Lead, Carbon Markets at FSD Africa

ROLE PURPOSE

• The Lead, Carbon Markets, will drive the development of FSD Africa’s collaborative programme on carbon markets. This will involve building on the strong foundations laid through existing activities to create a strategically focused set of activities to catalyse carbon market
• development. The ultimate goal is to enable the continent to seize the opportunity presented by carbon markets to accelerate its green economic transition.
• The role will require creatively integrating a wide span of activities and partnerships across the organisation, from engaging with thought leaders and policymakers across the continent to directly designing and overseeing the successful implementation of programme initiatives with financial sector and other partners. Success will be founded on identifying the right opportunities to push the current market frontiers and effectively deploying FSD Africa’s financial, technical and knowledge resources with partners to develop, demonstrate and scale the potential.
• Spearheading the collaborative programme, the Lead’s role will be heavily focused on enabling effective partnerships both within FSD Africa’s teams and across a wide range of external partners. He/she will be FSD Africa’s primary subject matter expert on carbon markets, providing both internal and external technical advisory inputs and leading knowledge generation.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Thought Leadership & Strategy Development

Provide the thought leadership to drive the identification, codification and execution of FSD Africa’s strategy to catalyse carbon market development in Africa.

• Leveraging existing FSD Africa policy and industry partnerships, build insights into current priorities and opportunities for carbon market development across key public and private sector actors on the continent.
• Working in close collaboration with all FSD Africa pillars, further elaborate and refine the current carbon market programme strategy to support the creation of a high-impact portfolio of activity. Undertake in-depth analysis of opportunities for driving increased gender equity and mitigating threats of greater inequity in carbon market activity and develop a clear action plan for gender intentionality across the collaborative programme.
• Regularly review and periodically re-articulate the strategy in response to key developments in carbon markets globally and in Africa alongside learning generated through implementation.
• Act as the focal point for carbon market knowledge, learning and development within FSD Africa Participate in key knowledge forums on carbon market developments in Africa and globally, liaising closely with FSD Africa’s knowledge partners (e.g. CAP-A and ACMI), ensuring that expertise and knowledge remains at the frontier.
• Identify critical new activity areas, strategic partnerships and potential programme revisions, where necessary, commissioning targeted, high action impact research outside existing knowledge partnerships to support programme development.

Project design & Implementation and Risk Management

Support the effective implementation of a portfolio of projects and other interventions to deliver FSD Africa’s carbon market strategy.

• Identify strategically relevant intervention opportunities for FSD Africa and directly support pillar teams in finding prospective intervention opportunities within pillar activity.
• Lead or support (as appropriate) the design of carbon market projects or components, including the co-design of carbon-nature projects with the nature collaborative programme lead .
• Lead or support (as appropriate) project implementation teams in the effective agile management of carbon market projects.
• Lead the development of tools, methodologies and approaches to help guide teams in identifying opportunities, implementing good practice and maximising impact.
• Support the design of results frameworks and the monitoring, results management, and learning for all projects, ensuring objective analysis of results and appropriate corrective actions as required to optimise impact and learning.

Financial Management & Fundraising

Oversee the financial management of the carbon market programme from budgeting and mobilising resources to ensuring programmatic value for money and financial integrity.

• Further refine the existing carbon market programme budget to ensure alignment with programme strategy and oversee the tracking of all FSD Africa carbon market activity, enabling identification of total levels of investment and developmental returns
• Develop funding propositions in line with prospective funder interests and build funding partnerships to allow expansion of the programme
• Identify opportunities for experimentation, piloting or other activities to drive practical gender impact, working closely with and securing co-funding from the FSD Network gender collaborative programme.
• Conceptualise how available funds and other resources can be best allocated to achieve optimum impact and value for money.
• Ensure that the accountability requirements of donors are met and that good relationships with funders are maintained at all times.

Influencing & Communicating for Impact

Drive impact on carbon market development through effective influencing, advocacy and communications.

• Map and build a strong network of supporting partnerships with African and global institutions working on carbon markets.
• Work closely with FSD Africa’s communications team to ensure effective leverage of FSD Africa's core carbon work across all key stakeholders, including buyers, project developers, intermediaries and supporting service providers and policymakers and regulators.
• Contribute to FSD Africa’s communication plan, including participating in key knowledge events, publishing relevant materials and building an online presence to communicate programme learning and act as FSD Africa’s public lead on carbon markets.
• Undertake regular, action-oriented reporting on the carbon markets programme to key internal stakeholders (inc. pillar heads/Exco, CEO and Board) and external stakeholders (inc. FCDO and other funders)

Implementing Partner Engagement & Capacity Building

Lead and build key FSD Africa institutional partnerships on carbon markets to deliver market impact

• Refine, extend and deepen FSD Africa’s core strategic network of partnerships with African and global institutions working on carbon markets.
• Develop and execute explicit engagement strategies with key partners based on opportunities and needs, focusing on building and enhancing relationships with senior leadership and key influencers.

Team Leadership and Unit Management

Lead the FSD Africa practice area in carbon markets and create an effective virtual execution team

• Direct and oversee all aspects of FSD Africa’s carbon markets programme, including strategy refinement, work plan and budget design, and project implementation.
• Regularly track the performance of the carbon market programme against the theory of change in collaboration with FSD Africa's development impact team, including developing targets and indicators to enable tracking of gender impact at an early stage
• Manage direct reports and consultants towards high standards of performance through clear roles and responsibilities, ongoing feedback and appraisals (where relevant), and an engaging and motivational leadership style.
• Initiate, co-ordinate and support an FSD Africa carbon market execution task group to support and track FSD Africa's portfolio of carbon-related projects and interventions.
• Participate in relevant FSD Africa project steering committees and support task teams where there is a strong carbon market linkage.
• Act as an internal consulting resource to FSD Africa’s team
• Support the professional development of the wider FSD Africa team on carbon markets with regular forums, learning events (working with HR) and development of supporting materials.

EDUCATION, QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

 Qualifications and Education

• Masters degree and 12 years of experience or Bachelors degree and 14 years of experience working carbon market initiatives.
• Excellent skills in written and spoken English.

Essential Experience, Knowledge, and Skills

• At least eight years of experience working in green finance.
• Track record working in relevant African markets
• Demonstrated understanding of key policy issues relating to de-carbonisation and sustainable development
• Experience in successfully influencing public and private sector leaders.
• Senior management experience in a complex multi-stakeholder environment
• Ability to manage diverse and complex project portfolios and large budgets.
• Strong motivation to work on achieving development impact and net zero.

Desirable

• Experience working in a multicultural environment.
• Previous experience working on donor-funded projects, ideally including FCDO
• Fluency in relevant languages (such as French, Swahili and other widely spoken languages on the continent

To apply for the role, your resume and cover letter, must be received by 5.00pm East Africa Time (EAT) on 30th September 2023.