Consultant Specialist in Public Finance

Result of Service

The ultimate result of the consultant is to develop national adaptation public expenditures estimates and to that end develop a Climate Change Adaptation Budget Coding Protocol for Panama's national public accounts. The Specialist in Public finance will contribute to the effective implementation of the project by conducting the following deliverables: Outputs and Deliverables Output 3.4.1. NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. Deliverable 1: Inception report: Including detailed methodology, workplan, stakeholder engagement approach, and data collection strategy for the CPEIR Output 3.4.1. NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. Deliverable 2 CPEIR Diagnostic Report and Budget Coding Protocol (Activity 3.4.1.1). Comprehensive climate public expenditure and institutional review, including expenditure analysis, institutional assessment, and proposed climate adaptation budget coding protocol and action plan Output 3.4.1. NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. Deliverable 3 : Training Programme and Capacity Building Package (Activity 3.4.1.3). Development of training materials, delivery of training workshops, and documentation of capacity-building activities to facilitate the operationalization of the CPEIR. Output 3.4.1. NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. Deliverable 4: CPEIR Validation and Institutional Arrangements Report (Activity 3.4.1.2). Delivery of validation workshop and institutional review, including stakeholder feedback, recommendations, and proposed coordination mechanisms for climate finance governance. Output 3.4.1. NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. Deliverable 5 (: Final consolidated report and a policy Brief incorporating stakeholder feedback, including strategic recommendations to strengthen climate-responsive public financial management and mainstream adaptation into national budgets. Specific tasks and responsibilities The main objective of the position of the Specialist in Public finance is to contribute with the Ministry of the Environment and UNEP in the coordination and implementation of the Green Climate Fund funded project as set in the funding proposal document. The consultant will contribute to the effective implementation of the project by guaranteeing the following tasks: Task 1: Develop coding protocol • Carry out interviews with key individuals from the Ministry of Finance to ascertain current public account coding protocols and opportunity and willingness to introduce specific climate change adaptation coding; • Undertake desk review of existing budget coding protocols used by Ministry of Finance and sector finance officers, and review what budget coding systems have been put in place for other cross-cutting programme areas. • Conduct a comprehensive Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR). • Identify and classify climate-relevant expenditures • Assess alignment between public expenditures and national climate policies (Nature Pledge, NAP, NDCs, and sectoral plans). • Evaluate budget planning, execution, and tracking systems, including existing climate budget tagging practices. • Identify financing gaps, priority sectors, and opportunities for scaling investments. • Map and analyze the institutional architecture for climate finance in Panama. • Evaluate budget planning, execution, and tracking systems, including climate budget tagging practices. • In close coordination with the Ministry of Finance and building on current national account systems, update and/ or elaborate a budget coding protocol for assigning climate change adaptation in public accounts to enable for budgeting and expenditure reporting, and an action plan for its application across sectors. • In close coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the NAP Technical Working group, and drawing on the Rio Markers, propose definition for climate change adaptation expenditure and criteria for identifying and classifying climate change adaptation expenditure, in both the recurrent (staffing) and development (capital) components of the national public budget. Task 2 Develop national adaptation public expenditures estimates • Review sector policies, plans and budgets to identify climate change related programmes and activities and use criteria under Rio Markers to classify climate change adaptation expenditure. • Analyze trends in climate-related public expenditures across sectors and over recent years. • In close coordination with the Ministry of Finance, review current mechanisms for tracking external climate finance budgeting and expenditure – both funds that are “on” budget and “off” budget. • Prepare a report on proposed budget coding protocol for assigning climate change adaptation in public accounts for budgeting and expenditure reporting, an action plan for its application across sectors. Task 3 Design and develop materials for training programme on climate public expenditure analysis • Design the content structure, modules, and delivery approach for the online training programme, ensuring accessibility and scalability. • Develop training materials, including presentations, technical notes, practical examples, and case studies. • Integrate Panama-specific findings from the CPEIR to ensure relevance and applicability of the training content. • Provide guidance for the operationalization of the training programme, including session structure, sequencing, and suggested delivery approach. • Facilitate the upload and dissemination of training materials on the NAP website, if required. Task 4: Organize and facilitate the CPEIR validation workshop and institutional arrangements review • Design the workshop methodology, agenda, and supporting materials. • Present and validate key findings and recommendations of the CPEIR with relevant public institutions and key stakeholders. • Facilitate discussions on institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms to strengthen the integration of climate change into national budgeting processes. • Document inputs, feedback, and agreements from stakeholders to inform the finalization of the CPEIR. • Develop recommendations to strengthen institutional coordination and governance for climate finance. • Deliver two training workshops with finance staff of local authorities and relevant centralized and decentralized jurisdictions of sector ministries, including representatives of the Association of Municipalities of Panama (AMUPA). • Document each workshop, including objectives, agenda, content covered, and training materials used. • Compile gender-disaggregated participant lists and summarize key discussions, lessons learned, and participant feedback. • Identify capacity-building needs and propose follow-up actions to support the mainstreaming of adaptation priorities into national, local, and sectoral budget allocation processes. Task 5: Prepare the final CPEIR recommendations report and policy brief for stakeholders • Consolidate and finalize CPEIR report, incorporating all stakeholder feedback, strategic recommendations to mainstream adaptation priorities into public sector budgets and strengthen climate-responsive public financial management. • Prepare a policy brief highlighting key results, priority actions, and strategic recommendations for decision-makers.

