Background
The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder for including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.
As the UN system's development programme and a GEF Implementing Agency since 1991, UNDP supports countries in addressing development, climate, and ecosystem sustainability in an integrated manner.
In its role as a GEF Implementing Agency, UNDP-GEF offers countries highly specialized technical services for eligibly assessment, programme/project formulation, due diligence, mobilization of required co-financing, project implementation oversight, results management and evaluation, performance-based payments and knowledge management. UNDP-GEF’s Green, Low-emission, Climate-resilient Development Strategies team works to support countries to attract and direct public and private investment towards catalyzing and supporting sustainable economic growth through initiatives focused on integrated Climate Change Strategies, Advancing Cross-sectoral Climate Resilient Livelihoods and Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems for Climate Resilient Development.
In 2014, UNDP-GEF launched the Multi Country Project to Strengthen Climate Information for Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa (CIRDA). The project has the objective of supporting 11 countries in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia) to enhance national climate services in their efforts to collect, analyze and disseminate climate information as a key tool in long term planning and adaptation.
The CIRDA Project provides technical support and capacity building through fostering knowledge sharing between experts, regional organizations and the countries’ themselves.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work:
The Specialist will be primarily home-based, with missions to regional/global meetings and CIRDA partner countries, primarily those in Burkina Faso and Zambia.
The Specialist will work with the CIRDA Team, national project managers, UNDP country and regional offices, partner and donor country governments, other international/multi-lateral organizations, and contractors.
The duties to be undertaken by the Specialist are the following:
- In collaboration with country teams, assess and document existing technologies, procedures and capacity of each national IP to collect, transmit, process, store and communicate climate information;
- Assist country teams to identify key technologies, partnerships, and procedures that can be used to deploy innovative and cost-effective climate information services at the national level;
- Provide technical support in the design and execution of national trainings on the use of innovative technologies, partnerships, and procedures (e.g. all-in-one weather sensor packages, mobile telephone tower infrastructure, lightning-detection sensors, rain-fade information, etc.) in the production of appropriate weather and climate forecasts;
- Support CIRDA project management, country teams, and other UNDP offices in the validation, and/or the design and execution of, procurement plans that will establish cost-effective and appropriate technologies for monitoring and forecasting weather and climate;
- Support IPs in the post-procurement implementation of climate information services including installment, operation and maintenance efforts related to data collection, processing, and distribution efforts;
- Support country teams in the creation of appropriate communication products for the distribution of climate information to key public and private stakeholders;
- Assist in the development of strategies within each country to market climate information products including partnership development, business development, and product marketing;
- Through frequent in-country missions, as well as, electronic communications, establish and maintain relationships, on behalf of CIRDA, with key national project implementation partners and their staff including IPs and UNDP Country Offices, as well as, entities within both the public and private sectors;
- Share knowledge gained and best practices encountered on country missions with the CIRDA team and other national projects;
- Support CIRDA project management and country teams in the creation and execution of appropriate monitoring and evaluation programs that measure the success or failure of project intervention efforts;
- Provide continued support to the Project Manager and Regional Technical Specialist.
Amongst the above-mentioned tasks, the consultant is expected to deliver:
- Operations and maintenance plans for at least 2 CIRDA Partner Countries;
- Mission reports from country support missions (due one week after mission completion) including a capacity assessment of each national IP to collect, transmit, process, store, and communicate climate information, as well as, the identification of key technologies, partnerships, and procedures that can be used to deploy innovative and cost-effective climate information services at the national level;
- Support in the development of procurement plans including technology and service specifications for national project partners;
- Delivery of national trainings on the use of innovative technologies, partnerships, and procedures in the production of appropriate weather and climate forecasts;
- Presentation on methods to communicate climate information to public and private parties, to support either the climate adaptation objective or the sustainability objective of the project (or both).
Key performance indicators:
- Quality and timely submission of mission reports prepared (1: Excellent; 2: Satisfactory; 3: Poor);
- Quality of procurement plans prepared (1: Excellent; 2: Satisfactory; 3: Poor);
- Evaluation ratings from participants of national training sessions;
- Quality of the support provided in the development of information notes (1: Excellent; 2: Satisfactory; 3: Poor);
- Number of projects successfully acquiring and implementing new climate information systems.
Information on Working Arrangements:
- Estimated level of effort including travel days: 25 days;
- The Consultant will be home-based;
- The consultant will report directly to the CIRDA Project Manager;
- The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
- The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection;
- Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;
- Payments will be made upon submission of a detailed time sheet and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the Supervisor on days worked (with a “day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and outputs delivered.
Travel:
- Travel will be required to the following countries to provide assistance to international workshops and CIRDA partner countries for training purposes:
- Burkina Faso – May 2018 for up to 5 days;
- Zambia – July 2018 for up to 5 days;
- Any necessary mission travel must be approved in advance and in writing by the Supervisor;
- The Advanced and Basic Security in the Field II courses must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
- 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 ttps://dss.un.org/dssweb/;
- Consultants are responsible for obtaining security clearances and any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
- The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
- All related travel expenses will be supported by the project travel fund;
- All estimated costs for mission travel (round trip economy fare ticket, terminals, etc.) should be included in the financial proposal
Competencies
Corporate
- Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism.
Technical
- Ability to provide guidance on meteorology, weather and climate monitoring and forecasting, and product development and marketing;
- Ability to assist countries to achieve project goals at the regional level;
- Ability to work with multiple stakeholders across a wide range of disciplines;
- Strong understanding of complex processes including science, technology and policies;
- Ability to design contracts and agreements with private sector in LDC countries.
Professionalism
- Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills;
- Ability to exercise the highest level of responsibility and handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.
Communication
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills;
- Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.
Teamwork
- Work well in a team to advance the priorities of the CIRDA Project and UNDP as a whole;
- Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
- Focuses on results for the client;
- Welcomes constructive feedback.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree or higher in meteorology, hydrology, engineering, or other closely related technical or scientific field of study (max 10 points).
Experience:
- At least 7 years of demonstrated experience working within or for national meteorological or hydrological service or equivalent; (max 10 points);
- At least 3 years of demonstrated experience with weather or climate observation network design, implementation, and/or management; (max 10 points)
- At least 3 years of demonstrated project management experience would be desirable; (max 10 points)
- Multinational and developing country experience would be desirable. (max 5 points)
Language Requirements:
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English language (max 3 points);
- Proficiency in French is an asset (max 1 point);
- Proficiency in Portuguese is an asset (max 1 point).
Evaluation Method:
- Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Incomplete applications will not be considered;
- Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
- The technical criteria (education, experience, language requirements) will be based on a maximum 50 points;
- Only the top 3 candidates scoring a minimum of 35 points or higher from the review of education, experience and language will be considered for financial evaluation;
- Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
- The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
- Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.
Documentation to be submitted:
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) to be downloaded from the below link;
- Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application;
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment to be downloaded from the UNDP procurement site.
Kindly note you can upload only one document to this application (combine or scan all documents into one single MS Word or PDF file to attach to your online application).
UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.
General Conditions of Contract for the ICs:
Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment:
http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=43554