Reporting to Principal Environment and Natural Resources Officer of the EAC Secretariat and Country Representative of GGGI Uganda, the Climate Change Lead will manage a joint effort of the EAC, the NDC Partnership and GGGI to enhance the capacity of the EAC Secretariat, to coordinate and support Partner States in the implementation of regional NDC priorities in a manner consistent with the pillars of integration. Ultimately the aim is to access and mobilize climate finance through implementation of the regional NDC Roadmap and its Implementation plan.

ENGAGEMENT

Ensure strong relationships with key officials in the governments and other relevant public and private institutions. Ensure all stakeholders are and remain satisfied with GGGI’s service delivery, contributing positively to GGGI’s, EAC and the NDC-Partnership’s reputation.
Advise EAC secretariat on a day-to-day basis on climate change matters, specifically related to coordination of the EAC Member Countries’ NDCs.
Work with NDC partnership team of experts placed in EAC member states in coordinating and implementing the roadmap and implementation plan.
Lean heavily on GGGI experts in the region to coordinate climate action and enhance climate finance at the country level.
Act as a key advisor in a multistakeholder dialogue between EAC, Member States, NDC Partnership, GGGI and other partners by obtaining, analyzing, and synthesizing the requirements from all stakeholders and ensuring the final recommendations are made.
Develop the mechanisms and policies (in close cooperation with EAC Secretariat) that will be used in ensuring multistakeholder dialogue is efficient. This also means the Candidate will need to lead the necessary stock taking necessary to further operationalize it.

DELIVERY

Lead implementation of the workplan as outlined in EAC NDC Roadmap and its Implementation plan
Identify and advice on 1) the need for adjustments to the workplan 2) opportunities for innovation and 3) new cooperation and project opportunities resulting in adjusted agreed upon Workplans (the workplan will be regularly adjusted by the Candidate and the team in close cooperation with EAC Secretariat)
Independently manage the delivery of the technical team (consisting of staff members and consultants from various fields ) with given timeline and ensure successful quality delivery in line with the agreed outputs.
Provide high quality climate change/ finance/investment technical advice to EAC and ensuring buy-in from all stakeholders.
Bring in Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan in the NDC Partnership. Intensified interactions are expected for those three countries ensuring strong commitment and engagement from all countries, but specifically those three.

Develop the knowledge exchange, capacity building and communication strategy for the EAC Secretariat related activities and other activates as defined in the workplan
Risk analysis and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the activities with EAC Secretariat is part of the Candidates activities, when necessary the Candidate will have to advice GGGI Country Management, on necessary mitigation measurements and/or adjustments to the program.
Provide in-depth technical knowledge of green project finance and finance instruments to unlock green investment at the global and national level.
Responsible for monthly and quarterly reporting of progress of the EAC Regional NDC Implementation Plan and the Road Map.

The regional update reports will be distributed among stakeholders both in-country, regionally and internationally.
Other tasks, especially leading up to the Communities of Practice, that take place in the timeframe of this project might be added. Which include the development of policy/position papers and/or briefs as necessary.

QUALIFICATIONS

Master’s degree in relevant field or equivalent experience this could be Climate Change, Environmental Science, Environmental Economics, Climate Finance, Natural Resource Management for example
Preference of 7 to 10 years of relevant work experience in coordinating climate change projects or related activities.
At least 2 years of international experience
Fluent in English, an additional EAC language would be an advantage.
FUNCTIONAL
Strong managerial and leadership skills, notably planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling, problem solving and decision-making
Technical knowledge of climate change, mitigation, adaptation and/or climate financing
Experience with the development and structuring of both project proposals and investment projects, ideally in relation to climate change projects
Demonstrated knowledge of NDC framework and policies, modalities and procedures, including reporting requirements and guidelines
Demonstrated project and policy experience in various EAC member countries
Analytical, problem-solving, and strategic skills
Demonstrated ability to build collaborative working relationships with government counterparts
Demonstrated capacity to facilitate in-depth, outcome oriented, stakeholder dialogues
Knowledge of environmental and social safeguards
Commitment to gender equality
Previous experience with the management of donor funded activities
CORPORATE
Understand and actively supports GGGI’s mission, vision, and values.
Promote the optimum use of public resources
Promote an organizational culture of trust, transparency, respect, and partnership.
Process and share information easily.
Manage emotions and stress positively, builds rapport and resolves conflict easily.
Promote creativity and innovation among staff.
Be able to lead where needed and provide solutions to project-level challenge.
BACKGROUND TO THE EAC AND WORKPLAN ACTIVITIES
The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of six (6) Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Guided by the EAC Vision 2050, Africa’s Agenda 2063, and the 2030 SDG Agenda, the EAC developed its Sixth Development Strategy for the period 2021/22– 2025/26, whose overall goal is to transform the East African Community into a stable, competitive and sustainable lower-middle income region by 2030. To achieve this regional development and socioeconomic transformation, the Strategy recognizes that Partner States should target to attain 100 per cent access to health services, access to education and literacy, complete adaptation to climate change and resilience, and progressive and expeditious attainment of industrial solution to EAC peoples’ needs. Priority areas of intervention will be centred on the implementation of COVID 19 recovery plans, climate change management and green growth; Agricultural transformation; Industrial integration; Strengthened governance; among others.

The Sixth Development Strategy, and specifically, the increased prioritization of climate change management is concurrent with Partner States’ publication of updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Five Partner States have recently updated their first NDCs – with Rwanda being the first African country to update its NDC. South Sudan also submitted their first interim NDC. With enhanced NDC ambitions, Partner States and the EAC Secretariat need a significant boost in their implementation capacities to meet their commitments.

Whereas several programmes and sources have emerged to support partners states including by establishing Embedded Climate Change Experts especially under the NDC Partnership, to coordinate climate action and enhance access to climate finance at the country level, there is little attention to regional integration organisations like the EAC Secretariat. At the Secretariat level, support to countries will be guided by the EAC NDC road map for implementation of NDCs adopted in 2018, to be updated to reflect the new priorities outlined in the updated NDCs. It is therefore very critical to enhance the capacity of EAC to support Partner States and coordinate other regional programmes i.e. review and implement the EAC Climate Change Policy and Strategy, development of EAC Climate Change Bill.

As part of its effort to support Partner States to turn their climate change priorities into action, the EAC Secretariat joined the NDC Partnership – a global coalition of countries and institutions working to mobilize support and achieve ambitious climate goals while enhancing sustainable development, in 2018, to explore strategic regional collaboration to support Partners States to coordinate and implement their NDCs. The EAC appreciates the approach of NDC Partnership planning which enhances coordination among members of the partnership, for resource mobilization at country level – since implementation of NDCs happen at countries. However, it could be more strategic to translate the individual country plans into a Regional NDC Implementation plan as a tool towards operationalizing the EAC Regional NDC Road Map and regional climate finance mobilization and access strategy; and facilitate peer to peer exchange events to track NDC implementation progress.

The EAC Secretariat is also collaborating with the UNFCCC Secretariat to develop a regional Climate Finance strategy that is intended to increase access and mobilization of climate finance from all sources, in order to implement EAC’s enhanced NDCs – requiring a five-fold increase in the current flows from international public sources.