Research Fellow

Lead groundbreaking research and stakeholder engagement to develop innovative climate finance solutions, enabling resilience and sustainability for vulnerable communities.

**Closes 13 Jan 2025

**Location**
- Bangkok, Thailand

**Deadline**
- 13 January 2025

**Contract details**
- Fixed-term two years with possibility of extension depending on funding availability and performance
Full time
- Based in Bangkok, SEI Asia has a diverse team of multinational experts who integrate scientific research with participatory approaches to co-develop and share knowledge, build partnerships, and influence policy for resilient development. SEI Asia’s work focuses on gender and social equity, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, water insecurity and integrated water resources management, transitional agriculture, renewable energy and urbanization.

Under the Asia office of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Bangkok, the Centre for Finance for Sustainability Bangkok (CFSB) works with the private sector and financial hubs in the Asia Pacific region. Its purpose is to enable the financial sector in the region to align more closely with the global goals of the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Following its launch in 2022, the CFSB hosts a set of projects on climate adaptation finance as well as the platform on finance for development and official development assistance called Aid Atlas. CFSB is now launching a large-scale project called Inclusive Climate Finance for Communities in the Asia Pacific (ICCAP). The main stakeholders of the ICCAP project are private sector financial service providers (FSPs) and public sector actors who will work in partnership to build viable, responsive and equitable financial instruments, models and systems to finance adaptation solutions for climate vulnerable communities in countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Furthermore, CSFB also works closely with SEI Finance for Sustainable Development Program to conducts research and activities to generate insights on the drivers and barriers to sustainable economic activities in low
- and lower-middle-income countries at the global level.

**The role**:
The Research Fellow will support the delivery of CFSB projects, primarily focusing on the ICCAP and CLIMATEFIT projects. This role involves designing and delivering policy and legal recommendations to reduce barriers to finance for sustainability, development and climate finance flows, ensuring they reach “those who need it the most, when they need it the most” in the Asia Pacific region, particularly the vulnerable communities.

You will work closely with stakeholders, policymakers and community through stakeholder-centred approaches, as well as with local government units (LGUs) in both Europe and the Asia Pacific.

The Research Fellow will contribute to the CFSB’s support for other interdisciplinary teams within SEI and its partner organizations. They will also represent SEI in external events and engagements and contribute to the institute’s financial sustainability by ensuring the timely delivery of high-quality outputs within assigned budgets. The Research Fellow will report directly to the CFSB Director.

**Key duties and responsibilities**:

- Conduct rigorous research on the legal aspects of financial policies related to inclusive finance, resilience and sustainability at local, national and international level.
- Design and deliver recommendations to national policymakers.
- Engage with stakeholders, including policymakers, decision-makers and communities.
- Development and coordinate multi-stakeholder action labs and provide guidance on legal structures for facilities and living labs.
- Support the coordination of heterogenous data collection strategies.
- Support the implementation of the SEI strategy through intellectual contributions and the consistent delivery of projects and programs related to policy and law in economics and finance, sustainable resilient development and the green transition.
- Develop and conduct systematic reviews of policies and policy documents, and contribute to the creation of databases documenting cases of success and failure to support CFSB’s work across multiple projects.
- Contribute to publications or project reports, participate in peer reviews, and assist with the development of proposals.
- Produce high-quality outputs, including reports and knowledge products.
- Build professional relationships and networks both within and beyond CFSB and SEI, engaging with current and potential partners and stakeholders.
- Initiate, contribute to, and support fundraising activities for a range of funders, including private entities, foundations, public funding across regions (e.g. IKI programme, UKPACT), international agencies (e.g. FAO, UNOPS, UNEP, UNDP), regional commissions and macro-regional bodies (e.g. EU Horizon)
- Contribute to communicating CFSB’s and SEI’s wor