Grade: IS - 4

Deadline: 12 July 2021 (11:59 PM KST)

Location: Songdo, Incheon, South Korea

Contract Length: 3 years

Salary: USD 114,600

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a multilateral fund created to make significant, ambitious contributions to the global efforts to combat climate change. GCF contributes to achieving the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.

In the context of sustainable development, GCF aims to promote a paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change, while accounting for their needs and supporting particularly those that are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

The GCF is governed by a Board, composed of an equal number of members from developed and developing countries. It is operated by an independent Secretariat headed by an Executive Director.

The Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU) ensures the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is accountable and effective. It conducts independent evaluations of the GCF’s activities to guarantee its accountability and synthesises learnings from high-quality and rigorous evaluations to support the GCF’s effectiveness and efficiency. It operates independently of the GCF Secretariat. Its Head is appointed by and reports directly to the Board.

The IEU also provides evaluation reports to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for purposes of periodic reviews of the Financial Mechanism, of which GCF is a part.

The IEU was established by the GCF Board as an independent unit to provide objective assessments of the performance and results of the Fund, including its funded activities, its effectiveness, and its efficiency.

The IEU has several objectives:

a. Informing decision-making by the Board and identifying and disseminating lessons learned, contributing to guiding the GCF and stakeholders as a learning institution, providing strategic guidance;

b. Conducting periodic independent evaluations of the GCF performance to objectively assess the results of the GCF and the effectiveness and efficiency of its activities;

c. Providing evaluation reports to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement for purposes of periodic reviews of the Financial Mechanism.

The IEU has a mandate for both discharging an accountability function and supporting a learning function. These are central to the GCF being a learning organization as laid out in its Governing Instrument and its initial strategic plan.

The responsibilities of the IEU are as follows:

a. Evaluation:

The IEU will undertake independent overall, portfolio, country, thematic, programme evaluations that inform the GCF strategic result areas. In key cases, it will also support and undertake project evaluations. The IEU will use relevant and innovative methods and an independent peer-review mechanism that will provide guidance on independent evaluations. The vision, criteria and guidelines for these will be laid out in the independent evaluation policy. The IEU is also mandated to independently peer review and attest the quality of the GCF self-evaluation;

b. Advisory and capacity support:

The IEU is required to advise the Board by synthesizing findings and lessons learned from its evaluations. These findings and lessons learned are expected to also inform the Executive Director of the Secretariat and other GCF stakeholders. The IEU will engage closely with the independent evaluation units of intermediaries and implementing entities of the GCF, including National Designated Authorities (NDAs) and Accredited Entities (AEs). It will provide support to catalyse learning and build and strengthen the NDAs and AEs evaluation capacity. It will also provide guidelines and support evaluation related research that helps produce rigorous evidence in the GCF result areas;

c. Learning:

The IEU will support the GCF in its learning function by ensuring that recommendations from independent evaluations are incorporated into the Secretariat’s functioning and processes. This includes recommending possible improvements to the GCF performance indicators and its initial results framework, after accounting for international experience and the results of the evaluation;

d. Engagement:

The IEU will actively participate in relevant evaluation networks to ensure that it is at the frontier of evaluation practice. The IEU will involve its own staff and staff from the NDAs and AEs in evaluations wherever feasible and appropriate. In addition, the IEU will support knowledge hubs of low-emission and climate-resilient pathways.

Evaluation Specialist Responsibilities

Purpose – Adapt

• Undertake evaluations that are part of the workplan of the IEU, including provision of intellectual and managerial inputs;
• Identify and adapt synthesis methods for IEU evaluations, and undertake these syntheses
• Identify and undertake tasks related to the development of the GCF Evaluation Policy, and subsequent tasks for the IEU; these may include development of standards, provision of technical expertise
• Lead and undertake data analyses, particularly qualitative data

Engagement – Persuade

• Provide substantive input to the development of IEU efforts to support building of evaluation capacities, in particular of direct access entities;
• Liaise on behalf of the IEU for the development of the Evaluation Policy and its related tasks;
• Lead a data-related workstreams with other members of the IEU (including consultants, experts, partners and others) on evaluations, policy matters or other tasks assigned by the Head and supervisor; in particular, work closely with the IEU DataLab to develop methods and skills on data;

Delivery – Adapt The Product Cycle

• Organize tasks between various workstreams (evaluations, policy, data) and deliver within established procedures and resources available;
• Assess priorities among competing demands, adjudicate between urgent tasks and carry them out responsibly;
• Undertake assigned tasks with a high degree of self-direction and motivation;
• Manage, as required, individuals or teams of colleagues to support the work.

Person Specification

• Driven by the mandate of the GCF and the IEU, and a hunger to support this mandate while being able to learn through the experience;
• Demonstrated capacity to work as a self-starter with requiring extensive day-to-day supervision;
• Ability to support the establishment and maintaining relationships with key partners – including but not limited to the ability to represent the unit and interface effectively with stakeholders;
• Willingness to cooperate with other staff in a team and contribute to a harmonious environment is essential;
• Experience of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures. Proven ability to work innovatively within a team environment;
• Mature judgment and absolute commitment to confidentiality;
• Proven ability to multi-task and deal with high stress situations.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in evaluation, political sciences, social sciences or related fields.
• At least nine years of relevant work experience in a professional capacity, such as experience in institutional or corporate evaluation, within an international organization, development agency, governmental, private sector or non-profit sector”. Evaluation of climate initiatives and exposure to climate issues are desirable;
• The role will require an excellent understanding of qualitative methods, which may include grounded theory, case study research, qualitative syntheses. The Specialist will be able to lead the efforts to ensure reliability, validity and rigour in qualitative data collection and analysis or IEU reports.

* The person assessed by the Selection Panel as most suitable for the position will be proposed for appointment. Selection among short-listed candidates will also take into account performance at interview, appropriate testing, and references. Applications from women and nationals of developing countries are strongly encouraged.