UNDP Jobs - 49554- Consultant to Develop and Test Methodology for Mo

Consultant to Develop and Test Methodology for Monitoring Biophysical and Socio-economic Impacts of Implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Activities in the Five Districts of Bugiri, Busia, Budaka, Namutumba and Buyende in Uganda.

Location :

Kampala, UGANDA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

30-Sep-2014

Application Deadline :

15-Sep-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

30 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

This project focuses on enhancing productivity of land through sustainable land management of soil and water resources, particularly integrating CSA as a climate change adaptation strategy to build climate change resilient societies. This will be achieved through scaling up CSA practices in the 5 districts, putting in place measures/ systems to improve input supply, developing produce markets for economic sustainability for CSA enterprises; and supporting research activities to generate baselines, monitoring and evaluation guidelines and national recommendations on CSA technologies and practices.

The project is contributing to efforts of the Government of Uganda to implement the Uganda SLM Investment Framework (USIF), an inter-ministerial cooperation by four sector ministries (including MEMD, MWE, MLHUD, MoFED and MAAIF) to harmonize their actions to address Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and land degradation issues. The USIF identified CSA practices such as Conservation Agriculture (CA) as relevant and underscored the need to address climate adaptation and mitigation measures in the agricultural sector to improve food security and minimize land degradation. The project implementation arrangements also seek to contribute to objectives of the climate change National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA), which are within the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy and Investment Plan (DSIP). The project intends to use lessons learnt to inform policy and strengthen decentralized governance mechanisms and institutions and practices that empower local governments and CSOs in CSA and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The overall goal of the project is to promote sustainable land management practices and improve agricultural productivity. The implementation of CSA is expected to propel land users to attain higher levels of production, efficiency in use of agricultural resources and profitability from their land while improving soil health and contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation. From a broad perspective, the project will contribute to development of a national CSA strategy as contribution to the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) agenda, to the current Uganda National Development Plan (NDP) and the DSIP.

The UNDP in partnership with MAAIF is therefore, seeking the services of a Consultant whose assignment will be to develop and test methodologies for monitoring impacts arising from implementation of this Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) project in the five districts of Bugiri, Busia, Budaka, Namutumba and Buyende in Uganda. The consultant will undertake field work in the five districts and document impacts of the implementation of the project activities basing on initial status of agricultural approaches that were being implemented prior to project interventions, and documented in a baseline report.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of assignment:

Overall the assignment is to review existing information in relation to the bio-physical and socio-economic characteristics of the project districts, and develop a methodology to monitor and appraise contribution of CSA practices to productivity increase and sustainability.

Specific objectives:

Establish baseline information for agricultural approaches and CSA practices in the 5 districts;
Evaluate at least 10 CSA practices and derive a cost-benefit analysis to make an economic case for CSA and national specific recommendations on CSA with regard to appropriate inputs and practices for best productivity;
Propose a mechanism for establishment and operationalization of CSA monitoring and evaluation methodologies that need to be developed and tested in the focus districts and which will then be scaled up nationally;
Recommend appropriate policy and legal interventions to ensure appropriate and effective productivity returns from CSA scaling up.

Scope of work:
The Consultant will carry out the following tasks:

Identify all the stakeholders nationally and at district level that will yield information for the assignment;
Carry out a comprehensive review (including stakeholder consultations) of the existing information on agricultural approaches in the focus districts as well as attitudes to CSA in the focus areas;
Review available monitoring and evaluation methodologies for CSA;
Identify appropriate methodologies to effectively scale up CSA in the country;
Propose the most appropriate policy, legislative and institutional measures for ensuring appropriate and effective CSA upscaling in Uganda;
Present a draft report for stakeholders validation;
Prepare a final report and policy brief(s) with recommendations to inform policy.

Working Arrangements:
Institutional Arrangement

The consultant shall work closely with and under the supervision of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) through the SLM steering committee. The Project Management Unit (PMU) in MAAIF shall monitor progress against planned activities/deliverables and report to UNDP. Disbursement of funds from UNDP to the consultant shall be made upon receipt of certification from MAAIF. S(he) will consult with relevant stakeholders and will report to the UNDP Country Director on all contractual obligations.

The consultant should accomplish the task preferably by closely linking up with NARO and NAADS to strengthen the capacity of the relevant local government teams and CSOs to generate data and draw inferences from the up-scaling initiatives and demonstration gardens. This will also enable effective sharing of approaches.

Duration of the Work:

The assignment is to be accomplished with 30 man days over a period of two (2) months, effective 30 September, 2014.

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
Mature judgment and initiative;
Ability to present complex issues in a simple and clear manner;
Ability to work under pressure;
Initiative and independence;
Good communication and organisational skills;
Excellent writing skills with demonstrated evidence of capacity to produce and present good reports;
Excellent Analytical Skills;
Ability to act professionally and flexibly to engage with government officials, donor representatives, and local communities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Ugandan Nationals holding at least a Master’s Degree in Agriculture or related field with a bias in development economics, and from a recognized and reputable institution.

Experiences:

A solid track record in agricultural extension, with at least five years of experience;
The consultant must have undertaken similar or related assignment in East Africa or Uganda in the last 5 years;
Familiar with socio-economic set up of crop and livestock producing communities in semi-arid / dry land farming systems;
Demonstrated experience of working with government agencies and communities will be an added advantage;
Demonstrated experience with socio-economic research and project impact assessment will be an added advantage;
The consultant should have a clear understanding of the Agriculture sector systems of Uganda.

Language:

Excellent English communication skills (Oral, written, and presentation) are essential.

All deliverables shall be in English language.

Schedule of Payments
Payments shall be made in three instalments upon satisfactory completion of deliverables as shown below;

20% Upon submission of an inception report explaining the approaches, schedules of the detailed activities and expected time of delivery of the assignment;
40% Upon submission of a draft report presented for validation (including reports of stakeholder consultative meetings) indicating methodologies for evaluating CSA progress;
40% Upon submission of a final Report.

Evaluation of Proposals (Method and Criteria)
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

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. 70%-30%;
Technical Criteria weight; [70%];
Financial Criteria weight; [30%].

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70points:

Relevance of education – 10 Points;
Language skills – 5Points;
Knowledge of the area of work and expectation from the activities being covered-15points;
Relevance of professional experience in conducting assignments of similar nature and scope especially in the area of agriculture-25 points;
Methodology and Work Plan- 15 points.

Financial proposal (Maximum 30 points): appropriateness shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by UNDP.

Financial Assessment:
Lump Sum Amount approach shall be used with the following expectations

The lump sum amount must be “all-inclusive”;
The contract price is fixed regardless of changes in the cost components;
For duty travels, UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rates prevailing at the time of sourcing, for the duty station and all other cities indicated in the TOR as part of duty travel destinations will be used. This will give offerors an indication of the cost of living in a duty station/destination, to aid their determination of the appropriate fees and financial proposal amount, but it does not imply that Offerors are entitled to DSA payment; and
The initial payment includes the actual cost of the IC’s travel to arrive at the designated Duty Station. This implies that the completion of the journey can be considered as one of the deliverables payable upon arrival.

Application Procedure:

Applicants are requested to apply online at http://jobs.undp.org by 15th September, 2014. For any clarifications or for Annexes, please contact justine.naiga-bagonza@undp.org and diana.nabbanja@undp.org.

The application should include the following documents/information:

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (see Annex II);
Updated Personal CV highlighting past experience in similar assignments and with 3 professional references with contact details (email and telephone);
Technical Proposal: suggested outline for technical proposal;
The offeror’s interpretation of the assignment;
Approach and methodology for undertaking the assignment;
Work-plan.