International Consultant on environmental economics with experience in preparing economic instruments for environment

Albania is situated in the South-East of Europe. It has a population of 3.2 million and its surface area is 28,748 km². 48.7% of the population live in urban areas, while 51.3% live in rural areas. The country is divided into 12 regions and has 65 municipalities and 309 communes.

 

Presently, Albania is a potential candidate country for the European Union. In June 2006 it signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and in April 2009 the country applied formally for membership. A number of commitments have been made by the Government within this context and all the efforts the country is currently undertaking are geared toward achieving the goal of EU accession.

 

The environmental administration was set up in the early ‘90s and now consists of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Water Administration (MoEFWA), the Regional Environmental Agencies, the Agency for Environment and Forestry, which are environmental bodies under the main central and local authorities, as well as inter-ministerial organisms, approved by the Council of Ministers to address important environmental issues.

 

In order to improve Albania’s capacity to ensure sustainable development and to register clear progress towards EU membership the capacity of the relevant institutions must be strengthened, especially for implementation and enforcement capacity.

 

 

Within the One UN umbrella a programme has been designed to support the environmental administration in its efforts to comply with the EU acquis. It plans to provide assistance in the field of horizontal legislation (i.e. environmental impact assessment and public access to environmental information and awareness), in the field of financial and economic instruments for environment, and in the waste management field. Moreover it proposes to foster the integration of environment into sectorial policies. The programme has five components as described below:

 

The programme proposes to review the current legislation related to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) and to make recommendations in order to fill in the identified gaps. Special attention will be given to public participation, by supporting local authorities to facilitate and incorporate public comments on environmental management issues and to the impact on habitats/species while conducting the environmental assessment procedure.

 

The project proposes to organise targeted capacity building events aiming at raising the awareness level of various groups which can, afterwards, contribute significantly to introducing the necessary changes. Workshops and information dissemination on specific policies, such as waste management, biodiversity, climate change for selected target groups will be held with the intention of increasing the level of technical and/or general knowledge where appropriate.

 

The activities under this component propose to support the development of the mechanisms for co-financing environmental investments in Albania, to investigate more alternatives and to support the development and adoption of economic instruments to promote prevention and reduction of pollution, energy efficiency and investments in cleaner production technologies and to prepare a mechanism for fiscal incentives including collection and recovery of fines.

 

The main objective of the small-scale waste management scheme is to provide both technical and financial assistance to local public authorities responsible for waste management. The programme aims to enhance waste management systems in small localities and providing an alternative to the limited public investment in this sector.

 

There is a need for enhanced inter-ministerial and inter-institutional cooperation in the achievement of two key objectives in the environmental field, i.e. sustainable development and accession to the European Union. This coordination and cooperation needs to take place at both the working level and at the most senior level. At present, inter-institutional cooperation is organized through ad-hoc working groups (with representatives of different institutions) for the preparation of draft laws or strategies, steering committees of projects and inter-ministerial committees.

 

For project description please see http://www.undp.org.al/index.php?page=projects/project&id=208 and for the full project document please seehttp://www.undp.org.al/elib.php?elib,1081..

The international consultant will be hired to support the establishment of mechanisms to enable the financial self-sustainability of environmental activities.

In the near future, the costs for ensuring proper environmental quality will be increasingly higher. Additional pressure will be placed on the national budget, hence the Government will need to invest more in environmental protection. The Government in its Programme mentions the introduction of fiscal instruments and the doubling of the funds dedicated to environment.

 

Environmental economics approaches are not widely used in Government decision-making in Albania. Consequently, the role of the international consultant on environmental economics with experience in preparing economic instruments for environment will also involve providing specific technical input and advice, mentoring and advice to a national consultant counterpart and to the broader project team.

 

The international consultant on environmental economics with experience in preparing economic instruments for environment will be responsible for ensuring that the methods and tools developed during the assignment are effectively shared with interested national stakeholders. Consequently, the consultant will be responsible for the provision of a training program targeting key stakeholders within national government departments.

 

The main actions to be performed are:

More specifically, the international consultant will:

A.      Collect initial data

B.      Fund Strategy

·         Identify potential sources of revenues from domestic sources (e.g. environmental fees and fines, subsidies, various product charges, etc.) and also make recommendations for feasibility of other schemes, such as debt-for-environment swap, environment investment fund, environment development fund, cost recovery mechanisms. The Consultant is expected to account for different scenarios with the explicit indication of the most probable one. The Consultant is also expected to assess the affordability of the proposed scenarios in close correlation with the macroeconomic framework and prepare the necessary feasibility studies, as appropriate;

·         Define the arrangements needed to make these sources operational;

·         Review the current and potential sources of external financing and private sector involvement and propose co-financing schemes.

·         Describe the way the fund’s resources are to be allocated to projects;

·         Draft policies on minimum and maximum levels of fund support;

·         Prepare provisions for co-financing;

·         Define disbursement forms and type of mechanisms (grants – most common ones, soft loans, interest rate subsidies, etc.).

 

A.      Initial data collected – 2 months after contract signature

B.      Fund Strategy delivered– 12 months after contract signature

·         Potential sources of revenues from domestic sources identified - 4 months after signing the contract

·         Recommendations on other schemes to be applied in Albania (feasibility studies included) provided – 5 months after contract signature

·         Arrangements needed to make these sources operational identified – 6 months after contract signature

·         Review on the current and potential sources of external financing and private sector involvement and co-financing schemes proposed – 12 months after contract signature

·         Fund allocation mechanism established – 12 months after contract signature

·         Policies on minimum and maximum levels of fund support drafted– 12 months after contract signature

·         Provisions for co-financing identified – 12 months after contract signature

·         Disbursement forms and type of mechanisms defined – 12 months after contract signature

 

In case additional funds will be mobilised, the contract will be amended accordingly and the following additional tasks will be performed:

 

C.      Project Cycle Management

D.     Other

Within the 12 months minimum 4 missions to Tirana will take place. Throughout the assignment the successful consultant will provide on-line technical support and advice as per the aforementioned tasks.

-       Masters Degree in economics, environment science or other related discipline;

-       Thorough knowledge of environmental economic instruments;

-       Knowledge in environmental institution-building;

-       Knowledge in EU enlargement processes in Central and Eastern Europe;

-       Fluency in English;

-       Good analytical and drafting skills;

-       Good negotiating skills;

-       Ability to work in a team;

-       Excellent communication skills;

-       Familiarity with computers and word processing;

-       Proven personal maturity.

-       Minimum 15 years of professional experience, preferably in environmental economics, finance and/or other related subjects;

-       Minimum 5 years of experience in projects of approximation and implementation of EU environmental policies in Central and Eastern Europe with specific focus on environmental economics;

-       General experience in environmental institution-building projects;

-       General experience in providing training sessions.

 

-       Practical experience in analysis of environmental economic instruments in various countries in Eastern Europe;

-       Practical experience in preparing operational eco-funds;

-       Practical experience in advising newly established environmental institutions including preparation of institutional development plans;