Consultancy-WASH Innovative Finance Specialist Vacancy-Job Ref: EJDKUNICEF/2605/2025823

Consultancy-WASH Innovative Finance Specialist Vacancy-Job Ref: EJDKUNICEF/2605/2025823

JOB DESCRIPTION
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.

For every child, an opportunity

We’re an interdisciplinary team around the world tasked with identifying and scaling new technologies and practices. With our partners, we focus on convening and collaborating on new and different solutions, low- and high-tech, by Identifying proven solutions that can be implemented at national scale in multiple countries – taking the ideas that help thousands in one country, bringing them to dozens of countries across multiple sectors, and impacting the lives of millions of children.

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. The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

The Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub brings together a passionate global community of strategic partners including children and young people, academia, private entrepreneurs, public policy makers, social development and humanitarian actors, and other UNICEF colleagues in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector. The Hub, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, aims to source, accelerate the scaling of transformational and frontier climate resilient innovations that respond to key programmatic challenges. It is anticipated that solving these challenges will unlock faster progress for a water secure future for children and young people.

WASH is a capital-intensive sector; however numerous studies have identified global underinvestment as a significant constraint on achieving sustainable, universal access to safely managed WASH services. IF offers the potential for additional investment to address some of the investment shortfalls. Leveraged together with innovative solutions to WASH problems, IF offers a potentially catalytic approach to addressing several of the world’s WASH challenges. Accordingly, demonstrating pathways to accelerate scaling of IF in WASH in development and humanitarian contexts is one of the key focal areas of the Hub.

In the context of this role, IF refers to financing approaches, tools, and mechanisms that: (a) leverage additional resources for children through new financial instruments or apply existing instruments in a new way; (b) make resources work more effectively and efficiently in the interest of children; and/or (c) make resources more results-oriented to accelerate programmatic and operational solutions for children.

This role is focused on supporting the implementation of IF demonstration projects in WCAR. The successful candidate will report to the Senior Adviser responsible for IF in the Hub and assist in driving projects to scale in close collaboration with the WCAR Regional Adviser WASH and the Hub Portfolio Manager. The successful candidate will also work collaboratively with the New York WASH Program Group WASH Specialist (Finance and SS) and country and regional office WASH teams.

How can you make a difference?

1. Contribute to the development and execution of the Hub’s strategic vision for integrating IF into WASH programming in WCAR.
2. Conduct detailed financial analysis and modelling to assess the viability of innovative financing solutions in WCAR.
3. Support the development of business models that attract investment into climate-resilient WASH solutions, ensuring they are scalable and sustainable in WCAR.
4. Provide technical support and guidance to regional and country offices on innovative financing strategies that can enhance WASH programs in WCAR.
5. Develop financial reports for internal and external stakeholders, summarizing the performance of IF initiatives and their impact on WASH outcomes in WCAR.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Task 1: Strategic Planning and Financial Innovation Support (Supervision: OOI)

Task 2: Provide technical support in the implementation, scaling, and replication of IF solutions. (Supervision: OOI)

Task 3: Financial Analysis and Modelling (Supervision: OOI)

Task 4: Financial reporting and development (Supervision: WCARO)

Task 5: Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing (Supervision: WCARO)

Task 6 (optional): development of National Financing Strategies (Supervision: WCARO)

For more details regarding the tasks for each responsibility as well as the expected deliverables, please refer to the terms of reference:  TOR IF WCAR .pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in accounting, or a related field.
*A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in finance, with a strong understanding of climate finance, impact investing, and/or sustainable and blended finance, ideally within the public sector, international organizations, or the private sector.

Minimum 2 years of professional experience working with or supporting international development organizations, particularly in emerging markets or developing countries is required.d.
A minimum of two years of relevant experience working in Sub Sahara Africa.
Demonstrated proficiency in financial analysis, project management, and a demonstrated ability to design and implement financial models that support development goals
Advanced financial modeling and risk analysis skills
Knowledge and/or experience of working modalities for regional and international development banks and other IFIs
Ability to explain complex technical information and concepts to UNICEF country staff and partners so they can understand the implications for their projects
Essential knowledge of WASH sector and challenges related to water and sanitation funding and financing (tariffs, cost-recovery, WASH accounts, WASH marketing, PPPs, water and sanitation services business models, etc.)
Fluency in English and French is required.

Desirable

Five years working experience in Sub Sahara Africa.
Previous experience with the UN, National and Regional entities, as well as with donors is desirable.
Experience working in innovation-focused environments or scaling new financing models country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

Please click on the button below to Apply.