Background
The overall development goal of the project is to contribute meaningfully to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 13 and 15: Forested developing countries contribute to efforts to combat climate change and sustainably manage forests, halt and reverse land degradation. In order to achieve this goal, the project will support forested developing countries to effectively harness REDD+ opportunities and the potential for emissions reductions and enhanced forest carbon stocks as agreed in the UNFCCC. Through associated social inclusion, gender equality and governance efforts, the project also contributes to SDG 5.
To contribute to this goal, the Support to REDD+ Implementation Global Project will deliver the following outcomes - 1) REDD+ Strategies and Action Plans developed, capacity enhanced, and policies and measures designed; 2) REDD+ Strategies and Action Plans, including policies and measures, implemented and capacity further enhanced, and; 3) REDD+ Results-based actions that are measured, reported and verified, and recognized and rewarded.
Carrying forward UNDP’s commitment to the human rights based approach, the Support to REDD+ Implementation Global Project recognizes the unique position of the approximately 70 million indigenous peoples and 350 million rural people who reside in or near forests that depend on forests for their livelihoods and the unique and important role these communities can play in forest management and monitoring, yielding positive results for lower deforestation. In addition, the project recognizes that women and men’s specific roles, rights and responsibilities, as well as their particular use patterns and knowledge of forests, shape their experiences differently.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, as established by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is often referred to as “REDD+”. The UNDP REDD+ team is based in UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support - BPPS. It is part of the Sustainable Development cluster and also works closely with the Climate Change team.
The REDD+ team is responsible for a growing portfolio. The sources of funds include: (i) the UN-REDD Programme, a collaborative partnership with FAO and UNEP; (ii) the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF); (iii) the Central African Forests Initiative (CAFI); (iv) the Green Climate Fund (GCF); (v) Norway’s pledge to the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCFTF) initiative; and (vi) Italy’s Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea (IMELS). The team is responsible for ensuring overall quality assurance for UNDP’s forest and climate initiatives.
UNDP’s REDD+ Team is spread globally, with management based in Geneva. Regional teams are located in UNDP’s Regional Centres in Bangkok (Asia-Pacific) and Panama (Latin America and the Caribbean), while the regional team for Africa is in Nairobi in order to be co-located with UNEP’s REDD+ Team. The regional teams support UNDP’s country offices and partners in their region. Support to UNDP country offices is coordinated closely with the Regional Bureaux through the regional centres.
The team works closely with other relevant UNDP initiatives, in particular: the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) Platform and the Green Commodities Program (GCP) on drivers of deforestation related to agricultural commodity supply chains. In addition, there is strong coordination with: the UNDP-GEF team (on both forest-related GEF projects and the Green Climate Fund); and with the team supporting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), to ensure UNDP’s efforts on REDD+ contribute to broader transformational change. The team can support the REDD+ initiatives of the regions and country offices and provide quality assurance on a full cost-recovery basis.
The Technical Specialist IC will contribute to the overall success of UNDP’s climate and forests efforts, across a number of sources of funds, by providing high quality technical policy, programming, implementation support and technical assistance. This support is needed for 2 main purposes:
- Support the efforts to coordinate and connect UNDP’s related climate and forests initiatives
- Support the UNDP REDD+ portfolio in Latin America
Duties and Responsibilities
1. New York Declaration on Forests Platform
Support the effective implementation of annual workplans and action plans, with specific reference in to:
I.3
- Mapping of existing forest-related communities of practice to inform work planning, identification of gaps, emerging priorities, and synergies/potential overlaps with existing initiatives Dec 2017-Mar 2018
- Facilitation of webinars (12) ongoing 2018
I.4
- Strategically engage new endorsers that add value and fill the gaps (400 new- including faith, finance, mining, airlines and cities) ongoing 2018
- Launch at least 3 joint initiatives (e.g., Bonn Challenge) to accelerate the pace of change to reach NYDF goals.
