UNDP Jobs - 58601- International Consultant

International Consultant - Disaster Risk Management

Location :

Home Based, Port Moresby, East Sepik and New Ireland Province, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

24-Aug-2015

Application Deadline :

14-Aug-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

4 months

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

The impact of climate change-related hazards in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) country has been increasing in intensity and frequency putting at risk human lives, livelihoods and natural and economic assets. Further impacts from climate change include the loss of food gardens due to extensive flooding (both in coastal and riverine areas) combined with extended periods of drought. The rising sea level is causing some of PNG’s islands to be gradually submerged. Salt water intrusion is affecting groundwater particularly in the islands and in coastal areas, threatening domestic water supplies and agriculture. With the onset and multitude of climate change impacts, the country’s economy, environment and people are becoming more vulnerable and are at risk of not meeting basic human development needs. Climate change puts at risk the achievement of the goals set out in PNG’s major development plans.

Flooding in the coastal areas is one of the most important climate change related hazards in the North Coast and the Islands Region as settlements are usually located in the coasts, particularly the provincial capitals of East Sepik (Wewak), Madang (Madang), Morobe (Lae), and West New Britain (Kimbe). Similarly, in the hinterland areas, climate change-related inland flooding is the most pressing hazard with the largest potential for wide-spread damage.

In recognition of the increasing exposure to climate change impacts, the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) through the Office of Climate Change and Development (OCCD) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated a project to “Enhance Adaptive Capacity of Communities to Climate Change-related Floods in the North Coast and Islands Region of PNG. The project’s overall objective is to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities to make informed decisions about and adapt to climate change-driven hazards affecting both coastal and riverine villages. In particular, the project will build community resilience towards occurrences of coastal and inland flooding events.

One of the objectives of the project is to strengthen the disaster preparedness and response capacities in the pilot provinces. At the provincial level, disaster management responsibilities lie with each respective Provincial Administrations. The PA is responsible for chairing a Provincial Disaster Committee (PDC) that consists of representatives of government ministries and agencies, police and NGOs. The Provincial Disaster Committees (PDCs) are primary responsible for formulation, implementation and coordination of disaster risk management measure and strategies. Provincial Disaster Coordinators (PCs), in each provinces are the secretariat to the Provincial Disaster Committees (PDC). In general most of the provinces are yet to develop disaster preparedness and response plans. Allied to this mechanisms for coordination of disaster management activities across government departments and between civil societies are weak. The coordination structure is ad-hoc and it is established during times of disaster response, when the need is highest for all stakeholders to work together. However government motivation for participating in these for decreases once the crisis is over and a semblance of normalcy has returned. In this context the AF project intends to establish disaster response plans and systems in two provinces namely East Sepik, New Ireland and Northern Province. The project also seeks to establish/strengthen institutional coordination for disaster management at the provincial level.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP, Papua New Guinea Country Office seeks the services of a Disaster Risk Management Consultant to strengthen the DRM capacities and systems at the provincial level. In particular the consultant will be responsible for development of climate-resilient provincial disaster preparedness and response plans and associated operation plans including development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for early warning dissemination, SOPs for disaster response (including control, command and coordination) and SOPs for damage assessment and reporting. The consultant will also be responsible for the establishment/revitalization of the provincial disaster committees.

Travelling between East Sepik and New Ireland Proivnce, the consultant will work under the overall guidance of Project Manager and in close collaboration with the officials from the provinces and shall take over-all responsibility for the delivery of the assigned outputs to the required standard and quality and within the specified schedule. Specifically, the consultant will have the following responsibilities:

Component 1: Home-based and/or in Port Moresby:

Gather information on ongoing data / study / information on disaster risks and climate change impact relevant to the province (i.e. RMSI, ongoing V&A and EWS design work);
Review the existing disaster management plans and protocols including EWS protocols (customs, etc);
Review the existing disaster management coordination mechanism and systems (national-province-community-households) (review existing studies including, but not limited to recently completed institutional capacity assessment).

Component 2: In the Provinces:

Consult with different stakeholders for the development of disaster preparedness and response plans; Conduct/facilitate evidence-based participatory, climate-resilient disaster preparedness and response plan development consultations/workshops/dialogues.

The participatory consultation should include, but not limited to:

Sharing of existing disaster risks and climate change information relevant to the province and validation / inputs from the province;
Gathering additional information and/or validating desktop review of disaster management plans and protocols including EWS-related protocols and customs.Gathering information regarding challenges and opportunities (areas of change/improvement, if any);
Gathering additional information and/or validating desktop review of existing disaster management coordination mechanisms and systems – including but not limited to provincial disaster management committees.Gathering information regarding challenges and opportunities (areas of change/improvement, if any).

Component 3: Home-based and/or in Port Moresby:

Develop operation plans including SOPs for early warning system, disaster response, damage assessment and reporting;
Develop disasterpreparedness and response plan for East Sepik and New Ireland Province in consultation with government official and other relevant stakeholders;
Recommendation and next steps to revitalize/establish the disaster management committee (if relevant reflect this in the disaster preparedness and response plans, EWS SOPs etc.).

Deliverables

At the end of the assignment, following deliverables should be achieved:

Component 1:

Provincial consultation agenda (with stakeholders and methodology) and presentations and data gathering instruments (i.e. questionnaire / surveys) (for the consultation / workshops / dialogues) capturing collected information and gaps/next steps identified under Component 1.

Component 2:

Consultation / workshops / dialogue report - including, but not limited to number of participants (gender and age group participants per event and total), photos (selection of best 20 with location, date taken and short explanation),summary of finding and discussions, and next steps (in light of findings);
Disaster management committees revitalized/established in two provinces;
The Disaster Management Committees trained in DRM.

Component 3:

Disaster management committees established and operational in two provinces and sensitized in their roles and responsibilities;
Disaster preparedness and response plans developed for two provinces;
SOPs developed for early warning, disaster response, damage assessment and reporting established in two provinces.

Reporting requirements and administrative support:

The consultant will report directly to the UNDP/AF Project Manager.

All administrative and logistic costs that will be incurred will be covered by the UNDP/AF project.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Professionalism:

Knowledge and understanding of theories, concepts and approaches relevant to climate change, risk management and sustainable development;
Ability to identify issues, analyse and participate in the resolution of issues/problems;
Analytical and evaluative skills;
Ability to apply judgment in the context of assignments, plan own work and manage conflicting priorities;
Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges;
Remains calm in stressful situations;
Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior members of national institutions;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant information for the preparation of quality outputs.

Results-Based Programme Development and Management:

Monitors progress on implementation of agreed activities;
Analyzes situation to identify opportunities for enhancing preparedness and emergency response in PNG.

Core Competencies:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Creating synergies;
Managing conflict;
Promoting learning and knowledge management.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in Social Science, Environment, Natural Resources, Disaster Risk Management, Agriculture, Climate Change, Physical/Spatial Planning, Environmental Engineering or related discipline.

Experience:

Minimum 7 years of related work experience preferably in disaster risk reduction;
Experience in development of disaster risk management plans at the national and sub-national level;
Experience in PNG/Pacific is an advantage;
Experience in DRM capacity building and training of national institutions (government, private, civil society) in developing countries;
Proven good experience in development projects for international organizations and the government;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages.

Language:

Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.

Application process:

Recommended Presentation of Proposal:

Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
CV and a Personal History Form (P11 form);
Brief description of approach to work/technical proposal of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment; (max 1 page);
Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price and all other travel related costs (such as flight ticket, per diem, etc), supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template attached to the Letter of Confirmation of Interest template. If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

All application materials should be submitted to the address ( UNDP Resident Representative, UNDP PNG, P.o.Box 1041, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) in a sealed envelope indicating the following reference “Consultant forStrengthening of Disaster Preparedness and Response Plans and Systems in East Sepik and New Ireland Province” or by email at the following address ONLY: registry.pg@undp.org) This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it by (5pm, 10th August, 2015). Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

Criteria for Evaluation of Proposal

Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the educational background and experience on similar assignments will be weighted at 70% and the price proposal will weigh as 30% of the total scoring. The applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score that has also accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of service, etc.). All envisaged international travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://europeandcis.undp.org/home/jobs

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Engagement of the consultants should be done in line with guidelines for hiring consultants in the POPP: https://info.undp.org/global/popp/Pages/default.aspx

https://intranet.undp.org/unit/bom/pso/Support%20documents%20on%20IC%20Guidelines/Template%20for%20Confirmation%20of%20Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal.docx

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc