International Consultant: International Project Development Expert for Developing Climate Resilient Flood and Flash Flood Management Practices to Protect Vulnerable Communities of Georgia

Georgia is a transcontinental country, along the dividing lines of Asia and Europe and in the southern Caucasus, situated between the Black Sea to the west and the Caucasus mountains to the north. Georgia is a small country, with an area of 69,700 km2 and a population of 4.4 million. 80% of the territory of Georgia is mountainous, with highest and lowest elevations of 5,201 metres (Mount Shkhara) and below the mean sea level (Black Sea, Kolkheti lowlands). 54% of its territory is located at an altitude of 1,000 m above sea level. A complex mountainous topography makes the country more prone to the hydro-geomorphological processes and climatic hazards. As such, Georgia is vulnerable to natural hazards including floods, flash floods, earthquakes, droughts, landslides, avalanches, and mud flows. Catastrophic events that have annual probability of occurrence of 50% threaten an economic loss for Georgia that exceeds 20% of the country’s GDP . Floods, including flash floods are the catastrophic events of such category of high probability.

Georgia emerges as the most vulnerable in the broader region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the period of 1980–2000, measured by the mortality rate among those exposed to floods, since 2004 considerable improvements in institutional landscape to manage flood risks and support timely recovery have occurred. However, much remains to be done and levels of vulnerability and exposure are still high. The urgent need for increasing flood security is elevated by the fact that the majority of the members of Georgian society that are vulnerable to floods are women, children and the poor, especially Internally Displaced People (IDPs) constituting the most socially disadvantaged group of society large portion of which inhabits in western regions of the country and constitute the most socially disadvantaged group of society.

In response to this mounting climate change induced risk, Georgia needs to ensure that its land use policy is robust to a range of possible climate change futures, with particular focus on flood plain development controls, incentives and regulations aimed at incorporating holistic risks on development. Support needs to target the most vulnerable groups of society, as well as local and national government institutions to undertake direct adaptation measures; those that minimizes the exposure of people, economic assets and ensures that potential damage to development likely to be affected by flooding is limited to acceptable levels. Georgia also needs to strengthen the early warning system for these events that are likely to exacerbate both in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. However, towards achieving these normative conditions there are several barriers to be addressed:

• Land use decisions are over-fragmented across the various institutions at all levels that result in absence of any coherent land use policy. As a result, there are no regulations for internalizing climate change risks into land use policy nor zoning or land use planning limits and controls to manage flood risks more effectively;
• Any regulations imposing restrictions on business and infrastructure development are viewed by many at the government institutions as unnecessary limitations to economic progress, much needed for country’s poverty reduction aims;
• Observation capacities are equally low that hampers more vigorous early warning; alert levels have not been revisited for decades and hazard maps need to be updated with comprehensive forward looking hazard profiling;
• There is limited knowledge and application of the latest methods of flood management, especially bio-engineering methods that are more robust to all possible hazard evolution scenarios that might be realized in Georgia, as a result of climate change;
• Human capacities are limited at national and especially at local levels and lack decision support tools that help a better preparedness to increasing flood risks.

These pertinent issues prompted the development of a request for project funding from the Adaptation Board. A preliminary project concept was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Georgia which was approved by the Adaptation Fund Board on 14-15 December 2010.

There were specific Observations made by the secretariat and the members of the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC) on the proposal which were:

• The fully-developed proposal should expand on the information provided in the project concept, particularly in Part III of the proposal;
• The fully-developed proposal should explain in more detail the way the proposed project would complement and avoid duplication with other initiatives in the target areas, including both government and donor-supported projects, as well as describing the coordination arrangements;
• The fully-developed proposal should include a budget detailed to the output level;
• The fully-developed proposal should quantify the expected results in more detail, and pay specific attention to describing the adequacy of the proposed scale of interventions.

The project objective is to improve resilience of highly exposed regions of Georgia to hydro-meteorological threats that are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. The project will help the governments and the population of the target region of Rioni Basin to develop adaptive capacity and embark on climate resilient economic development. The project is comprised of three main components:

• Floodplain development policy introduced to improve long term resilience to flood / flash flood risks;
  Climate resilient practices of flood management developed and implemented to reduce vulnerability of highly exposed communities;
• Early warning system in place to improve preparedness and adaptive capacity of population.
• The project estimates a budget of 5,316,500 USD which is requested from the Adaptation Fund.

