Background
Available evidence and decisions adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicate a significant gap in finance for biodiversity management – a major barrier for countries to scale up their efforts and achieve the 20 Aichi Targets defined in the CBD’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2020. While various global and national estimates exist, detailed national-level (bottom-up) assessments are required to provide more robust information on the biodiversity finance gap, fully taking into account the effects of the enabling policy environment. These need to be followed by significant national campaigns to mobilise the necessary resources to fill this gap. In this context, at COP-11 in October 2012, UNDP and the European Commission (EC) launched a new partnership project “Building Transformative Policy and Financing Frameworks to Increase Investment in Biodiversity Management” that seeks to build a sound business case for increased investment in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity at the national level. With the Governments of Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Flanders having joined this project since, it has grown into a multi-partner global endeavour – the UNDP-managed Biodiversity Finance Initiative – BIOFIN, set to run up to 2018.
Led by the UNDP biodiversity team and additional experts, an entirely new methodological framework has been developed for assessing – at national level – the biodiversity-relevant enabling context, baseline expenditures in biodiversity, biodiversity finance needs & gaps, and the suitability of financial mechanisms; and for establishing a policy engagement process that will lead to the adoption of the recommendations expected to emerge from these BIOFIN assessments.
At present 19 core countries participate in BIOFIN. A further 10 countries have started initial discussion to roll out national level activities. Based on the lessons drawn from national implementation, the methodological framework is regularly refined, and disseminated for wider application through global and regional workshops, and two important online platforms, the NBSAP Forum and the BIOFIN website.
BIOFIN is hosted by the Ecosystems and Biodiversity (EBD) cluster under the Sustainable Development Group of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), responsible for providing leadership and technical support to engineer delivery of the Environment and Sustainable Development pillar of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.
UNDP-GEF is seeking two Senior Advisors on Environmental Finance to BIOFIN to provide technical services and support to BIOFIN core countries in the roll out of the national level BIOFIN process.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Individual Consultants will be primarily home-based and work under the supervision of the BIOFIN Project Manager and Deputy Manager. The Consultants will work with the global BIOFIN Team, national BIOFIN Teams, UNDP Country Offices, core and donor country governments, other international/multi-lateral organisations, and contractors.
Responsibilities include:
- Liaise with national BIOFIN teams, core country governments, UNDP country offices, UNDP regional technical advisors and the global BIOFIN team, including helping to gauge progress, identify barriers, and provide timely interventions;
- Provide general oversight, technical support, quality assurance and impact monitoring of BIOFIN outputs and processes in BIOFIN core countries, in particular in ensuring national level outputs are produced in line with scheduled deadlines and existing quality standards. This entails reviewing documents delivered by national BIOFIN teams such as budgets, strategies, proposals, programmatic documents, institutional & policy reviews, public & private expenditure reviews, costing of NBSAPs, and the development and implementation of nationally-appropriate Resource Mobilisation Strategies and related Synthesis Recommendations, and providing timely feedback utilizing the BIOFIN peer review framework;
- Support the BIOFIN Manager and Deputy Manager in guiding and overseeing core countries in the identification and establishment of the most appropriate transformational national-level processes, targeting key finance-related stakeholders such as Ministries of Finance and Planning and private sector entities;
- Travel to BIOFIN core countries as needed to support the engagement and technical success of the National BIOFIN Teams by providing policy advice, technical advice and delivering trainings;
- Engage in capacity assessments and capacity development of national stakeholders as required, helping to build up a large pool of experts in each country that possess the basic skills to implement the BIOFIN tools;
- Support and provide inputs to global, regional and national technical workshops, regional conference calls, technical webinars and website discussions as requested by the global BIOFIN team;
- Support the continuous improvement of the BIOFIN Framework, methodology and specific tools and other materials provided to core and non-core countries as part of BIOFIN’s methodology development objectives. Develop guidance documents and training materials to enhance the BIOFIN methodological toolkit and implementation packages;
- Write up articles, case studies and other materials emerging from the BIOFIN process, summarizing key experiences and lessons from core countries, including delivering content for at least one case study and website article per quarter;
- Deliver high quality inputs for bi-annual donor reports on progress and impact in BIOFIN countries within given deadlines, and provide other inputs as required for briefing notes, case studies, knowledge management products, press releases and other media products develop by the global BIOFIN Team.
Information on Working Arrangements:
- Estimated level of effort including travel days: 180 days per consultant per year;
- The initial contract would be for one year with an option for renewal in the subsequent year dependent on demand for services and satisfactory performance evaluation;
- 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;
- Payments will be made upon submission of a detailed time sheet and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the BIOFIN Manager or Deputy Manager on days worked and outputs delivered.
Travel:
- International travel will be required to core countries and relevant methodological and coordination meetings;
- Any necessary missions must be approved in advance and in writing by the BIOFIN Project Manager or Deputy Manager;
- 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 responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
- The Consultant is required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/
- 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 supported by the project travel fund and will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations for consultants. Costs for airfares, terminal expenses, and living allowances should not 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 favouritism.
Technical Competencies:
- Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information from different disciplines;
- Ability to innovate, combining methodological approaches and data from various levels and disciplines including economics, finance, development and conservation;
- Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
- Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.
Communication:
- Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.
Professionalism:
- Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills;
- Exercise the highest level of responsibility and be able to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.
Teamwork:
- Work well in a team to advance the priorities of BIOFIN and UNDP as a whole;
- Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
- Focuses on results for the client;
- Welcomes constructive feedback.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree or higher in economics, environmental economics, public administration, financial management, natural/environmental sciences, social sciences with a specialization in environmental finance and development, or other closely related field. (10 points max)
Experience:
- At least 15 years demonstrated expertise in public or private sector finance, development or environmental finance, environmental mainstreaming, innovative resource mobilisation strategies, biodiversity policy, or a related field; (15 points max)
- Experience in environmental policy development, as well as, in biodiversity conservation and biodiversity finance would be an advantage; (15 points max)
- International and developing country experience would be desirable; (10 points max)
- Prior experience in expenditure and other financing assessment approaches and in the development of knowledge and exchange materials and platforms would be an advantage; (15 points max)
- Expertise in planning and conducting exchange workshops and technical trainings on financial assessments at the international level; (10 points max)
- Experience with UNDP policies, procedures and practices particularly in relation to project development and implementation and/or working experience in an international organization is an advantage; (10 points max)
Language:
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; (10 points max);
- Good command of French, Spanish, or Portuguese will be an advantage. (5 points max).
Evaluation method:
- 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, languages [max 100 points]) and interview [max 70 points]), will be based on a maximum 170 points. Only the top 5 candidates scoring 70 points or higher from the review of the education, experience, and languages will be considered for the interview;
- Applicants obtaining 70% of the combined total technical points (education, experience, languages and interview) will be 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. 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);
- The two applicants receiving the two Highest Combined Scores and have accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.
Documentation to be submitted:
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) to be downloaded from the below link;
- Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
Kindly note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).
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: