Green Growth And Jobs Accelerator Project Manager

The Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Project will be implemented in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan building on UNDP’s work and experience with implementing the SDG Accelerator for SMEs methodology. The SDG Accelerator for SMEs methodology is unique in the United Nations family as it directly supports sustainable business development and commercial Green Growth in SMEs.  The SDG Accelerator is a part of UNDP’s service offer UNDP Impact Venture Accelerators (IVA). The IVA is a practical approach to help businesses focus on delivering products/services, business models and business plans which contribute to the SDGs. The IVA is a part of UNDP’s Private Sector Strategy note which, along with other UNDP strategic areas, works towards achieving the goal of promoting over $1 US trillion of public expenditure and private capital investment in the SDGs, as outlined in UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2022-25. 

The Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Project is one out of three projects under the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme’s (DAPP) new five-year cycle, launched September 2022. The owner of the initiative DAPP is the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DAPP has existed since the early 2000s. DAPP comprises of two programmes, the Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Programme and the Human Rights and Inclusion Programme. The Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator is project 2 out of three projects under the Youth Employment Programme. 

The objective of the Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Project is to support established entrepreneurs and SMEs, of which a proportion will be youth-led, to accelerate Green Growth in their businesses and through this, support the local transition to a green and sustainable economy, and enable green jobs for youth. 

The Country Offices (CO) in the four DAPP countries will implement the Accelerators at country-level and leverage on their longstanding local networks of relevant stakeholders across sectors (SMEs). Choosing the right sectors and sub-sectors with high potential for job-creation will be key to ensure results and will be based on a sector analysis surveying mapping of growth, job drivers, and much more. The implementation will be done in close collaboration with local management consulting firms in each country (or regionally) who will assist the CO team in implementation and deliver strategic business development consulting on Green Growth and business instruments to grow business. The strategic business development consulting will consist of e.g. consulting on the development of business plans for new environmentally friendly products and services, through implementation of greener production or operational processes, and/or through the integration of selected standards that can enable some companies to get access to new markets.

The Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator project will be implemented in 3 outputs: 

Output 1: Accelerators: 

Established entrepreneurs and SMEs, of which at least 10% will be youth-led enterprises, will be supported with Green Growth business instruments and advisory through an intensive 5-months business development process called the Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator. The youth-led enterprises will follow the same process in the accelerators as the non-youth-led companies. The overall goal of Output 1 is to target companies enabled to grow their business and create green jobs for youth. 

Output 2: SME Finance:

Many of the target companies in the Accelerator are expected to need risk capital to realise their Green Growth business plans. UNDP will function as a connector between the target companies and relevant financial institutions providing capital to SMEs in and outside the region. Here, UNDP will also make use of the SDG Investor Maps, if available, identifying supply and demand of investment appetite in the countries. Through the Accelerator, target companies that need finance will also be offered some coaching aiming to strengthen their ability to pitch Green Growth business plans to potential investors and capital providers. The overall goal of Output 2 is to ensure that green business solutions of target companies accelerated by increased access to finance.

Output 3: Learning Modality 

In the MENA region, young entrepreneurs and businesses using digital platforms and technology and taking advantage of digital payment opportunities are on the rise. Output 3 will work to strengthen the capacity of entrepreneurs and SMEs to take advantage of these new digital growth opportunities which will be delivered through a targeted learning modality. The learning modality will comprise different learning assets including Digital learning on:

Sustainable business development and innovation, 

Impact Management and Measurement (IMM); and 

e-Commerce. 

The overall goal of Output 3 is for youth and companies to be capacitated to accelerate and manage green, sustainable growth.

Project Management:

• Lead the implementation, execution, control, and reporting on two 5-month Accelerators each year between 2023-2027 in close collaboration with management consultant firms.
• Take part in country-level coordination group consisting of partners in the DAPP, to ensure on the ground coordination and collaboration, to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure maximum synergies between the three DAPP projects.
• Lead stakeholder dialogue with external partners relevant to the project implementation. The key stakeholder from the private sector is the local management consultancy firm which will entail the majority of the stakeholder engagement. Other private sector stakeholders include private sector outside the accelerators, business associations, innovation hubs, other accelerators, and risk finance, such as venture capital, angel investors, investment funds and so on the second stakeholder dialogue group is the public sector at both local and national level, including local and national government, networks of academia, and so on.
• Bring in and leverage on existing project experience and capabilities relevant to this project; e.g. project management, understanding of and direct work with private sector/enterprise development/local investment landscape/Green Growth/innovation/digital transformation. 
• Project management of local accelerators and country-level project team. This includes monitoring of the implementation of activities and the expenditure of funds, and potentially conducting monitoring visits at SME premises as well. Project management related to local management consultants will include project coordination with the management consultants on country level and ensuring timely and on-target delivery of the output agreed on contractually with the consultants. 
• Ensure structured progress reports for SME cohorts. 
• Support and feed into the development of a regional adaptive management framework with country specific frameworks. 
• Lead on capturing results from project progress against an adaptive management results framework 
• Lead on collecting country-level project data for reporting and M&E. 
• Contribute relevant cases and materials that can be turned into communication products and stories by RBAS (local and regional audiences) and UNDP Nordic (Danish audiences). 
• Participate in meetings and coordinate activities with local DAPP secretariats consisting of representatives of the projects in the overall Danish-Arab Partnership Programme’s Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Program. 
• Develop all required reports, presentations, knowledge products and other relevant materials as requested.

Duties and responsibilities within Output 1: 

• Lead on implementation of two 5-month Accelerators each year between 2023-2027 in tandem (close collaboration) with management consultant firms. 
• Lead on recruitment of SMEs to accelerators through own channels and through partners with support from RBAS and UNDP NRO. 
• Lead on daily project coordination with local management consultant firm. 
• Take part in Green Growth consulting services to individual SMEs in accelerator cohorts together with management consultant firm. 
• Take part in weekly check-ins with UNDP RBAS and NRO.
• Take part in fortnightly learning sessions with UNDP RBAS, NRO and other COs focusing on SME progress, methodology/tools application and other items relevant to the project. 
• Deliver all joint sessions for SMEs including Joint Kick-off workshop, IMM workshop, Showcase and Finale 
• Lead on capturing results from SME progress against results framework. 
• Establish partnerships with academic institutions to recruit relevant youth to serve as interns/consultants to deliver support to SMEs as partners.
• Lead on and develop all required reports, presentations, knowledge products and other relevant materials as requested.

Duties and responsibilities within Output 2: 

• Lead on mapping sustainable finance and risk finance providers in the country and the region, relevant for the SMEs in the accelerators. 
• Lead on matchmaking SMEs with relevant investors and finance providers. 

Duties and responsibilities within Output 3: 

• Lead on stakeholder dialogues with networks and entities such as business schools, universities, innovation hubs, already established accelerators and incubators etc. that have access to larger groups of youth that would benefit from the digital learning assets, ensuring maximizing the utilization of Regional Youth Project Platform (NextGen Youth Platform).
• Support in design and setup of Green Growth Community to ensure local relevance. 
• Support the utilization and spread of e-learning materials and curricula through relevant channels, and outlets of stakeholders. 
• Lead on onboarding SMEs alumni to the Green Growth Community.   
• Map viable accelerators existing in the national-level ecosystems.