I.5
- Review progress on Goal 10 based on the 2018 Assessment Report findings and identify specific actions to enhance achievement of all NYDF goals (UNDP) May-Oct 2018
II.1
- Map 100 NDCs, 100 NBSAPs for forest-related actions and hosts a platform to showcase them (UNDP) Mar-Jun 2018
- at least 3 forest countries announce investible propositions by defining the contribution forests will play in their existing NDCs and what REDD+ credits will be available for transfer
II.2
- Develop one pilot knowledge exchange to show actions the platform can take to help countries meet NDCs in alignment with the 10 goals (Climate Advisers) Mar-Sep 2018
- Engage with one forest country to concretely support NDC implementation (Climate Advisers) Jan-Jun 2018
II.3
- Establish three partnerships that advance implementation of corporate commitments to preferential sourcing of agricultural commodities at the jurisdictional scale (Climate Advisers) Mar-Sep 2018
2. Quality Assurance for UNDP’s Green Climate Fund portfolio related to REDD+;
- Be accountable for the application of UNDP, GCF and REDD+ guidance, tools, approaches and procedures
- Supervise and contribute to the monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management of approved programmes and projects in UNDP country offices;
- Ensure the effective application of indicators, benchmarks, work plans and other requirements in accordance with UNDP’s role as an Accredited Entity of the GCF;
- Maintain portfolio and corporate information systems;
- Lead the preparation of semi/annual progress and final reports;
3. Implementation support for other sources of funds (UN-REDD, FCPF, GCFTF etc.) in Latin America;
- Contribute to a strategic understanding of, and engagement with, the substantive technical issues, institutions, and processes within the region;
- Establish contact and develop strategic partnerships with other agencies, donors, NGO’s, the private sector, scientific institutions and the like;
- Work with the safeguards experts in the UNDP REDD+ Team to support relevant aspects of the portfolio, including training national safeguards teams in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay
- Provide technical assistance to Colombia and Mexico as per the agreed 2018-2020 results framework, including:
- Colombia: Functional and effective participatory mechanisms to discuss policy options to address forest and REDD+ issues, covering the different rural stakeholders (e.g.: indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian people, forest communities). The multi-stakeholder mechanisms required under the JDI/REDD+ are operational.
- Mexico: Financing options to achieve NDC targets and ENAREDD goals (including private and public sources, and ensuring policy alignment) with technical & policy options to enable results-base finance for REDD+ clarified and in place
- Mexico: National safeguards system included the Safeguards Information System is operational and updated summary of safeguards information is submitted to the UNFCCC
- Guide Colombia’s UNDP country office in closing UN-REDD’s NP, including completing the final evaluation, and exit strategy, and compiling and disseminating the NP results to international audiences
4. Strategic communications and knowledge sharing;
- Design and organize training courses to facilitate knowledge sharing
- Synthesizing lessons and stimulating the uptake of best practices and knowledge, including the development of knowledge materials;
- Peer reviewing, commenting on, and seeking to improve the technical quality of programmes/projects, policies, practices, guidelines, advisory notes, publications and the like;
- Responding to queries on programme/project progress, impacts and lessons;
Competencies
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates commitment to UNDP´s mission, vision and values;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Highest standards of of integrity, discretion and loyalty.
Functional Competencies:
- Diplomacy and tact;
- Ability to communicate and work closely with a variety of people within a multicultural environment;
- Strong work ethic and commitment;
- Concise and analytical thinking;
- Organized and resourceful.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree or equivalent experience in environmental policy, environmental law, natural resource management, climate-change policies and/or other relevant field.
Language:
- Full proficiency in English and Spanish is essential;
Experience:
- Minimum of 10 years practical working experience in developing countries with environment issues, including climate change, forest carbon and REDD+;
- Extensive experience with project development, implementation and management is essential;
- Experience in the policy development processes associated with climate change and REDD+ is desirable;
Application Submission Process:
The application submission is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:
Step 1: Interested individual consultants must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP job shop (Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded therefore please include all docs in one file):
- Personal History Form (P11), indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references (the template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc
- An updated curriculum vitae CV
Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal
Applicants are instructed to submit their financial proposals in US Dollars for this consultancy to frances.lim@undp.org using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=43473. The proposals should be sent via email with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal/Consultant REDD+ Technical Specialist" by latest 21 January 2018.
Proposals to be received after the deadline will be rejected. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown. The term ‘all-inclusive” implies that all costs (monthly professional fees, travel related expenses if applicable, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal.
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer
The consultant’s offer will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%;
The key criteria for rating the qualification and methodology are as follows:
A. Technical qualifications (Weight 70%)
- Academic background: Master’s degree environmental policy, environmental law, natural resource management, climate-change policies and/or other relevant field (15 points)
- At least seven years practical working experience in tropical forest countries in Latin America with forest issues, including climate change, forest carbon and REDD+ (25 points)
- At least five years working experience with an international REDD+ partnership or similar international forest-related initiative (30 points)
- Understanding of the REDD+ agenda and climate finance in the context of UNFCCC and the Green Climate Fund (30 points).
B. Financial Offer (Weight 30%)