Senior Paardevlei Solar Farm and Net Zero Carbon Municipal Buildings Advisor

Reports to: Project Manager - CFF

Duration: Until 31 March 2024

BACKGROUND

The C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) is a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the French Development Agency (AFD) and jointly implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40).

The overall objective of the CFF is to reduce GHG emissions and increase climate resilience in cities by mobilising finance for city-level climate change action. The CFF provides technical assistance to selected C40 cities in developing and emerging countries to prepare technically sound and financial sustainable low carbon and climate resilience infrastructure projects. The CFF aims to achieve the following project outputs:

  • Sustainable financing of urban climate change investment projects is enabled in the CFF partner cities;
  • Capacity development of city administrations to mobilise and access a broad range of financing instruments for climate change; and
  • Knowledge dissemination beyond CFF partner cities via peer-to-peer learning and CFF stakeholders.

The scope of the project “Paardevlei Solar Farm and Net Zero Carbon Municipal Buildings” (hereinafter “the project”), includes (a) installation of a city-owned, large-scale, embedded solar photovoltaic (PV) plant on a greenfield site and (b) development of a business case to achieve net-zero carbon (NZC) municipal buildings in Cape Town by 2030 which has been suggested to CFF as one of City of Cape Town’s high priority projects. This involves the technical and financial development of the project.

The Senior Project Advisor will be a central part of the CFF support to the City of Cape Town, supporting the city in further developing and improving solar PV and energy efficiency in the city. The Senior Project Advisor will be employed by the GIZ country office in South Africa but will work very closely with the cities project team, ensuring the delivery of demand-driven technical assistance and capacity development support.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS

  • Serve as a focal point between the city administration and the project team in the city;
  • Build an effective working relationship between CFF and the specific cities project team based on mutual trust and respect;
  • Supporting the city project team in translating the technical assistance needs into
  • Terms of Reference (ToRs) to be used to procure consultancy services;
  • Support GIZ in the procurement of local and international consultancy services and in the supervision of the delivery of consultancy services on a day-to-day basis (quality control of deliverables, technical backstopping);
  • Support the city administrations and the external advisors of CFF in the identification and delivery of technical assistance and capacity development measures and the training needs of the personnel required to carry out the project;
  • Ensure effective development, implementation of assistance technical and professional training plans, committed to the needs of the city administrations in order to provide financing for the city projects;
  • Act as liaison between the associated city and the CFF support team;
  • Provide (technical) guidance to additional CFF technical advisors / consultants;
  • If necessary, identify and facilitate additional support requirements, and improve technical assistance and professional training plans.
  • Ensure technical assistance and support staff training oriented towards transformational changes within the city administration;
  • Jointly with the city project team, supervise and report periodically on the progress with respect to the project objectives and the structure of the CFF indicators;
  • Maintain a regularly updated record of lessons learned;
  • Support the city administration to share their learning through the identification, registration and reporting of the relevant steps of the project with other cities and contribute, when possible, with the development of tools and other knowledge products developed by CFF;
  • Act as an advisor to the city in meetings and discussions with potential funders and other interested stakeholders;
  • Work with the local offices of GIZ in the country in administrative and logistical aspects, as well as ensure coordination with relevant bilateral programs;
  • Support the project team in the city in the development of terms of reference for the hiring of additional consultants;
  • Build and maintain professional relationships with relevant organizations in the field, particularly with organizations associated with CFF as well as with other international donor organizations, financial organizations, civil society organizations, and relevant universities and academic institutions;
  • Maintain strict confidentiality of information and documentation obtained from the city and CFF.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Suitable candidates should apply by submitting a motivation letter (concisely 1 page) detailing why they should be the preferred candidate and the value they will bring to the project. This should be accompanied by a detailed CV indicating their nationality to: recruit-pretoria@giz.de  with the subject line: “Senior Paardevlei Solar Farm and Net Zero Carbon Municipal Buildings Advisor” for the attention of Head of Human Resources.

Closing date for applications: 29 July 2022.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Applications without a motivation letter will not be considered!

Full job description download below.