Duties and Responsibilities
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change represents a milestone in global efforts to address the climate crisis. As a vulnerable country to the effects of climate change, Costa Rica faces significant risks to its ecosystems, economy, and communities. Extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, and forest fires have intensified, threatening biodiversity, water resources, and agricultural productivity. Coastal areas are also at risk due to rising sea levels, impacting infrastructure and livelihoods. Costa Rica is at a key moment to advance the implementation of its NDC 3.0 and of the Action Plan 2026-2030 of the Decarbonization Plan 2018-2050. This requires not only technical capacities but also strong strategic and political articulation to transform designs into sustainable investments. In this context, Costa Rica requested support for a Strategic Advisor based at the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) who will act as a trusted advisor to MINAE, and in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and MIDEPLAN, as a bridge with the public financial ecosystem (Central Bank of Costa Rica, SUGEF, SUPEN, SUGEVAL, SUGESE, and CONASSIF). In addition, the Advisor will facilitate dialogue with international partners, commercial banks (state-owned and private), the private sector, and investors. In this sense, UNEP is recruiting a Climate Finance Specialist to support the work of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the NDC Act & Invest Project in Costa Rica. This support will consist of translating technical inputs into concrete actions for resource mobilization and investment, facilitating inter-ministerial coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning (MIDEPLAN), and promoting coherence between climate priorities and the country's macroeconomic, fiscal, and development planning, serving as a working model to strengthen the dynamization of climate investments in other countries of the region. The role will be to contribute toward building strategic alliances and mobilized resources, thereby consolidating the commitments of NDC 3.0, the Decarbonization Action Plan, and the 2022–2026 National Adaptation Plan into tangible results. In addition, the Climate Finance Specialist will work in close coordination with the Climate Finance International Advisor hired by the NDC Act & Invest project. While the International Advisor leads the development of technical inputs such as financing gap assessments, development of financial instruments, and the climate finance monitoring system—the Climate Finance Specialist will ensure that these inputs are effectively translated into actionable steps, institutional processes, portfolio of investable climate projects and coordinated implementation between Government ministries, and other stakeholders. This complementary relationship will strengthen the articulation between technical design and political, financial, and operational execution. The consultant will be supervised by UNEP’s NDC Act & Invest Global Coordinator and will work full time, in a hybrid model attending the offices of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) based in San José, Costa Rica, at least 3 days a week, in coordination with MINAE's Director of Climate Change. Specific Tasks and responsibilities 1. Work Plan: • Prepare a detailed work plan with a timeline of deliverables and responsibilities. • Validate the work plan with MINAE, the Ministry of Finance, UNEP, MIDEPLAN, the Climate Finance International Advisor and key stakeholders. 2. Institutional and National coordination: • Support MINAE on the coordination with the Ministry of Finance and MIDEPLAN to promote coherence between climate priorities and the country's macroeconomic, fiscal, and development planning. • Support the work of the Senior Climate Finance Advisor by ensuring institutional continuity, facilitating access to information, coordinating follow-up actions, and enabling the effective integration of technical products into national planning, investment, and coordination processes. • Facilitate coordination between the Senior Advisor and national institutions, ensuring timely access to information, data, and technical inputs. • Coordinate follow-up actions, commitments, and recommendations arising from meetings, consultations, and missions led by the Senior Advisor. • Ensure alignment between the Senior Advisor’s technical work and the Strategic Advisor’s political, financial, and interministerial articulation efforts. • Support the organization of missions, workshops, consultations, and validation processes associated with the Senior Advisor’s work. • Prepare background notes, briefs, presentations, and other materials required to support the Senior Advisor’s deliverables. • Maintain updated documentation, shared workspaces, and institutional memory to ensure continuity between missions and across teams. • Provide operational and institutional support for the development of diagnostics, financial instruments, and the climate finance monitoring system. 