Technical Specialist – Tax Transparency - IPSA 11 (Home Based)

Office/Unit/Project Description 

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the knowledge frontier organization for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP established the Sustainable Finance 

Hub (SFH) in April 2019, aggregating UNDP's existing work and expertise on financing the SDGs. With a focus on Tax for the SDGs, the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative is managed by the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS’s) Sustainable Finance Hub (SFH), with resource persons embedded in the SDG Finance Teams in Amman, Bangkok, Istanbul, Panama, and Pretoria. The UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative has a particular emphasis on linking tax administration and tax and fiscal policies with the broader SDGs. Building on UNDP Country Office portfolios and already existing engagements with Ministries, UNDP will bring a stronger focus on the role of tax and fiscal policy in achieving Agenda 2030. 

To achieve this along with the various teams and work streams under the Sustainable Finance Hub (SFH), the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative is seeking a qualified Tax Transparency Expert to coordinate and contribute tax aspects to its portfolio of work on international financial accountability, transparency, and integrity, anti - corruption, beneficial ownership transparency, Automatic Exchange of Information, Country by country reporting, and disclosure of tax information, etc. The Expert will support and equip governments in the global tax transparency agenda, to tackle tax evasion and avoidance, illicit financial flows (IFFs) and other financial crimes and ultimately improve domestic resource mobilization to finance the SDGs. The Technical Specialist – Tax Transparency will report to the Head of Tax for SDGs (Sustainable Finance Hub (SFH). 

To coordinate and contribute tax aspects to the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative’s portfolio of work on international financial accountability, transparency, and integrity, anti - corruption, beneficial ownership of transparency, Automatic Exchange of Information, Country by country reporting, and disclosure of tax information, etc.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Strategic and Multi-stakeholder Engagement:

• Coordinate with SFH colleagues and contribute to the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative’s portfolio of work on international financial accountability, transparency, integrity, anti - corruption, beneficial ownership transparency, Automatic Exchange of Information, Country by country reporting, and disclosure of tax information etc., among other relevant work under the Hub. 
• Work closely with the Regional Programme Specialists to create synergies for country-level focused capacity building initiatives to leverage tax transparency expertise and experience across world regions. 
• Collaborate with stakeholders and colleagues to implement the strategy for the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative, including promoting South-South cooperation.
• Identify potential synergies for the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative within UNDP and other partners working on anti-corruption and tax transparency such as Global Forum, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Open Government Partnership, Open Ownership, civil society and others.

2. Policy and Programme Support:

• Monitor global tax policy and administration developments, conclude, and summarise the tax policy trends, and assess key areas of impact on the business, especially for the 2 pillars, tax transparency, public Country-by-Country Reports (CBCR), Cooperative Compliance and other related tax administration trends.
• Identifying gaps in existing work done in other fora as they relate to information exchange in developing countries and identifying challenges faced in the implementation of international standards in exchange of information. 
• Document ambitious good practice and contribute to building best practise in tax transparency i.e., beneficial ownership transparency, Automatic Exchange of Information and Country by country reporting across technical, legislative, regulatory, policy and administrative parameters.
• Proposing solutions to address the identified gaps and challenges, including possible new standards and domestic measures; and advising on ways to provide technical support to developing countries to address those challenges.
• Engage with UNDP country offices to analyse global and cross-regional contexts, to identify potential synergies between the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative and UNDP’s in-country policy and development work in the context of public finance and taxation for the SDGs. 
• Liaise with UNDP country offices to engage substantively in expert deployments, including through providing expert advice, helping to formulate appropriate requests for assistance, assisting with briefing of experts before, during and after deployment.
• Collaborate on UN’s policy papers/reports on tax transparency. 
• Develop concept notes for technical workshops/webinars/side-events for UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative.
• Develop internal UNDP briefing notes and talking points for Senior Management on international financial accountability, transparency, and integrity, beneficial ownership transparency, etc.

3. Programme Coordination and Project Management:

• Help manage UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative programmes related tax transparency as per developed standard operating procedures
• Structure and collaboratively map-out emerging trends in international financial accountability, tax transparency, and integrity, anti-corruption, beneficial ownership transparency, etc., synergies with other activities and opportunities across regions and globally.
• Support in assessing the transparency of tax administration; including examining anti-corruption governance structures and reporting mechanism
• Help in monitoring and reporting emerging trends and developments in Illicit Financial Flows (IFF), including IFF measurement in collaboration with other UN agencies like UNCTAD and other partners.
• Support the mobilization and accessing financing sources for building the capacity of tax systems to tackle illicit financial flows through digitalization of tax administrations.
• Coordinate the setting up of UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative projects in the different countries as required.
• Coordinate evaluation and selection of tax experts and other experts for deployment worldwide, including overseeing their procurement and contracting as per UNDP standard operating procedures. 
• Manage reporting duties, including project budgeting and cash flow management, and oversee its maintenance as per UNDP standard operating procedures.
• Collaborate on evidence collection and lessons-learned from country experiences, including promoting best practice sharing and peer learning through case-studies. 
• Collaborate on knowledge management between various stakeholders, including experts’ engagement platform.

4. Outreach Engagement

• Coordinate communications efforts, including annual report, newsletters, videos, digital platforms engagement, amongst others.
• Coordinate the organization of related events, including international conferences, side-events, amongst others.
• Represent the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative at international forums, conferences, events on international financial accountability, tax transparency, and integrity, anti - corruption, beneficial ownership of assets, etc., as required.
• Perform other duties, as may be required by the Supervisor.          

Institutional Arrangement

• The Technical Specialist – Tax Transparency will be supervised by the Head of Tax for SDGs. 
• Will liaise / interact / collaborate / meet with colleagues within the UNDP Tax for SDGs Initiative and broader Sustainable Finance Hub. 
• Will be expected to use his/her own laptop and internet during this assignment.