| Description |
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION SPECIALIST
|
| Location : |
Thimphu, BHUTAN |
| Application Deadline : |
03-Jul-12 |
| Type of Contract : |
Individual Contract |
| Post Level : |
International Consultant |
Languages Required :
|
English |
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) |
01-Aug-2012 |
| Duration of Initial Contract : |
75 days between August 2012 - May 2013 |
| Expected Duration of Assignment : |
75 days |
|
|
Background
|
|
Situated on the southern slope of the Eastern Himalayas, Bhutan’s landscape is mountainous and rugged with elevations ranging from 100m in the southern foothills to 7500m towards the north. Due to its topography, habitable and arable areas are limited to approximately 8.3% and 2.9%, respectively, of the landmass. Agriculture, which employs 69% of the population and accounts for 78% of monetary income in rural households, and industrial activities are largely practiced in this highly confined space that its topography permits.
Bhutan is one of the most disaster prone countries in the Asia-Pacific region, irrespective of the impacts of climate change. The country is exposed to multiple hazards, most prominently flash floods, landslides, windstorms, earthquakes, forest fires, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Climate change is likely to magnify the intensity and frequency of these hazards. The most pronounced consequences of climate change in Bhutan are two fold: disruptions in the monsoonal system and increasing/intensifying trends of extreme hydro-meteorological hazards, both of which are obviously closely linked.
A Project Preparation Grant (PPG) for a Project entitled “Addressing the risk of climate-induced disasters through enhanced national and local capacity for effective actions” has been secured from the Least Development Countries Fund (LDCF) of the UNFCCC. The Project will address priorities of Bhutan’s National Adaptation Programme of Action from 2006 (updated in 2011-12) through the following three outcomes:
- Risks from climate-induced floods and landslides reduced in the economic and industrial hub of Bhutan;
- Community resilience to climate-induced risks (droughts, floods, landslides, windstorms, forest fires) strengthened in at least four districts;
- Relevant information about climate-related risks and threats shared across community-based organizations and planners in climate-sensitive policy sectors on a timely and reliable basis.
|
Duties and Responsibilities
|
|
A team of two consultants will be engaged to undertake the assignment. The international consultant will be the lead consultant responsible for the following tasks, leading to the formulation of the project document and CEO endorsement of the same:
Technical Definition and Capacity Needs Assessment:
- Define and submit a detailed methodology and work plan in consultation with the national consultant;
- Provide guidance and review technical assessments and studies carried out by the RGoB and national consultants as part of the project preparation, including providing information and resources about international/regional best practices;
- Develop Strategic Results Framework based on field assessments and inputs from national stakeholders and consultants, including Project Objective, Outcomes, Outputs and indicative activities and ensure compliance of the Full Size Project monitoring framework with UNDP/GEF quality requirements including the GEF AMAT Framework (particularly that the indicators used are specific, measurable, appropriate, relevant and time bound);
- Oversee definition of the project baseline (i.e. current policies, strategies, current capacities and activities, baseline M&E indicators) and contribute to the synthesis of relevant baseline information (gender-disaggregated if possible), including identification of gaps in baseline data and information and suggestions for further required studies;
- Verify and validate the technical, institutional, operational and financial scope and strategy of the project as presented in the PIF;
- Establish criteria for the selection of pilot sites and adaptation options, based on field assessments and inputs from national stakeholders and consultants, and verify analysis of current and projected climate change risks in target areas;
- Frame a consistent climate change additionality argument for the project in line with findings from field assessments;
- Based on inputs from the national consultant and the RGoB, verify suitability, technical and financial feasibility of the selected adaptation options and ensure that they increase adaptive capacity and reduce long-term climate-change-induced vulnerability.
Institutional Arrangements, Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Finalize management arrangement for the project in consultation with the RGoB and UNDP, including decision making and hierarchical structure, roles and responsibilities and appropriate financial and technical workflow arrangements;
- Define monitoring, evaluation and reporting budget and arrangements in compliance of the Full Size Project monitoring framework with UNDP/GEF quality requirements;
- Define the project sustainability and exit strategy to ensure replication of project benefits beyond the lifetime of the project;
- Finalize knowledge management strategy for the project.
Stakeholder Consultations and Involvement Plan:
- Guide implementation of the PPG phase, including PPG inception meeting;
- Ensure that stakeholder consultations with relevant public and private authorities take place including mobilization of project beneficiaries in defining project components, including mapping climate change adaptation needs and gaps;
- Provide advice and quality control for the design and implementation of an appropriate stakeholder involvement strategy;
- Support awareness raising for climate change adaptation and capacity building of key stakeholders throughout the PPG phase through meetings/consultations;
- Ensure that the development of the overall project framework is participatory, gender-sensitive and based on a wide range of project stakeholder/beneficiary engagement;
- Facilitate and guide appropriate alignment of the project with related activities of other government, development partner and private sector-driven activities on climate change adaptation and otherwise, inter alia, the first LDCF project and relevant UNDP assistance.
Financial Planning and Co-financing:
- Ensure that appropriate co-financing for the project is identified and that co-financing agreements and endorsement letters are available at the end of the PPG phase;
- Ensure cost-effectiveness of the project design;
- Prepare project budget, including detailed co-financing arrangements for each project component.
Drafting of Full-size UNDP/GEF Compliant Project Document and CEO endorsement:
- Consolidate inputs by the national consultant and RGoB into a full-size UNDP/GEF compliant climate change adaptation project document;
- Review the findings of the technical assessments undertaken during the preparatory phase and synthesize them in the relevant sections of the final project document;
- Discuss and agree on the indicative project activities for project implementation;
- Prepare UNDP/GEF compliant CEO endorsement document.
|
Competencies
|
- International/regional consultant with academic and professional background in fields related to climate change adaptation, disaster risk management, environment management and sustainable development or a related field;
- Demonstrated track record in the design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and establishing/facilitating relationships between international organizations and national governments.
|
Required Skills and Experience
|
- Minimum 10 years of relevant experience;
- Substantive technical experience with project formulation (English language), preferably with GEF full-size project formulation requirements;
- Familiarity with the challenges facing developing countries in adapting to climate change, in particular on those relevant to Bhutan or similar countries;
- Excellent human relations, coordination, planning and team work skills;
- Excellent English writing and communication skills.
|
|
