| Description |
IMPORTANT: This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders. Other applicants need not apply.
CONSULTANT TO EVALUATE THE DEVELOPING POLICY-RELEVANT CAPACITY FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONVENTIONS IN JORDAN (CB-2)” PROJECT
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| Location : |
Amman, JORDAN |
| Application Deadline : |
15-Sep-12 |
| Type of Contract : |
Individual Contract |
| Post Level : |
International Consultant |
Languages Required :
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English |
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) |
20-Sep-2012 |
| Duration of Initial Contract : |
12 working Days during the period Mid Sept - Mid October 2012 |
| Expected Duration of Assignment : |
12 working Days during the period Mid Sept - Mid October 2012 |
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Background
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The Ministry of Environment in Jordan (MoEnv) is currently implementing the “Developing Policy-relevant Capacity for Implementation of the Global Environmental Conventions in Jordan” or “CB-2” Project, with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and partial contribution from the Government of Jordan (GoJ) represented through the MoEnv, which is the implementing partner or executing agency of the Project. The Project aims at developing the policy and legal frameworks in Jordan to strengthen compliance with the three Rio Conventions (UN Convention on Biological Diversity or CBD, UN Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD, and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC). The Project’s objective is to develop policy-relevant capacities for the implementation of the Global Environment (GE) Conventions by enhancing connectivity between the research and policy making for better GE management.
The long-term goal of the Developing Policy-relevant Capacity for Implementation of the Global Environmental Conventions in Jordan “CB-2” Project (herewith referred to as “the Project” or “CB-2 Project”) is to develop the policy and legal frameworks in Jordan to strengthen compliance with Global Environment (GE) Conventions. The Project’s principal and expected objective is to develop policy-relevant capacities for the implementation of the global environmental conventions in Jordan with emphasis on Rio Conventions (UNCBD; UNCCD; and UNFCCC) by enhancing connectivity between the research and policy making in this regard. To achieve this, the “CB-2” Project targeted key research and education institutions in the country as well as policy and decision makers at Jordan’s Ministry of Environment (MoEnv), in addition to other relevant four line ministries of mandates relevant to thematic issues of Rio Conventions (namely Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Water, Ministry of Energy, and Ministry of Social Development) and worked on developing necessary knowledge base by building on existing in-house capacities, institutional arrangements, policies and legal frameworks to help ensure that the current national efforts for reforming and implementing these frameworks are enabled and strengthened.
Taking into consideration that the three Rio Conventions—on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification— which derived directly from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, lie at the heart of the global environmental governance system and that the three conventions form an intricate triangle for environmental management that responds to the real challenges facing the global environment, Jordan gave special attention to such conventions and was among the first developing nations to ratify such international treaties. It is believed that each instrument of the three conventions represents a way of contributing to the sustainable development goals of Agenda 21 and the three conventions are intrinsically linked, operating in the same ecosystems, and addressing interdependent issues. It is also believed that the Earth Summit influenced all subsequent UN conferences, since socio-economic issues were no longer tackled separately from the need for environmentally sustainable development.
Jordan stands among the most committed countries in the Arab region to align its national policies and plans with the GE conventions. Jordan has ratified the UN Convention for Biodiversity (CBD) in 1993, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 1996. Also, Jordan has ratified the Kyoto protocol in 2003 and participated in almost all activities of subsequent protocols and Conference of Parties’ (COPs) meetings. Jordan has responded to its national reporting obligations to the GE conventions, all of which have indicated the need to knit close linkages between research and policy development for the implementation of the three Rio Conventions.
In 2007, almost 15 years since the global community raised to the level of responsibilities attached with the protection of the integrity of the global environment and adapting the global environmental governance system that resulted from the Environment and Development Earth Summit, Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration in 1992 as the compass of environmental management and activism all over the world, the National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) process in Jordan was a perfect occasion for re-thinking the country’s priorities and taking a hard and honest assessment of past achievements and options for improvement. The NCSA process was conducted in a participatory way and facilitated a national dialogue that resulted in a robust package of suggested strategic capacity building activities. In a strategic planning methodology based on early prioritization of national needs and relying in a backbone of synergies between the three conventions, the NCSA action plan was designed in the shape of actions responding to the integrated needs of the three conventions with clear local identity of priorities. The NCSA action plan is composed of 20 suggested projects that are based on six strategic programs, which are: knowledge management and networking; technology transfer and technical training; linking research to policy development; sustainable coordination mechanisms; resource mobilization; and empowerment of local communities.
