Junior Consultant - Ecosystems and Biodiversity (EBD)

As the largest single operational and financial UN player in the field of environmental sustainability, UNDP is widely recognized as a global leader in supporting governments to sharpen policy, access finance and develop capacity for the management of biodiversity and ecosystems for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Under the Strategic Plan covering the period 2018-2021, UNDP’s work in Ecosystems and Biodiversity (EBD) has as an overall strategic objective to maintain and enhance the goods and services provided by biodiversity and ecosystems in order to secure livelihoods, food, water and health, enhance resilience, conserve threatened species and their habitats, and increase carbon storage and sequestration. The value of all UNDP-managed biodiversity and ecosystems projects currently in planning or under implementation is US$1.6 billion, with UNDP supporting over 130 countries to access Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other vertical funds’ grant finance for biodiversity conservation, combating Land Degradation, Sustainable Forest Management, and ecosystem based mitigation and adaptation, and to combine this with domestic and bilateral sources of finance.  Through this project portfolio UNDP provides support to countries’ work in three programming areas: (i) Integrating biodiversity and ecosystem management into development planning and production sector activities; (ii) Unlocking the potential of protected areas, including indigenous and community conserved areas to contribute towards sustainable development; and (iii) Managing and rehabilitating ecosystems for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Support to countries in project cycle management is coordinated through the UNDP-GEF Directorate at UNDP Headquarters in New York, with Regional Coordination Units (RCU) – in Istanbul (for Arab States and Europe & CIS), Addis Ababa (for Africa), Panama (for Latin America and the Caribbean) and Bangkok (for Asia Pacific) - that work with the Regional Bureaux to provide support to countries. A team of Regional Technical Advisors (RTA) in each RCU provides technical advice and support, and assistance with project development and implementation, in a number of interrelated GEF focal areas including Ecosystems and Biodiversity.

Based in the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH), Ecosystem and Biodiversity Team provides support to 34 countries in the region. UNDP supported GEF financed projects and programmes are designed to help countries achieve outcomes outlined in UNDP’s Strategic Plan, UNDP country programmes, UNDAFs (United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks) and the GEF Focal Area Strategies.

UNDP would like to engage a junior consultant to carry out a number of tasks supporting the work of the EBD team in Bangkok with the UNDP-supported GEF-financed national projects, as described within this Terms of Reference (ToR).

Objective

This includes enhancing the collaborative work between the EBD team at the Bangkok Regional Hub and the Global Environmental Finance Unit through project concept and development support and project implementation support with a particular focus on Ecosystems and Biodiversity and Land Degradation issues. By identifying strategic opportunities for programming, partnership and resource mobilization in different countries in the Asia and Pacific region, and developing knowledge products, the consultant will enhance UNDP’s positioning for EBD service delivery in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Scope of Work

The consultant will provide technical and implementation support to the EBD RTAs in BRH – GEF portfolio management, monitoring and evaluation, as well as advocacy, communication and knowledge management work.

Under the direct guidance and supervision of the EBD RTA team in Bangkok, the consultant will support the following areas of work:

Project concept and development support (40%):

1. Assist with project concept and/or PIF development and finalization including the Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP) pre-screening;

2. Support with the formulation of the project preparation grant (PPG) initiation plan; preparation of ToR of PPG team; recruitment of international consultants; and, preparation of inception workshop, as required;

3. Review of technical and baseline reports and provide comments to align with the requirements of the project proposal;

4. Assist in reviewing the final products of the project development including project document, CEO ER document, SESP, ToRs for key project personnel and other annexes.

    

Project implementation support (60%)

1. Support inception phase of projects – inception workshop, development of ToRs for project personnel, review of annual work plan (AWP), project’s results framework, and inception workshop report.

2. Provide support in conducting project Mid-term reviews (MTRs) and terminal evaluations (TE), and related process including reviewing and finalizing reports, and supporting CO drafting management responses.

3. Support the Annual Project Implementation Report (PIR) process: (i) review and finalize each APR/PIR for completeness of information with due consideration to the quality evaluation criteria; (ii) liaise with the relevant teams in Country Office and project management units, to support correction and completeness of each PIR; (iii) draft an assessment report on the accomplishments, lessons learned and specific recommendations to improve project performance; and (iv) follow-up on PIR recommendations for under-performing projects with COs.

4. Support COs with the: (i) preparation of technical TOR; (ii) review of project technical outputs and reports; (iii) guidance on safeguards for projects with high risk rating.

5. Communication support: produce communication products for international events based on results and lessons from national projects. Create an archive for EBD power point presentations and talking points.

6. Knowledge management: support development of knowledge products and events for UNDP-GEF biodiversity portfolio in Asia Pacific.

7. Identifying further areas for collaboration between GEF team, coordination/planning, ad hoc requests, etc.

8. Supply technical inputs to presentations, concept note, and programming documents as needed

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Work plan and approach submitted to the EBD team in BRH;

•             Review at least 6 MTR/TE reports including assisting with management response; 

•             Review at least 6 project documents, CEO ER documents along with annexes;

•             Review and provide substantive feedback to technical reports for at least 6 projects in PPG phase and project implementation;

•             Successfully support initiation of at least 6 new projects;

•             PIRs for all portfolio successfully completed and submitted to UNDP-GEF Directorate by 30 July 2019;

•             At least 6 PPG initiation plans drafted and endorsed;

•             SESP screening for 6 PIFs and 6 PPGs prepared and submitted;  

•             Produce a range of communication products on EBD projects for the International Day for Biological Diversity, World Environment Day, World Day to Combat Desertification, etc.

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will work in UNDP premises in Bangkok and will report to the Regional Technical Advisor, Ecosystems and Biodiversity and/or his designate on a routine basis and coordinate his/her efforts to match the timelines of the assignments throughout the consultancy.

Duration of the Work: 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2019 (a maximum of 220 working days)

Duty Station: Bangkok, Thailand with possible travel.

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelor´s Degree in environmental management, biology, economics, international relations, development studies and Master´s Degree in Ecology, environmental management, Natural Resource management, biology, economics, international relations, development studies will be considered a plus.

Experience

• Two years relevant ‘on-the-job’ experience (including volunteer or paid experience) in the field of environment and development and other work for social and environmental goods.

• Experience in conducting research, summarizing material and meeting outcomes in EBD related fields, and preparing draft inputs to written/oral communications pieces.

• Experience in organisation of international meetings, events, partner coordination and logistics planning.

• Previous experience with UNDP other UN or international organizations or donors is an advantage.

• Computer literacy, including MS Office, Internet.

Language requirements

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contract will be based on Daily Fee

Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) *and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

• Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;

• The technical criteria (education, experience, language) will be worth a maximum 100 points. Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 70 points (70%) from the review of the education, experience, and language will be invited for an interview;

• The interview will be given a maximum of 100 points (30%). When combined with the technical review of 100 points (70%), only candidates who pass 70% of technical and interview evaluation will be evaluated further.
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
• Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract. 

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevant education - Max 10 points;

• Criteria 2: Relevant work experience - Max 20 points;

• Criteria 3: Experience in conducting research, summarizing material and meeting outcome in EBD related filed and preparing draft inputs to written/ oral communications pieces - Max 25 points;

• Criteria 4: Experience in organization of international meeting, events, partner coordination and logistics planning– Max 15 points.

• Criteria 5: Previous experience with UNDP, Other UN, or International organizations or donors- Max 20 points.

• Criteria 6: Computer literacy, including MS Office, Internet- Max 10 points;

• Criteria 7: language skill- Max 10 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for interview and Financial Evaluation respectively.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.

• Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultant must quote price in U.S. Dollar that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. Kindly indicate the costs related to the 3 aforementioned missions under a separate heading;

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

To download additional document (e.g. TOR, form to complete and submit with application), please click the link below:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=53801