International Specialist (s) for Designing Fund Options and Structures for Sustainable Financing (Protected Area Management)

Contract

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

Background

Over the decade, UNDP Cambodia has provided technical assistance to the Royal Government of Cambodia for a range of initiatives related to sustainable financing such as REDD+, PES, and Biofin.

REDD+: Since 2011, through the UN-REDD and FCPF II projects, UNDP has supported the RGC to fulfill all the requirements set by the Warsaw Framework for REDD+, including the development of a National Forest Monitoring System and the submission to the UNFCCC of the National REDD+ Strategy, Forest Reference Level and a Summary of Information on Cambodia’s Safeguards Information System. In addition, UNDP Cambodia is currently supporting the RGC to enable REDD+ nesting (i.e., integrating REDD+ Projects within the National REDD+ Programme) to promote the environmental integrity of Emission Reduction (ERs) from REDD+ Projects and operationalize multiple sources of finance to support Cambodia’s climate goals.

PES: In 2016, the RGC released an official Order (Sor Chor Nor No. 1119) directing the MoE to advance dialogue on PES as a new sustainable financing option to mobilize additional financial resources for PA management. The RGC designated two locations: Phnom Kulen National Park (PKNP) in Siem Reap Province and Kbal Chhay Multiple Use Area (KCMUA) in Preah Sihanouk Province as pilot PES sites. Both pilot sites provide essential watershed services for tourism, industry and local residents and are threatened by forest degradation and illegal encroachments.

UNDP Cambodia has been supporting the MoE for the operationalization of PES pilots as well as the development of a national roadmap for PES.

Biofin: UNDP Cambodia has been supporting the MoE for assessing the feasibility of biodiversity finance (BIOFIN) as financial incentives to support sustainable biodiversity management. BIOFIN work has looked at private and public financial resources used to conserve biodiversity, investments in commercial activities that produce positive biodiversity outcomes and the value of the transactions in biodiversity-related markets such as habitat banking.

Building on the past and ongoing results, UNDP will analyze a range of financing opportunities (including tourism fees, Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and REDD+) and will draw on existing studies on valuation of ecosystem services in the context of natural capital accounting (e.g. the works done by Conservation International (CI), Greening Prey Lang (GPL), and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)). UNDP will support the MoE in enhancing, designing, and supporting the Environmental and Social Fund, and other relevant funds created by the MoE.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant (s) is to support the environment team of UNDP Cambodia in designing fund options and structures for sustainable financing (Protected Area Management) and carrying out the following sets of activities:

1. Examine existing revenue sources and gaps for protected area management in the country: Building on existing literature on sustainable financing as well as the ongoing activities related to the UNDP’s Bio financing (BIOFIN) and PES projects, review possible revenue sources and identify financial gaps for protected area management in the country. Revenue sources for the review include the national and government finance, ODAs, taxes, fees, royalties, charges, fines, penalties, private donations, trust fund, ecotourism, REDD+, PES, eco standards and labelling (e.g., ibis rice, fair trade, organic farming).
2. Review options for sustainable finance mechanisms for funds to determine suitability for implementation in the country. In collaboration with the UNDP team’s work related to PES as well as REDD+ with the aim to design and operationalize sustainable financing mechanisms, further review options for possible mechanisms for hosting revenues at the national level such as the Environmental and Social Fund (ESF) (which the MoE General Directorate of Environmental Protection (GDEP) currently oversees).
3. Support the MoE to identify and prioritize potential sustainable finance mechanisms and/or sources to mobilize financial resources and necessary policy and fiscal reforms and fiscal incentives to implement priority sustainable finance mechanisms and/or sources in the protected area landscape. This work entails internal discussions with the MoE to prioritize possible sustainable financing mechanisms. Based on the discussion, needs for fiscal and policy measures will be identified.
4. Develop a draft inception report to present a set of preliminary action steps for priority sustainable finance mechanisms identified above. The report should cover but not be limited to the following sections: 1) introduction, background and objectives, 2) overview of existing revenue sources and gaps for protected area management in Cambodia, 3) option(s) for sustainable finance mechanisms for funds (e.g ESF), 4) a list of priority recommended sustainable financing options and target ecosystems and services, 5) identification of needs for any fiscal and policy measures for operationalization and 6) a set of preliminary actions steps and roadmap.
5. Assist the MoE in the organization of consultation meeting(s) including 1) preparation of agenda including a list of participants, 2) presentation materials and background documents to discuss and select sustainable financing options and 3) documentation and incorporation of comments to the inception report.
6. Develop a final draft inception report incorporating comments
7. Support the MoE for designing sustainable financing options for identified ecosystem services:

• Identification of key stakeholders to be involved in each prioritized sustainable financing/key ecosystems and bankable options
• Development of a draft roadmap for operationalizing sustainable options based on guidance and comments from MoE including 1) target sources of payments, 2) Revenue collection, fund management and benefit sharing mechanism and 3) Data management and monitoring
• Development of final draft operational and technical guidelines and prakas (if necessary) based on guidance and comments from MoE for sustainable financing, including PES (if required beyond what has been done above) to operationalize key identified options

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A minimum of a post- graduate degree in the field of conservation finance, business development, banking, and/or finance, law, or a related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of working experience in the field of conservation finance, business development, banking, and/or finance along with the knowledge of conservation financing
• At least 3 years of experience conducting feasibility assessments of sustainable financing options for conservation, and/or developing governance and operational and regulatory guidelines for the fund management and distribution
• Prior experiences in proposing national level sustainable finance options and supporting the establishment of environment/conservation/biodiversity funds.
• Prior experience in drafting either legalization for Funds, Charter, Bill/Act, Deed or other foundational documents for a Fund in the Asia Pacific region is an asset.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English mandatory.

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=78310 more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

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

1. Proposal: Letter of intertest explaining why they are most suitable for the work

2. Financial proposal (Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP)

3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email pheara.lek@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC).