Overview
The Investment Specialist will lead the development of a reef-positive blended finance portfolio in the Solomon Islands, responsible for sourcing, structuring, and deploying capital to MSMEs and financial institutions with positive environmental impact.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead systematic market scoping to inform investment strategies and identify opportunities.
- Advise on structuring blended finance solutions tailored to specific market and project needs.
- Map the financing landscape and analyze prevailing financial terms.
- Identify regulatory and policy barriers affecting investment flows and propose mitigation strategies.
- Monitor trends in blended finance, climate finance, and impact investing.
- Draft investment strategy documents, operational guidelines, and structural frameworks.
- Support the design of blended finance solutions and derisking approaches.
- Propose innovative structures and support facilities/platforms/pooled mechanisms.
- Recommend appropriate de-risking instruments to catalyze private sector investment.
- Offer technical guidance on investment readiness for project developers and enterprises.
- Identify and engage with potential co-investors, development finance institutions, and private sector partners.
- Contribute to the development of country-specific investment roadmaps, pipelines, and strategic partnerships.
- Support strategic planning, reporting, and donor engagement.
- Represent UNCDF in investment related meetings, working groups, and partner discussions.
- Identify and screen investment opportunities aligned with UNCDF’s strategic priorities.
- Conduct comprehensive due diligence on selected transactions.
- Analyze financial statements and build financial models.
- Score credit risk and assess the financial health of prospective investees.
- Draft investment appraisal memorandums and internal documentation.
- Coordinate with UNCDF’s Investment and Finance Oversight Division.
- Support transaction structuring using UNCDF’s financial instruments.
- Present investment opportunities to UNCDF’s Investment and Disbursement Impact Committee (IDIC).
- Track and document progress of transactions through the investment cycle.
- Provide ongoing technical assistance for the financial instruments deployed.
- Design and implement capacity-building initiatives tailored to enhance operational capacities and financial management of investees.
- Assist investees in developing viable business plans and financial strategies.
- Advise government counterparts and partners on investment-related constraints.
- Facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity building.
- Lead preparation and implementation of annual work plans (AWPs), budgets, and activity schedules.
- Coordinate day today project operations, partner engagement, and delivery of technical assistance.
- Prepare high-quality donor reports (narrative and financial).
- Oversee M&E processes.
- Maintain project documentation, track financial delivery, and support steering committee meetings.
- Lead project close-out, including final reporting and documentation of lessons learned.
- Perform other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary.
Required Experience
- A minimum of 7 years (with a masters’ Degree) or 9 years (with bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in either the financial sector or the private sector or a mix, preferably with investment and/or business management expertise.
- At least 5 years’ investment experience in at least one, but preferably several, of the following areas: impact-oriented SMEs Project finance, Micro Finance Institutions, Guarantee instruments within the space of development finance.
- Experience working in venture capital and/or banking within an international financial environment, preferably in the development of finance institutions, impact investors, or similar.
- Experience in project preparation and/or in development of investment opportunities, especially investment projects with social and environmental objectives in developing countries.
- Experience in financial modeling and analysis in Microsoft excel.
- Desired skills include experience in private credit and/or equity for investments with a social mission in emerging/frontier markets, experience in nature-related or climate-aligned investments, experience in evaluating environmental impacts alongside commercial viability, proven experience in understanding of the investment needs of enterprises and the mix of debt/equity required at different growth stages, experience and strong knowledge of financial markets and financing for sustainable development, experience in analytical writing skills, experience in producing concise, executive level reports (PowerPoint) and presentations, training modules and materials.
- At least 2 years of experience in working for/in the UN System or similar international development finance institution.
Qualifications
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Finance, Marketing, Economics, Accounting, or related field is required. Or A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
