Background

Thailand is rich in biodiversity. It is the home of 12,000 vascular plant species, 302 species of mammals, and 982 species of birds. There are more than 2,100 marine and 720 freshwater fish species in the country, accounting for 10 percent of the estimated total fish species worldwide. IUCN Red List indicates that 200 significant portions of several WWF Eco-regions fall inside Thailand - including Northern Indochina Subtropical Moist Forests, Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim Moist Forests, Peninsular Malaysian Lowland and Mountain Forests, and Cardamom Mountains Moist Forests. It has coastal and marine ecosystems of the Gulf of Thailand on one side and the Andaman Sea’s marine and coastal ecosystem on the other side with substantially different species assemblages. The establishment of Protected Areas (PAs), Buffer Zones (BZs) and biodiversity corridors have been the primary approach for biodiversity conservation in Thailand with over 400 PAs currently gazette. However, only 18% of Thailand’s total land area is under PAs. Therefore, much of the globally significant biodiversity in Thailand is found in “production landscapes” outside PAs – in agricultural areas and production forests and wetlands. Increasing population pressures and rapid economic development during recent decades are adding pressure to biodiversity both inside and outside PAs. 

The Royal Thai Government authorities, with MONRE and MOAC as lead ministries, have made large efforts to arrest this degradation, also outside the PA’s. An important initiative was the establishment of the Biodiversity-based Economy Development Office (BEDO) as a public organization. BEDO was given the mandate of promoting conservation of biodiversity in production landscapes, improving local community knowledge of best practice for sustainable production and enhancing biodiversity-based economic development. The long-term challenges for BEDO is to ensure that Biodiversity conservation is mainstreamed into production and marketing of agricultural, forestry and fishery business, in order to create community incentives to conserve and enhance biodiversity in Thailand’s land- and seascapes while maintaining appropriate incomes to satisfy family needs for livelihood and wellbeing. There are three main barriers to achieve this: (i) At the national level, the institutional framework is not sufficiently capacitated to address the needs of an emerging biodiversity-based business sector, based on sustainable harvesting and production principles, (ii) At the community-level, sustainable production approaches and biodiversity conservation efforts are inadequate due to low incomes from present product categories, and (iii) Community revenues are limited due to low prices in the commodity market, as well as to high transaction costs in the supply chains.

The project will directly address these barriers through the three major components of the project: 
  • Building national capacity for support of Biodiversity Business
  • Piloting Community-based Social Enterprises (CbSE) in valuable Eco-regions
  • Mainstreaming Biodiversity Business into the supply chains of high-value consumer markets

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of the MTR is to gain an independent analysis of the progress of the project so far. The MTR will identify potential project design problems, assess progress towards the achievement of the project objective, identify and document lessons learned (including lessons that might improve design and implementation of other UNDP-GEF projects), and make recommendations regarding specific actions that should be taken to improve the project. The MTR will assess early signs of project success or failure and identify the necessary changes to be made. The project performance will be measured based on the indicators of the project’s logical framework and various Tracking Tools.
 
The MTR must provide evidence based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The review team is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach ensuring close engagement with government counterparts, in particular the GEF operational focal point, UNDP Country Office, project team, UNDP GEF Technical Adviser based in the region and key stakeholders. The review team is expected to conduct field missions to Thailand, including the following project sites: Prachinburi, Kanchanaburi, Ranong, Pang Nga.
 
Interviews will be held with the following organizations and individuals at a minimum:
  • Project Director;
  • Project Manager;
  • Representative of Responsible Parties, including Raks Thai Foundation and Thailand Environment Institute;
  • Field Officers;
  • Representatives from pilot communities;
  • Project Administrative Officer;
  • Project Financial Officer;
  • Members of Project Steering Committee
  • UNDP Country Office in Bangkok in-charge of the ‘Sustainable Management of Biodiversity in Thailand’s Production Landscape’ Project.
 The team will review all relevant sources of information, such as the project document, project reports – including Annual APR/PIR, project budget revisions, progress reports, GEF focal area tracking tools, project files, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based review. A list of documents that the project team and UNDP Country Office will provide to the team for review is included in Annex 2 of this Terms of Reference.
 
Scope of work
  • Documentation review and data gathering;
  • Contributing to the development of the review plan and methodology;
  • Conducting those elements of the evaluation determined jointly with the international consultant and UNDP;
  • Contributing to presentation of the review  findings and recommendations at the wrap-up meeting;
  • Contributing to the drafting and finalization of the review report.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Functional Competencies:

Professionalism
  • Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter;
  • Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
  • Is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns;
  • Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges;
  • Remains calm in stressful situations.
Teamwork
  • Works collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals;
  • Solicits input by genuinely valuing others’ ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others;
  • Places team agenda before personal agenda;
  • Supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position;
  • Shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.
Planning and organizing
  • Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies;
  • Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required;
  • Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work;
  • Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning;
  • Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary;
  • Uses time efficiently.
Client orientation
  • Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients ” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of view;
  • Establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect;
  • Identifies clients’ needs and matches them to appropriate solutions;
  • Monitors ongoing developments inside and outside the clients’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems;
  • Keeps clients informed of progress or setbacks in projects;
  • Meets timeline for delivery of products or services to client Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider.
Communication
  • Speaks and writes clearly and effectively;
  • Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately;
  • Asks questions to clarify, and exhibits interest in having two-way communication;
  • Tailors language, tone, style and format to match the audience;
  • Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
Job Knowledge and Technical Expertise: In-depth knowledge of the Subject-matter:
  • Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
  • Serves as internal consultant in the area of expertise and shares knowledge with staff;
  • Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit;
  • Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
  • Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Post-graduate in environmental studies, development studies, social sciences and/ or other related fields.

Experience;

  • A minimum of five years of project management experience in biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilisation;
  • At least ten years of project development and implementation;
  • Multilateral and bilateral funded project development and implementation;
  • Familiarity with Thailand national development policies, programs and projects.

Language:

  • Excellent command of writing and speaking Thai and English.

Contract Duration:

  • 1 - 31 August 2014.

Duty Station:

  • Bangkok, Thailand with expected travel to Prachinburi, Kanchanaburi, Ranong and Pang Nga (7 days in total).

Final Products:

  • Inception Report;
  • Presentation on initial findings;
  • Draft of Final Report.
  • Final Report
Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls:

The Effective Development Cooperation Expert will report directly to the Governance, Climate Finance, and Development Effectiveness Advisor on the work progress.
 
Documents to be included when submitting proposal:
 
Interested individual consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate your qualifications:
  • Brief motivation letter: indicating why the applicant thinks is an outstanding candidate for the job;
  • Financial proposal: indicating lump sum professional fee in USD;
  • Personal CV and/or signed P.11: including past experience in similar projects and the name and contact details of 3 references.
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 travel, living allowance, and number of anticipated working days).  
 
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.

Evaluation:
 
The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Technical Criteria weight; 70%
  • Experience related to services: 40 points;
  • Written proposal: 40 points;
  • Expertise & Availability: 20 points.
Financial Criteria weight; 30%
 
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation