Principal Advisor, International Development Finance, North American Representation Office, Division for External Relations, Washington, DC, P-5

SPECIAL NOTE: The position is for one (1) year. 

 

The Position:

The position of Principal Adviser, International Development Finance, will act as the organization’s global lead for international Financial Institutions/Multilateral Development Banks (IFIs/MDBs), with a particular focus on the World Bank Group (WBG); the International Monetary Funds (IMF); and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB), to strengthen the current collaboration and identify new opportunities to grow the partnership (financial, non-financial) at all levels.  

The Principal Advisor will provide vision, guidance and enhance UNFPA’s engagement with IFIs/MDBs set against a changing financing for development landscape, with the aim to support the Organization to seamlessly navigate and effectively position in this evolving context. The position seeks to leverage processes, approaches and opportunities that can expand and deepen the partnership with IFIs/MDBs, particularly the WBG, IMF and IADB that encompasses aspects such as policy development and advocacy, joint analysis and assessments, program planning and implementation, and financial support across all levels and settings, including in the context of fragility and humanitarian contexts. All with the aim to accelerate impact and the realization of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, UNFPA’s Three Transformative Results and the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.
 

Job Purpose:

UNFPA’s Strategic Plan (2022-2025) recognizes that the landscape of funding is changing and that a full range of sustainable development financing instruments are required to scale-up investments in its three transformative results. Therefore, the organization is shifting primarily from its focus on ‘funding’ to’ funding and financing’ – an ambition to catalyse on its own funding and expertise with the aim to leverage significant broader financing across a range of actors and financing instruments – domestic, and international, public, and private finance in support of the ICPD Programme of Action. 

Strengthening and expanding partnerships with IFIs/MDBs that exploits the complementarity and value added in relation to thought leadership, normative/technical role, knowledge management and financing are crucial cornerstones of UNFPA’s approach. As such the position of Principal Adviser, International Development Finance, has been established to assist the Division for External Relations and the Organization to advance the relationship with IFIs/MDBs, especially the WBG, IMF and IADB, as an essential contribution to UNFPA’s financing for development journey.

The position of Principal Adviser, International Development Finance will report to the Director, Division for External Relations. 

 

You would be responsible for:

A. Partnership building, development and expansion

• Expands and diversifies partnership opportunities between UNFPA and IFIs/MDBs, especially the IMF, IADB and WBG, strengthening current collaboration efforts while identifying new opportunities for engagement that span policy, programming, innovation and financing.
• Manages the global partnership with the IMF, IADB and WBG through effective communication, coordination and follow-up to ensure strong collaboration and trust. 
• Engages on behalf of UNFPA in key IFIs/MDBs policy meetings,