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.

OVERVIEW

• Duty Station: Castries, Saint Lucia
• Contract Duration: July 25 2023 – Jan 23 2024
• Consultant Level: Level 5
• Total fees: up to USD 40,300 (up to USD 650 per day, depending on experience)

GGGI is seeking an experienced Sustainable Finance Expert responsible for conceptualizing and developing recommendations to scale up and replicate results and outcomes from the GGGI-led GCF Readiness Project on Mobilizing International Climate Finance and Private Investments for Low-Carbon Development in Saint Lucia (“the Readiness”) that will be concluding at the end of 2023. The consultant will work closely with the GGGI Team, as well as the Department of Finance, Department of Economic Development, and Department of Sustainable Development to identify barriers to the adoption, sustainability and scale up of the project´s outputs, develop recommendations to overcome them and capture lessons and best practices. The consultant will also support financial pre-feasibility activities related to Saint Lucia’s resilient green affordable housing project that is being developed under the Readiness program. The consultant will work under the supervision of the Caribbean Program Representative and Regional Investment Lead, and engage closely with government counterparts and other members of the GGGI team including staff and consultants.

GGGI supports and promotes a model of economic growth known as “green growth”, which targets key aspects of economic performance such a poverty reduction, job creation, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. GGGI works with countries around the world, building their capacity and working collaboratively on green growth policies that can impact the lives of millions. The organization partners with countries, multilateral institutions, government bodies, and private sector to help build economies that grow strongly and are more efficient and sustainable in the use of natural resources, less carbon intensive, and more resilient to climate change.

GGGI has a diverse portfolio of programs in developing countries around the world. These in-country programs, together with global products and services, focus on delivering results through an integrated approach of evidence-based green growth planning and implementation aligned to countries’ development priorities.

GGGI is currently rolling out an 18-month Green Climate Fund Readiness Grant with the Government of Saint Lucia titled “Mobilizing Climate Finance and Private Investments for Low-Carbon Development in Saint Lucia”. The project aims at building the Government of Saint Lucia (GoSL) institutional capacity, frameworks and projects pipeline to enable the mobilization of climate finance and private investments for NDC implementation and low-carbon development in Saint Lucia.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Saint Lucia relies heavily on grant funding and concessionary loans from development partners to finance its development and climate change objectives. The achievement of Saint Lucia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets is conditional on external financing. Although international climate finance and ODA offer some relief to Saint Lucia’s growing debt to GDP ratio, the decreasing level of international aid undermines the long-term sustainability of this approach. Consequently, the GoSL is pursuing efforts to diversify the country donor engagement, access under-utilized climate funds and develop new and innovative finance mechanisms to de-risk climate related projects to attract private sector investments.

Given the above, the Government of Saint Lucia has developed a Private Sector Engagement Strategy and NDC Financing Strategy to develop an enabling environment for private sector investments, with the goal of having the private sector contribute an estimated US$ 218 million in mitigation investments by 2030 (that is 90% of the total). GGGI’s technical assistance project supports these efforts by delivering technical assistance across 5 workstreams:

1. Supporting Saint Lucia’s capital market’s readiness assessment for a sovereign green bond issuance

2. Providing technical assistance to the Government of Saint Lucia to pursue the implementation of a debt for climate swap transaction to raise long-term funds earmarked to climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.

3. Providing technical assistance to local financial institutions to integrate environmental and social standards into their processes, procedures, and instruments in order to increase the availability of green finance for private-sector led climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.

4. Increasing the Government of Saint Lucia’s institutional capacity to design and structure Public-Private Partnerships.

5. Advancing the development of a PPP flagship project: Saint Lucia Green Affordable Housing project.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

Daily rate contract

• Assist Saint Lucia’s National Designated Authority to the Green Climate Fund and other key stakeholders in the conceptualization of sustainable and climate finance plans and proposals; reviewing existing plans, assessing progress, and identifying gaps for future support
• Support engagement with relevant government stakeholders across OECS member countries to present and validate the results of the GGGI-led GCF Readiness project
• Identify barriers to the sustainability and scale up of the Readiness workstreams and recommend actions to address the barriers;
• Develop and propose activities to scale up and replicate impact from the GCF Readiness project. Proposed interventions should be structured in the form of problem statement, workstreams, outputs and activities with relative budget and implementation timeline, including required resources;
• Organize consultation meetings and workshops to validate recommendations;
• Identify synergies with national and regional ongoing and planned initiatives;
• Identify opportunities to strengthen gender equality and social inclusion in Readiness workstreams;
• Document/Identify lessons learned from the implementation of the GCF Readiness project via interviews with beneficiaries and stakeholders;
• Prepare 2-page teaser document to outline the results of the Readiness project;
• Attend bi-weekly meetings of the project team and submit monthly progress reports in GGGI’s standard template.
• Lead development of financial pre-feasibility analysis for the resilient green affordable housing project. Using costings and other inputs gathered by the GGGI team, perform and document simple financial modelling for input into the pre-feasibility study. Perform discounted cash flow analysis to identify optimal capital structure, required level of concessionally, and main investment metrics, including NPV, IRR and debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR). Lead the drafting of the financial narrative section of the pre-feasibility report, including description of project structure and delivery options. Present to project stakeholders and incorporate their comments.
• Lead the identification and engagement with suitable Green Climate Fund (GCF) Accredited Entities (AE) to advance the development of the resilient green affordable housing concept note with a goal of submitting funding proposal for the GCF Board to approve. Conduct bilateral meetings and consultations with candidate DAE, regional and international AEs to present the project idea, its climate rationale and support the NDA to define the GCF submission strategy of the project.

EXPERTISE REQUIERED

• Postgraduate degree in Finance, Banking, Law, Economics or related areas
• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience, including at least 5 years of sustainable finance experience, preferably in regional financial institutions or development agencies
• Excellent written and oral communications skills.
• Experience working with institutions, stakeholders, and capital markets in the OECS region
• Experience leading or supporting projects or initiatives related to sustainable financing in the Caribbean region
• Demonstrated ability to perform simple financial modeling at the project level. Experience with blended finance projects desirable
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills and a proven ability to develop, maintain and enhance relationships with a variety of internal and external contacts
• Familiarity with the Saint Lucia public finance ecosystem and policies is desirable
• Experience developing projects and proposals for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) desirable
• Native English proficiency

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Please note date to close is Korean Standard Time (KST). Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered Application. Please attach cover Letter, CV (resume), and writing sample in English. A consortium, or a firm may not be engaged for the individual consultant assignment.