International Consultant on Climate Risk Assessment

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Application deadline 1 year ago: Monday 16 May 2022 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

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Background

Climate change is already profoundly impacting the conditions for resource availability and agricultural activities. Over the last decade, the country has experienced many extreme events, such as droughts and major floods, along with the cumulative effects caused by increased mean temperature and the uneven distribution of precipitation throughout the year, which have had negative consequences on the country's economy, and its population wellbeing and health. Severe droughts are recurring more frequently, causing significant economic losses. The increasing scope and intensity of extreme events have also resulted in increased frequencies of high-risk situations. By 2050, an increase of 2–3ºC in the average temperature, an additional 32 days that exceed the current maximum temperature by 10%, and another 12 days with zero precipitation are projected.

The Government sees the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process as key to achieving the adaptation objectives outlined in its 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy of the Republic of Moldova and its 2020 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), as well as the continued mainstreaming of climate change considerations into its policies and budgeting processes. The proposed project supports the Republic of Moldova's Government in advancing the second cycle of its National Adaptation Planning process (known as NAP-2). The outcomes of the NAP-2 national adaptation planning processes are:

Outcome 1: To strengthen and operationalize the national steering mechanism for climate change adaptation (CCA);

Outcome 2: To improve the long-term capacity on planning and implementation of adaptation actions through CCA technologies;

Outcome 3: To improve the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation through the increased alignment of national development priorities in the priority sectors (forestry, health, energy, and transport).

The project will contribute to UNDAF, 2018-2022 outcome #3 (The people of Moldova, especially the most vulnerable, benefit from enhanced environmental governance, energy security, sustainable management of natural resources, and climate and disaster-resilient development). Additionally, the project will contribute to the UNDP Country Programme Output 3.3 (National and sub-national governments have improved capacities to integrate resilience to climate change and disasters into development plans and practices to reduce population's vulnerability). Other than that, the project will contribute to the National Development Strategy "Moldova 2030" by ensuring resilience to climate change by reducing risks related to climate change and by facilitating adaptation in six sectors priority - agriculture, water resources, health, forestry, energy, and transport.

The preliminary work under the first cycle of the NAP (known as NAP-1) supported developing a NAP as a process, conceptualizing and developing its elements, including the national steering mechanism, and laid down the groundwork towards long-term adaptation planning. Despite the progress, significant gaps remain in integrating climate change considerations into many of the national priority sectors' development policies and their associated budget priorities. National appropriations for CCA remain limited.

The NAP-2 goals will be achieved within two parallel implementation tracks. The first track implemented by UNDP expands and deepens the national approach developed under the NAP-1 and strengthens synergies both vertically, at different levels of the governance, and horizontally, between the sectors affected by climate change to reduce duplication of efforts, pool scarce resources for efficient use, and ensure a coherent and comprehensive approach to the integration of CCA responses into development planning. In contrast, the second track will focus on adaptation in the agriculture sector and will be concurrently implemented under FAO's auspices.

The National Designated Authority has coordinated with the UNDP and the FAO country offices to ensure the complementarity and congruency of the activities and exchange, as appropriate. By its very nature, the NAP-2 will facilitate the integration of CCA into existing strategies, policies, and programs and establish a strong foundation for the integration of methods, tools, and information systems in day-to-day planning activities to inform decision-makers on the climate risks effectively, and to enable the informed formulation of resilient projects and financing strategies.

As Moldova progresses in its adoption of a holistic approach to adaptation and towards increased integration of CCA considerations into medium- and long-term planning, it must rely on a strong evidence base to strengthen its ability to appraise available adaptation options. It is important to have a clear methodology for risk assessment that is approved by the government, and ensure that the data are collected, analysed regularly, and available for the decision-makers. Currently, there are no risk-assessment methodologies approved by the government. The project will support the Ministry of Environment in the formulation, development, and piloting of risk assessment methodologies for the selected climate-related risks (i.e., floods, flash floods, drought, landslides, or others). The climate-related risks will be prioritized together with national stakeholders and approved during the consultations process. The project will contact an International Consultant to facilitate the discussion between stakeholders on the identification of key climate-related risks, develop methodologies for the assessment of four key risks the country is facing and support the project implementation team in drafting Terms of Reference for performing the national-wide risk assessment for identified risks.

Duties and Responsibilities

This assignment's overall objective is to enhance the countries' understanding of the risks and knowledge to reduce vulnerability and increase adaptive capacity by risks identification, integration of measures into the national level policy development processes, and promotion of the decision making that is based on full understanding of risks. This would be achieved through identification of climate-related risks affecting the country, development of the methodology for the risk assessment, integration of the relevant risks into the national adaptation planning process and other relevant policy documents.

