National Consultant: Environment Expert to the House of the Peoples Representative Under DIP

Objective
 
To increase the capacity within the House of the Peoples Representative (HoPR) to mainstream environment into national planning policy and budget processes in support to sustainable development as reflected in the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP)
 
Background
 
Recognizing the strong links between poverty and environment, the Government of Ethiopia is committed to mainstreaming environmental sustainability into the county’s economic development and poverty reduction strategy. The Government aims to enhance the contribution of sound environmental management to poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
 
The intended outcome is the integration of environment, as a cross cutting issue, into national (and regional planning?), policy and budget processes. There are four main outputs:

• Improved capacity by Members of Parliament and HoPR institutions to understand and analyse links between poverty and environment and to integrate environment into policymaking, planning and budgets
• Increased awareness and more effective participation of Members of Parliament in environmental policy and planning processes
• Improved national funding levels for investing in environmental sustainability
• Improved capacity for monitoring poverty and environment linkages at national and regional levels 

The implementation of this activity involves the coordination by the Democratic Institutional Programme Unit within the HoPR in collaboration with key HoPR institutions, notably the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Affairs Standing Committee, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which is the Ministry in charge of overall national planning and budgetary processes and in particular, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
 
The purpose of this activity will seek to ensure that environmental policy and planning processes and budget allocation and execution address sector specific environmental priorities to the overall benefit of balanced economic growth. Moreover, it will seek to ensure environment as a cross cutting issue (as PASDEP intended) for the sectors such as agriculture, energy, water and sanitation, industry and infrastructure to sustainable development and realize the MDG goals.

Scope of Work
 
Under the overall supervision of the National Coordinator of DIP/HoPR, the Environmental Expert shall undertake the following tasks:
 
1)       Undertake an analysis of the integration of PASDEP commitments on environment into national and key strategic plans

• Review the incorporation of environmental issues into key strategic plans with a view to track progress in mainstreaming environment
• Identify entry points to integrate environment as a cross cutting issue and a priority into sector plans (such as Water Resources Management policy) with a view to support the overall implementation of PASDEP
• Identify entry points to integrate environment into budgeting, define and apply key performance indicators to track progress on implementation of sectoral environmental commitments in PASDEP
• Develop guidelines on assessing the inclusion of environment priorities in sector budgets to ensure that they include environment as a cross cutting issue 

2)       Support Capacity Building for MP’s to integrate environmentally sustainable natural resource use into national and key sector plans, budgets and monitoring and evaluation

• Develop and execute an awareness raising and capacity building plan in the area of environmental Budgeting
• Develop practical tools for the valuation of environment and natural resources for MP’s understanding to integrate environment into national and key sector strategic plans as a cross cutting issue and support for monitoring and evaluation of policy measures related to environment and natural resources
• Raise awareness on poverty-environment/gender-environment linkages through training manual

Project Management 

• Ensure timely implementation of activities as per work plan
• Assist in the preparation of meetings and a record of resolutions for the meetings
• Timelyproduce such reports as requested by the National Coordinator /program Officer of DIP/HoPR

Deliverables
 
During the assignment, the consultant will deliver the following:

• Produce practical tool kit for MP’s and relevant stakeholders on integrating/mainstreaming Environment into national and key sector strategic plans and budgeting processes
• Produce training manual to raise awareness on poverty-environment/gender-environment linkages
• Endure the adoption and integration of the developed toolkits and manuals in the day to day operation by providing close mentoring for MPs in general & to environment committee in particular
• Produce progress reports as requested by the National Coordinator /Program Officerof DIP/HoPR
• Procured Final report on lessons and document best practices that will guide sustained sector engagement for
• Planning, budgeting and monitoring for environment at the national level
   

• Good understanding of international experience and best practice in the mainstreaming of cross
• Cutting issues into national development processes including budgets
• Strong background in development of environmental indicators and date analysis
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work under pressure and to establish and maintain effective work relationships
• Ability to take initiative and to work independently, as well as a team
• Excellent communication skills
• Fluent spoken and written English and /or Amharic preferably both