5 National Consultants to conduct Climate Change Adaptation Institutional and Capacity Assessment in water, energy, health, forestry, and transport sectors.

Vacancy Number: Pr21/02146

Location:Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline: 13 Jan 2021, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:
19 Jan 2021, 13:00 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:
25 Jan 2021, 12:00 (GMT+2:00)
Starting date: 20 Jan 2021
Reference to the project: Advancing Moldova's National Climate Change Adaptation Planning Project
Expected Duration of Assignment:January 2021 – October 2021, 30 working days/expert
Submission Instructions:

Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Online" button, no later than 13th of January 2021.

Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: 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.

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

Contacts:

Mr. Pavel Gavrilita.

pavel.gavrilita@undp.org


Background

Climate change is already profoundly impacting the conditions for resource availability and agricultural activities. Over the last decade, the country has experienced a number of extreme events, such as droughts and major floods, along with the incremental effects caused by increased mean temperature, and the uneven distribution of precipitation through 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 has 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 an additional 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 Government of the Republic of Moldova 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).

This assignments will contribute to attainment of the Outcome 1, which aims to support the country-driven, gender-sensitive and participatory NAP as well as an institutionalized, iterative adaptation planning process, taking into consideration vulnerable sectors, groups, communities and ecosystems and should engage all relevant stakeholders. The overall goal of the assignment is to verify and advance Moldova’s capacities for medium- to long term adaptation planning and budgeting with the overall aim to reduce vulnerability of the population and key sectors to the impacts of climate change through analysis of current strengths, weaknesses, capacity and resources needed to integrate CCA into current and in future processes of development planning of central and local planning authorities.

The project will contract a total of 5 National Consultants (NC).  Each NC will be responsible for conducting a comprehensive institutional and capacity assessment with regards to climate change adaptation in one of Government of Moldova’s prioritized sectors: health, forestry, water transport, and energy. National Consultants will be expected to coordinate with one another and share information, working as a team. The National Consultants will work under the guidance of the International Consultant, Team Leader and Project Manager. They will also work closely with the respective national partners, including state institutions, local authorities, civil society and international organizations. The process is highly participatory and inclusive as it must be driven and owned by national stakeholders to maximize sustainability.

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

Scope of work

This assignment has the objective of conducting climate change adaptation institutional capacity assessment of sectoral institutions of key sectors of Moldova such as health, forestry, water, transport and energy as well as subnational levels. The qualitative and quantitative findings from the individual, institutional and enabling (systemic) capacity assessment will give the understanding of strengths, weaknesses, and gaps with respect to existing capacities for climate change adaptation, along with identification of climate related priorities and needs of assessed institutions. These findings will support the development of Climate Change Adaptation Capacity Development Plans for health, forestry, water, transport and energy sectors including cross-cutting areas for medium and long term.

Summary of key functions:

5 national consultants will work under the guidance of international consultant and supervision of the Team Leader and Project Manager to conduct a comprehensive review of climate change related institutional capacity assessment in 5 key sectors: health, forestry, water, transport and energy.   More specifically to:

  • Establish regular communication plan and data/information sharing procedures with the international consultant;
  • Provide feedback to the international consultant with respect to the development of methodology, surveys, tools, and other elements related to the design of the assessment;
  • Provide sectorial related inputs and context to the international consultant and ensure effective communication with national stakeholders;
  • Identify the relevant stakeholders to be engaged in the institutional and capacity assessment;
  • Coordinate and work with other NCs to identify common issues (e.g. gaps and barriers) as well as potential synergies and entry points to maximize the efficiency of institutional capacity development efforts;
  • Collect all the initial information regarding sector capacities and assessments on current strengths, weaknesses, capacity and resources needed to integrate CCA into current and in future processes of development planning of central and local planning authorities;
  • Develop sectoral assessment report;
  • Support the organization of two consultation workshops to present the results of the baseline assessment as well as capacity development plan and integrate the feedback of participants into the elaborated documents;
  • Under the guidance of international consultant develop the sector specific capacity development plan for strengthening national institutional adaptive capacity including targeted results to monitor progress.

Duration of Work: This is a part-time consultancy. The timeframe for the work of all 5 consultants is planned for January - October 2021.

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualification:

  • University degree in public administration, environmental sciences, water resources, transport, health, forestry, energy or another relevant field related to the assignment.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years of working experience in the related to the assignment sector;
  • Extensive knowledge of the country’s climate-related political framework, especially in climate change adaptation;
  • Previous experience in the climate change institutional and capacity assessment is an asset;
  • Knowledge of stakeholders, institutional mandates, policies and guidelines related to NAP process in the relevant field;
  • Familiarity with national development objectives and climate related needs of the selected sector.

Competencies:

  • Excellent and proven analytical and writing skills;
  • Good coordination and facilitation skills.

Language requirements:

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

Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, respecting 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 required documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability, including financial offer, according to Annex 2;

CV, including information about experience in similar assignments;

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment (please indicate to which sector (water, energy, health, forestry, transport) you apply for, as well as describe your experience and competencies in respect to established technical evaluation criteria from point 6 of this Procurement Notice).

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Financial proposal

Lump sum contracts

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) (see Annex 2 of the Offeror’s Letter Confirming Interest and availability attached to this Procurement Notice).   

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  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.