Giga Finance Specialist
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Duration: 12 months
Application Deadline: 27 July 2023, CEST
Summary
Giga seeks a Finance Specialist to join one of the most innovative and impactful initiatives at the United Nations. This individual will lead Giga’s capital formation efforts, deepen and operationalize relationships with mission-aligned development partners, and develop creative project-level financing solutions.
Your main responsibilities will be…
1. Capital Formation
Leading outreach to existing and prospective financial supporters, including:
- Advancing a dedicated Giga financing vehicle for school connectivity.
- Articulating Giga’s unique vision to public and private sector partners.
- Building bespoke financial models and clearly explain their outputs and implications.
2. Finance Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement
Leading partnership and stakeholder engagement efforts by:
- Expanding and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders, including development banks and institutional investors to advance connectivity projects, in coordination with UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division and Private Fundraising and Partnership Division.
- Designing and deploying joint financing mechanisms.
- Coordinate multi-stakeholder efforts to gather data, conduct economic and financial analysis, and assess the potential impact of connectivity investments.
- Supporting UNICEF country offices and corresponding directly with local authorities, as appropriate.
- Serving as a thought leader and finance expert within UNICEF and ITU.
3. Project Level Financing Solutions
Leading project pipeline development by:
- Building and articulating economic and business cases for investment in connectivity projects.
- Supporting project preparation and scoping efforts, including an assessment of project costs and cost-benefit analysis of technology solutions.
- Structuring project-specific solutions, speaking to projects and related finance strategies in detail.
Please click here to access the full TOR and related information.
To qualify for this position, you will have…
- Experience designing and developing business plans is an asset.
- Experience in telecommunication infrastructure sector is an asset.
- Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.
- Experience in a UN system agency or organization some of which served in a developing country is considered as an asset.
- University degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance or related field; Having master’s degree in related field would be an asset.
- Minimum 5 years of professional work experience of financing/finance advisory role in, or to, emerging and developing countries.
- Ability to perform project-level financial analysis, macroeconomic analysis and build financial models.
- Demonstrated strong skills in Power Point and Excel
- Demonstrated strong writing and presentation skills in English.
- Ability to effectively work and coordinate in a multiple stakeholder environment, IFI experience preferred but not required.
- Ability to work with a diverse team in a rapidly changing work environment and adapt to unforeseen changes.
- Experience working in the intersection of development/donor organizations, public finance, and commercial sector is an asset.
Travel
- The consultant is expected to travel one time to Geneva, Switzerland, which will require a stay of up to 5 working days.
- The consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.
Payment details and further considerations
- Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
- Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
- Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.
How to apply
- Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee.
- Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance.
Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered. Please find attached the financial proposal template.
About Our Team
We are a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary team of software engineers, finance specialists, data scientists, policy experts, and much more. Our team is a distributed workforce and plans to remain distributed into the foreseeable future. We are growing fast. Our team has grown by over 400% in the last 6 months as we rapidly scale to meet our stated mission.
About Giga
Giga is a joint initiative of UNICEF and ITU to connect every school in the world to the Internet by 2030. Working with corporate and non-profit partners, Giga maps schools’ Internet access in real time, creates models for innovative financing, and supports governments contracting for connectivity. It is part of ITU’s Partner2 Connect Coalition, UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative, and the UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda and Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.
Follow Giga on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.
UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.
About ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), driving innovation in ICTs together with 193 Member States and a membership of over 900 companies, universities, and international and regional organizations.
Payment details and further considerations
- Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.
- Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
- Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.