| Description |
INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL ADVISER
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| Location : |
Home based with min 2 travels/year to project region, FYR MACEDONIA |
| Application Deadline : |
30-Jul-12 |
| Additional Category |
Environment and Energy |
| 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) |
13-Aug-2012 |
| Duration of Initial Contract : |
12 months (max 35 expert days) |
| Expected Duration of Assignment : |
Up to 3 years(max 110 expert days) |
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Background
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Prespa, one of the world’s ancient lakes presents a very unique ecological and hydrological system of global conservation significance. Unfortunately, over the past years, the entire ecosystem has been facing serious environmental challenges such as pollution and eutrophication caused primarily by the ineffective planning for land and water use and unsound resource management practices.
Because of its local and global significance, and the ongoing degradation processes, the Prespa Lake ecosystem has been in the focus of interest of the three states sharing its basin, but also of the international community. As a result, various initiatives were supported over the past years with the aim to build sustainable capacities for overcoming the region’s environmental challenges.
Thanks to the technical and financial support from UNDP, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a variety of projects in the areas of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water and land-use management, nature conservation, solid waste and wastewater management, river restoration, pollution prevention and control, and others, have been successfully implemented.
Major community action was mobilized, productive partnerships and networks have been established and tangible results have already been achieved in reducing the pressures to the lake ecosystem. However, additional efforts need to be taken to reverse the trends of the decades’ long degradation processes for good, and to ultimately improve the ecological status and functions of the ecosystem.
The recent comprehensive investigations of the Lake ’s ecological status, carried out within the UNDP/GEF Prespa project, greatly helped in understanding and ‘quantifying’ the environmental challenges and their root causes. Perhaps one of the most acute problems that the entire ecosystem is currently facing with is the eutrophication, caused by the nutrient and organic inputs originating from agricultural runoff, watershed’s erosion processes, wastewaters and solid waste.
In order to address the ongoing lake’s degradation processes, UNDP, financially supported by SDC, is launching a new project that will introduce a set of comprehensive measures to significantly improve the Lake’s overall health, strengthen its resilience, and ensure, in the long-run, control of the eutrophication processes. The project would provide critical support to the authorities in implementing the first ever Prespa Lake Watershed Management Plan (prepared in accordance to the EU Water Framework Directive principles), developed within the UNDP/GEF Prespa project (a more detailed description of the project context, the main objectives and expected results can be found at : http://prespa.iwlearn.org/macedonian-national-project-component/outcome-1-legal-and-regulatory-enabling-environment/project-concept/view).
To be able to effectively implement this particularly complex project, UNDP is seeking to engage a Senior International Technical Adviser (ITA) with extensive previous interdisciplinary experience in a few relevant complementary areas of expertise (e.g. integrated river basin management, eutrophication control systems, wetland restoration, river restoration, ecohydrology and similar). S/he will work under direct supervision of the Project Manager and in coordination with a multitude of experts and expert teams contributing to different project components.
Application Procedure:
The Consultant is expected to provide the following:
- United Nations Personnel History form (P-11) (CV of the Consultant);
- Brief methodology clearly describing his/her understanding of the assignment and the local setting and challenges. It should also include general recommendations on possible solutions (at lake and watershed scale), as well as relevant models/best practices that can be considered for addressing the issues of the Lake Prespa Watershed;
- Reference list of relevant work/projects, position held and contact details of the clients (experience as Team Leader, Chief Technical Adviser or Key Expert in at least 4 relevant projects is required);
- List of published peer reviewed work in areas relevant to the project (minimum 5 articles/papers as Lead Author are required);
- Financial offer in USD expressed as fee per expert-day (USD/expert-day).
