Senior Associate, Adaptation and Environmental Information

INTRODUCTION TO GGGI

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. To learn more please visit about GGGI web page. 

CONTEXT

Nicaragua’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) was originally submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2018 and updated in 2020. The development of the country’s NDC followed a highly participatory and consultative process, prioritizing engagement and validation with vulnerable groups, including native, afro-descendants and indigenous communities, women and youth. The resulting NDC is a highly ambitious plan inclusive of mitigation and adaptation measures. Nicaragua relies on concessional international climate finance from development partners to finance its development and climate change objectives.

However, the achievement of Nicaragua’s NDC targets requires a substantial increase in the volume of public and private, national and international climate finance invested in the country. The significant investment and efforts required for Nicaragua to implement its development and climate change plans risks being hampered by the impact of the 2018 attempted coup, COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes Eta and Iota, which hit the country, almost simultaneously, after a prolonged period of high debt-financed public infrastructure investments, weakening the country’s economic outlook, shifting priorities towards economic recovery, and reducing fiscal and policy space to pursue priority climate change initiatives. Although international climate finance offers some relief to the country´s growing debt to GDP ratio, the decreasing level of international aid and limited private sector participation in the country’s development agenda undermines the long-term sustainability of this fiscal approach. GGGI program aims to support the Government of Nicaragua’s climate finance efforts by delivering a set of complementary workstreams:

• Workstream 1: Development of a climate finance roadmap 

• Workstream 2: Accessing the green bond market to raise affordable long-term finance earmarked to priority mitigation and adaptation projects. 

• Workstream 3: Development of Nicaragua’s debt for climate swap strategy to free fiscal space to pursue NDC priority programs and projects. 

• Workstream 4: Greening Nicaragua’s banking sector.

Project Goal: The Government of Nicaragua has adequate strategic frameworks to access long-term international climate finance and promote private sector participation and investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation through enabling strategies and plans, innovative sustainable finance instruments, and increased sustainability of its banking sector. 

Goal Statement: IF the Government of Nicaragua builds its institutional capacity and enabling environment for climate finance then Nicaragua will be on track to meet its NDC targets BECAUSE the development of enabling climate finance frameworks, innovative sustainable finance instruments and sustainable banking practices will promote increased flow of international finance and private investments to NDC priority actions.

The intervention’s primary beneficiaries include: 

1.The Ministry of Economy and Public Credit (MHCP) and Nicaragua Central Bank (BCN): the proposed Readiness grant will strengthen the capacity and systems of the MHCP and BCN to raise affordable long-term climate finance to meet Nicaragua’s NDC targets without compromising the government’s fiscal balance. MHCP and BCN will receive capacity building and technical assistance to design, structure and implement innovative climate finance instruments, including, green bonds and debt for climate swaps. 

2. The Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF): the proposed Readiness grant will strengthen the capacity of the SIBOIF to develop, implement and enforce sustainable banking regulations and practices, in alignment with international sustainable banking standards and frameworks. Local financial institutions will benefit from enhanced capacity to screen and mitigate the environmental and social risk of transaction, improving their financial performance and the overall resilience of the domestic banking sector against climate change risks, while increasing the volume of credit disbursed to low-carbon, resilient projects, and vulnerable groups.

3. Climate Change Secretariat of the Presidency of Nicaragua (SCCP): the proposed Readiness further the mission of the SCCP of implementing the National Climate Change Policy by strengthening the government’s institutional capacity and systems to access long-term concessional climate finance to implement the priority climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

The Senior Associate, Adaptation and Environmental Information will be part of the Nicaragua team and based on Managua. S/he will work in close collaboration with other staff in CAID, IPSD, and other GGGI divisions, particularly Nicaragua country team and under the guidance of the Project Manager. The Senior Associate will provide technical assistance to the Secretariat of Climate Change of the Presidency.

PURPOSE

The  Senior Associate will provide technical assistance to the Secretariat of Climate Change of the Presidency, and support

1. the implementation of SCCP technical assistance under the direction of the Project Manager as well as carry out project management best practices, including project budgeting, monitoring and evaluation.
2. The Senior Associate  will work to support and advise partner country project in planning, designing, and implementing adaptation and resilience projects, including the creation of an enabling environment and formulating grant-based and bankable projects. In addition, the senior associate is expected to support the knowledge outputs that are highly relevant to the given context Nicaragua Program and support the implementation of policies and projects conducive to financing/investment, represent GGGI in relevant networks and platforms and generate visibility for the work of GGGI in the context of climate adaptation and resilience, low emission and climate resilience development strategies and sustainable finance policy development.

ENGAGEMENT

The Senior Associate shall proactively engage in collaboration, knowledge-sharing, communications, and advocacy for advancing country efforts to meet Paris Agreement commitments by:

• Building and leveraging collaboration with and resources from international organizations (including the UNFCCC), partnerships, and platforms as well as research institutions, academic institutions, and other organizations, where relevant, to support project implementation.
• Engaging and collaborating with key GGGI staff, including other country teams, throughout the project design and implementation process and supporting in-country technical advisory services.
• Engaging and collaborating with the donors focus on climate change efforts.
• Supporting stakeholder engagement, visioning exercises, consultations, and other activities necessary to formulate systems, strategies, and relevant policy documents.
• Engaging, where necessary, with government and non-government counterparts to support relevant project and policy implementation.

DELIVERY

The Senior Associate  is responsible for supporting and, in some cases, leading technical assistance activities as part of GGGI’s efforts to promote integrated planning for low emission climate resilient green growth. Relevant tasks will include:

• Conducting, supporting, and sharing research, analysis, and insights on relevant climate change adaptation issues.
• Ensure project outputs, activities, and deliverables and project reporting are completed and submitted on a timely basis.
• Managing individual consultants and/or small consultancy projects.
• Reviewing project outputs for quality control and addressing delivery issues with internal and external project collaborators.
• Preparing relevant technical studies, guidelines, reports, and publications where applicable; and
• Preparing relevant, high-quality communications materials (fact sheets, project brochures, media releases, website content, etc.).

REQUIREMENTS

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor´s degree in fields relevant to the described position (such as environmental policy, engineering, environmental science and management, economics, statistics, climate change or any related fields)

• Master's degree in economics, environmental management, climate change, agriculture and forestry, public policy, or another relevant field is advantaged

• At least five (7) years of experience in climate change with at least three (3) years in EWS development, risk and vulnerability assessment, identification of most vulnerable or riskier region, areas, economic sectors, and communities.

• Experience in international organizations working with developing countries is a plus.

• Experience with designing and implementing capacity building activities aimed at enhancing country capacity to identify disaster and climate risk to alert population in a timely manner.

• Experience in quantitative data analysis, and the ability to produce compelling insights from the analysis of issues related to adaptation.

FUNCTIONAL

• Strong understanding of the concepts of climate change (adaptation), of green growth and/or sustainable development in the context of developing countries, of sectoral issues and policy and regulatory approaches in developing and emerging countries, and of recent developments and global trends around specialization.
• Excellent multi-cultural literacy and interest in being a part of an international team working in an evolving and entrepreneurial environment.
• Exceptional analytical and quantitative skills, along with strong synthesis and strategic thinking skills.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills.

CORPORATE

• Understand and actively support GGGI mission, vision and values.
• Promote the optimum use of public resources.
• Promote an organizational culture of trust, transparency, respect and partnership.
• Process and share information easily.
• Manage emotions and stress positively, build rapport and resolve conflict easily.
• Promote creativity and innovation among staff.
• Be able to lead where needed and provide solutions to project-level challenge.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The Senior Associate, Adaptation and Environmental Information, is an X7 grade level in GGGI’s Nicaragua salary scale. GGGI provides 15% of base salary towards retirement plan/long-term savings, 27 days of annual leave, and private health insurance GGGI is committed to providing a work environment that is sufficiently flexible to accommodate diverse life-cycle challenges and assist Staff members to achieve a better balance between work and personal/family commitments, thus ensuring high performance, long-term productivity, and well-being of Staff members.