The salary range for this position is equivalent to 60,000 – 70,000 USD.

Position Overview

The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) works with a global network of partners to build an inclusive industry that makes clean cooking accessible to the three billion people who live each day without it. Established in 2010, CCA is driving consumer demand, mobilizing investment to build a pipeline of scalable businesses, and fostering an enabling environment that allows the sector to thrive. Clean cooking transforms lives by improving health, protecting the climate and environment, empowering women, and helping consumers save time and money. In alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, CCA is working to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030.

CCA seeks to make high-impact clean cooking solutions desirable, affordable, and accessible for consumers and viable for businesses to provide sustainably at scale. It supports companies that design, manufacture, distribute, and retail electric, biomass, ethanol, biogas, and LPG-based clean cooking solutions in addition to more efficient wood and charcoal cookstoves. It also supports technology innovation with the aim to commercialize new technologies such as highly energy-efficient electric cookers for off-grid/mini-grid communities.

CCA’s Clean Cooking Systems Strategy highlighted that at least US$10 billion per year is required to achieve universal access to clean cooking, yet the current level of funding lags far behind at about $130 million annually. In response, CCA has established the Catalytic Finance Accelerator. Its mission is to catalyse significant growth in funding and investment in the sector within three years. It will do so by addressing challenges that lie in the way of high-growth catalytic capital (most notably carbon finance and public funded results-based finance); by leveraging these pools of funding to catalyse larger pools of traditional capital (e.g., guarantees, debt, equity, early-stage equity); and by laying the groundwork to unlock future pools of capital (e.g., social value finance at scale).

Catalytic Finance Accelerator is a coalition of investors and market facilitators in clean cooking, carbon, and financial markets committed to a vision of clean cooking markets that can attract more investors with a diverse range of instruments that meets the needs of companies across the maturity cycle and diverse country contexts, financing the transition to higher tier solutions. It aims to secure at least US$ 100 million of unearmarked commitments by 2026 and invest in targeted programmes of work that, together, result in increasing the willingness and ability of investors to make and grow their exposure in clean cooking and enhance the risk-adjusted financial, environmental, and social returns from investing in clean cooking markets.

The Catalytic Finance Accelerator’s central strategy is to leverage high-growth carbon markets to catalyze large pools of traditional capital (e.g. guarantees, debt, equity, and other forms of blended capital), to make more effective and sustainable traditional forms of non-returnable capital (e.g. grants and technical assistance delivered through input-based and various output-based mechanisms), and lay the groundwork to unlock future pools of capital (e.g. revenue from monetizing impact on SDGs). The Catalytic Finance Accelerator has four programmatic pillars:

• The Global Policy Pillar focuses on improving global market norms and conduct to create a level playing field and instill greater integrity and fairness in how the market functions and market actors behave. The Global Policy Pillar includes a few multi-stakeholder policy coordination initiatives which the Catalytic Finance Accelerator either convenes and manages (e.g. the Responsible Carbon Finance for Clean Cooking Initiative) and actively draws-on/contributes to (e.g. the Clean Cooking and Climate Consortium, Ad-hoc Results-based Finance Funders Coordination Group, Delivery Unit Network).
• The Market Infrastructure Pillar focuses on improving the access to and use of high-quality market information and innovation infrastructure to reduce the time, cost, or effort in making responsible investments. The Market Infrastructure Pillar includes two transitional market infrastructures to facilitate high quality and actionable information for investors through the Market Information Hub and to challenge private sector investors through the CCA-UNCDF Innovation Challenge Facility.
• The Country and Ventures Pillar focuses on improving the capacity of countries and clean cooking ventures to adopt responsible market norms and innovations needed to lower investment risks and improve the unit economics of clean cooking markets in identified countries and in identified fuel/tool value chains. The Country and Ventures Pillar collaborates with CCA’s Market Strengthening Teams – the Venture Catalyst and Country Transitions – to integrate global norms, innovations, and best practices in their support packages for countries and ventures; selectively respond to the policy, infrastructure, and investment needs of countries and ventures with structured advisory services; and/or selectively draws on country level networks or venture building capability to advance Catalytic Finance Accelerator’s global policy, market infrastructure, and adjacent sector priorities.
• The Adjacent Market Pillar focuses on making responsive adjacent financial and capital markets to make available greater volume and diversity of financial instruments to clean cooking markets and clean cooking carbon projects. The Adjacent Market Pillar includes the Global Financial Sector Partnership for Clean Cooking, a magnet platform founded by CCA and the African Guarantee Fund to align local and international capital with the financing needs of clean cooking carbon to projects.

The Catalytic Finance Accelerator is seeking a dynamic and versatile Senior Associate to support programme management and the delivery of the Catalytic Finance Accelerator’s initiatives.

The Senior Associate, Programme Administration, Catalytic Finance Accelerator, will work closely with the Senior Director, Innovative Finance, to ensure effective implementation of the Catalytic Finance Accelerator through supporting management of projects and deliverables and collaboration across the Market Strengthening team. The role shall support work that generates strategic insights to all ongoing and planned Innovative Finance work, creating an opportunity to grow into strategic design and delivery of projects.

The Senior Associate, Innovative Finance will also work closely with the Operations and Communications teams to support internal alignment and delivery of the Catalytic Finance Accelerator.

This position is based in the UK or remote Europe/Africa.

Essential Functions

Programme Administration and Reporting

• Establish and support project management system for the Catalytic Finance Accelerator including deliverable and budget management and an appropriate dashboard with oversight.
• Co-ordinate and lead internal update meetings with operations and communications teams to align communication plans, budgets and legal documentation requirements.
• Supporting programme oversight reporting on programme portfolio.
• Assist in drafting and completing required reports, analysis, evaluations, and other documentation including yearly business plan.
• Support logistics associated with programme management of new initiatives as appropriate.

Technical Support

• Support management of the roster of Technical Support Providers across the Catalytic Finance Activities and deliverables incl. working with CCA Operations team on expressions of interest and proposals, contractual management, deliverables and payments.

Coordination

• Co-ordinating team meetings and scheduling meetings with other teams as required.
• Maintain log of team meetings, capturing decisions and following up on commitments.
• Maintaining weekly and quarterly tracking against plans for both internal team and weekly all staff updates.
• Note-take on behalf of the Senior Director, Innovative Finance in internal cross-departmental meetings where agreed and in their absence.

Strategy Management

• Support creation and management of strategic documents for the Catalytic Finance Accelerator and core initiatives, including tracking lessons learned and insights for further strategic design.
• Potential growth opportunities to design and manage strategic innovative finance projects.
• Other duties as assigned.

Selection Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree required; focus in economics, finance, environment or related discipline preferred. Masters preferred.
• 3-4 years of related professional experience.
• Knowledge of development finance, energy and clean cooking, carbon markets preferred.
• Experience and skills in data analysis and/or data visualisation preferred.
• Solutions-oriented and able to manage and advance multiple tasks and responsibilities in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Problem-solver with a proactive, no-task-is-too-small nature, who takes initiative.
• Team-oriented, supportive work style, and able to work independently.
• High ethical standards and ability to maintain confidentiality and discretion with sensitive information.
• Ability to learn new systems and collaboration platforms efficiently.
• Proficiency in Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), with particular emphasis on ability with written and Powerpoint documents.
• Demonstrated ability to function as a team player in a multicultural environment, and experience working with teams across different time zones and cultures.
• Capacity to work simultaneously on a variety of issues and tasks, adjusting to priorities and achieving results within agreed objectives and deadlines.

Benefits & Compensation

For full-time, benefit eligible employees, UNF offers an excellent range of benefits, including:

• a choice between two health plans through UnitedHealthcare (PPO or HDHP with HSA)
• dental insurance
• vision insurance
• flexible spending accounts
• 403b retirement savings plan with a generous matching contribution
• group term and supplemental life insurance
• short-term disability
• long-term disability
• health club discounts
• commuter subsidy
• back-up care
• employee assistance program

Additionally, all benefit eligible employees have 12 paid holidays, 20 vacation days, 10 sick days, 3 personal days, and 8 weeks of family leave care.