Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, working in 177 countries and territories. In Timor-Leste, UNDP provides technical advice and assistance to build strong and capable public institutions at national and sub-national levels in justice, parliament, human rights, anti-corruption, police, economic development, environmental management and disaster risk management that bring development, peace and justice to the population and reach out to the poor and vulnerable sections of society.

Mangroves occupy only a small area of Timor Leste when compared with neighbouring countries, such as Indonesia and Australia. This limited coverage of mangrove areas – is estimated to be declining at an approximate loss of 80 percent since 1940 (across Timor Leste), with 40 percent of this loss taking place in the 2000 – 2008 period alone1. Mangrove felling for firewood and building material is high, and revenue from selling the wood provides income to a number of people with limited livelihoods or land. Clearing the coastline from the mangrove stands has resulted in greater exposure to sea surges, inundation, erosion and accretion processes. The limited expanse of mangroves makes their protection of particular value as their regeneration capacity is restricted to specific coastal locations. Although covering limited strips of coastal area and estuary, mangroves provide unique coastal protection function against rising sea levels as well as the storm surges by increasing overall sedimentation levels and by slowing the flow of water and reducing surface waves. Many people rely on mangroves for subsistence. They provide fish nurseries, foster juvenile fish (i.e. snapper, jack and barracuda species) and crustaceans; thereby fostering important sources of protein intake for coastal communities as well as livelihood sources, and the regeneration of fish supplies for commercial fishing. Similarly, loss of coastal wetlands disrupts the hydrology that supports mangrove systems, that also protects coastal areas from water inundation by slowing and filtrating flows. Moreover, coastal natural ponds, wetlands and marches act as important storm and flood water storage facilities. They also buffer seawater intrusion into the aquifers. Aquifers themselves protect against salt-water intrusion provided that water tables are kept at appropriate levels. Long-term resilience of coastal areas thereby demands comprehensive approaches that examine and address risk acceleration factors at a broader coastal landscape and catchment area. Improved watershed management upstream, reforestation and restoration of degraded lands will reduce excessive sediment loads to downstream coastal waterways, and areas that cause siltation of natural pond, mud-march and wetland systems, as well as in some places contributing to coastal accretion. Therefore, coherent plans for the restoration and protection of such natural systems within a broader landscape are essential for coastal resilience. Mangrove and wetland protection and restoration needs to be addressed from the National level through to community level and livelihood practices.

Duties and Responsibilities

  1. Manage the overall design and production of the Project Document for submission to the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
  2. Develop a stakeholder consultation plan for the project design.
  3. Conduct the consultations based on the stakeholder consultations plan including travel to local communities in the provinces, when necessary, to collect inputs to inform the project design.
  4. Steer and advise local counterparts in order to ensure in-country data is attained and analyzed for compilation into the Project Document.
  5. Work closely with the Ecosystem Specialist to ensure technical project requirements are met (climate change, land use and intervention information collated and analyzed) as well as appropriate recommendations are made for the Project Document.
  6. Based on the studies and in consultation with the Ecosystem Specialist, national and local stakeholders validate geographic scope of the project, determine and agree on specific project sites for direct intervention.
  7. Within the target districts identify vulnerable communities and sites of high risks of climate related risks to mangrove-based livelihoods.
  8. Identify the issues with practices that exaerbate the underlying vulnerabilities to coastal communities and long term climate change impacts; in close consultation with the Ecosystems Specialist determine the effective ways of addressing these issues in the framework of the project.
  9. Identify the critical climate related disaster risk management (CC-DRM) capacity gaps to costal areas and the ways of addressing them as part of the project strategy.
  10. Based on the PIF document, expand on problem analysis, including underlying causes, prefered adaptation solution, barriers to the solution, project strategy and a detailed project framework to address the barriers.
  11. Oversee finalization of a Results Framework and definition of indicative project activities, including AMAT framework.
  12. Define a project work plan and coordinate input by the national consultant.
  13. Quality control for the FSP in line with UNDP/GEF requirements.
  14. Finalize project Outcomes, Outputs and their corresponding verifiable, smart indicators of success.
  15. Ensure additionality of the project as a required funding criteria for GEF/LDCF projects and guide/facilitate respective discussions.
  16. Determine and articulate socio-economic and environmental benefits of the project and try to quantify these benefits to the extent possible.
  17. Ensure that the project approach is cost-effective; provide cost-effectivness analysis based on comparative analysis of a number of equaly plausible adaptation strategies for the proposed project.
  18. Contribute to the definition of UNDP-GEF compliant management arrangements.
  19. Facilitate the process of securing co-financing in compliance with the ratio determined at the PIF submission; prepare and ensure that co-financing letters are obtained.
  20. Facilitate stakeholder consultations on project preparation, including finalization of a detailed budget and TOR for all inputs in line with UNDP-GEF criteria and eligibility principles.
  21. Provision of advice and technical guidance to the project design team on key outputs of the project preparatory phase, which feed into the comprehensive project proposal.
  22. Draft the UNDP-GEF/LDCF compliant, full-sized Project Document and associated GEF CEO Endorsement Request for submission to the GEF CEO for endorsement (the CEO endorsement will primarily draw on information in the Project Document, with some additional details on budgets and work plans that need to be defined).
  23. Conduct a brief assessment of the selected government institution to implement the project using the UNDP micro-assessment template.
  24. Collect letters of support and co-financing from on-going baseline projects, upon which this project will build.
  25. Address the council comments received for the PIF at its approval in the work program, as applicable.
  26. Address the comments from UNDP-GEF RTA/STA, the GEF Programme Manager following the submission of the Project Document and CEO Endorsement Request.
  27. Assess and finalize a report on important lessons following completion of the preparatory phase.
  28. Prepare a power-point presentation on the final project design including UNDP factsheet (2 pages) that summarize the expected results of the project.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Project design competencies, demonstrated by significant previous experience;
  • Demonstrated track record of relevant production in the mentioned area (publications, project proposals, reports).
  • Technical expertise in climate change, especially in relation to coastal adaptation;
  • Ability to effectively communicate to a broader audience, complex, technical information;
  • Good knowledge of results based management (RBM), and;
  • Ability to design realistic budgets.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • An advanced degree in environmental management, economics, development and/or climate change.

Experience:

  • 5 – 10 years of project management experience, including project design competencies, demonstrated by significant previous experience;
  • Extensive knowledge of climate change issues, especially coastal adaptation and sustainable livelihood;
  • Extensive knowledge of Timor Leste or other countries in Asia, demonstrated by previous experience and involvement in the country/region, and;
  • Extensive experience in the design of GEF projects, preferably with UNDP as an implementing agency

Language:

  • Proficiency in English is required, especially writing;
  • Knowledge of other languages like Tetun, Portuguese or Bahasa Indonesia would be advantageous.

Proposed Methodology: