Program Assistant

The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs).
UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local development finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.

The Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) facility of the UNCDF was designed and launched in 2011 with the aim of promoting climate change-resilient communities and local economies by establishing a standard and internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities (LGAs) in LDCs and to increase local resilience, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the specific goals of poverty eradication (SDG1) and climate action (SDG13). LoCAL increases awareness and capacities to respond to climate change at the local level, integrates climate change adaptation into local governments' planning and budgeting systems, in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner, and increases the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation.

LoCAL focuses on the delivery of four outputs that will directly contribute to increasing local governments’ access to climate finance and building resilience to climate change:

• Output 1 – Awareness and capacities to respond to climate change adaptation at the local level are increased;
• Output 2 – Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) is mainstreamed into government’s planning and budgeting systems and investments are implemented in line with the Performance-based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRG) mechanism;
• Output 3 – The PBCRG system is effectively and sustainably established in participating countries and leads to an increased amount of CCA finance available to local government and local economy;
• Output 4 – The role of local authorities and of the PBCRGS in addressing climate change are increasingly recognized at international level, through outreach, learning and quality assurance.

LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) with technical and capacity-building support. PBCRGs ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level and offer strong incentives for general performance improvements targeting areas of importance for enhanced resilience. The PBCRG can be seen as an earmarked cross-sectoral grant with conditions attached to the use of its funding for climate change adaptation beyond business as usual. Combined with regular grant allocations, PBCRGs enable 100 per cent of the investments in climate-sensitive sectors to become climate resilient over time.

The PBCRGs consist of a financial top-up to cover the additional costs of making investments climate resilient and/or of additional investments for climate change adaptation. These grants complement regular allocations made by the central level to local governments through the respective intergovernmental fiscal transfer system. They include a set of minimum conditions, performance measures and a menu of eligible investments.

• Provide support for the development and effective implementation of LoCAL in Tuvalu in close collaboration with the UNCDF national teams and the LoCAL Facility (global team);
• Contribute to quality monitoring, evaluation and reporting (e.g. preparation and monitoring of the annual work plans, organization and participation in field missions, contribution to the preparation of the quarterly and annual reports);
• Contribute to the organization of events, meetings, conferences, etc., including proposing agenda topics, identifying participants, preparation of documents and presentations, etc.
• Collect intelligence on technical and financial partners, identify opportunities for collaboration with key stakeholders and support the development of partnerships for LoCAL in assigned countries.
• Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of programme/project concepts and full-fledged proposals for financing;
• Contribute to operations activities, including finance, planning, human resources, procurement, transport, IT, security, administration and ensure they follow UNCDF’s rules, regulations, policies and procedures
• Contribute to the knowledge and communication efforts of LoCAL based on lessons learned and results achieved from target countries (e.g. collecting stories from the field, photos/videos, webpage, as appropriate).