Background

Together with the loss of biodiversity and the increase of pollution, climate change has emerged as a crucial component of the ‘Triple Planetary Crisis.’ In this regard, the transition from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement represented a paradigm shift from a top-down form of climate governance founded on legally binding ‘targets and timeframes to a bottom-up approach promoting voluntary commitments through ‘soft reciprocity.’ Due to this paradigm shift and the inertia of the Sustainable Development Goals, global levels of climate commitments have gradually increased over the years. However, as noted in the latest IPCC[1] and Emissions Gap Report[2], the latest submissions of Nationally Declared Contributions do not yet reflect the ambition needed to reach the Paris goal of limiting climate change to 1.5 to 2°C, despite all future scenarios exceeding 1.5°C by 2040. Accordingly, together with the impetus to ‘build back better’ from COVID-19, the Green New Deal has emerged as a policy solution in many countries.

In this vein, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has recently announced its Korean New Deal, which incorporated a Green New Deal as one of its primary components. Through this initiative, the ROK has affirmed its commitment to promote the green transition of infrastructure, low carbon and decentralized energy, and innovation in the green industry. To this end, the ROK is planning to pursue not only stand-alone environmental projects, but also integrated projects incorporating a digital focus.

Having also published a strategy to ‘globalize’ its New Deal, the ROK has declared its intent to support other countries with facilitating similar structural changes. This is important as, despite having the political will to do so, many governments have been unable to formulate their own Green New Deal strategies. As such, the ROK will be strengthening, among other things, its ‘Green New Deal ODA’ by enhancing support for green transitions in developing countries, leading global cooperation on the Green New Deal, and building mutually beneficial partnerships. In this regard, it is worth noting that many of the ROK’s relevant strategic documents specifically mention UNDP as a potential partner organization with whom to undergo joint interventions.

These developments in the ROK’s strategic approach are relevant for UNDP because its Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2025 outlines the need to promote the green and digital transformation of partner countries as one of its three primary drivers of change. Thus, being mandated to share the ROK’s development experience, UNDP Seoul Policy Centre (USPC) is seeking to identify additional opportunities to cooperate with the ROK at both the business unit and corporate level. This builds on prior partnership experiences which involved activities such as facilitating policy discussions on ‘building back better.’

[1] IPCC. 2021. AR6 Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM.

[2] UNEP. 2020. Emissions Gap Report 2020. https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment

This paper will provide an overview of the context upon which multilateral climate action is taking place. This should entail an analysis of recent international processes, which includes international fora such as the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, OECD DAC commitments[1] as well as national initiatives such as the Green New Deals of other countries. Building on this, the paper will critically analyze how UNDP has sought to contribute to such processes by providing specific reference to relevant corporate interventions, so as to identify country-level demand for relevant policy advice as well as the niche areas upon which new partnerships could be formulated.

Against this backdrop, this paper will describe the ROK’s potential relevance to such initiatives. That is, it will elaborate on the unique value that the ROK’s green transition offers in this regard and the progress made hitherto. Subsequently, it will explain the overall roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders, including that of non-state actors such as the private sector.

Following this, this paper will identify green policy solutions in which the ROK possesses a comparative advantage and that may be of interest to countries in the Global South. By doing so, this paper will serve as a reference point for relevant decision-makers, while also potentially informing USPC’s SDG Partnerships (which is its primary modality of knowledge exchange) and UNDP’s institutional partnership with the ROK. As such, USPC seeks to assist partner countries in emulating initiatives similar to that of the ROK, thereby contributing to UNDP’s strategic objective of promoting a green and digital transformation. To this end, the findings of this paper will be presented to UNDP’s Global Policy Network and selected Country Offices at an USPC-facilitated event with countries that are well-positioned to benefit from the lessons learned and can provide valuable lessons based on their own experiences.

Scope of Work:

The consultant is expected to draft a paper that will include components such as but not limited to the following:

• Executive summary
• Brief overview of relevant political processes including that of international fora such as the Conference of the Parties and national discussions on issues such as the Green New Deal
• Critical review of how UNDP is offering support towards such initiatives and a synthesis of country-level demand for relevant policy advice and the niche areas upon which new partnerships could be formulated
• Explanation of the unique value offered by the ROK’s green transition, the progress made hitherto, and the roles and responsibilities of relevant actors
• Detailed overview of three to five policies in which the ROK possesses a comparative advantage and that may be of interest to partner countries in the Global South, along with details such as but not limited to the advantages and disadvantages of such solutions, the context in which they came into being, and issues that may need to be considered when benchmarking these policies in Southern contexts.
• Conclusion and recommendations including that of future research
• References
• Annex

[1]OECD. 2021. OECD DAC Declaration on a new approach to align development co-operation with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. https://www.oecd.org/dac/development-assistance-committee/dac-declaration-climate-confe26.htm.  

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Institutional Arrangements

The consultant will report to the Programme Specialist (focal point), and team leader of Inclusive Growth and Prosperity Team at UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH), in all aspects of the activities.  She/he will also consult with  other relevant experts of the BRH.

Duration

The duration of the assignment will be January 1st, 2022 – June 30th, 2022 (up to 36 working days)

Duty Station

This consultancy will be home-based, with no foreseen travel.

Competencies

Skills and Competencies:

• Knowledge of UNDP corporate priorities and work on relevant topics (such as but not limited to the portfolio of the Nature, Climate, and Energy Team and UN SDG Task Team on Green Recovery) is an asset.
• Clear understanding and display of UNDP corporate values and standards is an asset.
• Ability to adhere to strict deadlines is required.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least Master’s degree in sustainable development, environmental policy, economics, or any related fields required.

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years of relevant work experience in providing policy analysis on climate change, development, and environmental policy is required;
• Familiarity with the ROK’s green transition and development cooperation is a strong asset;
• Experience with publications on topics such as sustainable development, climate, environment, and energy is a strong asset.

Skills and Required Language:

• Excellent qualitative research skills are required.
• Experience in the usage of office and online meeting software packages is required.
• Ability to concisely convey substantial amount of content in written form is required.
• Excellent command of written and oral English is required. Knowledge of Korean is considered a strong asset.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment.

This is a fixed out-put based contract price regardless of extension of the herein specific duration.  The payments will be released upon submitting the required deliverables with satisfactory by or before the due dates agreed, and as per below percentages:

Unforeseen Travel:

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Applicants are reviewed based on the aforementioned requirements for experience and qualifications, as well as on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below. Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and

Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weigh 70% and financial criteria weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite maximum of five shortlisted candidates for interviews. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation. Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Documentation Required:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal using the template provided by UNDP (Annex III)
   1. Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the proposed fee submitted in the proposal. Payments shall be done on lumpsum basis, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor.
   2. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/ company/ institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all relevant and similar previous experiences, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Applicant and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Cover letter explaining why they are the most suitable candidate (max 1 page);
4. Proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment (max 1 page).

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.  The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR GND
Annex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_Consultants
Annex III - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal
Annex IV - P11 Form_for_ICs_optional
Annex V - Procurement notice

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=85823

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.th@undp.org under Subject: JobAds 103315 - Consultant on Identifying Lessons Learned from the Korean Green Transition