The MoEnv is the focal point for the three Rio Conventions in Jordan and is committed to the proper implementation of the NCSA action plan. However, such implementation should be based on effective partnership with the environmental community in Jordan represented by public, civil, private as well as academic and research sectors associated with the three provisions of the Conventions. Such an effective national implementation mechanism should be energized by local and global partnerships.
The CB-2 Project idea has been generated as a result of such highly consultative process of NCSA, the later of which the main outcomes were documented in a report published in 2007 (available on-line at the following link: http://ncsa.undp.org/docs/544.pdf). The NCSA as well as other cross-cutting assessments and studies have all confirmed that the main cross-cutting capacity development priority issue is “linking research to policy development.” The NCSA indicated that the existing research capacities in environmental and natural sciences do not adequately address the GE management themes in the areas of biodiversity, combating desertification and climate change, the core thematic areas of Rio Conventions. Furthermore, the NCSA thematic reports diagnosed the "disconnect" between "the scientific community” of the academic and civil institutions on the one hand and the "policy making community” of public institutions on the other hand. This disconnect is thought to be one of the major constraints for implementing the Rio Conventions. The current set up does not encourage the results of research to backstop the policy and decision making related to the GE Conventions. Therefore, often these decisions are not based on sound research and do not provide grounded justifications for action.
Jordan has invested extensive resources in institutional reform; the National Agenda (which is currently being in the process of updating) reflects the political commitment for institutional strengthening at the national level. Therefore, by being rooted into the national priority agenda and current reform a process, the CB-2 Project aspires to ensure sustainability of its results. Institutional strengthening is also being undertaken for environmental management in research institutions. However, barriers in institutional collaboration are halting rapid uptake of these investments and cross-fertilization of resources. This is specifically a key root-cause for the disconnect between research and policy-making for GE issues and justifies the need for the establishment of formal and informal collaboration mechanisms at institutional level for catalyzing interactions and collaboration between the research and policy making.
This lack of collaboration mechanisms as well as policy-oriented research guidelines and procedures has impacted the development of effective policies, strategies and action plans related to the implementation of provisions of GE and Rio Conventions in Jordan. The NCSA reports have also identified the lack of a sustainable knowledge management network at the national level to exchange and build the capacity of knowledge generation, codification and dissemination as a main constraint in this context. The later gap in addition to the gap of lack of effective and sustainable collaboration mechanism between research institutions and policy makers have been addressed through consulting studies awarded to a local consultant, which is a Jordanian University, of which the awarded contract aimed at identifying the most effective and sustainable collaboration mechanism between research institutions from one side and MoEnv and other relevant line ministries from the other side as well as identifying likely local funding sources potential to support policy oriented research in this regard. The same local consultant who finished implementing its tasks has also developed a standalone Terms of Reference (ToR) to solicit proposals for developing a national virtual platform for Rio Conventions-related information collection, processing, analysis and dissemination through web-based tools and e-networks. This platform was proposed to be a starting base map for research activities relevant to thematic areas of Rio Conventions and other GE topics. The virtual Platform was anticipated to be designed as the core block in a proposed blueprint for a future national Environmental Information System for Jordan, JEIS, where the blueprint perspective and JEIS are extra ideas the CB-2 Project advanced to MoEnv and nationally as an example of a Project that thinks out of the box and exerts additional effort to integrate other initiatives together.
The other retarding gap area, which is lack of policy-oriented research guidelines, procedures, and tools to support implementing the provisions and obligations of Rio Conventions in Jordan, which is the mission of a current (almost completed) consulting study aimed at drawing a road map for guiding future Rio Conventions’ themes-relevant research endeavors in Jordan, which will in turn backbone proper GE-relevant policy development and implementation. Thus, the topic of the later assignment targeed national research institutions to develop for them policy-oriented research guidelines, procedures, and tools in a systematic process of situation analyses and assessment of obligations of the Rio Conventions as well as assessment of any existing policy-oriented research programs to build on such assessment outcomes to develop the sought research guidelines and mechanisms to supporting implementing Rio Conventions in Jordan. The NCSA indicated that the existing research capacities in environmental and natural sciences in Jordan do not adequately address the global environmental management themes and challenges in the areas of biodiversity, land degradation and climate change. Thus, developing the capacities for targeted and policy oriented research in the thematic areas of global environmental management with emphasis on three Rio Conventions as well as supporting national research is currently an apparent national priority in the context of sustainable development attainment. Despite current efforts to strengthen national capacity for environmental management in Jordan at systemic, institutional, and individual levels, the research sector continues to be short of creating the potential impact it is expected to make. The CB-2 Project stated that systemic, institutional and individual capacities for ensuring a greater role for research in policy development and implementation already exist, even though very limited, however, it is only the catalytic support for building up a strategic and comprehensive intervention at the level of this sector that remains to be achieved, to reach a constructive and results-oriented role of the research sector in the development and implementation of policies related to the GE both qualitatively and quantitatively..
In order to the achieve all of the above objectives, the CB-2 Project is working from November 2009 till November 2012 to fulfill the following outcomes and outputs described further below.
Outcomes and outputs of the CB-2 Project:
The project has three outcomes and eight outputs:
Outcome : Sustainable and effective collaboration mechanisms between policy making and research related to the three Rio GE Conventions are established:
- Output : Institutional mechanisms to streamline the roles and responsibilities of MoEnv and other concerned line ministries under the global environment conventions are established;
- Output : Institutional mechanisms for coordination between policy and research institutions are established through formal and non formal systems;
- Output : A virtual platform for information collection, processing, analysis and dissemination is established through web-based tools and networks.
Outcome : Global environmental issues and provisions of the three Conventions are integrated in policies and laws based on research:
- Output : Guidance and procedures are developed and adopted to promote policy-oriented research;
- Output: The Three Rio Conventions local policies reviewed /and developed based on policy oriented research;
- Output : Funding mechanisms to promote policy oriented research developed.
Outcome : The capacity of the research institutions and policy-makers to support and undertake policy-oriented research related to the global environmental conventions is developed
- Output : Capacity of research institutions to develop and promote applied research for GE issues is strengthened;
- Output : Targeted awareness campaigns on GE issues designed and carried out at the level of all concerned stakeholders
After achieving the objectives of identifying the best potential collaboration mechanism(s) between research institutions and policy makers involved in implanting obligations of Rio Conventions and after developing the sought strategic research guidance, procedures, and tools for local environmental research institutions to enable them to developing and promoting policy-oriented research, the CB-2 project will conduct targeted research capacity strengthening and awareness campaigns at the level of all relevant research institutes as well as policy makers on the issues of national obligations of GE Conventions, their latest consequent protocols, latest developments, as well as campaigns for utilizing policy-oriented research guidelines and standards originated out of the consulting study mentioned above, which will be undertaken before the end of this year. This is planned to strengthen capacities of research institutions to develop and promote applied research for GE issues as well as raise awareness of the subject and strengthen partnerships and collaborations between research and policy makers and achieve a sense of responsibility and commitment at the level of policy makers. At the middle/end of 2012, the research communities will be engaged in implementing activities of Output 2.2 “the Three Rio Conventions’ local policies reviewed and/or developed based on policy oriented research,” in which the researchers will start reviewing current Rio Conventions-related polices/strategies and/or developing new policies based on the established research guidelines and procedures.
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Within the context outlined above, UNDP seeks the recruitment of an international consultant to support the achievement of the following project evaluation objectives:
Objective One: conduct an evaluation of the CB-2 Project in line with internal procedures of UNDP. The scope of Objective One should cover the following:
- An evaluation of the effectiveness of the project including design, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, identifying challenges, constraints and success factors and providing conclusions and lessons learnt.
- An evaluation of the project management structure that would review and assess the appropriateness of the project management set-up to carry out its responsibility of implementation, monitoring, reporting and establishing partnerships. (This is not an evaluation of individual performance and capacity but of the appropriateness of the structure and set-up in addressing the management needs of the project. This should cover as well the roles of the Project Board. Particular attention should be paid to the contribution (or lack thereof) of the project management arrangements to the ownership by the national partners). The overarching questions of the evaluation are:
- Was the outcome and associated activities relevant, appropriate and strategic to national goals, CB-2 Project mandate and UNDP mandate?
- Were the actions to achieve the outputs and outcomes effective and efficient?
- Will the outputs and outcomes lead to benefits beyond the life of the existing project?
Methodology:
The consultant is expected to work on a daily basis with the CB-2 Project team (the National Project Manager and Project Assistant), board members, senior staff of relevant directorates of implementing partner (MoEnv) as well as involved staff members of UNDP-Jordan. Based on the objectives and scope of work outlined above, the consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks during the evaluation process:
- Review of relevant documents including: Project Document, Project Inception Report, duties of Project Board, documents on relevant national policies and strategies related to the project area as well as environmental (with emphasis on Rio Conventions’ theme) research framework in Jordan, all quarterly and annually progress and narrative reports prepared by the project team, consulting result reports, mandates and duties of committees and thematic research groups established by the Project, and all relevant documentation related to implementation including: minutes of meetings, and activity reports.
- Conduct interviews and roundtable meetings with project stakeholders and partners.
Below is the criteria to be considered for the evaluation process and the main questions to be addressed:
Criteria Main questions:
Project Management:
- Are the Project Management arrangements appropriate at the team level and Project Board level?
Project Design:
- To what extent did the design of the project help in achieving its own goals?
- Were the context, problem, needs and priorities well analyzed while designing the project?
- Were there clear objectives and strategy?
- Were there clear baselines indicators and/or benchmarks for performance?
- Was the process of project design sufficiently participatory? Was there any impact of the process?
Relevance and appropriateness:
- Was the project relevant, appropriate and strategic to national goals and challenges?
- Was the project relevant, appropriate and strategic to the mandate, strategy, functions, roles, and responsibilities of the MoEnv as an institution and to the key actors within that institution?
- Was the project relevant, appropriate and strategic to UNDP mandate?
Effectiveness and efficiency:
- Were the actions to achieve the outputs and outcomes effective and efficient?
- Were there any lessons learned, failures/lost opportunities? What might have been done better or differently?
- How did the project deal with issues and risks?
- Were the outputs achieved in a timely manner?
- Were the resources utilized in the best way possible?
Impact and sustainability:
- Will the outputs/outcomes lead to benefits beyond the life of the existing project?
- Were the actions and results owned by the local partners and stakeholders?
- Was capacity (individuals, institution, systems) built through the actions of the project?
- What is the level of contribution of the project management arrangements to national ownership of the set objectives, results, and outputs
- Were the modes of deliveries of the outputs appropriate to promote national ownership and sustainability of the results achieved?
Duration of Mission:
The expected duration of this assignment is up to 5 weeks consisting of (12 working days) to conduct necessary meetings and finalize the evaluation report, and one week mission to Jordan (5 working days).
Outputs (Deliverables) and Timeframe:
Below are the required activities and expected outputs (deliverables), based on the objectives and scope of work stated above, respective timelines/deadlines and number of working days:
Output timeline:
- Agenda of meetings’ and reports submission time plans - 1 working day after signing the contract and meeting with Project’s management team for initial sources of information
- Debriefing meeting on evaluation results with Project’s stakeholders - during the mission
- A first draft of the evaluation report including results and findings/ recommendations that should be considered in any next phase of the project - within 9 working days after signing the contract (UNDP comments will be given within 2 working days) .
The report should include the following sections:
- Title page
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- Table of contents, including list of annexes
- Executive summary
- Introduction: background and context
- Description of the project – its logic theory, results framework and external factors likely to affect success
- Purpose of the evaluation; key questions and scope of the evaluation with information on limitations and de-limitations
- Approach and methodology used in evaluation
- Findings; summary and explanation of findings and interpretations
- Conclusions and recommendations; lessons, generalizations, alternatives
- Annexes
Final evaluation report responding to all comments from Project’s stakeholders - after 12 working days from signing the contract (i.e., after one working day after receipt of comments from UNDP on the draft report).
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Competencies
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- Sound knowledge about results-based management (especially results-oriented monitoring and evaluation).
- Full computer literacy.
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Required Skills and Experience
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Education:
- Advanced university degree in management or public administration or planning/strategic planning or development or project management/evaluation or environmental science and management or environmental law and policy or any other relevant major.
- A degree in topics relevant to themes of Rio Conventions (Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Land Degradation/Combating Desertification) or very relevant fields to the three Conventions’ themes or any degree in disciplines relevant to policy-oriented research and/or linkage between research and policy development and/or utilizing scientific findings to inform decision makers will be given high priority in selection.
Experience:
- Preferably 10 years of professional experience in fields relevant to public administration or planning/strategic planning or development or project management/evaluation or environmental science and management or environmental law and policy or any other relevant major.
- Preferably 5 years’ experience in at least one of the three themes of Rio Conventions (Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Land Degradation/Combating Desertification) or very relevant fields to the three Conventions’ themes or any filed relevant to policy-oriented research and/or linkage between research and policy development and/or utilizing scientific findings to inform decision makers will be given high priority in selection.
- Minimum 5 years’ experience in conducting evaluation of similar projects
Language:
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
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