Background
The Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was established as an operating entity of the UNFCCC financial mechanism, is expected to become the main global fund for financing climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. While it has been agreed that Direct Access will be one of the modalities for the disbursement of the funds, it is recognized that certain levels of capacity will be required of governments and other actors involved in accessing the GCF. For the GCF to succeed, national capacities and mechanisms need to correspond to the GCF requirements while also aligning with country planning, budgeting, programming and MRV systems.
With support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Buildings (BMUB), UNEP, UNDP and WRI (“the Partners”) are implementing a GCF Readiness Programme (the Programme). The Programme is expected to offer needs-oriented support to countries for accessing and using the GCF once it is fully operational. The Programme will include (i) specific capacity building programmes in 9 target countries, (ii) the development of national project pipelines on the basis of existing and potential specific national plans and policies, (iii) the development of in-country monitoring tracking systems for climate finance and its effectiveness, together with feeding back shortcomings identified with GCF processes to support the work of the GCF Board.
In the selected countries, the proposed project targets the key domestic institutions responsible for ensuring climate finance is used effectively. This includes those with fiduciary responsibility for national and international funds received but also those institutions responsible for allocating finance and ensuring it achieves its intended purpose, such as Ministries of Environment, Finance, Energy, Development and Planning, etc. as well other climate-change related public institutions and local-level governments. The proposed project also targets private sector actors, civil society and financial institutions that will play a key role in the implementation of specific projects and civil society actors that may support government in developing capacity as well as mechanisms for monitoring and accountability.
In order to guide the implementation of the capacity building measures, a Country Readiness Plan will be developed by the Partners and validated by the government. The Readiness Plan will be informed by needs assessments of current national plans and policies, a scoping mission, and consultations with the government and other relevant stakeholders. The Partners have developed and plan to apply a uniform approach for country assessments and Readiness Plan development. The Readiness Plans will then be refined according to the results of the assessments, scoping mission, and consultations.
In this regard, UNDP is seeking a consultant to assist in the preparation of the GCF Country Readiness Plan for Nepal.
Duties and Responsibilities
Objectives
The overall objective of the assignment is to support the Partners during and immediately after the scoping mission with preparing the GCF Country Readiness Plan for Nepal. More specifically, the consultant will facilitate this process by:
- Strengthening and validating the analyses of climate finance readiness and capacity gaps of Nepal using the common country assessment tool;
- Developing and validating the GCF Country Readiness Plan in Nepal to be implemented as part of the joint UNEP/UNDP/WRI GCF Readiness Programme.
Scope of Work
The consultant will work with the UNEP/UNDP/WRI mission teams for Nepal during and after the scoping mission. The tasks will include:
- Study pre-mission report prepared by the partners that includes a draft country assessment and a preliminary capacity gap analysis and identify strengths, weaknesses, issues and opportunities;
- Participate in scoping missions and provide substantive inputs to the discussions;
- Based on mission outcomes and using the country assessment tool prepared by the partners, collect further information and undertake further analyses on key-issues with regard to the country’s readiness, including ongoing/planned activities from government and development partners to address these;
- Strengthen the country assessment, including the capacity gap analysis, which identifies country specific needs with regard to climate finance readiness. As mentioned in the BMUB TOR, the gap analysis being currently conducted by the UNEP National Climate Finance Institutions Support Programme (NCFISP or Fit for Funds) shall be used as a basis, as well as, any other experience the partners have made during the their climate finance support activities;
- Based on the above analyses, develop the draft GCF country readiness plan. In the process, undertake stakeholder consultations (government, development partners, civil society organizations, private sector) through bilateral meetings and/or focus group discussions to assess whether interventions considered for the draft plan resonate well with stakeholders’ interests;
- Identify activities that could be undertaken in Nepal as part of the support package that the partners can provide to build GCF readiness;
- Present the draft GCF country readiness plan including activities to be undertaken under the GCF readiness country programme to stakeholders during a validation workshop and seek feedback;
- Finalize the GCF country readiness plan including activities to be undertaken under the GCF readiness country programme based on feedback received.
Outputs
Deliverables shall be made according to the below schedule:
- Mission to Nepal for national stakeholder consultation meetings and possibly other bilateral meetings with identified stakeholders (No later than 31 March 2015);
- A final GCF country readiness plan including activities to be undertaken under the GCF readiness country programme, which includes revisions/comments and an updated gap analysis based on the pre-mission needs assessment report (due 30 April 2015);
- Minutes of critical stakeholder meetings including the final mission workshop or roundtable discussion (due 30 April 2015);
- Stakeholder contact details that have taken place throughout the assignment (due 30 April 2015).
Institutional arrangements
- Estimated level of effort, including travel, is 15 working days;
- The consultant will work from home with mission travel;
- The consultant will report to, and be directly supervised by, UNDP/BPPS Climate Change Policy Analyst, who is based in New York, USA;
- The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
- The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection;
- The consultant will engage regularly by email, Skype and/or and phone on a weekly and/or as needed daily basis;
- Payment will be made upon satisfactory submission and acceptance of deliverables. The quality of the final documents will be evaluated by the Climate Change Policy Analyst. If the quality does not meet standards or requirements, the consultant will be asked to rewrite or revise (as necessary) the document before proceeding to payment.
Travel
- The consultant will travel to Kathmandu, Nepal to conduct national stakeholder consultation meetings and possibly other bilateral meetings with identified stakeholders. Expected travel duration for the mission is 5 days in country;
- The expected dates of travel for the mission to Nepal, pending confirmation from the Government, is anticipated to occur in March 2015;
- All travels must be authorized in advance by the supervisor;
- The Advanced and Basic Security in the Field II courses must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
- Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
- Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives;
- The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
- All related travel expenses will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F-10 claim form and supporting documents.
- All costs for mission travel (round trip economy fare ticket, terminals, etc.) should be included in financial proposal.
Competencies
Corporate Competencies
- Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
- Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
Functional Competencies
- Demonstrated excellence in clear, concise and convincing writing and communication skills;
- Highly organized with strong analytical and research skills;
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a collaborative team and process;
- Ability to work with multiple stakeholders across a wide range of disciplines;
- Ability to work under pressure and time constraints.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree in finance, economics or other closely related field (max 20 points).
Experience:
- Minimum 7 years of experience in policy analysis, advice and capacity development related to climate and/or development finance, and public policy/finance/budget management in developing countries (max 20 points);
- Expertise and experience in climate change and relevant sectors such as energy, forestry, agriculture, water and cross-cutting issues such as gender in the Asia region (max 20 points);
- Experience in providing guidance and support to technical specialists and/or governments on climate change (max 20 points);
- Experience in project and budget management (max 20 points).
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
Scope of Price Proposal
- Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed as an all-inclusive daily fee in USD. The term ‘all inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, travel, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal;
- Payments will be made based on the agreed upon lump sum and released upon submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.
Evaluation Criteria and Selection of Best Offer
- Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;
- Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
- The technical criteria (education, experience) will be based on a maximum 100 points. Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 70 points from the review of the technical criteria will be deemed technically qualified and considered for financial evaluation;
- Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
- The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee, including breakdown per deliverable as outlined above. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
- Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.
Documentation required:
Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) to be downloaded from the link below. Please also provide your all-inclusive daily fee proposal for the assignment, including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment. Kindly note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach). In addition, applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.
General Conditions of Contract for the ICs: