Renewable Energy Specialist (NOC)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is present in more than 170 countries and territories and contributes to the eradication of poverty, the reduction of inequalities and the increase of sustainability. In this challenging scenario, the development of partnerships is a crucial aspect for the achievement of UNDP's goals and the engagement of different institutions from the private and public sectors. In the area of environment and sustainable development, the mandate of UNDP is to support countries in integrating environment, energy and climate change into national policies, strategies and programmes, adapting to climate change and ensuring access to environmental and energy services for the poorest. Climate change is now the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, threatening the water and food security, health, livelihoods and security of billions of people. The global response to this challenge must be fair, inclusive, and leave no one behind, while seeking the most effective climate solutions that advance multiple sustainable development goals at once.

Under the new Strategic Plan (2022-2025), energy is one of UNDP’s six signature solutions – alongside poverty and inequality, governance, resilience, environment, and gender equality - to support countries towards three directions of change: structural transformation, leaving no one behind and resilience. Scaled-up programming efforts on energy access and the energy transition will be coordinated under the newly established Sustainable Energy Hub (SEH), which represents parts of the organization’s systematic and programmatic approach to respond to the energy and climate change agendas. As per UNDP’s new Strategic Plan 2022-2025, the main objective of UNDP is increasing energy access for those furthest behind. By speeding up investment in distributed renewable energy solutions, especially for those hardest to reach and in crisis contexts, it aims to increase access to clean and affordable energy for 500 million people by the year 2025.

Through the Sustainable Energy Hub, UNDP will harness networks, experience and innovation to scale-up energy programming efforts and shape policy, building on the existing portfolio of energy projects, covering over 100 countries to harness clean energy and support the energy access and transition as well as on UNDP’s Climate Promise, UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub and UNDP’s Digital offer. UNDP will also work with Governments in programme countries as they recover and build forward better from COVID-19 and with investors to unlock and harness public and private finance to power progress towards multiple SDGs. Finally, recognizing that change will be disruptive, UNDP will strive to ensure that such transitions are just, and that their impact on vulnerable people is understood and duly mitigated.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to approximately 600 million people without access to clean, affordable energy, making the region a key focus of UNDP’s new Strategic Plan energy objective and scaled up energy offer, which seeks to provide access to clean and affordable energy to 500 million people through strategic partnerships and targeted stakeholder engagement.

The UNDP’s Renewed Strategic Offer in Africa, or “Africa Promise”, aims to “strengthen UNDP’s position as Africa’s premier partner on the 2030 and the 2063 Agendas”. Affordable and sustainable energy constitutes one of the six Strategic Impact Areas of UNDP’s Africa Promise, focusing on energy interventions to play their role as enablers of development. The Africa Promise pledged to provide at least 100 million people with access to Energy by the end of the current Strategic Plan. The Regional Programme for Africa (2022-2025) constitutes the vehicle for realizing UNDP’s Renewed Strategic Offer in Africa. The new Regional Programme will explicitly situate itself as a regional catalyst and incubator for people, prosperity, planet and peace.

In Ethiopia, the country faces rapidly growing energy demands, with more than half of the population still having no access to electricity. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil war have caused significant disruptions to the supply chain and to the overall availability of services. At a time, global supply problems have contributed to a rise in prices that have already created food insecurity and worsened the devastating energy crisis for millions of people in Ethiopia. The unprecedented energy crisis, therefore, underlines the need for a just energy transition, which achieves affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

UNDP in Ethiopia is currently implementing its Country Programme (CPD) for the period of 2020- 2025, which includes integrated solutions to complex, interconnected development challenges. In partnership with the Government of Ethiopia, the Country Office (CO) under programme priority 3 (strengthening resilience to shocks and crises and promoting leapfrogging to a green economy and faster adaptation to climate change) has been mobilizing efforts and resources to address development challenges in the areas of renewable energy, biodiversity and ecosystems, natural resources management, climate change, disaster risk reduction, resilience building, recovery and livelihoods. Efforts are always made to scale up gender responsive support, identifying entry points to fully mainstreamed gender considerations into all relevant components.

As part of the priority in the CPD, UNDP is focusing on access to renewable, affordable and clean energy as a major catalyst for the transition to a jobs-rich green economy, ensuring that women and female-headed households benefit from this investment. UNDP is working at the three levels of policy analysis, advocacy and advisory services to de-risk and create an enabling environment for the emergence of a market at scale for renewable energy services; prototyping of business models and technologies with private sector participation; and development of bankable projects to crowd-in investment.

Hence, in order to enhance energy access in Ethiopia, which currently stands at about 47%, leaving more than 50% of the population without access to clean and affordable energy, seedling funding was sourced from the organization's core resources as a catalytic to further expand the CO energy portfolio building on the existing engagements. This is strongly aligned with Ethiopia’s successive development plans and agendas, and National Electrification Program (NEP) of bringing electricity coverage at 100% by 2025 in which 65 percent of access provision is targeted with grid solutions and 35 percent with off-grid technologies (solar off-grid and mini-grids).

Summary of Key Functions:

1. Provision of top-quality policy advice on renewable energy issues and inputs to strategic documents and processes.
2. Ensuring effective coordination, monitoring and reporting of the Energy Portfolio/ Programme.
3. Establishing and maintaining strategic partnerships for resource mobilization and coordinating efforts by different stakeholders.
4. Provide technical and operational support in renewable energy for programme implementation.
5. Facilitate capacity building of partners, effective communication and public outreach through knowledge management and dissemination.

Ensuring the provision of top-quality policy advice services on energy issues and inputs to strategic documents and processes, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Prepare technical reports and inputs for programme preparation and documentation, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevance of information;
• Assist in the development/establishment of renewable energy solutions -related outcome and output results, as well as related strategies, through analysis of energy sector needs and priorities;
• Identification of information sources related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned directly linked to country policy goals;
• Coordination of development of policies and institutions that will address the country problems and needs in collaboration with the Government and other strategic partners;
• Initiation and preparation of concept notes and advisory papers on major emerging issues in the sector to offer new programing approaches;
• Prepare required documentations/materials to facilitate review and approval processes.

• Work collaboratively with internal and external colleagues and partners to collect/analyze/ share information on implementation issues, suggest solutions on routine implementation of relevant projects and alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level interventions and/or decision;
• Keep record of reports and assessments for easy reference;
• Contribute to UNDP risk assessment and risk management processes in Ethiopia by supporting relevant project teams in identifying and mitigating risks associated with renewable energy interventions;
• Monitor and report on the use of sectoral program resources (administrative and other assets), verify compliance with approved allocations based on regulations/procedures and donor commitments with standards of accountability and integrity;
• Report on issues identified to enable timely resolution by management/stakeholders;
• Follow up on unresolved issues to ensure proper resolution.

Establishes and maintaining strategic partnerships for resource mobilization and coordinating efforts by different stakeholders, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Implement CO partnerships and resources mobilization strategies to achieve programme outcomes;
• Establish close working relationships and creates programmatic linkages and partnerships with relevant government agencies; UN Agencies, Multi-Donors Trust Funds (GEF, GCF, etc.) IFI’s, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, and civil society;
• Identification and proposal of programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UNDP, country needs and donors’ priorities;
• Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost-sharing;
• Represent UNDP at external meetings within his/her area of programming;
• Providing technical and operational support for programme implementation, focusing on achievement of the following results;
• Undertake field visits and surveys, collect and share reports with partners/stakeholders. Report critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems to supervisor, for timely action;
• Support the project team/s in the design, development, implementation, management and monitoring of renewable interventions, as needed;
• Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, relevant clusters, UN and other office partners including donors on the application and understanding of UNDP policies, strategies, processes and best practices in renewable and off-grid energy solutions to support programme implementation;
• Facilitating capacity building of partners, effective communication and public outreach among others through knowledge management and dissemination, focusing on achievement of the following results;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Advocates for UNDP with Government counterparts and ensures access to best available expertise;
• Ensures that lessons learned from projects are captured and recorded into the CO knowledge networks;
• Organization of training for the operations/ projects staff on programme, seminars, and dialogue platform with Government and other stakeholders.

Providing technical and operational support for programme implementation, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Undertake field visits and surveys, collect and share reports with partners/stakeholders. Report critical issues, bottlenecks and potential problems to supervisor, for timely action;
• Support the project team/s in the design, development, implementation, management and monitoring of renewable interventions, as needed;
• Provide technical and operational support to government counterparts, NGO partners, relevant clusters, UN and other office partners including donors on the application and understanding of UNDP policies, strategies, processes and best practices in off-grid energy solutions to support programme implementation.

Facilitating capacity building of partners, effective communication and public outreach among others through knowledge management and dissemination, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Advocates for UNDP with Government counterparts and ensures access to best available expertise;
• Ensures that lessons learned from projects are captured and recorded into the CO knowledge networks;
• Organization of training for the operations/ projects staff on programme, seminars, and dialogue platform with Government and other stakeholders.

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact.

• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems.

• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences.

• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands.

• Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results.

• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration.

• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity.

• At least 5 years of professional work experience in providing policy advice and programme support in the general areas of energy access and renewable energy in different development contexts, preferably for off-grid electrification;
• Appropriate experience in policy advice services on renewable energy issues and inputs to strategic documents and processes;
• Experience in coordination, monitoring and reporting of energy portfolio/programme;
• Previous experience working with the UN or similar international organizations/ donors in strategic partnership for resource mobilization;
• Training and capacity building, and knowledge management skills related to renewable energy related topics.

Required Languages:

• Fluency in the English and National language of the duty station.