Result of ServiceThe ultimate result of the services are as follows: 1) Financial models for respective pilots incremental housing and social rental housing project. 2) Desk study of Interest differential to support transactions of the Affordable Housing Board. 3) Templates for a financial model to be tested in PINUA pilot sites and that can be replicated across the country for use by the Slum Upgrading Department at the State Department for Housing and Urban Development. 4) Framework for a community revolving fund that allows for capital repurposing in new projects and exits the Affordable Housing Board across social housing projects. 5) A structured financial toolkit that includes a pooled fund model, microloan scheme, public- private partnership strategy and pilot implementation plan, to enable small contractors to secure funding and sustain participation in the Affordable Housing Programme. 6) Direct and Integrated Report containing the consultant’s processes and methods of training, performance evaluation of at least two young professional mentored, and each of the mentee’s feedback on the on-job experience gained. 7) Capacitation Workshops for scalability and integration. Work LocationNairobi, Kenya Expected duration6 months Duties and ResponsibilitiesBackground The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations agency for human settlements that is mandated by UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11). UN-Habitat, through the Regional Office for Africa is collaborating with the EU for the development, implementation and scaling up of the Partnership for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda (PINUA), a joint program among UN agencies to develop models and approaches for filling the gap in affordable housing in the context of Kenya. PINUA is targeting low-income communities living in the informal settlements and peri-urban areas, with the view of diversifying the houses stocks and supply in Kenya and looking into vulnerable group. PINUA has two major components: affordable housing and slum regeneration. The Government of Kenya (GoK) in August 2022 rolled out a plan to develop 500,000 homes from 2022-2027 to implement the constitutional requirements of “accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation” (Art. 43(b)). The housing plan was to deal with more than 60% of Kenyans living in inadequate housing. To achieve its plans, the government passed the Affordable Housing Act 2024 that introduced a 1.5% housing levy on income earners and equal matching contribution from employers. It established the Affordable Housing Board to manage the Housing Levy. The Act also highlights the role of the county governments. The government top priority is promoting home ownership where the housing fund facilitates the provision of funds for affordable housing and affordable housing schemes, provide low interest loans, facilitate design, development and maintenance of affordable housing schemes in all counties, development of institutional housing units, long term finance solutions for the off-take of affordable housing and facilitate the provision of services to the housing projects. The Affordable Housing Board may invest any income that is not immediately required and borrow funds for the advancement of the objectives of the Act and develop a five-year affordable housing investment programme every five years. The demand for rental housing is also on the rise in Kenya. Between 2009 and 2019, the number of households renting housing in urban areas increased from 2.1 to 3.7 million households. Of these, 89% are reported to rent from private landlords (Census 2019). In Kisumu County for instance, urban rental housing is also the predominant form of tenure. Administrative data indicates that 78% of urban households rent, 90% of which is provided by private landlords, 5% provided by the government and 1% by local authorities (Census 2019). These urban rental households residing in informal settlements or substandard housing—characterized by non-durable materials or a lack of formal sanitation systems—spend, on average, up to 26% of their total income on housing-related expenses, including rent, utilities, and transport. In contrast, households in formal housing, constructed with durable materials and equipped with formal sanitation, report allocating between 30% and 40% of their monthly income to these expenses. Objective PINUA Programme is strategically situated to support the government in expansion of social housing by unlocking efficient supply vehicles for housing development through implementation support to development of finance institutions and increase private sector investments in sustainable housing construction and community and households' investments in housing. PINUA has proposed three pilot sites in two counties; 2 in Kisumu (Shauri Moyo and Shauri Yako settlements in Muhoroni and Kibuye in the Central Business District of Kisumu City) and 1 in Nairobi (Ex-Grogon settlement in Huruma, Mathare) that benefited from the GoK led World Bank funded KISIP I programme. Having social housing delivered through private sector model would need the interest rate to be at 3% to achieve a landing rent of KES 3,900 while the current cheapest interest rates are at 9.5% with on lending from KMRC. Blended finance would bridge the 6.5% gap through the housing levy, concessional loans from DFIs like EIB and using grants as a catalyst. This assignment within the Regional Office for Africa under the Kenya Country Programme and under the direct supervision of the Head of Kenya Programme, the consultant will be responsible for establishing common understanding of PINUA’s approach and the Affordable Housing Board, viable financial ecosystems and possible alignment that deals with the existing Affordable Housing market gap, supporting the small community contractors, for whom funding has been set aside for supply of building components but they lack the right business structure to access bank funding and to examine bankable investments that the Affordable Housing Board can adopt for social housing. The consultant will be required to make reference to, support and where possible collaborate with the other PINUA consultants' outputs for better synergy. Duties and Responsibilities To achieve the above-mentioned goal, the assignment includes the following specific objectives: I. Responsible for the integration of various study components to facilitate the delivery of the PINUA Implementation Strategy. Managing the Expert integration sub-team. II. Informing key assumptions for financial modeling, ensuring alignment with local needs and constraints. III. Consolidating the Developing financial models for pilots on the incremental housing and social rental housing project highlighting: - Financial drivers for the supply and demand sides of the market - Financing products analysis for supply and demand sides of the market - Special Purpose Vehicles and considerations for community funds to enter transactions - Financial sources mapping both supply and demand sides - Community engagement workshops to explore financing pathways - An analysis of the financial performance of each financing scenario IV. Conducting an Interest differential study to support transactions of the Affordable Housing Board where the consultant: - Defines the interest differential financing ecosystem for the Affordable Housing Board projects - Explores pathways for interest differential financing that PINUA can support - Explores financing sources/ partnerships supported by PINUA to advance the Affordable Housing Board’s interest differential strategies - Propose financing matching and structural requirements to meet the interest differential strategies V. Proposing a standardized generic template for a financial model that can be replicated across PINUA sites and for use by the Slum Upgrading Department at the State Department for Housing and tools that support investment sizing for households and projects. VI. Proposing strategies where PINUA exits the Affordable Housing Board across projects through approaches such as setting up a community revolving fund that allows for capital repurposing in new projects. VII. Supporting the small community contractors signed up by the affordable housing programme to supply housing components but have no business structures to enable them access bank funding by developing innovative financing mechanisms like pooled funds, microloans, and public-private partnerships to enable small-scale developers to access affordable credit. VIII. Coordinating results from other expects and undertaking mentoring of two young professionals through the delivery of all the outputs. Qualifications/special skillsAdvanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Economics, Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, Project Management, or related field is required. A minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience housing finance, participatory slum upgrading, urban management, urban basic infrastructure and services development, operation and maintenance and municipal finance in the context of human settlement/ urban development sectors is required. A minimum of two (2) years of progressively responsible experience in affordable housing programmes with a focus on finance proposals within the African context is required. Understanding Previous experience in resource mobilisation and development of national and global financing tools in developing countries is desirable. Understanding of the National and County Governments development priorities and urbanization dynamics in affordable housing programmes and initiatives is desirable. LanguagesEnglish and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of local language is an added advantage. Additional InformationNot available. No FeeTHE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.