British High Commission in Pretoria Private Sector Lead for Just Energy Transition Jobs in South Africa
Main purpose of job:
South Africa is the world’s 14th largest Greenhouse gas emitter and its state electricity provider, Eskom, is one of the top emitting power companies.
The South African Government’s and Eskom’s leadership opened the door to the launch of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) at COP26 in November 2021 by the governments of South Africa, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, along with the European Union (International Partners Group-IPG).
The Partnership aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of South Africa’s economy to help it achieve the ambitious goals set out in South Africa’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution emissions goals.
All of which makes this an exciting opportunity to contribute to a top international priority that will have real world impact and address a major contributor to climate change.
It is a massive endeavour – following the publication at COP27 of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, work is now underway on the technical design and content of a South Africa Implementation Plan, helping ensure the $8.5bn of funding committed by the IPG is able to flow.
With the UK acting as the co-ordinator of the International Partners Group, we have a key role to play in ensuring strong, coherent and coordinated engagement with our South African partners and more broadly to sustain political and technical momentum.
We are looking for a brilliant and enthusiastic Officer to lead on the private sector and private finance mobilisation element of the Just Energy Transition Partnership for the UK and in turn supporting the International Partners Group (US, UK, FR, GER, EU) and friends e.g. DK, NL, World Bank and Africa Development Bank on this top priority.
Roles and responsibilities:
UK in South Africa is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace – our vision statement is that ‘We are a diverse and inclusive workplace where all are respected, trusted, appreciated and empowered’. We hope you will play your part in delivering this inclusive culture.
In this role you will be responsible for:
Work with British International Investment (BII) and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) – to support them in developing and supervising a balanced US$500 million equity, debt and guarantee investment portfolio for the Just Energy Transition. This will include referring specific investment leads to them, ensuring their initiatives are sufficiently additional, in line with their own ESG and investment mandate and well scoped and liaising with the Project Management Unit of the JET on proposals.
Scoping and supervising key UK private sector grant programming for the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) including 3 key workstreams related to Mpumalanga Province on (i)land rights (ii) finding pipeline of investment for a fund and (iii)agribusiness in Mpumalanga.
Liaison with other development partners, including philanthropies, and the JET Project Management Unit – supporting them with best practice and ideas and coordination on private sector areas including on outcome based financing, mobilisation of financing including blended finance structures.
Liaising with key SA stakeholders including the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) in their role in private sector development areas including in green hydrogen.
Keeping abreast of the “state of the market” via liaison with private sector investment partners around the JETP including funds, insurance and pension funds, asset managers and banks but also potentially some energy and infrastructure development companies.
Additional private sector support to the South Africa office, including for example reviewing multilateral development bank private sector investment proposals and BII and PIDG’s broader investment strategy for the Southern Africa region.
Regular reporting into the central FCDO team in the UK which works on private finance mobilisation and which is funding this post.
Essential qualifications, skills and experience
Degree level experience required
3 to 5 years work in private sector e.g. bank, insurance company, law firm, consultancy or in similar role to this with another development partner
Technical requirements:
Ideally achieving some of the Technical Competencies here for FCDO Private Sector Advisers at Expert level, especially regarding the Investment and Finance skills here within the competencies)
Investment – Good understanding of investment concepts – equity, debt, accounts and business plans/cash flow, different elements of the financial sector, SME development and stock market arrangements, credit ratings and credit enhancement concepts and environmental and social governance issues
Understanding of concepts of market development, market failures, small and medium sized enterprise support
Working knowledge of excel and understanding the excel models, although detailed financial modelling skills are not required
Good drafting and powerpoint skills
Desirable qualifications, skills and experience
CFA or MBA or Masters in Finance is desirable
Experience in working in investment or finance e.g in a bank, law firm, consultancy is highly preferred
Understanding of how private sector development programming works and development finance goals and partnerships is preferable but this could be learnt on the job
Project / infrastructure finance understanding or deal structuring experience
Experience in drafting or reviewing terms of reference, managing consultants and reviewing deliverables is strongly preferred
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; British High Commission in Pretoria Private Sector Lead for Just Energy Transition Jobs in South Africa
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