Call for Applications:The Bilingual NDC Financing Fellowship Programme 2020/2022: Deadline:  17th August, 2020 (11:59 pm CET)

Background

Governments across the world are recognizing that climate change is already affecting the economic and social development of vulnerable communities and that mitigation and adaptation is a necessary response to the impacts. As the effects increase in severity and frequency, national governments are developing policies and management systems to allocate financial resources in order to hamper climate change impacts. African countries in particular face the dual challenges of high vulnerability to climate change and limited capacity for effective climate action.

The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to address the growing climate change challenge. Under the Paris Agreement, countries submitted national climate plans, officially known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Research by the Frankfurt School (FS) and the African Research & Impact Network (ARIN) demonstrates that in these climate action plans, most developing countries – including many African countries – make their mitigation and adaptation contributions conditional upon receiving international support (finance, technology transfer and/or capacity building). While provision of support for NDC implementation could enhance equity among countries, the feasibility of NDC implementation might be challenged by the large number of conditional NDCs. Moreover, climate action has been considered within the broader context of sustainable development. This brings into sharp focus the need to leverage innovative approaches for financing NDCs.

In this context, the FS and ARIN are implementing the Bilingual NDC Financing Fellowship Programme to support to build up capacities and leadership to develop sound policies to mobilise funding and financial resources for NDCs of African countries (public and private, national and international funding) – particularly mobilizing finance, developing and implanting NDC investments plans and tracking progress in implementation. Through the Fellowship Programme, technical understanding has been created and exchanged related to a topic of high relevance to the sustainable (economic) growth of many countries. By following a bilingual approach, fellowships will be awarded to Anglophone as well as Francophone candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa (applications from Lusophone candidates are also welcomed).

The Bilingual NDC Financing Fellowship Programme contributes to the following outputs:

• Fellows have a sound understanding of current developments in the field of NDCs – particularly mobilizing financing, developing and implanting NDC investments plans and tracking progress in implementation
• Linking research and policy will allow advancing to a community of practice and exchange of best practices / experiences.
• Fellows take leadership positions in their country and are able to spread their knowledge and experiences obtained during the programme, thus fostering discussions, awareness and the development of sound policies.

Fellowship Tracks & Selection Criteria

The Fellowship is structured around two tracks: i) Research; and ii) Policy tracks. Policy Fellows will be those actively involved in the formulation of NDCs – either within or outside the government and/or (climate) finance related Initiations to foster transformation. Researcher Fellows are those working on e.g. evaluation and/or comparison of NDCs; enabling environment for effective NDC implementation; (Climate) Finance sector development and/or private sector involvement in NDC implementation.

Application Requirements:

Applicants will be required to submit:

• A detailed Curriculum Vitae indicating their academic or professional experience as well as their interest in NDC Finance and Implementation
• Statement of Motivation that outlines why they want to become a Fellow
• Vision of future academic and professional career and how the participation in the fellowship programme supports their personal goals but also the country
• A proposal for providing a clear description of the problem to be investigated in the assignment during the e-learning course:
  • Policy track: policy paper (~4 pages) or country case study with a clear question and motivation that will guide through the documents and the expected structure analyse/present the topic.
  • Research track: research proposal providing a clear question. The questions that will guide the research process, general and specific research objectives, method and in detail the research design and procedures to be followed to achieve each research objective.

Application Deadline: 17th August, 2020 (11:59 pm CET)

The online application form is available here: https://www.frankfurt-school.de/idrc/ndcffp

Your application will be reviewed after the deadline is over (17th August, 2020, 11:59 pm CET) and you will be contacted regarding the next steps. The results of the NDC-FFP selection process will be communicated via email in August 2020.

Enquiries: Please contact Jonas Fleer (J.Fleer@fs.de) should you have any enquiries