Sustainable Public Finance and Economic Policy

At the end of the assignment the Ministry of Finance of the Lao PDR holds a tailored, sequenced and costed environmental fiscal reform plan, grounded in a documented evidence base and in comparative practice, validated with its own officials, and in a form it can carry into the tax reform agenda of the 10th NSEDP period. •The environmental fiscal instruments in force in the Lao PDR, and the subsidies, exemptions, concessional agreements and preferential tax treatments that work against them, are documented in a single traceable evidence base held by the Ministry of Finance and UNEP. •The performance of the existing fiscal system against its stated objectives and against the environmental and fiscal pressures that matter most in the Lao context is assessed, and benchmarked against practice in comparable lower middle income and ASEAN economies. •A tailored, sequenced and costed environmental fiscal reform plan is delivered, usable by the Ministry of Finance as a working input into the tax reform agenda of the 10th NSEDP period. •Ministry of Finance counterparts are engaged through a workshop in Vientiane, shaping the direction of the reform plan before drafting begins. •Methodological refinements and country evidence generated through the assignment are documented in a form that strengthens EFPU’s broader environmental fiscal reform offer and informs application in other partner countries.

Geneva

6 months

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system’s designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional levels. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. UNEP’s Industry and Economy Division works with national and international governments, non-governmental organisations, business and industry to develop and implement policies, strategies and practices that internalise environmental costs, use natural resources efficiently, reduce pollution and risks for humans and the environment, and enable the implementation of conventions and international agreements. UNEP’s Economics and Fiscal Policy Unit (EFPU) leads the organisation’s work on sustainable public finance, supporting Ministries of Finance and Planning to align fiscal frameworks with durable and inclusive growth, competitiveness, resilience, and the simultaneous achievement of economic, social and environmental objectives. As part of its mandate, EFPU supports Ministries of Finance in raising public revenue in ways that strengthen rather than undermine the durability of growth, and in removing the fiscal incentives that work against national economic, social and environmental objectives at the same time. Environmental fiscal reform, understood in the broad sense of taxes, charges, fees, royalties and tradable instruments that price environmental damage or resource use, together with the reform of the subsidies and tax expenditures that reward it, sits at the centre of that offer. Pre-market interventions extend the same logic upstream, to the point at which investment approvals are granted, concessions are awarded, licences are issued and goods are imported, on the reasoning that incentives are considerably cheaper to correct before capital is committed than afterwards. EFPU is contributing to the UN Joint Programme on Green and Climate Finance in the Lao PDR, led by UNDP with UNEP, UN-Habitat and FAO as implementing partners. The Joint Programme supports the Government of the Lao PDR in mobilising and aligning public and private finance with the priorities of the 10th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP). Within this Joint Programme, EFPU is responsible for Activity 2.5 on Environmental Fiscal Reform and Pre-market Interventions, which provides for a costed plan and policy recommendations developed with the Ministry of Finance, and for the associated dissemination. EFPU is separately responsible for Activity 2.2 on the application of the Sustainable Budgeting Approach, and the two Activities are presented to the Ministry of Finance as one coherent offer on how public money is raised and how it is allocated. The 10th NSEDP commits the Government to a substantial revision of tax legislation, covering the laws on general taxation, value added tax, corporate income tax, resource tax and import and export duties, alongside a revised tax administration law intended to modernise fiscal governance and reduce revenue leakage. The IMF 2025 Article IV Consultation pointed in a compatible direction, identifying the need to broaden the tax base in order to reach the national revenue target of twenty per cent of GDP by 2030, to close the corporate tax gaps arising from concessional agreements, to establish a rules-based and transparent tax incentive regime supported by the publication of annual tax expenditure reports, and to strengthen excise taxation. A legislative window of this kind opens rarely. Environmental fiscal instruments stand a materially better chance of adoption if they enter an ongoing tax reform process than if they are proposed alongside it.

Advanced degree (Master’s or higher) in economics, public finance, public policy, environmental economics or a closely related field. •At least five years of professional experience in tax policy, public revenue analysis, public expenditure analysis or fiscal policy advice, working with Ministries of Finance, revenue authorities, national planning agencies or international financial institutions is required. •Demonstrated experience of environmental fiscal reform, fossil fuel or environmentally harmful subsidy reform, tax expenditure analysis or green budgeting, with evidence of government ownership of the output is required. •Demonstrated command of revenue estimation methods and of distributional incidence analysis, with a proven ability to produce defensible indicative estimates from incomplete data and to state method and assumptions transparently is required. •Demonstrated experience designing and delivering technical workshops for senior government officials, with materials that survive translation and hold the attention of a Ministry of Finance audience is required. •Experience working in emerging and developing economy contexts is required. •Demonstrated experience of the political economy of tax reform in fiscally constrained economies, and familiarity with extractive sector fiscal regimes, including royalties, concessional agreements and preferential tax treatment. •Proven track record of producing analytical work, guidance notes or country case studies that have been used by government counterparts or by partner institutions. •Experience in the Asia-Pacific region or in ASEAN member states.

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this assignment, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.

Not available.