The objective of the assignment is to:
Prepare a Regular size project document “Developing Climate Resilient Flood and Flash Flood Management Practices to Protect Vulnerable Communities of Georgia” for submission to the Adaptation Board in accordance with the Fund’s requirements and guidelines, including the development of a budget for the project

The Consultant is to base the preparation of the project document primarily on the project concept approved by the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB), information provided by the Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders.
The task is to be achieved working with a national consultant who will assist in collecting and preparing support documents required to prepare a Regular size project document that meets AF and UNDP requirements.  The Consultant is responsible for achieving the best possible project document proposal working with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, with the UNDP CO in Georgia and UNDP’s Bratislava Regional Centre (BRC). The final result of the assignment is the clearance of the AF Regular size project by the AFB and the project document by the UNDP CO and BRC, as well as in regard to content – by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources (MoENR). 

The task is expected to require several meetings with key partners in order to clarify and expand the project document and to prepare budget allocations. The discussions should, at minimum include:

• Focal points in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources dealing with adaptation issues, flood management
• Ministry of Agriculture
• Representatives in the 6 municipalities (Lentekhi, Oni, Ambrolauri, Tskaltubo, Samtredia, Bagdati) to be involved in the project for direct measures in flood management
• Representatives of related on-going projects in Georgia both from the Government and donor community
• NGOs, research institutes and private consultancies dealing with floodplain, climate resilience practises

The Consultant shall be responsible to address all comments to the project document made by the key MoENR representatives engaged in the AF project development, the UNDP CO and BRC. The Consultant is to address the particular issues raised by the AFB and the PPRC during the approval of the project concept:

• The fully-developed proposal should expand on the information provided in the project concept, particularly in Part III of the proposal;
• The fully-developed proposal should explain in more detail the way the proposed project would complement and avoid duplication with other initiatives in the target areas, including both government and donor-supported projects, as well as describing the coordination arrangements;
• The fully-developed proposal should include a budget detailed to the output level;
• The fully-developed proposal should quantify the expected results in more detail, and pay specific attention to describing the adequacy of the proposed scale of interventions.

The completion of the task will be distributed between work during one mission to Georgia and work conducted on the formulation of the project document in the Consultant’s home country.
More specifically the consultant will be entrusted with the following tasks:

• Undertake an in-depth review of SNC and other studies and relevant reports on climate change impacts in Georgia, with particular focus on flood, flashfloods and related landslides and mudflows and their impacts on the most vulnerable parts of population residing in the Rioni River basin;  
• Conduct on-line as well as field consultations with the RTA, CO and the government counterparts  in order to elaborate key elements of project rationale, justification, strategic framework and individual project components;
• Based on the desk review and country mission findings, further substantiate project components and address all comments by the AFB (as listed above);
• On the basis of the needs of the government of Georgia and following the AF guidance, complete a AF regular size project proposal, including all its sections on rationale, project components, expected environmental and socio-economic benefits, cost-effectiveness, reasoning for additionality, risk management etc.;
• On the basis of comments and inputs received from the RTA, CO and the government, finalize the AF project proposal in a shape ready for endorsement by Government Designated Authority and submission to the AFB Secretariats by 1st June, 2011.
• In case of further comments from the AFB continue further elaboration and make relevant revisions to finalize the project document, based on AFB comments and recommendations;

Key Deliverable:

Regular size project project document (including an itemized budget) according to the latest AF templates (which will be provided)

• Knowledge of United Nations and other international or bilateral organizations and their policy, programme and operations.
• Proven ability to work in a complex environment with a lot of different stakeholders within a specific political context.
• Ability to interact and relate with people at any level.
• Ability to critically analyze issues, find root-causes and suggest optimum solutions.
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving.

• Master's or higher degree in environmental management or related field.
• At least 5 years of relevant work experience in adaptation issues and flood management.
• Experience in designing/providing consultancies for AF or similar globally financed environmental projects, including development of budgets.
• Working experience in/for UNDP is an advantage.
• Knowledge of the CIS region and particularly Georgia’s context is an asset.
• Full computer literacy.
• Fluency in English with exceptional writing, presentation and communication skills.

Payment Modality:

The incumbent will be paid daily fee and DSAs (based on days spent in Georgia). It is envisaged to have 1 (10 day) visit to Georgia. Payment of fees will be made upon satisfactory delivery of required deliverables. Specifically:

• 60% payment of fees will be made upon submission to and clearance by UNDP of the draft document and Regular size project document according to the latest templates.
• 40% payment of fees will be made after submission to and clearance by UNDP Georgia of the final Regular size project document.

Indicative List of Related Literature and Documentation:

• Project concept approved by to the AFB
• Georgian laws and regulations related to land use, flood prevention/risk mitigation
• Strategic documents: Draft National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), Basic Directions Data (BDD), European Neighborhood Policy (ENP)

Application procedure:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this site.

The application should contain:

• Brief Cover Letter (in English) stating interest in and qualifications for the post. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Filled P11 form (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_SC_SSA.doc ); Please upload the P11 instead of your CV.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide financial offers.

UNDP applies fair and transparent selection process that takes into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.