Senior Associate Green Finance

The Senior Associate, Green Finance will be the recognized as a focal point for green investment within GGGI Lao PDR and will have overall responsibility for timely and high-quality delivery of green and sustainable investment activities with specific focus on carbon project pipeline development. The position-holder will provide day-to-day technical and strategic support to the management, as well as liaise externally to ensure impactful delivery of investment activities and outputs. The Sustainable Finance Associate will be primarily responsible for delivering activities related to the scoping, identification and development of carbon investment projects in Lao PDR across multiple priority sectors; working with project proponents to design carbon project finance and strengthen financial models; preparing a national carbon project pipeline that are in line with Government priorities; engaging the private sector, relevant Government partners and stakeholders; and more broadly facilitating and strengthening the access to carbon finance in order to increase carbon finance flows into Lao PDR

• Identify carbon investment project options and opportunities across a range of sectors in Lao PDR, and explore risks, project structures, innovative financing mechanisms and/or de-risking mechanisms to overcome policy and institutional barriers for carbon projects in key sectors.
• Prepare project and investment documentation such as investment briefs, presentations, financial models linking to the carbon projects, and scenario analysis for potential investors and stakeholders. Such documentation is expected to cover key elements such as project objectives, outcomes, deliverables, implementation pathway, risk mitigation measures, timeline, staffing, budget, standards of performance, and evaluation.
• Conduct pre-feasibility assessments for sustainable business models with stakeholders, including government partners, financial institutions, private sector developers etc.
• Support project implementation by delivering ongoing advisory services and developing tools to enhance better decision-making and quality delivery.

Engagement:

• Identify, engage and build relationships with relevant public and private sector stakeholders, such as private companies, private investors, private project developers, government staff, development partners, NGOs and universities.
• Engage financial institutions and commercial lenders in the development of projects to ensure the projects adequately represent their vision, interest, criteria and priorities.
• Facilitate, where necessary, interactions between public and private institutions to create investment projects and/or innovative funding mechanisms. Support further development and expansion of GGGI’s network of financial institutions, banks, funds and other relevant organizations both domestically and internationally.
• Obtain endorsement from the relevant Government partners and other relevant stakeholders for the draft reports as required.

Delivery:

• Collect and conduct research on the carbon market trends globally, regionally and locally in Lao PDR to feed into the development of the National Carbon Market Strategy and Approval Guidelines to be developed under Outcome 1 of the Program.
• Refine and finalize a draft Carbon Project Assessment Report which includes a draft project investment criteria and longlist of possible projects for review and endorsement by the Government.
• Identify and develop commercially bankable carbon projects (short-list of carbon projects) that are in line with the latest Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Lao PDR, National and Sectoral Carbon Market Strategies, National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) and other relevant national policies that will be attractive to relevant Government partners, financial institutions, and private sector.
• Develop MAIN (Mitigation Activity Idea Note) and MADD (Mitigation Activity Design Document) templates that are in line with the national and international best practices.
• Develop high-quality MAINs and MADDs for identified short-listed carbon projects including technical information on the types of projects (agriculture, forestry, energy, industrial processing or transport), proposed standard/methodologies to be used for emission reduction, potential volume of emission reductions, financial, and risk analysis including financial modeling.
• Deliver one MAIN by end of December 2024 and two MAINs in 2025 with at least one MADD in 2026.
• Support the mobilization of other climate finance and investments in green growth sectors in Lao PDR, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric mobility, agriculture and forestry, waste-to-energy and waste management business models among other sectors.
• Develop high-quality proposals for investment projects in the key green growth sectors.
• Develop various documents (or portions of documents) in support of project design, institutional capacity-building, and internal and external program reporting.

Requirements:

Qualifications:

• The successful applicant must demonstrate outstanding professional competence and hold exemplary and relevant academic credentials. As noted, the position requires extensive experience in deal origination and financial analysis skills in green growth sectors. Knowledge of Lao policy and governance in the key carbon and climate finance, green growth, sustainable development sectors, commercial risk assessment, project finance, debt instruments and multi-stakeholder collaboration is needed. Practical experience in arranging investment deals, pitching of bankable projects and/or financial deal structuring is important.

Specifically, the applicant should provide convincing evidence of the following:

• A bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business management or economics. An advanced degree (master’s or equivalent) will be an advantage. Relevant financial certifications like CFA, FRM etc. will be an added advantage.
• Preferred a minimum of four (4) years of relevant professional experience related to banking, investment, entrepreneurship, project development and/or financial modelling, including at least several years of experience in Lao PDR.
• Solid understanding of various financial products and debt/equity instruments being used in Lao finance/investment sector.
• Broad understanding on the structure of carbon projects under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and/or the Voluntary Carbon Market, including calculation of emission reductions, would be a distinct advantage.
• Excellent Lao and English writing skills is required. Writing examples might be requested as well as a written exercise as part of the selection procedure.
• Experience working directly with one or more investment banks/ private equity/ multi laterals would be an advantage.
• A good network of professional contacts among financial institutions and impact investors would be an added advantage.

Source: https://careers.gggi.org/vacancy/senior-associate-green-finance-567436.html