Background

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the UN agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. The Urban Economy Branch of UN-Habitat has the mandate to promote local capabilities of local go...

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the overall supervision of the Programme Lead on Finance and Economy, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties: Providing technical support in the adaptation of UN-Habitat’s financial tools to support the Section’s work on SDG localization and urban finance.
• Developing methodological guidelines and templates that standardise the assessment of local fiscal capacity and national financing architectures.
• Analysing fiscal decentralization frameworks to identify bottlenecks and formulate policy recommendations that strengthen national-to-local financing systems.
• Advising on investment readiness by reviewing project concepts and providing technical inputs on funding strategies and financial structuring for local development initiatives.
• Facilitating technical dialogues by preparing concept notes, talking points, and presentation materials for workshops with national institutions and development partners.
• Representing the Finance and Economy team in UN-Habitat internal meetings and engagements with external partners and stakeholders.
• Preparing and delivering presentations on UN-Habitat’s work on urban finance and economy.
• Providing administrative and coordination support to the Finance and Economy team.

Qualifications/special skills

Academic Qualification

Master’s degree in Economics, Public Policy, Public Finance, Political Science, Development Studies or a related field is required.

Work Experience

A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience is defined as professional work in urban finance, municipal or public finance, local economic development, and/or public policy (or closely related areas) is required.

• Providing technical support in the adaptation of UN-Habitat’s financial tools to support the Section’s work on SDG localization and urban finance.
• Developing methodological guidelines and templates that standardise the assessment of local fiscal capacity and national financing architectures.
• Analysing fiscal decentralization frameworks to identify bottlenecks and formulate policy recommendations that strengthen national-to-local financing systems.
• Advising on investment readiness by reviewing project concepts and providing technical inputs on funding strategies and financial structuring for local development initiatives.
• Facilitating technical dialogues by preparing concept notes, talking points, and presentation materials for workshops with national institutions and development partners.
• Representing the Finance and Economy team in UN-Habitat internal meetings and engagements with external partners and stakeholders.
• Preparing and delivering presentations on UN-Habitat’s work on urban finance and economy.
• Providing administrative and coordination support to the Finance and Economy team.

• Urban finance
• Municipal or public finance
• Local economic development
• Public policy

• Master’s degree in Economics, Public Policy, Public Finance, Political Science, Development Studies or a related field.