Consultant - Safeguards and Benefit Distribution under National REDD+ Implementation

The REDD+ mechanism is a mechanism to create incentives to protect, better manage and wisely use forest resources, in line with the global fight against climate change. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is now taking the lead to develop a National Framework for REDD+ that includes the policy, legal and institutional components for REDD+, exploring and providing recommendations on sustainable funding mechanism for REDD+ implementation, as well as improving capacity and stakeholder participation in REDD+ management. The framework will build upon on-going best practices being undertaken in managing the forest, and will enable decision makers to make informed decisions related to REDD+ based on national and international circumstances, taking various costs and benefits into consideration. Activities carried out through this project must ‘do no harm’, and contribute to improving livelihoods.  The rationale behind introducing a REDD+ mechanism is to make protection of forest and carbon stocks a viable option.

The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, NRE. Component three of this initiative will result in proposing a Sustainable Funding for REDD+ in Malaysia, under which the Benefit Distribution System (BDS), and the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) principle will be covered. A consultant to work on the BDS and FPIC procedures is needed to implement the scope of works, activities and provide the deliverables in its entirety, as outlined in this document.

Applicants for this assignment as consultant are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the TOR for the Component 3, so that the whole and individual scope of work for Component 3 is understood.

The consultant will work closely with the project team, consisting of the REDD+ Unit within the Ministry, the project manager and the lead consultant for component 3 and consultants for the other two project components. A separate group of technical advisors from relevant government agencies is established to assist the two consultants for component 3 to cover specialist input regarding the sustainable financing for REDD+ implementation in Malaysia.

The Consultant will also be required to coordinate and validate the technical issues related to the tasks involved for the project component in conjunction with the project manager as well as the other consultants and parties engaged.  The person will be needed to prepare reports, presentations, and lessons learned, as needed, and present relevant documentation for capacity building of other project partners and stakeholders. The consultant will be required to coordinate and validate the technical issues related to the tasks involved for the Benefit Distribution System and the Free Prior Informed Consent procedures under this project component. 

The role of the Consultant is to assist in executing and manage the project component 3, by focusing on the BDS and FPIC, and finally produce the below deliverables.

He/She will be based at NRE.

• Submission of stocktaking report; 
  o   Stock take the baseline for BDS and FPIC implementation in the different states of Malaysia, including stakeholders and safeguards mapping;
  o   Summary on BDS and FPIC, especially related to REDD+,  and BDS and FPIC best practices available nationally, regionally and internationally;
• Submission of stakeholders consultation report;
  o   Coordinate inputs on BDS and FPIC from the technical committee set up to advice on Sustainable Funding Mechanism for REDD+ Implementation;
  o   Coordinate inputs from all relevant stakeholders by conducting workshops, meetings and other correspondences;
  o   Identify strategies to include all relevant stakeholders and inform the larger REDD+ strategy in issues related to FPIC and BDS; 
  o   Maintain networks and manage relationships with Malaysia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment representatives, partners, implementers, universities and other stakeholders involved in REDD+ readiness activities in Malaysia;
  o   Prepare reports, presentations, and lessons learned, as needed;
  o   Present relevant documentation for capacity building of other project partners and stakeholders;
• Submission of BDS under Sustainable Funding Mechanism for REDD+ Implementation, to be endorsed by the National Committee on REDD+.
• Submission of FPIC guidelines for REDD+ Implementation, to be endorsed by the National Committee on REDD+

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bahasa Malayu;
• Outstanding time-management, organizational and inter-personal skills;
• Excellent report writing skills;
• Excellent computer literacy.

Education
The consultant shall have at least:

• An Advanced Degree in Social Science, preferably including subjects as good governance and human development, or any other relevant science-based background; Bachelor degree with extensive experience can be considered as well;
• A professional qualification or be a member of an acknowledged professional organization or society is preferred.

Experience:
The consultant requires knowledge and experience of:

• At least 5 years of extensive working experience in finance or banking, preferably experienced with establishment of environmental or humanitarian funds;
• Experience with coordinating stakeholder inputs;
• Have an understanding of the financial markets, and how it functions;
• Apply and establish principles of good governance and transparency;
• Extensive knowledge of successfully established funds;
• Be familiar with global best practices of Benefit Distribution and Free Prior Informed Consent;
• Experience in project financing and funding management;
• Familiar with environmental resource management;
• Knowledge of the Malaysian government structure and roles of federal, state and district authorities related to revenue;
• Familiar with the livelihoods of forest dependant local communities in Malaysia;
• Experience in or ability to perform programme monitoring and evaluation for policy making support;
• Ability to compile and consolidate technical training materials and develop training courses for information dissemination and capacity development for the local industry players;
• Excellent command of the English and Bahasa Malaysia in writing, reading and speaking.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Proposal – Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work. The methodology must address all aspects of the TOR, implementation schedule, quality assurance measures if applicable;
• Financial proposal – Based on the deliverable and terms of payment, please provide a financial proposal;
• Personal CV and UN P11 (https://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.docx) including past experience in similar projects and at least 2 references.

Incomplete applications will NOT be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.