Data & Market Intelligence Project Manager, Cleanstart Program

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.

UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

UNCDF’s Energy Access Initiative: CleanStart Programme

UNCDF, through the CleanStart Programme (2012-2020), supports low-income consumers to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy. By 2020, CleanStart aims to have over 500,000 households and micro-entrepreneurs make the switch to clean energy, which translates into 2.5 million people benefitting altogether.

To this end, the CleanStart Programme promotes access to finance across the energy value chain from customer to enterprise by investing in early stage, innovative business ideas from SMEs that have the potential to make a step-change in improving the accessibility, affordability, and reliability of modern energy for people, especially those at the last-mile. Business ideas should have strong commercial-viability potential.
The initiative has four programme components. The (1) investment component as described above is complemented by three other components that centre around (2) providing technical advisory services to get concepts and business plans investment-ready by CleanStart, as well as general advice and linkages to non-financial resources such as experts and business development opportunities during the life of the partnership; (3) knowledge and learning through customer insights research and Thinkshops to discuss trending market topics; and (4) advocacy and partnerships with strategic partners to jointly support the improvement of the energy access market ecosystem so that business models can scale.

CleanStart global is supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, the Government of Andorra, the Government of Liechtenstein, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and the Swedish International Development Agency.

UNCDF CleanStart in Uganda

UNCDF’s initial investments in Uganda has leveraged in-country funding from the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda to co-invest in business model innovations in the solar power and clean cooking markets (Renewable Energy Challenge Fund, RECF), and the Department for International Development of the UK to in Uganda to promote industry-led off-grid solar market development in collaboration with the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA).  

UNCDF is supporting USEA to build up its governance and management structure, as well as incubate member services such as sales data collection, business development services, and Big Data customer research.

Objectives

The selected consultant will support the UNCDF team on two components of the Uganda Solar Energy Association Project:

1)    Delivering market intelligence to stimulate market expansion and investment in the Uganda off-grid solar sector, in collaboration with technical service providers and other strategic partners.

2)    Big data customer insights to stimulate customer-centric product development and policy advocacy to inform the national energy policy.

Link: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=81142