needs in a safe and sustainable manner. It also launched the Clean Energy Challenge and is currently working on a first comprehensive Strategic Framework on Climate Action.
In 2020, UNHCR developed a new internal Greening and Sustainability strategy in order to improve its environmental performance, climate compatibility and resource efficiency. The UNHCR Greening & Sustainability strategy focuses on three main areas:

Green Box: measure global energy consumption of UNHCR offices in order to migrate from fossil fuels to renewable energy
Procure and install electricity meters in all UNHCR offices; create centrally managed dashboard with real-time data; carry out energy audits of all UNHCR offices; and prepare business cases for each UNHCR office to identify alternative energy options.

Green Fund: Develop innovative financing model to migrate UNHCR offices from fossil fuels to renewable energy
Establish internal UNHCR Green Revolving Fund to convert UNHCR Operations from diesel to renewable energy; use the Fund to procure from private sector independent power producers through Power Purchase Agreements; aim to achieve positive carbon impact and positive financial impact to budget (cost effective).

Green Data: Implement dynamic technology platform for real-time monitoring and data visualization
Establish systems and policies for real-time, high quality data collection of GHG emissions, energy, waste and water across UNHCR; create data warehouse and dashboards for easy monitoring, reporting and decision-making.
The “Greening and Sustainability” team is responsible for the above mentioned greening UNHCR’s operations. The Green Financing Facility has a current capitalization of USD $12 million and is expected to grow with additional contributions in coming years. A portion of the funds received is a specific allocation of funding from BMZ specifically allocated for our operations affected by the current Afghanistan Refugee crisis, focusing primarily on Pakistan and Iran but including other operations affected.

The first use of the Green Financing Facility is to convert diesel-powered Africa operations to solar power by procurement of clean energy via power purchase agreements or similar long-term contracts from independent power producers. The Greening and Sustainability team is piloting implementation in an initial set of sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, where the Green Financing Facility would back solarization contracts with the private sector, to be selected in a competitive tender process. Given the specific allocation for the Afghanistan situation and the fuel crisis currently being d in many countries in the MENA region, this geography will be a key focal area for greening of UNHCR operations in 2022 and 2023.

The position

The Green Financing Facility Project Officer will be the team member responsible for Green Financing Facility implementation in the countries affected by the Afghanistan refugee situation, reporting to the Green Financing Facility Project Manager.

SayPro and responsibilities

The Project Officer, Green Financing Facility, will Delivery of activities as directed by the Green Financing Facility Project Manager against the Green Financing Facility annual plan and targets agreed with Steering Committee and assume the following key functions:
• Ensure project delivery and implementation of the Green Financing Facility project as agreed to with Sida, BMZ and any other donor that may contribute to the Facility, including solarizing at least four UNHCR field locations in the MENA and Asia region responding to the Afghan refugee situation (or ensuring all efforts are made to this end and documenting in detail why this was not able to be achieved). This includes driving the technical inputs and structure of the competitive procurement processes of the Green Financing Facility.
• Execute and coordinate technical work on the Green Financing Facility Project, including participating in evaluation and other committees to execute expression of interest and request for proposal processes for competitive tenders issued under the Green Financing Facility.
• Create and regularly update annual plan and ongoing project workplan to assist with the management, coordination, and delivery of the Green Financing Facility project.
• Regularly track progress against the workplan, raising interdependencies and risks to project delivery to supervisors, and regularly updating the workplan as needed. It will involve being in close touch with participating offices, sub-offices, relevant regional and HQ colleagues to ensure needed progress against project objectives and milestones.
• Execute project implementation steps as appropriate in line with the Operations Manual, and coordinating other HQ, regional, country, and sub-office colleagues in executing project implementation steps
• Manage the communication and ensure alignment between appointed consultants and the suboffice locations under assessment.
• Advise the Green Financing Facility Project Manager and other UNHCR staff on solarization of UNHCR compounds/offices, as directed by the Green Financing Facility Project Manager.
• Participate in the Green Financing Facility Core Team, a cross-functional group of colleagues that provide technical input into the Green Financing Facility.
• Assist with draft agendas for internal Core Team meetings, facilitating meetings as needed, and helping ensure timely follow-ups.
• Assist with preparation for Steering Committee meetings and help ensure overall stakeholder management, including drafting meeting materials for quarterly Steering Committee meetings and helping to ensure overall meeting effectiveness and timely decision-making, as well as finalizing documents with the feedback of the supervisor and other key stakeholders. This also includes helping to ensure that meeting set-up occurs in a timely and streamlined way, relevant senior leadership are briefed properly in advance of meetings, well-written notes are circulated after the meeting, and action points are tracked and executed upon.
• Help coordinate involvement of external actors and UNHCR’s approach to procurement, including to help negotiate PPAs and ensuring implementation to SayPro standards and timelines once the contractor has been identified.
• Development and compilation of Expression of Interest and Request for Proposal documentation.
• Assist with preparation of and presentation of grant reporting requirements as may be required by the existing and future grant agreements.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional required

Years of Experience / Degree Level
6 years of relevant with Undergraduate degree; or 5 years relevant with Graduate degree; or 4 years relevant with Doctorate degree.

Fields of Education
Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Electrical Engineering or other closely relevant field.

Relevant Job Experience

Essential:
• At least 6 years of relevant in independently managing complex, multi-stakeholders project in the energy/infrastructure sector
• Business analysis / business case development ability, including demonstrated doing business case development in development, humanitarian, or social enterprise settings
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including formal and informal influencing skills and ability to connect with a wide variety of actors, including private sector, investors, development and humanitarian actors, technical experts, and field-based staff
• Capacity to manage multiple stakeholders, an aptitude for formal and informal networking; and to build trust with internal and external partners
• Ability to thrive in a team environment, and to work within an international multi-cultural team
• Solid organizational skills and ability to multi-task
• Solid ability to plan against objectives and to make strategic decisions without heavy supervision
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal targeting different audiences, as well as negotiation and presentation skills
• Excellent computer skills (MS Office, SharePoint, PeopleSoft, BI tools, etc.) and awareness of digital technologies
• Ability to manage a stressful work environment
• Ability to establish and meet or exceed targets and keep in track with objectives.
• Results-oriented mentality with a commitment to continuous learning
• Fluency in English (both comprehensive and written).

Desirable:
• Knowledge of another UN language other than English
• Experience in the private sector, especially in the renewable energy sector, management consulting, investment banking, and/or private equity
• Experience independently utilizing and evaluating financial models
• Experience in fragile/developing country contexts or in field locations
• Engineering background/ a plus

Location
The successful candidate will be home-based in the MENA region.
A certain amount of international travel will be required, especially to UNHCR field locations.
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.
Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Closing Date

Please note that the closing date for this TA advertisement is 29 May 2022 (midnight Geneva time).