UNDP Jobs - 53030- Senior Advisor on Climate Change Finance / Interna

Senior Advisor on Climate Change Finance / International Consultant

Location :

Home based with travel to Bangkok, Thailand

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

31-Jan-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 March 2015 - 31 October 2015 with maximum of 40 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

1 March 2015 - 31 October 2015

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

Origin of the Project:

The 11th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2012-2016) sets a vision in moving Thailand towards a low carbon and climate resilient society as one of its 6 development pillars. This marks the first time that climate change issues have become an explicit goal on the national development agenda, rather than an obligation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) handled solely by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The policy and institutional infrastructure has also been put in place to support the move towards that direction, including the establishment of the National Climate Change Committee in 2006, the setting up of Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization in 2007, and the forthcoming Climate Change Master Plan (2013-2050).

Nonetheless, an effective translation of the national vision into real and responsive actions on the ground remains a challenge. The process will require a transformational thinking, way of doing business, policy coherence and coordination, as well as tremendous investment and finance on capacity building and institutional strengthening efforts. The forthcoming National Climate Change Master Plan strongly recognizes that a well thought-out strategy for financing a response to climate change is essential and instrumental to support Thailand to be more ready and able to address climate change challenges, in the context of sustainable growth and inclusive development.

Based on the above context, the Project “Strengthening Thailand’s Capacity to Link Climate Policy with Public Finance” was launched in 2013 with an aim to support Thailand in strengthening its institutional capacity to link a climate change policy with its budgetary allocations, and to report and measure over time the effectiveness of those policies and expenditures (see Remark 1). The Project is built on findings and recommendations of a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) conducted during January–June 2012. The CPEIR was one of few studies aimed at understanding the planning and institutional framework supporting Thailand’s climate change policies, assessing the public finance management systems and reviewing public spending on activities that were related to climate. . The CPEIR findings indicates that the climate budget between 2009 and 2011 represented an average of 2.7% of the government total budget (THB 52,000 million). There were 137 agencies involved in the delivery of climate activities but more than three quarters of the budget was concentrated in only 10 agencies, with two agencies: the Royal Irrigation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) and the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) making up almost half of the allocated budget for climate related programmes in 2009-2011. The CPEIR also found that the majority of the climate budget was allocated to programmes that have either secondary objectives related to building climate resilience or contributing to climate mitigation; for example, the most financially significant element of the overall climate budget is the water distribution and storage programmes undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. There are clear potential benefits for resilience to climate change from such programs, however, these are not perceived to be the primary objective.

The CPEIR identified the gaps and constraints which need to be addressed further to develop an effective and coherent response to climate change in Thailand. One of the major gaps is related to the integration of climate change within key sector policies. The CPEIR shows that while overall responsibility for coordinating climate change policy may lie in the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Planning and Policy (ONEP), expenditures of a whole of range ministries impact climate change. A coordinated approach to address climate change therefore requires that key sector policies (such as agriculture) be consistent with the government climate change policy at the national level.

As a step forward to addressing the CPEIR’s recommendation on sectoral integration, the Project focused its work on agriculture as this sector received the largest proportion of climate related budgets during 2009-2011 according to the CPEIR. After the rapid review and assessment of MoAC’s policy and institutional arrangements for planning and budgeting related to climate change during the last quarter of 2013, the pilot analysis with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative was undertaken in 2014 with an aim to build capacity within MoAC to respond effectively to climate change, by improving the analysis of the effectiveness of MoAC expenditure to include consideration of the implications of climate change. Government officials from various departments under MoAC as well as non-MoAC agencies (namely Office of National Economic and Social Development Board, Bureau of Budget, Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, Fiscal Policy Office) participated in the pilot analysis. The pilots were undertaken primarily as an ex-anti appraisal of policies and programmes by using an extended Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) framework that is recommended for policy appraisals. This included an estimation of the economic benefits arising from the policy and was extended to recognise the wider social and environmental benefits. The approach taken in the analysis was to assess the net benefits with and without CC and to compare the two. The pilot analysis covered 5 programmes: i) climate proofing irrigation; ii) integrated pest management; iii) improved shrimp farming; iv) biogas from pig waste; and v) vetiver grass. Quantitatively, the pilot analysis showed the sensitivity of MOAC programmes to CC, which allowed MOAC to demonstrate that devoting more resources to addressing CC, both through changes in the balance of funding to different programmes and through designs to improve the CC% of programmes (eg through climate proofing) could be effective strategies to address the impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector. The analysis also estimated the monetary value of the additional benefits, which provided a good indication for central economic agencies of the value of MOAC activities, both with and without CC.

