[Re-advertisement] National Consultant to develop a new state of the art Climate Change Adaptation strategic framework for the transport sector (NAP-2).

Vacancy Number: Pr21/02225

Location:Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline: 17 May 2021, 18:00 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:
24 May 2021, 18:00 (GMT+2:00)
Starting date: 01 Jun 2021
Reference to the project: Advancing Moldova's National Climate Change Adaptation Planning Project
Expected Duration of Assignment:June 2021 – May 2022, 60 working days/expert
Submission Instructions:

Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Online" button, no later than 17th of May 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:
Terms of Reference
Procurement Notice
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 several 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 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 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 effective use, and ensure a coherent and comprehensive approach to the integration of CCA responses into development planning, while the second track will focus on adaptation in the agriculture sector and will be concurrently implemented under the auspices of FAO.

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 programmes 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.

The National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) until 2020 and its Action Plan was approved by GD 1009/2014. The Strategy guides the sectorial approach for climate change concerns and their integration in developing sector-specific strategies, action plans, and relevant policy frameworks, which lead to the possibility of identifying the best adaptation opportunities at the sectoral level. The general objective of the NCCAS is oriented towards "increasing the capacity of the Republic of Moldova to adapt and respond to actual or potential climate change effects," and it is underpinned by an in-depth study of future climate risks and their impacts on vulnerable sectors. The NCCAS has three medium- and long-term objectives under which adaptation actions are clustered for the priority sectors (agriculture, water, health, forests, energy, and transport), as well as for cross-sectorial action.

Given that the current NCCAS and its Action Plan expired in 2020,  the project will contract a total of 5 National Consultants (NC) to assist the International Consultant to evaluate the implementation of the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy of the Republic of Moldova until 2020 and its Action Plan and to develop a new state of the arts CCA strategic framework. The Consultants will also be responsible for developing the sectorial CCA planning framework (SAP) for the priority sectors. Each NC will be responsible for one of GoM’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 International Consultant's guidance and supervision of the 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.

Scope of work

The consultant will work under the guidance of an International Consultant and supervision of the Team Leader and Project Manager to conduct a comprehensive review of the implementation of the current NCCAS until 2020, develop a new CCA Strategy and SAPs in the transport sector and identify the sector-related indicators for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). For the M&E part the consultant will work with the M&E team of consultants.

Specific tasks:

  • Establish regular effective communication flow and data/information sharing procedures with national stakeholders and international consultant;
  • Provide feedback to the international consultant with respect to the development of methodology and other elements related to the assessment;
  • Coordinate and work with other NCs to identify the common issues and bottlenecks, as well as potential synergies and entry points to maximize the efficiency of CCAS development efforts;
  • Undertake the relevant analysis and collect all the required information regarding the degree of implementation of the NCCAS until 2020 produce stocktaking report. The layout of the stocktaking report will be coordinated and agreed with the main partner of the project, e.g. the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Development;
  • Support the organization of a stocktaking workshop and coordinate the results of stocktaking report NCCAS until 2020 with all relevant decision-makers;
  • Liaise with relevant national stakeholders and update the sectorial impacts, risks, and vulnerability assessments as the basis for future Strategy;
  • Identify the transport sector indicators for M&E Framework under the guidance of the international consultant on M&E and coordinate them with the relevant national stakeholders;
  • Identify sectoral adaptation options and propose a prioritization of them;
  • Contribute to drafting of Strategy components/sections following p. 34, 3), lit. a)-g) of the Regulation regarding the planning, elaboration, approval, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policy documents GD 386/2020;
  • Formulate the costed CCA measures for the Action Plan and coordinate these with the transport sector;
  • Develop Sectoral Adaptation Plan for the transport sector (or mainstream the CCCA measures in the sectorial strategic planning framework, after consultations with the beneficiary) based on the findings and recommendations identified in the process of CCAS implementation assessment;
  • Conduct consultative workshops and ensure consultation of the SAP with the National Climate Change Commission and other stakeholders and update it according to the received recommendations.

 

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualification:

  • University degree in public administration, environmental sciences, transport, or another relevant field related to the assignment.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years of working experience in the transport sector;
  • Extensive general knowledge of the country’s climate-related politic framework, especially in climate change adaptation;
  • Knowledge of stakeholders, institutional mandates, policies, and guidelines related to NAP process in the transport sector;
  • Familiarity with national development objectives and climate-related needs of the transport 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 with the financial proposal (in USD, specifying the total lump sum amount). Financial proposal template prepared in compliance with the template in 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.

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.