The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the United Nation’s flagship catalytic financing entity for the least developed countries (LDCs). With its unique capital mandate and LDC focus, UNCDF works to invest and catalyse capital and provide expertise to support these countries in achieving ​the sustainable growth and inclusiveness envisioned by the 2030 Agenda and the Doha Programme of Action for the LDCs, 2022–2031. UNCDF aims to strengthen financing mechanisms and systems to contribute to transformation pathways such as green economy, digitalization, urbanization, inclusive economies and women’s economic empowerment.

A hybrid between a development finance institution and a development agency, UNCDF uses a combination of capital and development assistance instruments applied across five priority areas – the two flagship areas of inclusive digital economies and local transformative finance, alongside women’s economic empowerment, climate, energy & biodiversity finance, and sustainable food systems finance.

UNCDF combines its Sustainable Development Goal financing capabilities, instruments and sector expertise with the wider development and operational capacities of the United Nations development system to deliver more comprehensive and impactful support for the LDCs. UNCDF builds partnerships with private and public actors to achieve greater results and development impact and unlock additional resources.

The Policy team in the Partnerships, Policy and Communications Unit (PPC), to which this post is assigned, leads and manages the organization’s strategic policy and positioning in the UN development system, its engagement in relevant inter-governmental processes, its relationship with its governing body, the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board and with the Permanent Missions to the UN of its programme countries. The team also spearheads analytical work on strategic policy and financing issues, such as blended finance.

Position Purpose:

Position Context: The Policy Specialist is part of the Policy team and the PPC Unit and contributes to ensuring that UNCDF is positioned strategically in the evolving partnership and policy environments in the area of sustainable development, financing for development and innovative finance, with a focus on the least developed countries (LDCs). Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Policy Advisor, the Policy Specialist is expected to work closely with teams across UNCDF priority areas and to provide actionable advice and support to the Directorate on matters of strategic planning, policy analysis and relevant advocacy and partnership development.

The Policy Specialist works to strengthen partnerships and develop policy products with a view to improving UNCDF’s contributions to relevant policy debates; support UNCDF’s engagement in key inter-governmental and inter-agency processes; build effective partnerships with UNDP and the wider UN development system, development finance institutions, and other stakeholders; support development of UNCDF country strategy notes for programme countries; and strengthen UNCDF’s ability to develop, capture and share knowledge within UNCDF.

The Policy Specialist also helps monitor and advise on developments related to UN reform and their potential implications for UNCDF; track and craft UNCDF’s contributions to developments and policy debates in the financing for development landscape; and helps shape UNCDF’s responses and strategies to a shifting financing for development landscape.

The Policy Specialist will work closely with the Directorate, other PPC staff, the thematic units of the organization, the Finance and Management Support Office, and other teams. The Policy Specialist maintains a network with colleagues from UNCDF, UNDP, UN entities, IFIs, private sector and civil society, and will also be tasked with supporting strategic projects of an ad hoc nature as they may arise.

UNDP/UNCDF adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across

interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP/UNCDF personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.) Provides strategic planning and policy advice on inter-governmental processes and UN inter-agency related matters, with a view to ensuring a robust contribution from and positioning of UNCDF.

• Supports UNCDF’s corporate engagement in key UN intergovernmental processes, including especially related to the preparations for the Fourth Conference on Financing for Development in 2025, the Summit of the Future, negotiations of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR), and other key processes;
• Contributes to inter-governmental debates and developments, including providing policy advice and support on strategic engagement opportunities for UNCDF, preparing UNCDF contributions to background papers, reports, official events, and side events;
• Facilitates UNCDF’s engagement with its Executive Board, including helping to prepare and review UNCDF reports to the board, arrange informal briefings, and manage relationships;
• Follows and proactively engages in relevant UN interagency processes and mechanisms and advises on strategic opportunities for UNCDF participation and engagement, including in relation to UNDP and other UN development system entities;
• Represents UNCDF in select interagency mechanisms as appropriate and prepares relevant documentation for the participation of the Executive Secretary or Deputy Executive Secretary;
• Advises UNCDF country teams in UN reform processes, including providing guidance on and quality assurance of UNCDF inputs to the development of UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCFs) and Common Country Analyses (CCAs);
• Ensures compliance with and prepare UNCDF inputs to various intergovernmental / interagency processes.

2.) Actively participate in advocacy and partnerships within and outside the UN, including with UN Member States and other multilateral organizations.

• Facilitates development and monitoring of UNCDF partnerships with UNDP and other UN entities, including pursuing opportunities to expand partnerships in line with UNCDF’s mandate;
• Maintains and updates UNCDF’s internal knowledge database on UN partnerships;
• Works with UNCDF colleagues to ensure strategic engagement with Permanent Missions of LDCs to the UN on their priorities through consultations and bilateral meetings;
• Advises UNCDF country teams to identify strategic partnership opportunities, including with UNDP and UN entities and other partners on the ground;
• Works with UNCDF teams to integrate relevant strategic policy components and UN inter-agency elements into project proposals;
• Facilitates select other strategic partnerships and resource mobilization efforts.

3.) Leads office efforts to thought leadership, knowledge capture and sharing, including preparation of select knowledge products.

• Works closely with UNCDF units to support strategic knowledge management initiatives, to help ensure that lessons are captured and made available to inform future UNCDF programming and investment activities;
• Identifies and acts on opportunities for thought leadership across the areas of UNCDF’s expertise, including through drafting lessons learned documents, holding webinars, and drafting policy papers and opinion pieces;
• Supports research and knowledge capture on good practices in the area of blended finance, including through UNCDF’s membership with Convergence;
• Tracks development and programme innovations in the financing for development space, both within and beyond the UN, with a view to identifying potential synergies with UNCDF’s programmatic work;
• Advise to articulate and disseminate UNCDF policy and programme offers in support of implementing UNCDF’s Strategic Framework;
• Manage the review and clearance process for corporate publications, and works with UNCDF teams to ensure high visibility for said products.

4.) Actively participate to UNCDF’s investment committee and other internal institutional processes, select policy and strategy development, and preparation of relevant briefings and speeches for meetings.

• Performs the function of Secretariat for the UNCDF Investment and Disbursement Impact Committee (IDIC). Ensures that transaction teams submit complete documentation and performs required quality assurance standards are met.
  • Maintains a pipeline of planned transactions for IDIC review, organizes IDIC meetings, prepares minutes of meetings, develops and manages an IDIC knowledge database, coordinates with the Executive Secretary for final decision-making of transactions reviewed by IDIC.
  • Develops and revises as needed Standard Operating Procedures and standardized templates for IDIC.
  • Helps organize biannual impact and performance reviews of UNCDF transactions, as per IDIC Terms of Reference.
  • Supports development, testing and rollout of an impact score system, to be applied to all UNCDF transactions reviewed by IDIC.
• Contributes to  corporate results measurement exercises as needed;
• Contributes to development and reviews of select institutional strategic policy products and guidance documents;
• Facilitates timely preparation of relevant background documents, briefings for meetings for the Executive Secretary and the Deputy Executive Secretary;
• Provides inputs to drafting of key speeches and other strategic policy papers and communication products;
• Serves as UNCDF focal point for engagement with UNDP’s Executive Office;
• Performs other official duties and special assignments, which may be required, including support for emerging corporate strategic priorities and initiatives.