3. Advisory and Facilitation for the Prioritized Portfolio of Climate Investment Projects: • Provide advisory and facilitation for the Prioritized Portfolio of Climate Investment Projects. • Support the systematization of technical inputs generated by the Climate Finance International Advisor, ensuring their translation into investment proposals that are understandable to financial actors. • Facilitate feedback spaces and accompany the technical teams of MINAE, the Ministry of Finance, and MIDEPLAN in prioritizing climate investment projects. • Advise on the preparation and inter-institutional validation of the prioritized project portfolio, without substituting the technical role of the responsible ministries. • Establish coordination arrangements, working methodologies, communication protocols, and quality assurance mechanisms for the implementation of the climate investment project portfolio. • Provide support in the logistical organization of meetings and events related to the implementation of the portfolio. • Draft minutes and follow up on agreements in coordination with institutional counterparts. • Provide support in drafting executive summaries, project briefs, and presentations that can be used in dialogues with potential financiers. • Conduct an analysis of the level of alignment and coherence between the priorities defined in planning and development policies and the climate action measures defined in the NDC, LTS, NAP, NBSAP, and other national, subnational, and sectoral climate action plans in Costa Rica. • Analyze international experiences on the creation and prioritization of climate action portfolios in countries in the region such as Brazil and Colombia. 4. Proposal for an Interministerial Coordination Framework on Climate Finance: • Facilitate periodic coordination meetings between MINAE, the Ministry of Finance, and MIDEPLAN, ensuring follow-up on agreements. • Hold strategic meetings of the advances of this consultancy with the new Government of Costa Rica • Design and keep the joint work protocols and institutional coordination mechanisms updated. • Identify and continuously engage other relevant national actors in the climate finance ecosystem (e.g., Central Bank, SUGEF, SUPEN, SUGEVAL, SUGESE, CONASSIF, Comptroller’s Office, cooperatives and development banks, state-owned and private commercial banks). • Propose and follow up on a formal financial governance scheme that integrates climate priorities into macroeconomic, fiscal, and development planning. • Document institutional agreements and periodically update a coordination roadmap. • To contribute toward building strategic alliances, viable investment plans, and mobilized resources, thereby consolidating the commitments of NDC 3.0, the Decarbonization Action Plan, and the 2022–2026 National Adaptation Plan into tangible results. 5. Engagement Agenda with Financial Partners and Public Sector Actors: • Establish and maintain ongoing dialogues with commercial banks, development banks, private investors, and multilateral institutions. • Facilitate and follow up on engagements with key public institutions. • Prepare and update a record of agreements reached, financing opportunities, and next steps with each actor. • Present periodic progress reports to the responsible national institutions and propose follow-up actions. • Development of a proposal for an interministerial coordination framework on climate finance 6. NDC Act & Invest Support: • Participate in the methodological development processes of the NDC Act & Invest project to support the dynamization of climate investments at the regional level. • Provide support to UNEP's NDC Act & Invest project in coordinating and articulating actors for the implementation of climate finance actions in Costa Rica. • Support the consolidation of the Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between UNEP and a local partner for the implementation of the mangrove project in Costa Rica. This includes support for the development of the TORs and the required work plan and budget. • Support the implementation of the UNEP mangrove protection project in Costa Rica by serving as a bridge between project stakeholders and the UNEP team. This involves providing Spanish-English interpretation when required. • Consolidate the experience of support provided to Costa Rica as a methodology that can be replicated in other countries in the region. • Participate in meetings, workshops, webinars, and other activities required to strengthen the implementation of the NDC Act & Invest project. • Provide project monitoring update reports, sharing relevant information when required 7. Monthly Reports and Continuity Roadmap: • Compile the results achieved in the previous deliverables. • Identify good practices, challenges, and lessons learned. • Prepare a roadmap with strategic priorities and next steps to ensure continuity and scaling up of the work. • Validate the final report with MINAE, the Ministry of Finance, MIDEPLAN, and key financial stakeholders. • Deliver a package of inputs and reference documents to facilitate the transition and sustainability of actions after the consultancy concludes.
