UNDP Jobs - 29290- Consultant: CA-CRM Regional Project Implementation

Consultant: CA-CRM Regional Project Implementation Facilitator (RPIF)

Location :

Almaty, mostly home-based, with limited travel to CA countries, KAZAKHSTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

26-Apr-12 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

estimated May 2012 – December 2012

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

approximately 150 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan, mostly home-based, with limited travel to CA countries (travel if required will be funded separately)

The UNDP Central Asia Multi-Country Programme on Climate Risk Management (CA-CRM) assists the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to adjust their national development processes to address risks posed by current climate variability and future climate change. CA-CRM seeks to strengthen climate-related disaster risk reduction and adaptive capacity, promote early action, and provide the foundation for long-term investment to increase resilience across the region. The programme acts as an umbrella programme, supporting a wide-range of climate risk management initiatives across the region. CA-CRM consists of a Regional Project (further in the text – the Project) and 5 National CRM projects in each of CA countries.

CA-CRM addresses the main institutional, policy and financial barriers to catalysing systematic climate risk management and cost-effective adaptation across the region. For that reason, lessons-learned and results achieved through the programme and already existing climate risk management initiatives will be disseminated on a web-based knowledge management platform to inform future climate risk management endeavours.

The Project contains three major components:

Activity Result 1. Technical capacity to manage climate change risks and opportunities in an integrated manner at the multi-country levels strengthened
Activity Result 2. Knowledge on adjusting national development process to fully incorporate climate change risks and opportunities shared across national, multi-country and global levels
Activity Result 1.3. Evidence-based analysis on glacial melting in Central Asia conducted and disseminated to decision-makers (completed in 2011).

In addition, the Project provides coordination and technical supervision of National CRM projects within CA-CRM.

Activity Result 1 focuses on a series of individual actions directed at the capacity of the key stakeholder groups to address specific issues related to the current and long-term impacts of the changing climate in terms of incorporation of CRM approaches into the national planning process. This process is hoped to be harmonised in all countries by parallel CA-CRM interventions in all 5 CA states. It is critical that the capacity development efforts of CA-CRM will benefit and be based on solid results of national and regional assessments and baseline studies (e.g. Climate Risk Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis, scenario development, etc.). The Project team will coordinate activities within AR 1.1 with the concurrent interventions of other projects and interventions in CA. Involvement of national counterparts at each stage of the studies and trainings planned (through the Training-of-trainers approach) will form the basis of sustainability of the capacity built. One of the critical tasks of a sound CRM is to ensure the cross-sectoral character of interventions and activities on the ground. In order to ensure participation of specialists and experts in various related fields, a Multi-country Climate Network (MCN) will be formed within CA-CRM. The MCN will consist of various specialists including inter alia climate change modellers, climatologists, agronomists, hydrologists, agro-meteorologists, economists (with resource economics experience), sociologists, ecologists (e.g. rangeland and freshwater), glaciologists, adaptation and climate-related disaster reduction experts. Besides, MCN will involve representatives from government agencies of CA countries to provide a solid link with the decision-making level. Women will be specifically encouraged to join the MCN.

The development of MCN will contain the following individual activities:

Develop a concept note on the development and establishment of MCN and detailed ToR including future incorporation into the Knowledge Management Platform (KMP)
Consult with key stakeholders and parties involved on the concept note, get feedback and gain support through incorporation of received comments into the final concept
Develop a database format for MCN-related data/information, as well as required tools for operating the database and entering data into the DB in an automated manner (e.g. MS Excel or MS Access routines, special software, etc.) (to be included further in KMP)Collect data/information on MCN (through questionnaires, surveys, etc.) and populate the DB
Incorporate of MCN database into KMP
Maintain operation of MCN (both technically and institutionally) Operation and maintenance (within KMP by KMP Facilitator or PR specialist/ consultant within the CA-CRM, a sustainability mechanisms will be developed to ensure operation of MCN after CA-CRM).

Biophysical and socioeconomic assessments will be complemented by assessments of the enabling environment, networks and systems, organisational entities, and human resources available for CRM (including gender-disaggregated data), which will be utilized to identify the policy, institutional, and capacity development needs for CRM. These will be conducted at the national and regional levels. Areas, in which regional dialogue is needed, such as sustainable management of natural resources and disaster risk management, will be identified.

A further measure to increase capacity and collaboration within CA will be through the use of bilateral and multi-country knowledge exchange sessions aimed at technical experts. These sessions will facilitate discussions and analyses of topics such as inter alia managing water resources in the face of increased glacial melting, climate-related disaster management, reforestation, livestock management and improved water management in the agriculture sector water. Links can be sought with USAID and GIZ, who are proposing to bring the water/energy debates under one umbrella programme. This will utilise electronic discussions (e.g. CARNet can be employed to facilitate this action).

Within Activity Result 2 CA-CRM will focus on the development of a CRM database management system in order to archive multi-country and national level information, data, lessons-learned, documents, project progress and best practices received from the national projects. Data and information will also be collected from regional institutions (such as IFAS, Interstate Commission for Water Coordination, and the Central Asian Centre for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction). This information and data will be available for use by a wide-range of stakeholders and partner organisations, and it is anticipated that this database will be added to by partner organisations. Ideally, this will form the basis for a multi-country CRM database that will be used and further developed into the future. This database will also provide the critical data and information required for the analyses to be conducted within the Regional and National CRM Projects.

The above-mentioned information will be synthesised and displayed on the multi-country web-based KMP. This platform will be developed and maintained and updated by the Regional Project. In this way, lessons-learned on adjusting national development processes to take climate change into account will be shared with multi-country stakeholders and the international community. The web-based KMP will also provide a partnership programme page displaying related organisations, donors and NGO information. Furthermore, this platform will contain a CRM registry where all CRM-related projects and projects with relevant components can be registered. This will enable potential funders, donors and organisations to assess what is being implemented within each country, where there are gaps in implementation, and how best to partner with other organisations and projects. The CA-CRM will also produce a knowledge publication “Central Asia: Climate Change Impacts and Climate Change Adaptation Solutions”. This will be based on the Programme results and key lessons. It will be published both online and in hard copy to enable national, multi-country and global access to the document. Among potential issues, that the publication could specifically look into is the role of water and energy tariffs in Central Asia. MCN will be involved in proposing and development specific topics for inclusion in the publication. CA-CRM will also be responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the database and website into the future. It is likely that a funding strategy will be required to enable this activity to be achieved. For instance, an organisation such as CARNet may host the database and website. This will result a separate activity within CA-CRM to identify such an organisation and make sure that all web-based products of CA-CRM are available for use in future.

In terms of Coordination and Technical Supervision, the Project ensures methodological harmonisation of activities undertaken in all CA countries. This includes but not limited to the development of an innovative methodology and carrying out a study on CA Climate Risk Assessment (CRA) and National Climate Risk Profiles (NCRPs), cost-benefit, and bio-physical assessments. Besides, knowledge management activities, training/capacity building, collection and dissemination of lessons learned, and various Monitoring and Evaluation activities (M&E) including missions and reporting also fall under responsibility of the Regional Project.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall responsibility of RPIF is to support the Regional Programme Coordinator (RPC) in ensuring that activities of the regional nature within CA-CRM are implemented in a coordinated and coherent manner in all CA countries, as well as that both internal and external communication for the Programme are well-planned and executed in a way that allows for successful promotion and use of the platform both internally within UNDP as well as beyond.

The RPIF will produce relevant knowledge products and improve them over time to become effective and value adding to partners and main users. Besides tasks pertaining to communication, the RPIF will be required to act pro-actively while bearing responsibility for the quality of the content and improvement of the activities within the CA-CRM Regional Project.

The RPIF is expected to have a wide a range of technical and management skills and practical experience in the area of environment, water resources, climate change, knowledge sharing/management, communications, organisational development, and monitoring and evaluation. The RPIF will be responsible for:

Supporting RPC in technical aspects of regional project implementation;
Supporting RPC in coordinating activities described in the Project’s work plan(s), as well as ensuring the consistency between the various project elements and related activities provided or funded by other donor organisations
Co-ordinates the development and establishment of MCN (both regional and national segments)
Co-ordinating the day-to-day implementation of the KP work programme, working closely with a set of knowledge sharing officers and implementation teams based in partner organisations across Central Asia.
Facilitating the MCN network to ensure oversight of regular knowledge exchange sessions and implementation activities.
Manage the communications and outreach for the Project, including building relationships with strategic partners in the region.
Other functions as required by the Project.

Responsibilities include:

Together with the five country offices, conduct a needs assessment that identifies members of MCN and target users of KMP in each country, plan and execute needs assessment (interviews/survey) of the main users and provide an indication of what kind of information/support is needed, what kind of information exists and what kind of information can be shared;
Support the design and development/establishment of the MCN and KMP, prepare TOR for Request for Proposal for development of the KMP (Phase II); manage the relationship with the selected vendor;
Engineer the integration of the Platform with other existing related platforms and databases. Manage the collaborative development of the GIS Databases and Interactive maps, with the relevant stakeholders organisations; Technically supervise creation and populating of CRM databases;
Manage and improve the web-based platform and ensuring that it is operational and continuously up to date and attractive by identifying information gaps and propose needs assessment, conducting and coordinating user acceptance testing, by engaging colleagues in country offices and other main users, coordinating a process to gather feedback on user experience and improve customer service delivery;
Monitoring successful implementation of the MCN and KPM including its membership, convening, facilitating, logistics and planning;
Upload project documents and research findings to the database, including writing briefs and abstracts to be presented;

Community building and partnership support:

Taking the lead in co-ordinating implementation to strengthen the MCN and KMP network in line with its objectives, working closely with RPC assessing and building demand from prospective network members, acting as a champion for members’ interests and ensuring response to demand from the Implementation Team;
Set up and coordinate an editorial committee with contribution from members of the KMP network to facilitate the process of gathering content and enhance buy in for the project;
Forecast emerging priorities for knowledge sharing on climate adaptation by staying in close touch with representatives of MCN and key stakeholder groups in CA countries;
Attend meetings, conferences and workshops, where appropriate, to promote the KMP and to build or strengthen relationships with members of the KMP’s climate risk management, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation communities;
Help management team to develop relationships with strategic partners who can help KPM to accelerate progress towards its objectives;
Nourish a vibrant communication on capacity development and provide guidance to all users through user guides, how-to guides, toolkits, etc.;
Proactively and regularly engage in information exchange with relevant initiatives and institutions, such as governmental agencies, UN agencies, non-governmental organisations, insurance companies, research institutes and press agencies, from the region and outside to receive updates and new information/data;
Manage the subscribers list, moderate, direct and filter messages, encourage member participation, facilitate electronic discussions;
Compile and publish a newsletter that provides a brief but comprehensive review on relevant developments, events, research, publications etc. on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction;
Consolidate responses from the users, requests for advice and assistance from members, undertake supplemental research, prepare summaries to queries, indexes and archives the replies on the website for future search and retrieval by members;
Manage the Help Desk function;
Analyse contributions and members’ questions to identify demand trends and knowledge gaps and bring new ideas regarding the content;
Secure the document archives of the UNDP Central Asia Multi-Country Programme on Climate Risk Management.

Marketing and communications:

Develop and help to execute a marketing strategy, communication strategy and communication action plan for the programme in cooperation with RPC and Communication Unit in Bratislava;
Organise an adequate event promotion campaign – for country offices, external stakeholders and media in the region (with support from the UNDP communication advisors) by developing and creating externally targeted media kits and write-ups;
After the programme ends, the KMP will be handed over to a regional host. It will be responsibility of the RPIF, with the support of RPC, to identify a potential host institution for the KP and reach an agreement on KP maintenance beyond the programme’s life time; and
Other tasks as advised by the supervisor.

RPIF will be based in the UNDP Almaty Hub in the CA-CRM office. Furniture and computer equipment required for execution of the above task will be provided by CA-CRM. Operation costs related to this assignment (telephone, fax, internet, office space, printers, etc.) will be covered by CA-CRM.

Expected Outputs and Schedule of Payments:

Progress report on activities in May 2012 including a detailed workplan for 2012, (deadline: 05.06.2012, payment:12.5%)
Progress report for June 2012 and Concept of MCN with detailed specification of activities/tasks, (deadline: 06.07.2012, payment: 12.5%)
Progress report for July 2012, KMP Phase I is online, ToR for KMP development Phase II, MCN/KPM community formed, (deadline: 03.08.2012: 12.5%)
Progress report for August 2012, ToR for CRM Database, Draft methodology for CRA and NCRP, (deadline: 05.09.2012, payment: 12.5%)
Progress report for September 2012, CRM database designed, Communications and marketing strategies for KMP, (deadline: 05.10.2012, payment: 12.5%)
Progress report for October 2012, KMP designed, (deadline: 02.11.2012, payment: 12.5%)
Progress report for November 2012, CRM database developed, Draft CRA and NCRP, (deadline: 04.12.2012, payment: 12.5%)
Progress report for December 2012, KMP Phase II is online, CRM database is included in KMP, CRM database and KMP documentation, (deadline: 25.12.2012, payment: 12.5%)

Competencies

The RPIF should be able to demonstrate considerable experience in managing projects, preferably regional projects, co-ordinating networks and programmes, in environment, water resources, climate change, knowledge sharing and editorial processes, in communications technologies. The post holder will hold a Masters degree or equivalent qualification in a field related to environment and social development. The successful candidate will have outstanding interpersonal and presentation, including written skills and evidence of knowledge of climate change, vulnerability, impacts and adaptation strategies. He/she will be experienced in motivating and co-ordinating distributed teams and those from different cultural/linguistic backgrounds and be fully fluent in and professionally mastering English and Russian languages. Demonstrable skills in website management and writing for the web are another key assets.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modelling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP; and
Ability to manage workload with minimum supervision;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master degree in environment management, water resources or climate change, development, international relations, public affairs, information technology, communication, journalism and/or or related subject required.

Experience;

Minimum 5 years experience in international environment, development, preferably working in the area of programme/project management, knowledge management and/or communication;
Demonstrated ability of facilitating networks and communities and growing their membership over time;
Demonstrated ability to deal with a number of different stakeholders and involve them in the process of contributing content;
Demonstrated ability of successfully managing knowledge platforms in all stages, from setting up to marketing;
Demonstrated knowledge of and experience in working in one of the countries of Central Asia;
Good understanding of communications and online marketing issues;
Experience with maintaining websites;
Experience in working and collaborating with governments;
Co-ordination, management and monitoring of environmental projects in the field of natural resources management, water resources, disaster risk reduction, or climate change;
Co-ordination of knowledge networks (both face to face and online) and programmes, preferably in CA region;
Building and maintenance of expert networks and web-based knowledge platforms. This includes understanding of promoting and maintenance of expert network and communities of practices with focus on environment, water resources, DRR and climate change, information architecture issues, extensive experience of writing and editing for the web, experience in dealing with subject matter experts with a scientific background, understanding of web marketing, experience managing vendors;
Experience in partnership building and developing communication strategies targeting policy makers and researchers.

Language:

Fluency and proficiency in English and Russian languages;
Knowledge of any of local languages (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek) is an asset.

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 35 points:

Criteria A (Education, academic background, training) – max points: 5
Criteria B (Experience in programme/project management) – max points: 10
Criteria C (Building and maintenance of expert networks and web-based knowledge platforms) – max points: 10
Criteria D (Experience in partnership building and developing communication strategies) – max points: 5
Criteria E (Demonstrated knowledge of and experience in CA) – max points: 5.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max.15 points.

Application procedures:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (if applicable). Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees
(blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc ); please upload the P11 instead of your CV.
Financial Proposal* - specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days and any other possible costs).
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...).

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org
General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://europeandcis.undp.org/home/jobs

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.