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Scope of Work:
The post of the International Technical Advisor (ITA) is designed to further strengthen the capacities of the Project Management Unit (PMU), and the key project partners responsible for implementation of the ‘Restoration of Lake Prespa Ecosystem’ project. S/he is expected to provide high-quality advisory services ranging from drafting various products, and capacity development support to the project staff and the key stakeholders, to supporting the project in contributing in and benefiting from the existing global knowledge networks (e.g. in eutrophication control, integrated watershed management, freshwater ecosystems restoration, wetlands and similar). The ITA is expected to provide critical advisory support at certain decision-making points (e.g. selection of the most feasible remediation options, prioritization of watershed-scale nutrient management measures and similar). Upon request, s/he will be contributing to documenting some of the key project achievements (especially those that require specific expertise), as well as to drafting various products (e.g. lessons learnt reports, articles, papers and presentations. S/he is expected to provide important support to the international project promotion efforts. After the initial 1 year of work, UNDP will consider extension of the contract for up to 3 years (or total of maximum 110 expert days). The nature of the main duties will vary in time, following the project implementation dynamics. While at the early stages of the project, the ITA will be responsible for supporting the inception stage and drafting various TORs, the work at the later stages will focus on summarizing the achievements and drafting various products. At the mid-term stages, the ITA is expected to provide support in reviewing and revising important project documentation (e.g. feasibility studies).
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of the Project Manager, and in close cooperation with the project team and the multitude of project experts, the ITA will be responsible for the following:
Task 1: Support in conducting the project inception stage
- Get acquainted with the relevant national context, including the relevant legal and regulatory framework, institutional and organizational setting, especially in the area of water / watershed management?;
- Review carefully the existing relevant documentation produced within the UNDP ‘Integrated Ecosystem Management in the Prespa Lakes Basin’ programme (e.g. Project Documents, Prespa Lake Watershed Management Plan, transboundary Strategic Action Programme, study on transboundary environmental monitoring system and similar);
- Guide the process of revision/update of the logframe, especially through defining specific indicators that will be instrumental in measuring the project success in terms of reducing pressures (e.g. from agriculture, forestry, polluted rivers), as well as in achieving long-term impacts (e.g. improvement of ecological status of the lake and its tributaries);
- Take part in the project inception workshop and provide support to the stakeholders to fully understand the project goals; if required moderate the work of the specific working groups established for the needs of elaborating in detail the project outputs and activities;
- Take part in defining the scope of and linkages between certain key project deliverables that require specific expertise (e.g. study on lake’s eutrophication processes, erosion control measures, groundwater explorations, and similar), so to support the synergies among deliverables and define their sequence in preparation;
- Take part in preparation of the multiyear project work-plan and budget;
- Suggest international models and best practices that need to be studied and considered when designing responses to the main issues in the Prespa Lake Watershed.
Task 2: Technical / advisory support services:
- Prepare Terms of Reference (TORs) for different project components as required (e.g. eutrophication control study and the associated water quality monitoring programme);
- Review technical documentation produced by other experts and, if necessary, suggest revisions to improve quality;
- Provide input in drafting specific project products / reports (e.g. progress reports, thematic/technical papers);l
- Provide expert support at critical decision-making points by drafting specific advisory notes (e.g. in selecting the most feasible lake remediation options, prioritization of watershed-scale nutrient management measures, advise on the operation of the lake monitoring station and lake management service and similar);
- Provide guidance on the necessary capacity development support for effective implementation of the project and the long-term operation of the project supported structures; provide capacity building support and training for the main stakeholders and project personnel on specific project related issues.
Task 3: Networking and international promotion of the project achievements:
- Advise on international project promotion opportunities and project positioning through relevant global networks, information exchange with other agencies / organizations at international level;
- Provide support in drafting various project products (e.g. lessons learnt reports, guidance documents, fact sheets, papers, articles and similar) for publishing, so to support the promotion of the results in different international networks (including conferences, journals, resource materials, lessons learnt publications and similar);
- Support knowledge management, capitalization on and documentation of experiences related to project implementation.
Main Outputs/Deliverables:
The International Technical Adviser will be responsible for producing the following outputs (deliverables):
- Various project reports (e.g. technical/thematic reports in his/her area of expertise);
- Terms of Reference (TORs) for different project activities/components;
- Various papers, articles, lessons learnt reports, guidance documents, fact sheets and similar, to be used for project promotion at different levels (especially international);
- Advisory notes providing independent expert input at different critical decision-making points Presentations and training materials;
- The number, type and distribution of the requested products will be defined in different working packages assigned by the Project Manager. Each working package will be defined by scope, deadline for preparation, expected number of expert-days and quality criteria. The payment of the installments will be linked to the number of expert-days used for preparation of the assigned working packages.
Contract modality and duration:
The ITA will be hired by UNDP under IC (Individual Contract) modality for an initial period of one year. A maximum of 35 expert days is foreseen for the initial 1 year period. Contract extension of up to 3 years (maximum 110 expert days) will be considered at the end of the initial one year period.
Reporting:
The consultant will report to UNDP through the Project Manager. The entire produced documentation needs to be submitted in English language.
Travel and other associated costs:
The ITA is expected to travel to the project region at least two times during the initial contract period. The costs for all authorized project related travel will be covered by UNDP on an actual basis and in accordance to the applicable UNDP procedures. Any travel has to be approved by the Project Manager in advance. All travel related costs, will be reimbursed by UNDP in accordance to the applicable UNDP procedures.
Payments schedule:
The payment for the services will be carried out in monthly installments, depending on the number of authorized expert-days and upon certification of successful completion of the assigned working packages. For that purpose the consultant shall keep records (time sheets) of her/his work on different project related tasks. The timesheets will be certified by the Project Manager.
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Competencies
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- Knowledge of environmental and water policies and regulations and comparative experiences and international models;
- Knowledge of the EU water-related regulations (e.g. Water Framework Directive) is considered an asset;
- Excellent communications, report writing and analytical skills
- English language proficiency (both written and spoken) at a native speaker’s level (to be verified by sample reports and during interview);
- Proven knowledge of watershed-scale processes and controls to the main pressures on aquatic resources. Expertise in applying innovative nature-based systems (e.g. wetlands, riparian corridors, vegetation management, land cover management, buffer zones and similar) to regulate both hydrological and ecological processes at watershed scale is of particular interest for the project.
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Required Skills and Experience
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Education:
- Minimum M.Sc. (or equivalent) in relevant area (Integrated Water Resources Management, Integrated Watershed / River Basin Management, Hydrobiology, Ecohydrology, Limnology and similar). Relevant PhD will be considered a strong asset
Experience:
- Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience (practitioner’s and research) in such areas as Integrated Water Resources Management, Integrated Watershed / River Basin Management, Hydrobiology, Ecohydrology, Limnology, Eutrophication control and similar;
- Record of participation in at least 4 projects that involve eutrophication control measures at lake and/or watershed level, ecohydrological approach to integrated river basin management, nutrient management systems and similar as a Team Leader, Chief Technical Adviser or Key Expert;
- Lead author of at least 5 relevant peer reviewed articles in the above areas of expertise
Evaluation procedure:
The cumulative method will be applied in the evaluation of the applications. The contract will be awarded to the candidate achieving the highest cumulative score from the technical and financial parts of the proposal. The technical part accounts 70% of the total score and the financial proposal will account for 30% of the total evaluation score.
Technical (Total 70%)
Minimum M.Sc. or equivalent in relevant area (Integrated Water Resources Management, Integrated Watershed / River Basin Management, Hydrobiology, Ecohydrology, Limnology and similar). Relevant PhD will be considered a strong asset
- Years of professional experience (20%)
Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience (practitioner’s and research) in such areas as Integrated Water Resources Management, Integrated Watershed / River Basin Management, Hydrobiology, Ecohydrology, Limnology, Eutrophication control and similar
- Number of relevant projects (15%)
Record of participation in at least 4 projects that involve eutrophication control measures at lake and/or watershed level, ecohydrological approach to integrated river basin management, nutrient management systems and similar
Lead author of at least 5 peer reviewed articles in the above areas of expertise
Financial (Total 30%) |
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