Work Location

Home-based

Expected duration

6 MONTHS

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. The UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office (LACO), located in Panama City, works closely with the 33 countries of the region and its activities are integrated into the Medium-Term Strategy and the Programme of Work approved by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). The office works towards the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the new Paris Agreement and the priority actions defined in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and National Adaptation Plans (NAP) of the region. In terms of supporting countries in the region attain the global commitments signed within the framework of the Paris Agreement, the Latin America and the Caribbean UNEP Sub-programme on Climate Change aims at strengthening the ability of countries to move towards climate-resilient and low emission strategies for sustainable development and human well-being. In this framework, the UNEP Sub-programme on Climate Change, through its Climate Change Unit, leads and supports several initiatives oriented at designing, promoting and implementing innovative mitigation and adaptation solutions at the national and subnational level, and strengthening the transparency framework of the countries. The expected accomplishment regarding climate change adaptation is that adaptation approaches, including the Nature based Solutions with an ecosystem-based approach, are implemented and integrated into key sectoral and national development strategies to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience to climate change impacts. Furthermore, the UNEP’s Sub-programme on Climate Change is also committed to ensure that cross-cutting issues such as gender equity and women empowerment are effectively integrated in the development of its tasks to guarantee an equitable development in line with its adaptation objectives. In Panama, climate change poses significant risks to ecosystems, infrastructure, public health, water resources, and agricultural systems. Addressing these risks requires stronger national capacities for research, innovation, and evidence-based decision-making in climate change adaptation. The Panama National Adaptation Plan (NAP) project, titled “Building capacities for the development of the National Adaptation Plan in the context of the NDC adaptation themes in Panama”, was approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on 5 November 2022 and became effective on 22 November 2022. The project aims to strengthen national capacities to advance adaptation planning in alignment with Panama’s NDC priorities. The inception workshop, held on 25 May 2023, marked a key milestone in launching the NAP process, bringing together a broad range of stakeholders from government, private sector, academia, civil society and international cooperation. The workshop fostered high-level dialogue and institutional engagement, contributing to the definition of priority sectors and reinforcing ownership and coordination mechanisms for adaptation planning. The NAP project is structured around four main outcomes: (i) strengthened adaptation planning governance and institutional coordination; (ii) enhanced evidence base to design adaptation solutions; (iii) increased private sector engagement in adaptation; and (iv) strengthened adaptation finance. This consultancy is developed under Outcome 3.4 related to Adaptation finance increased, specifically Output 3.4.1 NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets. This NAP output will consider the institutional arrangements and existing public financial management systems to conduct a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) (Output 3.4.1), aimed at identifying climate-related expenditures, assessing funding sources, and strengthening performance monitoring systems to track progress in meeting national climate commitments, including the NDC and NAP. One outcome of adaptation planning is to increase mobilization of domestic and external financing in support implementation of priority adaptation strategies that effectively increase resilience to a changing climate and where the medium to long-term economic, social and environmental benefits outweighs the costs. There is the need to track climate finance that is budgeted and spent on adaptation and to track expenditure over time in order to determine where additional climate finances need to be allocated to enable implementation of priority adaptation strategies. The tracking of climate financial flows at national and subnational levels and across sectors is often a challenge as highlighted by public expenditure reviews (e.g. CPEIRs). Public financing through national and sector budgets for climate change adaptation are not clearly identifiable in public accounts and information management systems owing to shortfalls in current public accounts coding protocols. Similarly, external financing flows from multi-lateral, bi-lateral and civil society organizations are not always systematically captured “on” public budget and are instead “off” the public accounts, including budgeting and expenditure reporting. As there is no separate provision of climate adaptation budget lines in existing public accounts, financial expenditure reporting by government does not depict climate adaptation expenses and therefore it is difficult to monitor climate change adaptation expenditure to make future plans. Without an accepted definition of what constitutes climate adaptation expenditure, it is difficult to therefore consistently designate expenditures as climate change adaptation related. In this context, Panama has advanced efforts to develop a national sustainable finance taxonomy, with technical support from UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), aimed at establishing a common classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. This taxonomy provides a science-based and policy-aligned framework to define eligible climate investments, improve transparency, and guide both public and private financial flows towards national climate priorities. Aligning the CPEIR methodology and budget tagging approaches with the national taxonomy will be critical to ensure consistency in the identification, classification, and tracking of adaptation-related expenditures across public financial management systems. In this regard, prior efforts have been undertaken by the Ministry of Environment of Panama, through its Directorate of Climate Change, and the Directorate of Budget and Planning of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Panama. In 2021, a Climate Change Tagging Manual was developed to enable the classification and tagging of public investments in both climate change mitigation and adaptation. This manual was implemented as a pilot exercise for some projects executed by the Ministry of Environment during 2020 and 2021. Building on the Climate Change Tagging Manual and the emerging national sustainable finance taxonomy framework, there is a strategic opportunity to strengthen coherence between climate finance tracking, budget classification systems, and national definitions of sustainable investments. In this context, the consultant will review and update existing climate budget tagging methodologies, initially developed by the Directorate of Climate Change, and assess the feasibility of establishing a dedicated budget classification code for climate-related public investment. This effort aims to enhance the transparency, consistency, and traceability of adaptation-related expenditures, ensuring alignment with national climate priorities and enabling more robust monitoring and reporting systems. It is further aligned with key national strategic and institutional frameworks to strengthen climate finance governance, while supporting the integration of climate change considerations into public budgeting and planning processes, including through targeted capacity building within the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other relevant institutions. UNEP intends to contract a qualified consultant to develop a Climate Change Adaptation Financing Strategy, and six thematic mainstreaming adaptation strategies to support investment into adaptation in Panama. These strategies will aim to identify financing needs and priorities, promote innovative financial mechanisms, and generate evidence to catalyze investment in adaptation actions, while strengthening the enabling environment for public and private sector engagement. Travel might be needed for consultation processes. The assignment contributes to output 3.4.1 NAP priorities mainstreamed into public sector budgets, specifically these activities: • Activity 3.4.1.1: Develop climate change adaptation to public and institutional expenditure review (CPEIR), comprising the following steps: I. Develop coding protocol II. Develop national adaptation with relevant expenditure estimates III. Review the institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms for climate finance, budgeting and planning IV. Assessing the capacity of national and local governments to raise and allocate budgets for climate-related actions. • Activity 3.4.1.2: Validation workshop. Organize a one-day workshop (60 people) to validate the CPEIR developed with the NAPCP&WG and relevant actors. • Activity 3.4.1.3: Training programme III. Design an online training programme for the Ministry of Economy and Finance to use the CPEIR on a regular basis. The Consultant Specialist in Public finance will operate home based, under the overall supervision of the Deputy Regional Director UNEP Latin America and the Caribbean Office. Additionally, he/she will work in close collaboration with UNEP´s Adaptation team, the Directorate of Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment in Panama, Project Management Unit, other national consultants and government and non-governmental counterparts. Travel might be needed for consultation processes.

