The Senior Technical Intern Advisor on Biodiversity Finance will spearhead the economic and finance shift for the Nature Pledge, ensuring UNDP’s technical support quality and expanding funding partnerships. Providing strategic leadership, they guide policy support and foster collaboration across units, playing a key role in designing initiatives and contributing to UNDP-wide learning. Based in Brussels and reporting to the Nature Hub Director, the Senior Technical Advisor leads a team of 20+ experts and is expected to travel.

Duties and Responsibilities for Senior Technical Intern Advisor

Innovation, Strategic Leadership, Policy Dialogue and Advocacy:

• Provide thought leadership and lead advocacy and programme development for the economic and finance shift pillar of the UNDP Nature Pledge, ensuring a robust theory of change and strategic direction for implementation to meet targets;
• Provide authoritative leadership, supervision and guidance to Biodiversity Finance senior advisory team in providing substantive development policy services to country offices;
• Coordinate closely with the Sustainable Finance Hub on any relevant initiatives at the interface of nature and finance (BIOFIN, the Nature Related financial disclosure, etc);
• Maintain and strengthen strategic positioning of the Nature Pledge and biodiversity finance offer with multilateral environmental conventions in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), as well as with bilateral and multilateral donors and other key partners.
• Contribute to UNDP’s global and regional strategies on environment and sustainable development within the BPPS and beyond, engaging in policy and advocacy work with external partners where relevant;
• Represent UNDP at international conferences and seminars, contribute to research, communications and op-eds to advocate the importance of financing biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management in contributing to the sustainable development goals;
• Lead policy analysis and development of policy position papers, technical notes,  internal briefing notes, and knowledge products.
• Maintain trusted relationships with country offices, government and non-governmental partners across the world.

Partnership Development and Resource Mobilization:

• Contribute to a strategic UNDP engagement with, European Commission and EU member states, on the substantive technical issues around biodiversity finance and natural capital management, in close collaboration with the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy (BERA);
• Develop strategies and advocate for the mobilization of further resources, and ensures effective utilization of resources in the context of meeting Nature Pledge targets;
• Lead conceptualization and development of joint programmes to advance the Nature Pledge, with EU and other bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as with private sector and philanthropic partners;
• Lead engagement and partnership development with public and private financial institutions and private sector partners around biodiversity finance agenda in close collaboration with the Sustainable Finance Hub and BERA.

Portfolio Management and Development Impact:

• Oversee the overall effective and efficient management of biodiversity finance related programme and projects, providing strategic guidance and support to project teams, bureaus and country offices;
• Ensure effective provision for and management of risks including social and environmental risks and private sector due diligence, providing guidance on ensuring risk mitigation and management system during the project design and implementation phases.
• Ensure effective delivery of results and impacts through high quality strategic guidance, implementation support and risk management, including technical support, monitoring, troubleshooting, evaluation, reporting and dissemination of results and impacts.
• Ensure close collaboration and cross fertilization between biodiversity finance related programmes and the work of the UNDP representation offices in Brussels and other locations in Europe, GPN units including the Sustainable Finance Hub, Climate, Chemical and Waste and Energy Hubs and the Vertical Fund Unit;
• Ensure coordination and identify synergies within and across the UNDP thematic hubs, Vertical Fund unit and broader GPN Practices, offers, and technical teams and promote cross-unit collaboration, issue-based solutions and learning at global, regional, and country levels with a view to greater impact and transformation;
• Identify biodiversity finance entry points within the work of UNDP beyond the Nature Hub and provide support for incorporating biodiversity finance offers to advance the work of various thematic practice areas, including finance (coordinating with the Environmental Finance and SDG Finance Hub), green commodities, ag subsidy reform, extractives, supply chains and poverty-environment nexus.

Learning, Knowledge Management and Self Development:

• Lead cross-organization knowledge and learning in the biodiversity finance related domains, grounded in the UNDP knowledge strategy, and with a view to leveraging all-of-house knowledge in UNDP, and in external networks. Meaningful south-south exchange should be a priority.
• Oversee UNDPs knowledge management for biodiversity finance and ensure the organization keeps abreast of emerging and cutting-edge knowledge in this area;
• Lead and promote capturing knowledge emerging from the development and implementation of programmes at global, regional and country level; and
• Ensure the guidance and coordination of cross-regional exchange of knowledge to help influence/advance policy dialogue in biodiversity finance field and present such material at regional and other fora.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: Supervision, management, performance management, and development of global staff and consultants will be required.

The Senior Advisor on Biodiversity Finance will supervise the Biodiversity Finance team composed of Global BIOFIN Program; Nature Related Financial Disclosure support project; and any new global projects and programs, based in a variety of locations, while supporting capacities across the organization to deliver on the economic and finance shift component of the Nature Pledge. The Senior Advisor on Biodiversity Finance will oversee a team of over 30 personnel.

check: UNDP Technical Project Intern Analyst at Timor-Leste

Required Skills and Experience