Background

Cambodia is consistently ranked as one of the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, and one of the three most vulnerable in Asia. The Cambodia Climate Change Alliance (CCCA) is an initiative led by the Ministry of Environment/National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD) in partnership with the European Union, Sweden and UNDP, in support of the implementation of the Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan.

CCCA operates grant facilities, including windows for Government institutions and a specific window for climate change projects focused on research and innovation, open to research institutions and NGOS in addition to Government. This research and innovation window will issue two calls for proposals: one in the second half of 2015 and one in the second half of 2016.

CCCA is now looking to hire four qualified consultants on Long Term Agreements to act as reviewers for the concept notes and proposals submitted under this funding window. Three reviewers will be required for each specific round.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of this assignment is to review concept notes and proposals submitted to the NCSD, including scoring and commenting on potential improvements, as an input into the grant selection and technical review process. Scoring criteria and tools will be provided by the NCSD.

­Concept notes consist of a 7-page narrative, and annexes including a draft work plan and profile of applicant / partners (estimated total of 12 to 15 pages with annexes). Review notes and scores will be required (to select successful concept notes to proceed to the next stage).

­Project proposals consist of a 15-page narrative, and annexes including a full results-based budget, work plan, CVs and TORs of key personnel (estimated total of 25 to 30 pages with annexes). Review notes will be required (no scoring required as there is no further selection at this stage).

For the review of the concept notes and proposals, the individual contractor is expected to:

  • ­Review each submission in detail against the criteria mentioned in the call for proposals and the templates provided;
  • ­Record detailed comments and the corresponding scores in the scoring sheets provided by CCCA;
  • Submit the scoring sheets within the agreed deadlines. Exact deadlines will be agreed when a purchase order is issued, but will normally not be more than three weeks after the documents are shared with reviewers.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The individual contractor shall take sole responsibility for ensuring that the scoring sheets submitted meet the standards set by CCCA.

UNDP CO shall have the right to reject the work and payment shall not be settled unless deliverables are submitted at the satisfactory level;

All documents to be reviewed under the scope of this ToR are subjected to strict confidentiality and shall not be disclosed to anyone else.

Institutional Arrangement

The consultants will operate under the guidance of the CCCA Result 2 Team Leader and the UNDP/CCCA Trust Fund Administrator, and work in cooperation with the Grant Management Officers in CCCA, in charge of compiling review comments and scores.

Duration of the Work

LTA will be issued for an initial 1 year, with possible extension up to 3 years. UNDP does not warrant that any quantity of the services will be purchased during the duration of the contract. For indicative purposes only, it is estimated it will require:

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Familiarity with government planning systems and institutional roles;
  • Excellent analytical skills;
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills in English;
  • Trustworthiness and ability to work within deadlines.

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 environmental science, climate change, development studies or related subject.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years’ experience and proven track record working on climate change and/or disaster management issues, including significant experience in Cambodia;
  • Good knowledge of Cambodia’s climate change response and institutional arrangements at national and sub-national levels;
  • Experience with project development and management;
  • Experience with research and innovation projects will be a strong advantage;
  • Experience in technical appraisals, monitoring and evaluation of environmental projects.

Language:

  • Fluency in English is required.

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=25405 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.