Qualifications/special skills

ACADEMIC • Bachelor’s degree in economy, finance, public management, public finance, policy science, planning, administration, environmental, engineering, natural resources or another closely related field is required. • Master’s degree in accountancy, Economics, public finance, climate finance, Development/Natural Resource Economics from a recognized university or a closely related field is required. PROFESSIONAL • Five (5) years of relevant professional experience in public budget preparation budget coding process including a review and proven record in informing and influencing such a process is required. • Relevant experience in institutional analysis, governance frameworks, and policy related to climate change financing and public climate or enviroment expenditure is required. • At least one (1) climate public expenditure study is desirable. • Good understanding of the public budget preparation and expenditure reporting processes; particularly with regard to cross-cutting thematic areas such as gender, climate and environment sectors; • Working experience with government organizations would be an added advantage. • Demonstrated experience in multilevel coordination (for the national, subnational and/or sectoral level) in planning and financial budget is desirable. • Demonstrated experience in the elaboration of reports and official documents for technical and high-level meetings is desirable. • Experience in the LAC region is highly desirable; previous work with UN system or internation organizations is a strong asset. SPECIAL SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE SKILLS • Ability to identify public financial information gaps and propose alternative solutions, calculations, and/or new information to achieve goals and scope. • Demonstrate ability to build partnerships, facilitate dialogues, resolve conflicts and work in multisectoral settings. • Ability to assess and design financial instruments and blended finance mechanisms for adaptation investment. • Ability to build and maintain effective professional relationships across diverse sectors. • Strong knowledge of gender integration approaches within climate or development projects. • Excellent analytical, reporting, and communication skills, with proven capacity to transform complex information into accessible deliverables. • Ability to work independently, manage multiple tasks, and deliver high‑quality outputs within deadlines. • High degrees of professionalism, discretion, initiative, and responsibility. PROFESSIONALISM Ability to apply knowledge of various United Nations administrative, financial and human resources rules and regulations in work situations. He/she shows pride in work and in achievements; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect; identifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solutions. COMMUNICATION Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; tailors’ language, tone, style and format to match audience; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed. TEAMWORK Is able to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team to achieve organizational goals and to take leadership when appropriate; solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings. PLANNING AND ORGANIZING Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required; allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; uses efficiently.

Languages

● Fluency in Spanish is required ● Confidence in English is desirable

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.