Senior Advisor, Urban Finance & Local Economic Development

Qualifications/special skills

• Academic Qualification; Master’s degree in Economics, Public Policy, Public Finance, Political Science, Development Studies or a related field is required.
  
• Work Experience; A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience is defined as professional work in urban finance, municipal or public finance, local economic development, and/or public policy (or closely related areas) is required.
  

• Under the overall supervision of the Programme Lead on Finance and Economy, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties: Providing technical support in the adaptation of UN-Habitat’s financial tools to support the Section’s work on SDG localization and urban finance.
  
• Developing methodological guidelines and templates that standardise the assessment of local fiscal capacity and national financing architectures.
  
• Analysing fiscal decentralization frameworks to identify bottlenecks and formulate policy recommendations that strengthen national-to-local financing systems.
  
• Advising on investment readiness by reviewing project concepts and providing technical inputs on funding strategies and financial structuring for local development initiatives.
  
• Facilitating technical dialogues by preparing concept notes, talking points, and presentation materials for workshops with national institutions and development partners.
  
• Representing the Finance and Economy team in UN-Habitat internal meetings and engagements with external partners and stakeholders.
  
• Preparing and delivering presentations on UN-Habitat’s work on urban finance and economy.
  
• Providing administrative and coordination support to the Finance and Economy team.