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National Agricultural and Irrigation Consultant to support the project “Promotion of climate change and disaster risk reduction solutions in the water and civil protection sectors for enhanced rural resilience”.

Vacancy Number: Pr19/01877

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	06 Sep 2019, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	09 Sep 2019
Reference to the project:	Promotion of climate change and disaster risk reduction solution in the water and civil protection sectors for enhanced rural resilience
Expected Duration of Assignment:	September 2019-September 2020
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by email, no later than 31 August 2019. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: cristina.cotofana@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.
Supporting Documents: Procurement Notice Terms of Reference OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR (IC) ASSIGNMENT UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Background

Considering its economic structure and geographic features, Moldova is highly vulnerable to climate change and is exposed to disasters due to hydrometeorological phenomena and natural hazards.  While drought and floods are among top hydro-meteorological hazards caused by extreme weather and climate events, due to the current and projected abnormal high temperatures leading to water scarcity, the incidence of forest fires is increasingly posing a threat to natural ecosystems, the agricultural system and human settlements.

Such high exposure is due to the country’s dependence on rain-fed agricultural production which is tied to climate, making it the most vulnerable of all economic sectors. This is primarily due to the shortage of water for agricultural needs and limited resources and capacities to plan and put in place water storage facilities for irrigation needs in rural communities of Moldova, especially, since climate projections show larger rainfall events in the future, which could supply such facilities.

Climate scenarios also indicate the country is strongly trending towards becoming more arid. Unfortunately, rural communities experience a capacity deficit in terms of fire prevention, preparedness and timely response, mainly due to the liquidation of over 400 equipped and capacitated firefighting units. It resulted in increased response time and lower awareness of fire risks by the rural population, subsequently leading to considerable increase in loss of life, property and affected ecosystems. It is widely accepted that rural women are disproportionately affected by fires due to them being mostly engaged in cooking in unsafe cook stoves and collection of firewood in ecosystems that might be at high risk of fires.

Against this background, the project aims to increase resilience and adaptive capacities of rural communities to climate change and disasters through improved water storage infrastructures and disasters risk reduction measures. The project is supporting implementation of climate-smart water management solutions for agriculture, flood management, fire prevention and expansion of community-based rescue/firefighting teams in rural communities of Moldova with the purpose of reducing the exposure and vulnerability of the rural communities to climate change and disaster risks. The project will be implemented over a period of 36 months and the activities are clustered around 2 major outputs intended to produce impact in 5 districts of Moldova, in the Central (Hincesti, Criuleni and Ungheni districts) and Southern (Leova and Cantemir) regions.

Scope of work

The Consultant will provide technical and advisory support to 15 selected water storage beneficiaries on overall production and irrigation matters. Ultimately, the Consultant will deliver training on modern, environmentally friendly irrigation techniques, agro-economic aspects of irrigation as part of high-value added crop production, and other production and technology-related information. The trainings will be based on a needs assessment to be conducted by the Consultant prior to conducting capacity building activities. The Consultant will work closely with the core project team as well as under the guidance and supervision of the Project Manager and the Environment Lead Specialist.

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Higher education in agriculture and soils, agricultural production technologies, agricultural economy and other connected fields. 

Experience and knowledge:

• At least 7 years of experience in delivering agri-business training, especially with focus on irrigation practices and high value-added crops.
• At least 5 years of experience related to water management and irrigation infrastructure, with focus on technical peculiarities, energy sources, pumping devices and equipment, etc. Experience with water and irrigation projects using matching grant approaches will be considered an advantage.
• At least 5 years of experience working with irrigation water users at local level (farmers, formal and informal farmer groups, associations, etc.).

 Competencies:

• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of analytical documents.

• Capacity to build strong relationships with beneficiaries, to focus on impact and result and to respond positively to feedback.

1. Personal qualities:

• Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, for differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.

UNDP Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

Documents to be included

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

1. Proposal:

• Providing a brief information on each of the above qualifications, item by item and a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work (if applicable).

2. Financial proposal (in USD), specifying a fee per day and total requested amount including all related costs, e.g. fees, per diems, phone calls etc.
3. Up-to-date CV with at least 3 names for a reference check.

Offeror’s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the individual contractor (IC) assignment.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fees, taxes, travel costs, accommodation costs, communication, and number of anticipated working days).  

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee and payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs shall be covered by the project.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant prior to travel and will be reimbursed.