The specific tasks are listed below:

  • Develop methodological approach for implementation of assignment, stipulating challenges for the process;
  • Mapping all key stakeholders to be involved in the risk assessment processes, for the risks with the climate-related hazards;
  • Based on the literature analysis (or desk review) that will include exiting information on available data/information, overview of the previous initiatives and interviews with key informants to identify the major’s climate-related risks the country is facing;
  • Based on the participatory consultations process with key stakeholders prioritise climate-related risks to be included into the National Adaptation planning Process including the measures for the Action Plan and other relevant documents;
  • For four top-priority risks identified by stakeholders develop a Methodology concept note (draft version of the methodology) for the risk assessment being tailored to the local needs and conditions;
  • Facilitate the discussions with the key stakeholders on proposed methodologies for each risk and incorporate their inputs into the final version of the documents;
  • Provide the inputs for the integration of the prioritized climate-related risks into the National Adaptation Planning Program and the respective measures to the action plan and other relevant documents;
  • Elaborate the Terms of Reference for detailed assessment of top-priority risks according to the methodology provided;
  • Provide the final report on the implementation of assignment.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference

Competencies

Academic Qualification:

  • University degree in environmental sciences, disaster risk management, etc.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years of proven knowledge management or technical advisory experience in climate and disaster risk management.
  • Professional experience in development countries, especially in the Eastern Europe would be a strong asset.
  • Extensive knowledge and research experience in the area of risk assessment, disaster risk management, climate risk management.
  • Extensive knowledge and experience in developing/adjusting the risk assessment methodologies as for the needs of beneficiaries.

Competencies:

  • Good communication and organizational skills, with demonstrated evidence of capacity to produce and present useful reports.

Language requirements:

  • Fluency in English is required for this assignment, Romanian and Russian is an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

  • University degree in environmental sciences, disaster risk management, etc.;
  • At least 7 years of proven knowledge management or technical advisory experience in disaster risk management.

The short-listed individual consultants will be further 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 a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight – 60% (300 pts);

* Financial Criteria weight – 40% (200 pts).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 210 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria

Scoring

Maximum Points Obtainable

Technical

University degree in environmental sciences, disaster risk management

BSc degree – 20 pts, Master’s degree – 40 pts.

PhD degree - 50

50

At least 7 years of proven knowledge management or technical advisory experience in disaster risk management

7 years – 30 pts, each additional year 5 pts up to the max – 60 pts

60

Professional experience in developing countries, especially in the Eastern Europe would be a strong asset

Experience in developing countries – 10 pts

Experience in Eastern Europe - 10 pts

20

Interview (demonstrated technical knowledge and experience; communication/ interpersonal skills; initiative; creativity/ resourcefulness). Only the first 5 applicants that have accumulated the highest technical score shall be invited to the interview.

Extensive knowledge and research experience in the area of risk assessment, disaster risk management, climate risk management

limited –<20 pts, satisfactory – <40 pts, extensive – <60 pts

60

Extensive knowledge and experience in developing/adjusting the risk assessment methodologies as for the needs of beneficiaries.

limited –<15 pts, satisfactory – <35 pts, extensive – <50 pts

50

Good communication and organizational skills, with demonstrated evidence of capacity to produce and present useful reports

limited –<10 pts, satisfactory – <25 pts, extensive – <35 pts

35

Fluency in English is required for this assignment; knowledge of Romanian or Russian will be an advantage

English – max 15 pts., Romanian – max 5 pts, Russian – max 5 pts.

25

Maximum Total Technical Scoring

300

Financial Evaluation Scoring

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula:

S = Fmin / F * 200

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

200

Winning candidate: The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following required documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

  1. CV, including information about experience in similar assignments;
  2. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  3. Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability with the financial proposal (in USD, specifying the total lump sum amount). Financial proposal template prepared in compliance with the template in Annex 2.

For supporting documents (Terms of Reference and Procurement Notice and Offeror's Letter, including Financial Offer template) please visit https://sc.undp.md/current_jobs3/ (ref: Pr22/02441******) or UNDP Moldova | Vacancy: International Consultant on Climate Risk Assessment (NAP-2), UNDP Moldova

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Proposals should be submitted online only by pressing the "Apply Online" link by May 5, 2022,11:59 pm (Moldova local time: GMT+2).

Requests for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following email pavel.gavrilita@undp.org UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.

Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org