The Pilot Analysis undertaken during 2014 clearly demonstrated how the climate change components can be explicitly defined and integrated in the sectoral planning and budgeting. Though shortly conducted with limited information at hand, the pilot work has paved the way for deeper interventions in 2015, gearing towards strengthening institutional capacities for sectoral budget submissions and integration of the Climate Change Analysis (CCA) into existing national budget allocation criteria.

In 2015, following activities will be undertaken based on the MoAC pilot works carried out in 2014:

At the sectoral level, the Project aims to further strengthen capacities of government officials in the two key departments under MoAC (Royal Irrigation Departments – RID and Land Development Department – LDD) to integrate the Climate Change Analysis (CCA) into their actual budget proposals for the 2017 budget submissions (see Remark 2). Currently, these two departments received around 45,287.3 million baht for 2014 budget, accountable for almost 60% of the total MoAC budget. It is anticipated that technical capacities of RID and LDD officials would be strengthened, through coaching, in three main areas: (1) their comprehension and effective utilization of available climate change data/information to design/formulate budget proposals; (2) their analysis of climate change benefits (and/or costs) to clearly define, quantify, and track climate change related components of selected project proposals, and (3) their abilities to replicate the climate change analysis to other related project proposals submitted for 2017 budget and beyond. The coaching activities will be conducted during Q1-Q3 in 2015 with two key expected outputs:

The climate change analysis is integrated into selected (and related) budget proposals of RID and LDD for 2017 Budget submissions; and
Existing KPIs are clearly interpreted in the context of climate change.

At the national level, in parallel to the bottom-up coaching support, the project will facilitate consultative dialogues among national policy and planning agencies, together with budget and finance agencies with an aim to integrate the Climate Change Analysis (CCA) into existing national budget allocation criteria (in a similar way to the use of EIA and HIA). Technical inputs from national and international consultants as well as experiences from MoAC coaching will be fed to the forums which will be organized back to back with the sectoral coaching. The key related agencies will jointly consider and develop a guideline [currently named “Climate Change Analysis” - CCA] to help line ministries (starting with Agriculture) integrate the climate dimension in their policy appraisals prior to their submission to the Bureau of Budget. The guidelines are expected to help the Bureau of Budget understand the benefits and costs of climate change actions and help an informed decision regarding any requested shift or additional allocation.

Remark 1: This will be achieved through following outputs:

Output 1: Institutional capacity built to integrate climate change objectives in relevant policy review and planning processes;
Output 2: Improved understanding of how the government budget impacts climate change; and
Output 3: Thailand’s capacity strengthened to take leading position in south-south cooperation and innovation in the area of linking climate policy and public finance, especially among ASEAN countries.

Remark 2: The submission of 2016 budget need to be completed during Q1 2015 which is not in time.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

The main objective of this assignment is to strengthen the capacities of RID and LDD to integrate CCA into their 2017 budget submissions and to provide technical supports for the consultative dialogues among key planning, budget, and functional agencies to develop the CCA guidelines for climate responsive budgeting, allocation and monitoring, primarily for those related to the agricultural sector (see Remark 1). For this assignment, UNDP Thailand is seeking an international public financial management consultant specialized in climate change finance to provide technical support for the capacity development of the concerned central and line ministries as well as the development of the CCA guidelines.

Scope of work:

Four main workshops related to the RID/LDD capacity development and development of the CCA guidelines will be carried out during March-September 2015: March (inception - one workshop), May and July (capacity building and consultations - two workshops), and September (conclusion - one workshop). For each time, the two-day capacity development workshop will be held back to back with the one-day consultative workshop. The international consultant will undertake the followings:

Inception (March 2015):

RID/LDD Capacity Development:

Lead consultations with the RID and LDD technical working group comprising of officials from planning and monitoring, project management, research, water/land management divisions, with supports from the national consultants, to:

Review RID and LDD planning and budgeting processes, existing activities, project appraisal techniques as well as existing KPIs that can be interpreted in the context of climate change, as well as their future plans for the 2017 budget submissions;
Identify entry points for integrating CCA into budget proposals and measuring the impacts of CC on their expenditures more objectively;
Discuss and agree with RID/LDD on the scope of the capacity development exercise (i.e. whether to select a few specific projects for climate change benefit analysis or to work across the full range of projects aimed for 2017 budget submission), , techniques/tools/ methodologies to be used for measuring climate change benefits as well as poverty co-benefits (i.e. working on existing systems, modifying them if and when needed and/or introducing additional ones), and their internal coordination for knowledge management among RID/LDD officials;
Produce a short inception report that covers and analyzes in its first part the RID and LDD (i) planning and budgeting processes and existing activities, (ii) tools/techniques used for project appraisal/M&E frameworks, (iii) future plans for budget submissions, (iv) identification of entry points CCA integration into budget proposals and M&E frameworks to integrate CC into their budget proposals and measure the impacts of CC on their expenditures more objectively and (v) agreeing on the scope of the capacity development exercise (rationales for project selection and potentials for replicating the climate change analysis). The second part should focus on the scope and work plan for the coaching exercise. The work plan shall specify the scope, objectives, content, outputs and outcomes of each workshop that are expected to be conducted by the international consultant, including the methodologies and instruments that will be covered.

Development of the CCA Guidelines:

Supervise and work closely with the national consultants to present a draft framework for discussions/outline of key issues related to the CCA guidelines development to the consultative forum;
Lead consultations with key planning, budget, and line agencies, with supports from national consultants, to discuss and agree on the scope of CCA guidelines, key elements to be considered, technical inputs required, international/regional experiences to be learned and adopted, expected outputs and timeframe, and coordination mechanisms among agencies needed to make use of the guidelines.
Produce a short inception report that covers and summarize the key issues discussed, technical inputs required, and steps for the development of the CCA guidelines.

Capacity Building and Consultations (May and July 2015):

RID/LDD Capacity Development:

Prepare materials for the capacity development sessions to integrate CCA into budget proposals and M&E framework in order to identify the climate component of their budget proposals and to measure the impacts of CC on their expenditures more objectively;

Ensure that the following will be achieved, taking into account the existing RID and LDD practices and capacities:

Understanding and effective use of climate change data/information from various sources (both global and downscaled research);
Hand on experiences regarding tools/techniques used for measuring climate change benefits and poverty co-benefits as well as those for monitoring and evaluating policies to address climate change impacts ;
Integration of the climate change analysis into the actual budget proposal format and interpretation of existing KPIs in the context of climate change;
Preparation to replicate the analysis to other budget proposals and preparation for 2017 budget submission.
Produce a short progress report presenting the concepts, instrument and frameworks learned and used, assessing capacity gaps of RID/LDD officials and making recommendations to address them. The report should also cover the challenges encountered, the potential risks (i.e. missing the 2017 target), and risk mitigation measures.

Development of the CCA Guidelines:

Prepare materials for the consultative process in line with the scope and key discussion issues agreed at the inception workshop with an aim to develop the CCA guidelines for the agricultural budget proposals;
Supervise and work closely with the national consultants to develop the content and material for the consultative process discussions (e.g. international/regional cases and experiences, lessons learned from the MoAC capacity development , short technical presentations, concept notes, etc.) in order to discuss and agree on key elements of the draft CCA guidelines;
Lead the drafting of CCA guidelines with technical feedback and support from the national consultants, based on the consultations with the agencies.

The outline of the guidelines should be as follow:

Background and rationale;
Scope and objectives (i.e. primarily drafted for agricultural budget proposals for government budget allocation).

Key elements such as:

A commonly agreed references/sources of climate change related data/information to be used for analysis, taking into considerations the issues related to confidentiality, credibility, and availability;
A commonly agreed toolkit to be used for the definitionclimate change relevant actions, assessing climaterelated benefits, and tracking climate actions performance, taking into considerationstheir associated strengths and limitations; and
A commonly agreed set of criteria and template to be used for project approval and budget consideration, with an aim to prioritize projects, allocate budgets, and monitor expenditures;
Institutional arrangement and coordinating mechanisms needed to help mainstream the guidelines;
Conclusion and recommendations for subsequent work (i.e. expansion of the scope to cover non-agricultural budget proposals as well as identification of capacity building needs.
Present the draft CCA guidelines for further review, comments, and revisions; and
Ensure that outputs achieved and lessons learned from the capacity development activities will be feeding into the national consultative forums to develop the CCA guidelines.

Conclusion (September 2015):

RID/LDD Capacity Development:

Lead consultations at the final workshop with a focus on (i) challenges (and how to mitigate them) and opportunities for replications both within and between departments under MoAC, (ii) supporting institutional arrangement and management mechanisms within MoAC, (iii) further capacity building needs, and (iv) linkages between this exercises and the CCA guideline.
Produce a final report highlighting the overall conclusion of the capacity development process i.e. achievements, limitations, lessons learned, and recommendations on the steps forward for MoAC to achieve the long term objective of being able to integrate CCA into its budget proposals, prioritize projects and align them with national, sectoral, local and climate policy objectives, track, report on and monitor the impacts of expenditures related to climate change.

Development of the CCA Guidelines:

Finalize the draft guidelines and present to the consultative forum for endorsement;
Lead consultations with key planning, budget, and line agencies with a focus on (i) future policy endorsement process, (ii) support institutional arrangement and coordinating mechanism, and (iii) plan for operationalizing the guidelines (i.e. capacity development of government officials, potential training institution, etc.;
Coordinate and provide technical advices to the UNITAR on their work plan and activities to develop the module for the CCA guideline.

