UNDP Jobs - 50650- Specialist for Developing Terms of Reference for C

Specialist for Developing Terms of Reference for Conducting Housing Risk Assessment in BiH

Location :

Sarajevo, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

20-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

up to 30 working days (home-based)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is prone to a number of natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, landslides, forest fires, and earthquakes. The average annual economic losses caused by these hazard events, based on an incomplete statistics, reach about one percent of the country’s GDP.

The devastating flood occurring in May 2014 has been the severest event recorded in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina and has brought enormous destruction. This natural disaster affected a quarter of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and approximately one million people, which is approximately 27% of the country’s population of 3.8 million. Nearly 50% of governments were hit by the flood, among them 46 suffered severe damage and destruction. More than 43,000 homes have been damaged or flooded, more than 80% of local businesses in some of the flood-affected localities were forced to close and more than 20,000 jobs are at risk. Effects on productive capacity are varied with a large impact particularly in the enterprise and agriculture sectors, affecting livelihoods and future food supply.

The 2014 flood alone, the severest over the past 120 years, resulted in approximately US$ 2 billion of damages and losses which become a heavy financial burden to the country that is still recovering from the consequences of the 92-95 war.

While this was one of the worst recorded natural disasters to hit Bosnia and Herzegovina, flooding and landslides occur with alarming regularity. Both the BiH’s Initial National Communication (INC) and the Second National Communication (SNC) to the United Nations Framework for Climate Change have indicated the increasing negative effects of climate change in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and have forecasted the acceleration of resulting weather phenomena in the coming years. In this context, the Government of BiH calls for UNDP’s support to conduct landslide and flooding - associated housing risk assessment that will provide an evidence basis for local authorities and donors interested in rehabilitating the housing sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina by identifying the areas at risk associated with landslides and floods. The aim of the risk assessment is to provide a number of practical and cost-effective recommendations for disaster risk reduction through both policy interventions and infrastructure development segments.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of this consultancy assignment is to prepare Terms of Reference (ToRs) for conducting a landslide and floods - associated detailed Housing Risk Assessment in Bosnia and Herzegovina by coordinating up to six national experts and to provide advisory service and technical guidance on substantive quality assurance of the deliverables to be produced by a vendor selected to undertake the risk assessment.

The assignment will be mostly home-based, with a short-term country visit.

The consultancy assignment is expected to be undertaken in two stages and includes the following tasks:

Develop a Terms of Reference for a detailed, landslide and floods - associated Housing Risk Assessment in Bosnia and Herzegovina by coordinating up to six national experts;
Provide advisory services and technical support to the quality assurance of the deliverables to be produced by the contracted party to execute the Housing Risk Assessment as prescribed in the Terms of Reference.

Development of a Terms of Reference for a detailed landslide and floods -associated Housing Risk Assessment in Bosnia and Herzegovina

At the 1st stage, the consultant, with the assistance of up to six local consultants, is to prepare a formal Terms of Reference (ToRs) for conducting a detailed landslide and floods - associated Housing Risk Assessment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ToRs will be used to procure the services of conducting and developing Housing Risk Assessment.

During the course of the process, the consultant will take into consideration concrete technical segments related to the target area and country and will share the draft ToRs with the UNDP project team for peer-review and potential inputs before submission of the final version.

The duration of this task is estimated to be around 10 days.

Provision of advisory services and technical support to the quality assurance of the deliverables to be produced by the contracted party

At the 2nd stage, the consultant is expected to review three written outputs of the contracted entity that will execute the Housing Risk Assessment Survey; as per developed Terms of Reference.

The consultant should provide substance quality review and recommendations for the following written inputs:

Inception report;
Methodology for landslide and floods -associated housing risk mapping and assessment;
Draft and final risk assessment reports.

The consultant is required to give best practice recommendations and suggest further interventions in relation to the provided outputs in writing, taking into consideration all field circumstances relevant to the task; with an ultimate aim of improving the submitted documents, their ease of understanding and user accessibility component.

The duration of the task at the 2nd stage is approximately 20 days.

The consultant is expected to provide the following deliverables and services:

Deliverables and Services Deadline:

Develop a draft ToRs for the detailed Housing Risk Survey for Landslides in BiH October 15th, 2014;
Develop a final ToRs for the detailed Housing Risk Survey for Landslides in BiH October 20th, 2014;
Review and provide recommendations of the methodology submitted by the contracted company to conduct the Survey One week upon receipt of the methodology (November 2014);
Provision of quality assurance assistance of the draft and final output of the Assessment (including written recommendations for improvement of the output) Two weeks upon receipt of the outputs(February and March of 2015).

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Professionalism:

Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter;
Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; Motivated by professional rather than personal concerns;

Planning & 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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in structural engineering, engineering geology, construction or civil engineering, disaster risk management, or other related fields.

Experience:

At least 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in engineering and disaster risk reduction (with special reference to landslides);
Experience in conducting or participating in housing surveys related to geology aspects and risk assessments in general;
Proven experience on preparation of written reports in an accurate and concise manner, and public presentation skills;
Excellent skills in analysis and organizational skills;
Proficiency in computer applications such as MS Word, Excel etc.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English language is required for this assignment.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.

The award of the contract will 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 (70%) and financial (30%) criteria specific to the solicitation.

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:

For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 62 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Applicants are required to submit completed and signed UNDP Personal History Form (downloadable from http://www.ba.undp.org/content/bosnia_and_herzegovina/en/home/operations/jobs.html) online through this website.