Associate, Special Economic Zones and Green Urban Development

PURPOSE 

The primary role of the Associate is to support the Program Lead in ensuring the timely delivery and safeguarding the consistent quality of outputs and activities under the Special Economic Zones / Green Urban Development Workstream in Indonesia. The Associate supports the Program Lead in ensuring process integrity in program operation and specific project/output delivery, fully meeting established institutional policies, standards and donor requirements across budget execution, procurement & HR processes implementation and other operational functions.

ENGAGEMENT

The Associate will be based, several days per week, in the office of the Government counterpart(s). In his/her engagement with both Government and non-Government counterparts, the Associate will identify issues and other operational factors which impact consistent delivery of the program. He or she will continuously advise on possible remedial approaches to sustain and advance quality of the program and its delivery.

DELIVERY

The Associate will support the Program Lead with program management and administrative tasks, as well as with policy and advisory related tasks. Additional or other tasks might be allocated to the Associate.

Program management and administrative tasks:

• Monitoring and reporting on project and workstream activities to ensure efficiency and consistency with established work plans to support program management;
• Monitoring of project budget and tracking expenditures to ensure that program resources are optimally allocated and utilized
• Managing detailed budget execution plans and schedules in line with yearly work programs and budget line
• Developing and monitoring procurement plans and requisition procedures in line with yearly work programs and budget lines
• Communicating program needs to service providers/suppliers and ensure that services/products are delivered in line with established agreements.

Policy and advisory

• Policy engagement with Indonesian government counterparts and non-government stakeholders in the green city and economic zones policy community
• Policy research to deliver analytical products
• Designing innovative project proposals, concept notes and business case studies
• Identifying issues and risks that will affect consistent program and delivery  

 QUALIFICATIONS

• Postgraduate degree in environmental management/policy, public policy, urban planning, development studies or related fields
• At least 3 years of experience in working with international organizations or firms in areas of environmental policy, urban planning or in the knowledge sector.
• Experience in administrative support to complex work programmes
• Familiar with working with Indonesian government, particularly with Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), National Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, or Public Works.  
• Experience and/or advanced knowledge of Indonesia’s Special Economic Zones is an advantage
• Affinity with the Green Growth agenda of the Indonesian Government
• Fluency in both spoken and written Indonesian and English.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Since 2015, the GGGI Indonesia Program has assisted the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy (CMEA) and the National Council for Special Economic Zones (DN KEK) in its planning and development of SEZs as potential innovation zones, where government and business can apply policy instruments and regulatory mechanisms to drive traditional economic growth targets like export and employment creation, while maximizing economic benefits from cost internalization and sustainable use of natural capital and ecosystem services. The development of “Green SEZs” or “Low-Carbon SEZs” would pilot and drive innovative mechanisms, which could trigger green growth-oriented reforms across the wider economy.

For example, green SEZs could promote and drive the development of a wide range of high equity activities such as eco-friendly tourism, environmentally sustainable palm oil, renewable energy and rehabilitation of forest and marine ecosystems. Ensuring basic public services such as power supply, clean water or waste management in SEZs constitute significant public and private investment opportunities in developing green infrastructure.

Many Special Economic Zones are also part of a wider regional urbanization strategy. Policy makers   view economic transformation and urbanization as mutually reinforcing, with growth in industry and services benefiting from agglomeration effects and resulting in improved productivity usually associated with clustering economic activity in urban areas. Examples of SEZs that feed into regional urbanization plans are Sei Mangkei in North Sumatera, Maloy in East Kalimantan and Bitung in Sulawesi.

GGGI is supporting efforts by developers and provincial governments operating SEZs to develop green growth assessment plans that look to synergize economic activities within SEZs with wider urbanization plans in the region or apply eco-town or green city approaches for SEZs. Moreover, GGGI is supporting the development of green infrastructure projects that are relevant for regional urban development. For example, the development of hazardous waste treatment projects or renewable energy projects has positive spillover effects for surrounding urban regions. Land use and forestry projects that aim to apply certified sustainability standards will also ensure resilience of ecosystem services that benefit the wider regions surrounding SEZs.

Program Activities and Deliverables

The program consists of the following activities and deliverables:

• Undertaking Green Growth Assessment Studies to identify policies that enable green investment and project development in SEZs
• Capacity-building of stakeholders to design projects, primarily using extended cost benefit analysis (eCBA)
• Development of business cases, project concept notes and proposals
• Developing policy guidelines to design and implement green SEZs