Consultant - ESCAP SSWA

Result of Service The international consultant with the support of the national consultant will be delivering the following:

1. Scoping study and review of existing risk assessment data availability in the Maldives 2. Prepare land use and natural resources digital database using high-resolution satellite data/ aerial/drone-based data (in case available). 3. Prepare disaster risk maps based on hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data under different climate scenarios based on IPCC CMIP6 climate model outputs. 4. Prepare marine spatial planning to understand the risks from coastal erosion and sea-level rise (potentially using high-resolution NOAA Coastal Digital Elevation Model data) 5. Collection of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data needed for risk and vulnerability assessment and impact-based forecasting cases. 6. Review the DRR/CCA assessments and help with implementing the planning tools for DRR/CCA management. 7. Prepare training manual/materials for the capacity building workshops. 8. Prepare climate-resilient land use and natural resources plan for the nodal agencies. 9. Organise stakeholder consultation 10. Support ESCAP in organization of capacity building and training workshops for local agencies of Maldives.

Accountability The international consultant will work with ESCAP's sub-regional Office for South and Southwest Asia, New Delhi, and UNDP Maldives.

Work Location Based on candidate selection

Expected duration The assignment covers the period from 15 June 2022 to 14 June 2023.

Duties and Responsibilities The Maldives, as a low-lying island nation, is among the most vulnerable countries in the world with respect to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. Aggregating natural (extreme events and slow-onset disasters) and biological hazards together, it is estimated that the Annualized Average Loss (AAL) from climate and natural hazards for the Maldives is UDS 45.8 million. This number is likely to increase to USD 55.4 million under the worst-case modeling scenarios. In addition, as a Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with a population of over 500,000, dispersed across 186 administrative islands and spread over roughly 90,000 square Km, the country faces significant challenges in delivering public goods and services. The United Nations Common Country Assessment (CCA 2021) for the Maldives identifies earthquakes and tsunamis, cyclones, thunderstorms, floods, drought, storm surges, strong winds, and tornadoes as disaster risks to the Maldives. Climate change and extreme weather events are pressing problems and potentially threaten the enjoyment of the right to life, the right to health, and the right to living in a healthy environment. Additionally, some development projects approved in the recent past without adequate disaster mitigation plans resulted in increasing floods, loss of natural heritage such as mangroves, increasing sedimentation (which contributes to coral bleaching), and resultant loss of livelihood of many including for the more vulnerable population such as women. Given the nation's stark challenges from natural hazards and climate change, the United Nations Sustainable Development Co-operation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022 - 26 dedicates its strategic priority to a sustainable and climate-resilient environment. It envisions that by 2026, national and sub-national institutions and communities in the Maldives, particularly at-risk populations, are better able to manage natural resources and achieve enhanced resilience to climate change and disaster impacts, natural and human-induced hazards, and environmental degradation with the support of UN-led interventions. The local councils of Maldives are responsible for developing 5-year development and land use plans. They are also required to provide support to relevant authorities, such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in implementing disaster risk reduction regulations to prevent and mitigate the impact of disasters. However, there is a lack of availability, access, and use of relevant data and information products to enable evidence-based policymaking. Against this background, this project will equip the local councils with better Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)/Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) development planning tools. The purpose is to help build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social, and environmental shocks and disasters. The project is being implemented jointly by UNESCAP (ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, Bangkok and its sub-regional Office for South and Southwest Asia, New Delhi) and UNDP Maldives.

ESCAP needs the support of one senior international consultant to develop a GIS-based digital database, prepare land use and natural resources maps, and collect and analyze hazard, exposure, and vulnerability data (including through the customization of the latest Coastal Digital Elevation Model for selected islands/atolls of Maldives) for different climate change scenarios (using latest IPCC CMIP 6 Shared Socio-economic Pathways).

For the project areas, the consultant will also develop and customize a digital database, multi-hazard risk maps, prepare capacity development training manuals, and impart training to the stakeholders in the Maldives.

Responsibilities Under the direct supervision of the Chief, Disaster Risk Reduction Section of ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction, ESCAP, the international consultant will work and report to ESCAP's subregional office for South and Southwest Asia, New Delhi, and UNDP Maldives. The primary responsibility of the consultant involves updating existing climate risk and disaster-related data and information products to support evidence-based policymaking for DRR and CCA, and to make sure that the stakeholders are proficient in its use and application. The work involves developing national standards for building disaster resilience and climate change dimensions into the councils' existing natural resources management plans and developing customized operational tools and techniques for land use planning, natural resource mapping, and land and marine spatial planning in the context of the Maldives. The key strategies that will be used involve: (1) Integrating community feedback through an inclusive consultative process that incorporates the programme targets vulnerable groups as part of hazard assessment. (2) Creating and maintaining the institutional capacity to update modeling results hazard, vulnerability, and risk maps (3) Ensuring that risk-based spatial planning informs disaster risk reduction policies and that informed land-use plans are enforced to prevent the development of settlements in at-risk areas. Under this activity, UNESCAP will also update the Maldives risk profile by capitalizing on the advances in high-resolution geospatial and climate modelling and capture the risk granularities in the local context of small islands/atolls. This activity is expected to help mitigate the challenges the Maldives face in implementing risk-based spatial planning, help with developing new legislation informed by risk, and provide 'actionable' natural resources maps to operationalize and enforce legal frameworks for land use planning which integrate risk information. The activity will be carried out with technical support from Maldives Meteorological Service and in collaboration with the Maldives National Disaster Management Authority. Further, it will capitalize on the geospatial database data layers on coastal and marine ecosystems of the Maldives (Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology, supported by the ADB 2019), GIS-based information systems, Ministry of Planning and National Development, Maldives, etc. Additional support could also be made for MMS to undertake supplementary activities such as generating comprehensive atoll-specific hazard profiles based on the past (experienced hazards), present, and projected hazards, that can serve to examine exposure and sensitivity of development that will underpin the Outcome.

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: Master's degree in environmental science, meteorology, hydrology, disaster risk management, or related field. A Bachelor's degree in the above fields in combination with three additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Experience: Two years of quantitative and qualitative research experience in weather services, disaster management, and disaster risk reduction using geospatial tools. Working experience with ESCAP or other international agencies is desirable. Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations. For the consultant fluency in English is required.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.