Forest Sector Finance Specialist

FAO

The incumbent will undertake the following tasks:

Desk Review:
o Review relevant national policies, credit programs, and financial instruments related to forests, agriculture, rural development, and restoration.
o Review FAO s global and regional experiences (FFF, AFR100 support programme, blended finance initiatives).

Stakeholder Mapping:
o Identify key actors (public banks, private financial institutions, cooperatives, microfinance providers, climate funds, impact investors, and community-based finance mechanisms).

Analysis:
o Assess gaps, barriers, and enabling factors in smallholder and community access to financial services.
o Examine innovative finance instruments (partial credit guarantees, agricultural insurance, revolving funds, and savings and credit schemes) and their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks as well as conditions for successful deployment in the NPFP context. The analysis should cover the different types of financial services that could be introduced within the scope of the NPFP, with the description of the financial service, the profile of the beneficiary, specific aspects to be considered for its implementation within the scope of the NPFP, impacts that could be achieved, necessary institutional arrangements, governance mechanisms, among others.
o Provide further in-depth analysis of 2-3 priority instruments for potential development and practical piloting.
o Assess FAO potential technical assistance, including through FAO s capitalization of financial instruments, Forest and Farm Facility or business incubation in the context of restoration.

Recommendations and Roadmap:
o Provide technical support in developing recommendations for financial mechanisms and partnerships relevant to NPFP implementation and possible pilots.
o Support the development of roles for FAO in providing technical assistance, capacity building, and facilitation of partnerships.
o Provide support in outlining an operational roadmap for piloting and scaling financial access solutions within the NPFP framework.