Background

Building Resilience to disaster and climatic risk is one of the corporate priorities of UNDP. Over last four decades, UNDP Bangladesh has been working with the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) together with other development partners to implement GoB’s priorities in climate change adaptation and mitigation. UNDP’s support strategy to GoB involves both adaptation and mitigation with specific focus on readiness for accessing and utilizing effectively the available international climate finances.

UNDP Bangladesh is preparing to support the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) in developing project proposals for submission to the climate financing schemes in 2015 and 2016. Among the issues being considered as subject for a project proposal is Strengthening National Adaptive Capacity through Climate Resilient Rural Housing in Coastal Bangladesh.

The Context of the Project:

Coastal Bangladesh, which is inhabited by 35 million people – 20 % of Bangladesh’s total population - is one of the most exposed regions of the world to storm surge and sea level rise.  With a changing climate, people living in the coast are becoming more exposed to cyclones, tidal surges, salinity intrusion and persistent waterlogging (ibid). With most parts of coastal Bangladesh only just above sea level, whenever surge height exceeds 1 meter, there is a high risk of mass inundation leading to mortality, significant economic losses and displacement. Using the Bay of Bengal hydrodynamic model, the World Bank estimates that cyclone exposed areas in Bangladesh will increase by 26% and the affected population would grow as high as 122% by 2050.

The rural housing sector in Bangladesh regularly experiences significant losses due to climate-induced extreme events, particularly on the coast. Since 1970, roughly 300,000 houses were fully and half a million partially damaged by flood, cyclone, river erosion and tornados each year. Only one in every three homes in Bangladesh is made of concrete, with the remaining non-concrete 70% significantly more vulnerable to climate-induced disaster shocks. In rural Bangladesh, private housing is used not only as a domicile, but also for storage of livelihood and economic assets. As a result, damage to private housing accounts for the major portion of the economic loss associated with climate induced disasters in Bangladesh.

Even a conservative estimate of the five major disasters since 1998 puts the value of the damage cause by these events at roughly 15% of GDP. Half of this economic damage has been incurred in the housing sector. A conservative estimate gives the total value of the loss of housing stock as USD 800 million (GoB and World Bank)

In the 2007 category 4 cyclone Sidr alone, the number of heavily affected houses were 1,522,077, of which over 564,967 houses were totally destroyed and 957,110 houses were partially damaged. Two years after Sidr, assessment reveals, , only 5% of the destroyed housing had been rebuilt to a satisfactory standard,, indicating the huge response gap and poor peoples’ inability to manage current and future risks. The poor and marginalized sections of the coastal communities can’t afford to build back better and more climate-resilient because of their limited financial ability. Moreover, the fact that many people do not have ownership of their own land acts as a major disincentive for them to invest in housing.

The Concept of the Project

Therefore, the proposal is to build nation-wide capacity on climate resilient housing for the poor and vulnerable people in the coast of Bangladesh. It aims to fulfill the following objectives (to be tested and confirmed):

• To transform national housing programmes, policies and funding mechanisms to take into account climate change;
• To enhance the climate change adaptive capacities of around 1 million most vulnerable coastal people by introducing resilient housing concepts and technologies;
• To provide resilient housing for 20,000 most-vulnerable households, with a focus on female-headed households, in 400 selected villages in eight coastal districts.

The project will be primarily an adaptation project, although the housing constructed should provide for low carbon use features. The unique nature of the housing has to be climate resilient, low cost, low carbon, socially and culturally inclusive, build in safer and high lands, and expandable as habitat. The housing programme will also explore possibilities of engagement of private sectors with market and insurance instruments. This rural housing project has to be based on the lessons from previous rural housing schemes for vulnerable people. The project should have a strong paradigm shift potential in the overall public and private sector investment in rural housing towards a climate resilient, economically, environmentally and socially feasible and low carbon rural housing in Bangladesh. The project will be implemented in eight coastal districts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective

The Team Leader will lead a high profile team which is put together to conduct a feasibility study and prepare a project proposal on climate resilient housing in Bangladesh for submission to a fund. The purpose of the assignment is to support the GoB to implement climate change priority initiatives and strengthen the national adaptive capacity of the rural housing sector.

The objective is to conduct a feasibility study and environmental and social impact assessment to produce the following output:

• Feasibility Study Report presenting all the findings including environmental and social impact as per the format provided;
• A Project Proposal as per the fund guideline and format.

The feasibility study report should follow the following outline:

• Executive summary;
• Context, problem statement and rationale;
• Methodology of the Feasibility Study;
• Background information;
• Housing alternatives and comparative feasibility analysis of the alternatives;
• Project description based on most feasible alternatives;
• Implementation and institutional arrangements;
• Project benefits, costs and financing;
• Project’s impact  and paradigm shift potential;
• Project’s sustainable development potential;
• Project’s efficiency and effectiveness;
• Risks and Mitigation strategy;
• Social and Environmental Safeguards, according to UNDP guidelines;
• Innovative features, learning and knowledge management;
• Final recommendations.

The Project Proposal should be prepared according to the format provided by UNDP.

Scope of Work

A Seven (7) member team is envisaged to be recruited by UNDP.  The Team Leader requires combined expertise including the following areas to carry out during the mission:

The team leader will carry out the following tasks:

Pre-feasibility and Concept Note Finalization Phase:

• Become familiar with past and existing projects of GoB and UNDP focused on resilient housing, post-disaster shelter and housing construction, climate change and disaster risk reduction mainstreaming in policy, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and other areas;
• The existing proposed project concept and underlying assumptions and justifications;
• Government’s different schemes, projects, plans and policy for the development of rural housing, including efforts addressing housing for climate change and disaster affected people; and
• Main stakeholders in the proposed project to check understanding and assumptions;
• Information available to do an Economic feasibility;
• UNDP guidelines for development of environmental and social safeguards.
• Identify key activities and results, which will determine the proposed project’s technical feasibility (adaptation and mitigation) building the adaptive capacity of coastal people, communities and Bangladesh national housing policy to climate change and climate-induced disasters;
• Based on existing concept note draft (dated 31st May 2015), draft a project concept note for validation and feedback.
• Feasibility and Full Project Proposal Phase: Become familiar with proposed project concept and underlying assumptions and justifications and key stakeholders in the proposed project to check understanding and assumptions.

Collect all information that would require to finalise the proposal:

• Assemble and review available studies, reports and data on the rural housing sector in Bangladesh and beyond;
• Conduct a baseline study in key aspects on the current resilience and resilience gaps in the rural housing sector in Bangladesh, that includes establishment of target groups and their needs;
• Establish technological alternatives for building climate / disaster resilient housing, which strongly add value for climate change adaptation; and public and private housing sector transformation--and are socially acceptable, environmentally sound, technically viable, and economically feasible for Government of Bangladesh;
• Determine feasibility and crucial factors for the success and sustainability of the proposed project;
• Conduct environmental and socioeconomic impact of the proposed interventions;
• Develop a draft feasibility study report and draft project proposal;
• Assess risks related to project implementation and success;
• Make recommendations to GoB and UNDP Bangladesh on necessary adjustments to project concept to improve feasibility, sustainability and impact;
• Present, produce and submit (i) final feasibility study report and (ii) high quality and complete project proposal.

The team of consultants will be contractually accountable to UNDP and the issues related to process and deliverables (outputs) also needs to be endorsed by UNDP.

Deliverables:

• A pre-Feasibility Study (based on the existing one);
• A project Concept Note (based on the existing one);
• A final Feasibility Study Report with input from technical housing, EIA, SIA and economic appraisal reports, and related the experts;
• A final Project Proposal (with inputs from the team).

Timeframe and Deadline:

The assignment will be for a priod of total 40 working days from its commencement and shall be completed by 15 September 2015:

• A pre-Feasibility Study (based on the existing one) - 05 working days;
• A project concept note (based on the existing one) - 05 working days;
• A final Feasibility Study Report with input from technical housing, EIA, SIA and economic appraisal reports, and related the experts - 10 working days;
• A final Project Proposal (with inputs from the team) - 20 working days;

Documents

The Consultants will prepare and submit the documents mentioned above at the end of the assignment. The format for Programem Document should be agreed at the beginning of the assignment and cleared by the task force. Further work, or revision of the documents, may be required if is considered that the report does not meet the TOR, there are errors of fact or the document is incomplete or not of an acceptable standard.

Supervision and Perfoemance Evaluation

The team will work closely with the Committee formed by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and UNDP. The consultant/s will report directly to the Assistant Country Director, Climate Change, Environment and disaster Cluster of UNDP Bangladesh.

Inputs

UNDP will provide office space and transport for the consultant as required and also arrange meetings, consultations, and interviews and ensure access to key officials as mentioned in proposed methodology. DSA will be provided for travelling outside Dhaka (if required) as per rules of UNDP

Payment to the consultant

The Consultant will be paid as per the following payment schedule based on the certification of the contract adsministrator:

• 1st payment (10% of the Total Contract Amount) - Upon Submission of workplan, methodology and approach;
• 2nd payment (20% of the Total Contract Amount) - Upon completion of the Revised pre-Feasibility Study done by GoB and UNDP;
• 3rd payment (40% of the Total Contract Amount) - Upon submission of A final Feasibility Study Report;
• Final Payment (30% of the Total Contract Amount) - Upon submission of the final Project Proposal and  successful completion of the assignment.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Professionalism:

• Flexibility to make ad-hoc changes as and when the need arises;
• Ability to perform under stress;
• Willingness to keep flexible working hours;
• Ability to engage with high ranking Government Officials and provide policy advisory support services;
• Good understanding of disaster management in South Asia / Bangladesh, including field experience;
• Full conceptual and practical understanding of activities, legal framework of the government.

Teamwork:

• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations as a team member, in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect.

Communication:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Excellent writing skills in the compilation of high level quality documents in English language.

Corporate Competencies:

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

Edication:

• Master’s degree in most relevant field.

Experience:

• At least 10 years’ of working experience in housing in the context of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation;
• Strong project development and proposal writing skills for national scale programme;
• Demonstrated experience in undertaking similar feasibility studies in the region/Bangladesh;
• Substantial experience in development policy analysis involving using quantitative and qualitative methods;
• Knowledge on global good practices in resilient technologies especially in rural housing in developing countries;
• Sound technical knowledge about approach and methodologies on social, environmental, economic analysis of project feasibilities studies;
• Good understanding of climate financing scheme guidelines;
• Working experience in government ministries/ departments and UN / international organizations.

Language:

• Excellent English writing and editing skills.

Evaluation of candidates

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis:

The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, 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 and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% marks i.e. 49 marks in the Technical evaluation would be considered for Financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Past experience in conducting feasibility studies in the developing countries / Bangladesh- at national scale - 15 marks;
• Past work in Climate change adaptation in South Asian/developing countries - 10 marks;
• Understanding of various housing approaches in climate change context- 15 marks;
• Project development experience for UN agencies/ international organization / donor funded projects- 30 marks.

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks):

Financial proposals from all technically qualified candidates will be scored out 30 marks based on the formula provided below. The maximum marks (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal.

All other proposals will receive points according to the following formula:

• p = y (µ/z).

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Important note for Applicants

Interested applicants are requested to submit their financial proposal along with the application. Please note that, application in this system allows to attach only one document. Interested candidates are requested to prepare their CV's and Financial Prioposal as one document and upload that single document (CV + Financial Proposal) while applying.

The template for Financial Proposal can be found in the below link:

http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.