Ref.
2023/ERB/10178
Job offer type
Experts
Type of contract
CDDU
Activity sectors
Climate and Territories ; Public resource mobilisation, management and accountability ; Economic and financial governance
Deadline date
2023/12/22 23:55
Duration
18 mois
Senior climate policy and strategy development advisor (M/W)
Département Gouvernance - GOUV > Pôle Transparence, Gestion et Redevabilité
Published on : 2023/10/31
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
RWANDA
KIGALI
Mission description
Expertise France is recruiting a senior climate policy and strategy development advisor for a 18-month mission to Kigali as part of the Green PFM project.
The resident expert will support to Banque nationale du Rwanda / National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) cross directorate Sustainable Finance Centre and to the regulated financial sector, in close connection with the main beneficiary (BNR), the head of project, AFD and the other donors and the Expertise France headquarters.
The resident advisor oversees and operationalizes the activities on the component 5 as part of the Green PFM project.
Based in Kigali, he works under the supervision of the head of the "Financial system" division of the "Governance" department at the headquarters of Expertise France.
The resident advisor is responsible for:
o Support the operationalisation of the Sustainable Finance Centre: task descriptions, working relationship with BNR's directorates and BNR's governance bodies, development and discussion with BNR’s management of the knowledge transfer plan for the members of the Centre, activity and result reporting.
o Support the Centre to design, and follow up on, work programmes around BNR’s main tasks in the field of Sustainable Finance, including BNR’s on-going work on sustainable finance taxonomy, internal capacity-building for BNR, development of, and adjustments to, the regulatory and supervision framework, sustainable finance related research, development of methods and tools, communication and networking.
o Support the Centre to coordinate with other directorates for the integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation key objective in BNR’s next strategic plan and advise on priorities regarding SFR implementation and allocation of necessary budgets.
o Provide technical assistance to set-up a research program on climate change impacts on finance to cross-fertilizing academic research and operational skills on sustainable finance in Rwanda, and support partnership with national and international stakeholders.
o Provide technical assistance to draft guidelines for regulated financial institutions on
- ESRM framework implementation;
- reporting and disclosure on ESG risk management.
o Develop and support cooperation programmes of BNR with RBA (Rwanda Bankers’ association), ASSAR (Rwanda Association of Insurer), and AMIR (Association of Microfinance institutions) to mainstream sustainability as a key knowledge for the financial system and to develop a coordinated capacity-building program for all regulated financial institutions.
o Support the Centre to position BNR as a leading institution in greening the financial system by developing and implementing a plan to foster discussions between market participants (via workshops and other appropriate information channels).
o Provide technical assistance to the Centre to propose reforms for sustainable finance enhancement.
o Draft necessary terms of references and support to BNR to select and coordinate required expertise to support BNR’s priorities (e.g., data mapping, climate-related risk assessment, methodologies development, climate scenario and stress-testing) as well as trainers for the advance knowledge building ;
o Support BNR’s Sustainable Finance Centre in the areas of progress monitoring and reporting;
o Upon request, support BNR’s top management in the formulation of official internal and external communication related to sustainable finance.
o Support BNR’s in developing its international relations with peers and develop leadership on key sustainable finance topics.
o Support BNR’s in hosting national and international events related to climate change and sustainable finance including, as the case may be, a high-level NGFS symposium;
The resident advisor will also be in charge of the planning and programming of all the activities of the component to achieve the results, in close collaboration with the head of project.
A list of deliverables to produce will be define in the ToR of the mission. The main deliverables could be the following (to be completed):
Project coordination deliverables:
- Inception report (first month);
- Quarterly progress notes;
- Interim progress report (date to be defined, half year report)
Technical deliverables:
- Task descriptions for the BNR Sustainable Finance Centre
- Description of the Sustainable Finance Centre’s work and decision processes, Knowledge transfer plan for BNR staff
- Templates for the Centre’s activity and result reports
- Draft of detailed yearly work programme including activities in the fields of capacity-building for BNR
- Training material for the BNR Basic Knowledge Training
- Proposal for the integration of climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives in BNR’s next strategic plan
Project or context description
General objective: contribute to a reinforced integration of environmental objectives in the management of Public Finance; Support Rwanda in its climate trajectory by increasing the scale and impact of climate financial flows.
Main subjects:
- Climate-sensitive public finances that better inform investment, spending and procurement decisions;
- Stakeholders in the financial system that take into account climate financial risks, in terms of regulation, supervision and investment choices and that contribute to the low-carbon path.
Key areas:
1. Climate change mitigation and adaptation sensitive budgeting
2. Climate-sensitive public investment
3. Sustainable public procurement
4. Monitoring, reporting, evaluation (MRV)
5. Sustainable financial systems
Background:
Rwanda, a small, densely populated East African country with low GDP and GDP per capita, reports a low carbon energy mix. The country is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In addition to the increased risk of food insecurity in a country dependent on rainfed agriculture for both rural livelihoods (62% of the population lives from agriculture) and tea and coffee exports (among the country’s main sources of currency), climate change could lead to health risks and damage to infrastructure. Rwanda is a climate voluntarist: the first developing country to submit a revised national contribution (NDC) in 2021, it aims for carbon neutrality by 2050. The cost of the NDC is estimated at USD 11 billion by 2030 (more than the country’s current GDP).
In December 2022, Rwanda became the first African country to access the IMF’s Resilience and Sutainability Fund (RSF). With an amount of USD 319 million, this RSF financing is backed by a matrix of reforms that will sequence the disbursements. The funding of the RSF also aims to play a catalytic role, by draining more funding towards Rwanda’s climate goals.
This €3 million technical assistance project aims to contribute to Rwanda’s ambitious climate goals alongside the IMF and other donors.
In parallel with this technical assistance, AFD also granted a €50 million program budget financing, with a matrix of indicators, the monitoring of which will be integrated into this technical assistance (budgetary financing of the Climate finance and Investment program budget support program).
This project supports the dynamics of low-carbon development and resilient to the effects of climate change and country policies in this area.
Specific background:
The Banque Nationale du Rwanda (BNR) is an integrated regulator and supervisor of banks, microfinance institutions, insurance companies, social security institutions, collective placement companies and pension funds institutions, and payment service providers. Its core mandate consists in ensuring price stability and a sound financial system. Following the publication of the Rwanda’s Sustainable Finance Roadmap (SFR, annexed), the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) started to frame its action plan to support the development of sustainable finance in Rwanda and to promote Kigali as a sustainable finance hub. To that aim, BNR conducted in 2023 a diagnostic of its own and the regulated financial institutions’ capacity to implement the Roadmap.
Its first action following the diagnosis will be to set up a dedicated Sustainable Finance Centre in 2023, with human resources from banking, insurance and microfinance supervision, research, and market development (core team), and risk management and strategic planning (support team). The role of the Centre should be to trigger climate change-related work in all executive directorates of the BNR, to implement communication channels between governors, executive directors, and operational units, to monitor progress towards sustainable finance in the central bank and to coordinate BNR’s actions with all financial stakeholders.
Expected results:
R1: Climate-sensitive budget. The production of a green budget makes it possible to assess and communicate the impact of public spending on the climate.
R2: Sustainable public investment (feasibility and selection): Feasibility studies lead to greater climate sensitivity of public investment projects and public investment projects are evaluated, selected and prioritised taking into account their climate impact.
R3: Sustainable public procurement. The deployment of sustainable public procurement (SPP) helps align public procurement decisions by limiting environmental impacts.
R4: Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV). A MRV system that promotes climate trajectory control.
R5: Financial systems. Implementation of certain flagship measures of the Sustainable Finance Roadmap (SFR) that Rwanda adopted at COP27 through the deployment of climate finance guidelines and/or regulations by the Rwandan Central Bank (BNR – National Bank of Rwanda) to enable the financial sector (i) to better take climate risks into account and (ii) to improve reporting and transparency on this issue.
Specific results and objectives:
The resident advisor aims at enabling BNR's Sustainable Finance Centre to facilitate capacity-building, monitor progress in the implementation of plans, and establish research capacity and capability. It should build upon a close relationship to be established between the Sustainable Finance Centre and market participants to organize sectoral discussions on sustainable lending and sustainable insurance, and to organize and deliver capacity-building.
This mission should also support BNR in drafting its next strategic plan, integrating sustainable finance objectives.
Beneficiaries:
Ministry of Finance (MINECOFIN): Budget Directorate, National Investment Directorate;
RPPA (Rwanda public procurement agency);
Ministry of the Environment;
REMA (Rwanda environment management agency);
Central Bank of Rwanda, The Banque Nationale du Rwanda (BNR).
Expertise France will work closely with several french partners to ensure the project’s successful implementation:
- The Budget Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance on subject 1 to share experience on the green budget in France;
- I4CE on subjects 1 and 2 to improve the management of public investments and analyze their impact;
- CITEPA on subject 4 to set up a monitoring system for C02 emissions;
- Banque de France on subject 5 to mobilize climate finance experts and share experiences about sustainable finance center.
Required profile
- Qualifications and skills
· Minimum training level Bac + 5 or equivalent diploma in a field relevant to the project (Economy and finance, public finance, etc.);
· Strong project management skills, governance and management of financial institutions (including central bank), capacity building in the banking sector, communication and management (production, quality control and presentation of deliverables);
· Good skills on climate finance issues (a specific training in this field will be a selection criterion);
· Good interpersonal skills and facilitation of dialogue with stakeholders;
· Good skills for animation techniques mobilizing collective intelligence, co-construction or other participatory methods;
· Strong teamwork skills, coordination and implementation of support;
· Knowledge of the French & English language to communicate with autonomy both orally and in writing;
- Work Experience:
· Professional experience of at least 15 years, including at least 2 years abroad, if possible on the African continent;
· Experience in advising public authorities, preferably in developing countries and on an international cooperation project;
· Experiences in advising a central bank on regulatory subjects;
· Experiences in climate finance.
Additional information
Project name: Support to financial systems in Rwanda
Donor: AFD
Implementing Agency: Expertise France
Beneficiaries: Rwanda: National Bank of Rwanda
Engagement time: 18 months
Mission Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Job Title: Resident Advisor
Contacts: fadella.fakret@expertisefrance.fr; adrien.blain@expertisefrance.fr
Deadline for application : 2023/12/22 23:55
File(s) attached : Fiche de poste Resident Advisor_BNR_ENG.pdf
Expertise France is the public agency for designing and implementing international technical cooperation projects. The agency operates around four key priorities :
- democratic, economic, and financial governance ;
- peace, stability, and security ;
- climate, agriculture, and sustainable development ;
- health and human development ;
In these areas, Expertise France conducts capacity-building initiatives and manages project implementation, leveraging technical expertise and acting as a project coordinator. This involves combining public sector expertise with private sector skills to drive impactful results.