International consultant to undertake an impact assessment for UNDP’s UXO clearance support (new application deadline)

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UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

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LA Home-based; Vientiane (Laos)

Application deadline 1 year ago: Wednesday 27 Jul 2022 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is, per capita, the most heavily bombed country in the world. More than forty years after the end of the 1964-1973 Indochina Conflict, Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) remains a major humanitarian and socioeconomic challenge to the country, causing deaths and injuries, limiting access to potentially productive land, and adding substantial costs to processes of development. The Government of Lao PDR has been active in the process of clearance since shortly after the conflict. Lao PDR has advocated for the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and hosted the first Meeting of States Parties in 2010. It also embraced the UXO issue as a key development matter by locally establishing the Sustainable Development Goal 18 (SDG18), “Lives Safe from UXO”.

The next National Strategic Plan for the UXO Sector in the Lao PDR 2022 - 2026, “The Safe Path Forward III” (SPFIII) details the objectives of the Government and its development partners over the forthcoming period where the aim is to reduce the humanitarian and socio-economic threats posed by UXO. A focus of the document, still to be approved by government, is the need to ensure strong integration with development mechanisms particularly at a provincial level and to ensure actions are focused on community level priorities for the facilitation of development.

UNDP support to the UXO sector in Lao PDR has focused in two axes, notably: 1) support to strengthening the capacity and technical competency of the National Regulatory Authority, to be able to oversee and steer the sector in pursuance of national strategic goals and obtaining Lao PDR’s unique UXO Action Sustainable Development Goal, SDG 18: Lives Safe from UXO. 2) To provide capacity support for survey and clearance, through support to UXO Lao and the Humanitarian teams of the Lao People’s Army (Unit 58), thus hastening progress towards clearance in impacted communities.

One key observation from the recent UNDP UXO programme evaluation [1] identified the need to strengthen evidence-based research to determine both a baseline of the impact of UXO contamination on Lao PDR communities, as well as a methodology to determine the impact of clearance funded by clearance and survey, funded by UNDP. Many of the gains of investment by donors to the sector, through UNDP support, were anecdotal with little clear demonstration of evidence measured against a baseline of impact. For example, a study conducted by Shiqi Guo [2] looks at UXO contamination impact on educational attainment where UXO communities are demonstrably negatively impacted in terms of time in education than comparable communities in non-UXO communities where delays in agricultural processes, due to the presence of unexploded ordnance, impacts directly on educational attainment.

UNDP needs to be able to demonstrate the impact of both UXO contamination on development targets, as well as how the removal of UXOs hasten the same, as expressed in government’s development strategies and the Laos adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. Demonstrating impact in the sector will not only demonstrate the relative value of UXO clearance and survey but will also provide linkages with an integrated approach to UXO clearance and development, being a key component of the Government’s Safe Path Forward III strategy. Further, investigation into the impact of UXO contamination and UXO clearance, should also feedback and inform practice in country, as lead by the National Regulatory Authority, in adapting and fine-tuning survey and clearance practice and prioritization.

[1] Terminal Evaluation: UNDP Support to UXO Programme: (link) Evaluation Detail (undp.org)

[2] ‘The legacy effect of unexploded bombs on educational attainment in Laos’, Shaqi Guo in the Journal of Development Economics 147 (2020) 102527 www.elsevier.com/locate/devec

Duties and Responsibilities

The successful applicant will be expected to be responsible for the following:

Task 1: Assess the impact of UXOs on development outcomes in contaminated areas.

  • Review measurable development indicators pertinent to strategic development targets and the SDGs of the Lao PDR government;
  • Define a methodology for measuring indicators in selected programme areas.
  • Undertake data collection and analysis.

Task 2: Assess the impact after UXO survey and clearance.

  • Review the same development indicators post survey and clearance
  • Undertake data collection and analysis.

Task 3: Evaluate the impact of survey and clearance (task 1 measured against task 2).

  • Quantify the impact of survey and clearance by comparing impact pre- and post- survey and clearance.
  • Make recommendations to drive improved survey and clearance to maximise positive impact of programming.

Competencies

  • Demonstrated skill in data gathering and processing, including interviewing, focus group discussions etc

Required Skills and Experience

Two individual consultants (one international and one national) will be selected for this assignment. An international consultant (team leader) has overall responsibility for providing guidance and leadership in conducting the impact assessment and preparing and revising the draft and final reports. A national consultant will support the team leader and provide knowledge of Lao cultural and development context and advise the team leader on relevant aspects of the local context. The national consultant is responsible for the translation of the executive summary of the report into the Lao language and supports as an interpreter between English and Lao when needed

Qualifications: Masters level qualification minimum. PhD level preferred for team leader

Relevant Professional Experience : Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, and previous demonstrated experience in undertaking impact assessments, although not necessarily in UXO or Mine Action (although this would be a distinct advantage).

Language Requirements :

  • No Lao skills necessary for team leader
  • Fluent English and Lao for national consultant – translation services will be required to facilitate interviews, focus group discussions etc

Requirements for submission of proposals

All interested and qualified International or National Independent Consultant should apply on-line using the following links:

UNDP Lao PDR Country Office website at https://www.undp.org/laopdr/jobs or

In order to make your submission, please read the relevant documents available on the link below

  1. TOR
  2. IC General Terms and Conditions _ Annex II;
  3. OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY _ Annex III
  4. P11 Form

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

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

  1. Technical Proposal

    (i) Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;

    (ii) Providing a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work including the work

    schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverable;

  2. P11 Form Education and work experience, including past experience in similar projects and contact references of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar services;

  3. Financial proposal: Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear cost breakdown against each deliverable. Please use this template OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY _ Annex III

Instructions for on-line submissions:

Step 1: Please prepare all required documents electronically;

Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above;

Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Incomplete proposals or proposals received after the deadline will be rejected.

Note: Any request for clarification must be sent in writing before the submission deadline to the following emails:

surith.sengsavang@undp.org

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