Climate Finance Specialist

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an intergovernmental regional organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders. Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building centre, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner.

ADPC is a competent regional resource centre and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by the Finance, the Human Resources and Administration, and the Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees. ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change, and regional cooperation. For details please refer to ADPC website.

Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion or 2.6 per cent of GDP. To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate-resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five years’ project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE). The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans, and investments. Scaling up the climate-resilient financing is vital to satisfactorily implement all the required components of the project. It would involve a review of national policies to support the development of climate-resilient frameworks in planning and financing. Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Climate Public Finance Specialist will be required in Kathmandu, Nepal to support in reviewing national reports and frameworks.

The objectives of this staff position are to:

• Support in reviewing, updating and the utility of the existing climate change public expenditure review to identify gaps and develop a country action plan for climate and disaster risk-informed investment, appraisal and approval framework
• Provide technical inputs in reviewing relevant documents to highlight gaps in climate resilience initiatives with a focus on public expenditure on climate resilience including planning mechanisms and public policy.
• Lead in facilitating cooperation between the Ministry of Finance (MoF), with the Nepal Planning Commission, Ministry of Forest and Environment (MOFE), the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MOFAGA) and other critical public sector agencies in Nepal to identify gaps and develop an action plan for climate and disaster-risk informed investment.
• Support in the implementation of LAPA in a pilot province by integrating and developing a roll-out action on CCFF.

Statement of Intent

The Climate Finance Specialist will play an essential role in Nepal to ensure National expertise is available with a strong understanding of the country climate public financing systems and support in reviewing frameworks and reports to support in scaling up climate-smart investment in the country. The Specialist will further support in the development of action plans and adaptation plans for climate and disaster risk-informed investments. The Climate Finance Specialist, Nepal will be working specifically on rolling out the climate change financing framework of Nepal in selected provinces. The Specialist will also be taking lead on the capacity development of officials in this technical area. The Climate Finance Specialist will be based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Note: It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Technical Review and Support:

• Support in coordinating the conduct of national and sub-national events such as the inception meeting, consultations, and workshops in Nepal related to Public Finance for climate resilience.
• Support the development of the LAPA by integrating the CCFF and integrating the adaptation plan into the sub-national development planning process.
• Lead in the development of a sub-national climate change financing framework implementation plan.
• Co-lead (along with the Country Climate Policy and Planning Specialist) in the development of a national action plan for climate and disaster risk-informed investments, supplemented by a national appraisal and approval framework in Nepal.
• Lead in developing a country fiscal risk analysis report and development of a country action plan for climate-related fiscal risk mitigation measures in Nepal by utilizing the World Bank’s Climate Change Fiscal Risk Analysis tool.
• Co-lead (along with the Country Climate Policy and Planning Specialist).
• Support the development of National Guidelines for Nepal on Climate Finance and Planning to be approved by the Ministry of Finance.
• Lead in the development of a status report on National Climate Change Budgeting and Planning in Nepal.
• Perform other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director, Country Project Lead, and Climate Public Expenditure Specialist (Regional).

Qualifications

• A master’s in Economics, Public Finance or equivalent.
• At least 7 years of experience with public expenditure review or in a relevant field such as development economics, environmental management, public finance, financial resource management, etc. with a minimum of 3 years of experience dealing with climate public expenditure in Nepal.
• Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of latest climate policies, frameworks such as the National Determined Contributions, National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPA), the Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA), Country Climate Change Finance Framework (CCFF) and other vital compliance and obligatory and non-binding agreements in the country relevant to climate adaptation and resilience.
• Proven experience and understanding in the country public expenditure, finance, and fiscal policy processes.
• Teamwork with strong communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines.
• Cross-cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners.
• Experience in training and capacity building.
• Excellent English proficiency in oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in technical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to a general audience. Fluency in Nepali is preferred.
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Teams

Reporting Relationships

The Climate Public Finance Specialist (Nepal) will report to the Director of Risk Governance Department. S/he will maintain close coordination with Country Project Lead for the day to day activities as well as with the ADPC’s Country Representative in Nepal. The technical oversight will be provided by the Climate Public Expenditure Specialist (Regional) at the Bangkok office through the PIU. The specialist will also coordinate with the other CARE project specialists at the regional and national level to carry out different activities under the project.

Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for 1 year initially with a possibility of extension based on performance and technical requirements of the position.

Selection Method

A staff member will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment and/or capacity assessment process.