Work with National Consultant:

The international consultant will undertake the followings:

Lead the work with support from national consultants to prepare materials, reports, and training activities specified above; and
Provide capacity building to national consultants to enable them to support government agencies in Thailand after this assignment ends (on the job training).

Remark 1 : This would be subsequently expanded and scaled up to other sectors.

Competencies

Team leadership experience;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to work under pressure and time constraint;
Demonstrate integrity and ethical standards;
Positive, construtive attitude towards work;
Excellent written and oral communication skills; and
Fluency in English required

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in economics or closely related subjects. A university degree in economics with more than 13 years of experience directly related to economic planning and climate change could also be accepted;

Professional experience:

Minimum 10 years of experience in economic planning, including sector planning, public finance, cost-benefit analysis, policy analysis and advice related to climate change finance in developing countries;
Experience in Asia-Pacific region will be advantage;
Team leadership experience;
Expertise and experience in climate change finance and relevant sectors such as agriculture and forestry would be desirable;
Familiarity with government planning systems and institutional roles;
Ability to interact with senior government officials.

Language Proficiency:

Excellent skills in written and spoken English.

Institutional arrangement:

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the project management team of the project on “Strengthening Thailand’s Capacity to link climate Policy and Public Finance” in consultation with UNDP APRC’s Climate Finance cross-practice team.

Duration of work:

1 March 2015 - 31 October 2015 with total of 40 working days.

Duty station:

Home-Based with four travels to Bangkok, Thailand to conduct 4 workshops to coincide with an inception workshop, two technical workshops, and a closing workshop. Other works will be home-based.

Financial proposal and schedule of payments:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount for the consulting fee, 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. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs.

Deliverable 1 :Detailed work plan and approach (5 days after the contract signing).

Deliverable 2: Deadline : 30 April 2015.

An inception report for RID/LDD coaching as detailed in the TOR “scope of work” containing the review of RID/LDD planning and budgeting processes, tools/techniques used for project appraisal/M&E, future plan for budget submissions, identification of entry points for integrating CCA into budget proposals and M&E framework, and agreeing on the scope of the capacity development exercise (rationales for project selection and potentials for replicating the climate change analysis). , together with the scope and work plan for the capacity development exercise;
An inception report for the CCA guidelines as detailed in the TOR “scope of works” summarizing key issues discussed, technical inputs required, and steps for the development of the CCA guidelines.

Deliverable 3: Deadline: 15 August 2015

A progress report for RID/LDD coaching as detailed in the TOR “scope of work” presenting the concepts, instrument and frameworks learned and used, assessing capacity gaps of RID/LDD officials and making recommendations to address them. The report should also cover the challenges encountered, the potential risks (i.e. missing the 2017 target), and risk mitigation measures;
A draft CCA guideline as detailed in the TOR “scope of work” including background and rationales, scope and objective, key elements, and institutional arrangements.

Deliverable 4: Deadline: 15 October 2015

A final report for RID/LDD capacity development as detailed in the TOR “scope of work” highlighting the overall conclusion of the capacity development process i.e. achievements, limitations, lessons learned, and recommendations on the steps forward for MoAC to achieve the long term objective of being able to integrate CCA into its budget proposals, prioritize projects and align them with national, sectoral, local and climate policy objectives, track, report on and monitor the impacts of expenditures related to climate change;
A final draft of CCA guideline as detailed in the TOR “scope of work”.

Evaluation method and criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology

Cumulative analysis:

The award of the contract should 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 criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%) specific to the solicitation. Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment..

Technical criteria for evaluation (70%, maximum 500 points):

Experience related to services: 40%, maximum 200 points;
Qualifications, Expertise & Availability: 60%, maximum 300 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation (30%, maximum 100 points).

Documents required:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Financial proposal :The financial proposal must indicate lump sum professional fee in USD, including 4 duty travels to Bangkok (to conduct 4 of 2 days workshops/ approx. stay in BKK per trip = 3-4days).To submit Financial Proposal, please use Template of Submission of Financial Proposal provided in Annex I.
Personal CV and/ or P11 including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.
Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Annexes:

Annex 1- Template for Summision of Financial Proposal and the Offeror's Letter Confirming Availability to UNDP: http://webapp3-docs.undp.org/procurement_notices/notice_doc_20154_653013729.docx.

nnex 2- Individual consultant General Terms and Conditions: http://webapp3-docs.undp.org/procurement_notices/notice_doc_20154_820013931.pdf.

Annex 3- Detailed Terms of Reference: http://webapp3-docs.undp.org/procurement_notices/notice_doc_20154_473014352.pdf.

Annex 4- P11: http://webapp3-docs.undp.org/procurement_notices/notice_doc_20154_856014431.doc.