INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT for workshops regarding the integration of climate change adaptation measures to the water supply and demand management

The GEF/LDCF project “Building adaptive capacity to address Climate Change threats for sustainable development strategies in coastal communities of Haiti” has been developed based on the conclusions and recommendations of the NAPA Haiti, which has identified the coastal development sector as a national priority for adaptation to climate change (CC). The project aims to meet the additional costs of building national and local CC adaptive capacity, while enhancing the resilience of existing coastal development policies and plans facing CC risks. Haiti is part of the Least Develop Country (LDC) group, and one of the poorest and most vulnerable (1^st worldwide according to the latest CC vulnerability assessment, Maplecroft 2012) country to CC-related disasters. Haiti has long been vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes. The country lies on the main path of tropical storms that originate in the Atlantic and hit the Caribbean islands to each hurricane season. However, in recent years, the country is affected by a significant increase in the frequency of severe natural hazards disasters, most likely due to CC forcing. Currently, the central government and local authorities require additional technical and management support to cope with the anticipated anthropogenic climate modifications. Furthermore, the coastal population in particular has not the capacity, resources and financial assistance to adapt and overcome the worsening climatic conditions.

This project addresses the CC adaptation needs as one of the national development priority, and as identified in existing cooperation frameworks of the United Nations and UNDP in Haiti. Particular, the Framework for Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2006-2010 and the Action Plan of the UNDP Country Programme (CPAP) identifies CC as the greatest threat to development. UNDP Haiti is committed to investing the resources essential to support the project. This project, the first of its kind, with GEF support, and other national and international partners, will help increase national capacity, resilience and awareness regarding the CC vulnerability of coastal areas in terms of development issues. Through a systems approach, the project will focus on promoting better planning and investment policies in coastal areas, while building capacity and improving the management of the best decisions in areas of potential and time manner. Although this initiative is primarily focused on the impact of CC in coastal areas, it will also aim to analyze and specify the importance of key sectors that are integral to all development goals in NAPA.

The objective of this consultancy is to design and implement training workshops regarding the impacts of and adaptation to climate change for the water supply and demand management in Haiti. The target beneficiaries of these workshops are key government and civil society representatives responsible for water resource management in Haiti. The consultancy will also identify policy gaps and opportunities that will enable the Government to formulate plans and strategies for adaptation in the water sectors. The proposed series of training workshops should include crosscutting themes such as gender, vulnerable groups, and capacity building for local communities. Finally, the proposed workshops will address the additional CC threats to the coastal regions in Haiti in terms of integrated water resource management (IRWM).

Under the direct supervision of the Project Director, the International consultant will be responsible of the following tasks:

• Design appropriate training workshop materials and workshop format regarding the ‘Assessment of climate change impacts on the water demand and supply in Haiti, and integrating adaptation strategies into water management to minimize the negative impacts’;
• Conduct 6 training workshops at the central (i.e. 3 in the capital) and local (i.e. 3 in provinces) level in Haiti;
• Conduct a capacity gap analysis during the workshop to assess current and future climate change management options for the water sector in Haiti;
• Identify, via the workshop, applied climate change adaptation measures for the water demand and supply in coastal areas of Haiti in line with central, local governments and representatives of the civil society;
• Integrate crosscutting themes such as gender, civil society, vulnerable groups, and capacity building in the training workshops;
• Identify, via the training workshops, technical and management gaps on human resources, policies and programmes that address climate change issues for the water sector;
• Recommend additional capacity building policies and programmes for addressing climate change adaptation, in line with government priorities, for the water sector.

Expected results/outputs of this consultancy are:

• Design and implement 6 training workshops regarding ‘Assessment of climate change impacts on the water demand and supply in Haiti, and integrating adaptation strategies into water management to minimize the negative impacts’; 
• Trainings materials for the workshop (in French);
• Recommendations on additional capacity building and policies needs for different beneficiaries;
• A presentation to UNDP CO and the government of Haiti regarding the major result of the training workshops.
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• Demonstrate ability to assess complex environmental dynamics, socio-economical situations, succinctly distills critical issues, and draw forward-looking technical conclusions and recommendations;
• Highly knowledgeable of climate change processes and water resources modeling;
• Strong experience in training and technical assistance to government and civil society representatives;
• Ability to deliver quality technical reports within the given time;
• Familiarity with the challenges developing countries face in adapting to climate change;
• Familiarity with Haiti or similar countries; and

Education:

• Advanced university degree in climate change, hydrology, natural resource management, IWRM and other relevant fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years experience in area of Climate Change Adaptation/ Disaster Management, Hydrology, IWRM and Natural Resource Management;
• Substantive experience in designing training workshops regarding climate change adaptation measures for the water sector, and IWRM;
• Substantive experience in training government and civil society representatives for Climate Change adaptation;
• Substantive experience in Geographical Information System (GIS) measurements and analysis;
• Over ten years of work experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation of development projects, preferably those involving UNDP/GEF or other United Nations development agencies or major donors;
• Experience in developing evaluation methodologies and training materials for IWRM;
• Experience working with government or development agency in Haiti or comparable country in the region.