Background

Globally and within Asia, research and knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation and mitigation response, has grown considerably recently, with multiple actors such as the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), research institutes, NGOs and governments contributing to the current wealth of knowledge. However, on the ground, and in particular in vulnerable developing countries such as Cambodia, much of the knowledge being generated and shared and the technical capacities needed to address the challenges posed by climate change still remain scarce.

Ranked amongst one of most vulnerable countries globally and third in the Asia region, and with impacts from climate change expected to severely affect its development (with estimates indicating impact on GDP to be 15% annually by 2030, and 3.5% annually by 2050, according to CCFF, 2014), the ability to harness existing climate change knowledge and capitalize on lessons learnt from ongoing interventions will be key to Cambodia’s future.

The need for strengthening climate change knowledge, education and awareness in Cambodia has been recognized in key strategic national documents, such as the Government’s Third Rectangular Strategy, the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) and the Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan (CCCSP) for 2014-2023, underlining the improvement of human and technological capacities as a major development issue for Cambodia. Climate change in particular has been identified as an area where the development of technical capacities and knowledge still require considerable investment to enable an effective response, with availability of climate data, tools and technologies for adapting and mitigating climate change impacts remaining key constraints to evidence based policy making.

Being able to effectively address climate change knowledge gaps is important for several reasons:

  • It helps decision-makers to better identify, prioritize and target interventions that reduce climate risk or otherwise tap into opportunities for low carbon resilient development, as well as to assess the effectiveness of their response and to make the required adjustments;
  • It assists numerous actors, including government agencies, NGOs, academia and the private sector, in developing sound bankable projects, thus helping to attract additional financing to the still underfunded climate response;
  • It helps pave the way to a more sustainable future for Cambodia by investing in its human capital, as next generations will be better prepared to face future challenges.

While there have been a number of efforts aiming at generating and sharing climate information and lessons learnt from interventions both from government and non-governmental institutions and development partners, with Cambodia’s official climate change website managed by the Climate Change Department, Ministry of Environment – camclimate.org.kh –  registering increasing numbers of visitors each year, it is necessary to strengthen existing knowledge resources and systems in order to provide the necessary support to the implementation of Cambodia’s climate change response (CCCSP).

Cambodia’s Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) Phase II, a comprehensive multi-donor funded programme implemented by Climate Change Department (CCD), Ministry of Environment (MoE) to address climate change (CC) in Cambodia, is seeking an international knowledge management expert to support the design and establishment of a climate change knowledge and information system which will be a reference of excellence for the country and in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objectives of the assignment are:

  • Design a climate change knowledge management and information system (CCKMIS) targeting key knowledge services and capacities (i.e. climate research and technology, advisory services, awareness raising and knowledge dissemination), in line with international best practices and leveraging existing knowledge resources and capacities, so that it can effectively support the implementation of the countries climate change response (CCCSP 2014-2023);
  • Provide mentoring, support and assistance to responsible staff from CCD, KM team and from other relevant departments of MoE to update capacity needs assessment and to design a comprehensive Cambodia’s CCKMIS which responds to the needs identified, as well as to develop its business case to help in mobilizing the required funding for KMIS operationalization.

The tasks and responsibilities of the consultant will be as follows:

  • Work planning and facilitation of discussions on concept for CCKMIS: under the guidance of the CCCA II result 3 (R3) Team Leader and in coordination with the designated the CCD/MoE team (including the CCCA team) and relevant stakeholders, and with the two national consultants assisting in the areas of climate data base management and development of knowledge web portal, the international consultant will assess existing climate change knowledge resources and capacities needs, and support the development of a detailed work plan and approach for the development of the CCKMIS (concept and operationalization strategy), including allocation of responsibilities and expected outputs from the designated MoE team and consultants, in alignment with the action proposed for the MoE CCAP;
  • Mentoring and capacity development: provide on-the-job support or backstopping to the designated KM team of CCD and relevant departments of MoE  officials (and eventually officials from key relevant institutions of government such as ICT/MPTC and Meteorology/ MOWRAM, MAFF etc) to develop a deep understanding of knowledge and information management systems, including international best practices focusing in four potential key functions/services of the KMIS for Cambodia (i.e. climate information, research and technology; awareness and knowledge dissemination, training and education, advisory services), developing their capacity to implement the work plan for the operationalization of the center, providing high level of the different KMIS services and maintaining and developing partnerships;
  • Leading in drafting the concept and strategy for CCKMIS: the report on the CCKMIS will include an analysis of the gaps identified and the proposal of the concept and strategy for the CCKMIS (benchmarking it against international best practices in four main areas of climate knowledge services), as well as presenting the business case and a 3 year work plan for the KMIS;
  • Support finalization of the reviewed report.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The expected outputs of the consultancy are as follows:

  • Work plan and updated needs assessment;
  • Effective on-the-job support to the designated team of CCD/MoE staff (and eventually other key government staff) in developing the concept and operationalization strategy for CCKMIS;
  • Draft report on CCKMIS proposal with initial work plan for 2016-2018;
  • Final report on CCKMIS proposal and final assignment report including any further recommendations for next steps.

Institutional Arrangement

The international consultant will operate under the management of the Result 3 Team Leader and under the guidance of the Climate Change Technical Specialist and the Knowledge Management Officer. He/she will work on a day-to-day basis with assigned staff from MoE, and liaise with national consultants working under Result 3 on the development of the knowledge portal and climate database management.

Duration of the Work

The assignment is expected to include 25 working days (from 15 November 2015 – 15 January 2016), with 20 days in Phnom Penh (two trips) and 5 days home-based.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Ability to interact with a variety of stakeholders, including senior government officials, donors, journalists, editors, policy-makers and regulators, consultants and academics;
  • Ability to work in a multicultural team and to build positive relationships with programme team and partners;
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in knowledge and information management, decision support systems and knowledge sharing platforms, or closely related subjects.

Experience:

  • Minimum 5 years of experience in developing and managing knowledge and information management systems;
  • Experience working with ministries with a significant climate change portfolio;
  • Expertise and experience in working with climate knowledge and information management systems or centers, and geo-reference climate information and decision support systems is a clear advantage;
  • Expertise and experience related to climate knowledge and information management issues in Cambodia and in the region is an advantage;

Language:

  • Excellent command of English (both spoken and written), knowledge of Khmer would be an advantage.

Important note:

Interested offeror is strongly advised to read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=25400 for more detail about term of references, instructions to offeror, and documents to be included when submitting offer.

Documents to be included when submitting the application:

Interested offeror/individual must submit the following documents/information.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system, because the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email dalis.heng@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org. While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice.