Background

For decades, Georgian mining has generated important revenue for the national budget and local economies. It is an established and open mining market. Under the current legislative framework, all minerals (mines and quarries), coal and groundwater constitute the “minerals sector’’. In the last five years especially, interest in Georgia’s mining sector has experienced a revival. It is estimated that 30% of exports are mineral-related (processed and semi-processed minerals), more than 4000 licenses have been issued and overall the sector employs 30,000 Georgians. Mining is an ongoing business in Georgia that presently achieves a number of policy objectives, e.g.: revenue generation, job creation, and infrastructure development. The overall investment climate in Georgia ranks highly when compared to the global markets, but the state of modern mineral management in terms of governance and capacity needs to be strengthened.

The experience of a number of states has shown that adopting modern strategies, methodologies, policy, and legislation, while also strengthening regulatory institutions in order to effectively regulate the mining sector, is essential for attracting responsible investments and facilitating sector development.

Currently, the responsible body, Legal Entity of Public Law (LEPL)the National Agency of Mines (NAM), operates under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia (MoESD) and works to establish, improve, and effectively implement a mining sector policy, a regulatory framework, methodologies, and relevant standards.  Adopting international good practice and comprehensive reforms will allow the Government of Georgia (GoG) to gain financial returns while also improving the management of mineral resources and ensuring the country’s environmental protection.

The first phase of the Mining Sector Reform, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has been successfully completed; the international consulting company has developed the Mining Sector Policy document that seeks to strengthen institutional arrangements, legislative frameworks, improve investment promotion and facilitate transparent, accountable operations. The document will be presented to the GoG for approval in the near future. At the same time, negotiations for initiating the second phase are underway, within which the legislative framework will be updated.

Strengthening monitoring functions is one of the fundamental components of the Mining Sector Policy Document and the overall reform process. In 2017, due to structural changes of the government, establishing licensing conditions and supervisory functions became the sole responsibility of the NAM so as to increase the efficiency and coordination of the process. Previously, licensing was carried out by the National Environmental Agency (NEA) and monitoring functions were performed by the Environmental Supervision Department (ESD). Both of them were operating under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia. Despite the changes, monitoring of illegal mining still remains the function of ESD and all other functions related to the mining sector were shifted to the newly established National Agency of Mines (NAM).  

To further increase the efficiency of monitoring whether companies are meeting their licensing conditions, it is essential to develop a risk assessment methodology in line with international good practice. It is necessary to identify and risk-rank health, safety and other types of hazards (and potential hazards) while issuing the licenses and during the monitoring of company performance and adherence to license conditions. The methodology will support the relevant bodies to adopt and apply a risk-based approach for more effective and efficient control of the highest-risk workplace hazards. Furthermore, the methodology is necessary to cultivate a common understanding of the highest-risk standards/criteria. Thus, the NAM will focus its effort on responding to high-priority hazards. As the methodology and expertise for assessing the health, safety, environmental, community, regulatory risks of minerals mining do not exist in Georgia, the NAM requires UNDP to provide the support and technical assistance through international expertise for the development of the above-mentioned documents.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the consultancy is to provide support to the National Agency of Mines to establish a sound monitoring system, strengthen the capacity of its monitoring functions and promote sustainable management through the elaboration of a risk assessment methodology and guiding matrix. The documents produced will also be used for the development of inspection criteria and inspection guidelines along with additional technical requirements for license owners.  The scope of work for the International consultant will include, but may not be limited to:

• Desk review of the existing risk assessment practices/methodology within the NAM;
• Conduct consultations with key stakeholders (civil society, environmental non-governmental organizations, private mining companies) in order to identify the most pressing risks in the Georgian mining sector;
• Analyze findings and recommendations gathered during the desk review and consultations;
• Study the global mining sector’s international good practice surrounding risk assessment methodologies and provide recommendations on relevant models/systems relevant to the Georgian context;
• Prepare the gap analysis of the mining sector monitoring based on risk assessment;
• Develop risk assessment methodology tailored to the Georgian context in close cooperation with the Agency and relevant stakeholders (ensure appropriate parties are involved in the process);
• Develop a guiding matrix by:
  • Identifying risks by type (e.g. safety, health, environmental, etc.) according to international best practice;
  • Categorizing the severity of risks according to international good practice (e.g. disastrous, very serious, serious, minor);
  • Risk levels according to severity (e.g. almost certainly, very likely, likely, not likely) based on international good practice;
  • Providing a timeline for risk assessment (e.g. frequency of updating specific indicator)
• Present the elaborated draft documents (methodology and guiding matrix) to the agency and solicit feedback from key stakeholders;
• Finalise the documents based on solicited feedback;
• Facilitate two workshops (one workshop on main findings of the desk review and consultations; And the second workshop on elaborated methodology and guiding matrix); 
• Present the documents at a national level (private sector, civil society, and environmental NGO representatives) and finalise the methodology and guiding matrix.

Deliverables:

1. Desk review report of the existing risk assessment methodology within the National Agency of Mines;
2. Review of the international good practice of risk assessment methodologies;
3. Workshop with key stakeholders to present the main findings of the first mission;
4. Gap analysis of actual performance with desired performance;
5. Draft Risk assessment methodology and matrix;
6. Finalized Risk assessment methodology and matrix;
7. Workshop with key stakeholders to present the final documents to stakeholders);
8. Meetings at national level (private sector, civil society, and environmental NGO representatives) to introduce the finalized documents;
9. Final consultancy report covering the activities undertaken, the completed accomplishment and recommendations for future implementation.

Management Arrangements:

The International Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Governance Reform Fund (GRF) Project Manager and the direct supervision of the GRF Environmental Coordinator. The expert will have close working relations with representatives of the NCDC and other governmental institutions during the process of developing the regulatory policy documents with the aim of ensuring the overall vision and priorities of the GoG are taken into consideration.

The service provider will be directly responsible to, reporting to, seeking approval from, and obtaining certificate of acceptance of outputs from the above-mentioned institutions. In addition, the respective GRF team will be responsible for sharing relevant documents, contact details and other necessary information with the service provider.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Understanding of the mandate and the role of UNDP would be an asset;
• 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.

Functional competencies:

• Strong communication and analytical skills;
• Demonstrated skills in drafting reports;
• Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
• Actively generates creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving;
• Computer literacy.

 Leadership and Self-Management skills:

• Builds strong relationships with the working group and with the project partners; focuses on impact and results for the project partners and responds positively to feedback;
• Cooperates with the working group effectively and demonstrates strong conflict resolution skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy, positivity and a constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates strong influencing and facilitation skills;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change, new ideas and ability to manage ambiguity;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates the ability to transfer knowledge and competencies;
• Is able to work independently and hurdle competing priorities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Law/Business administration/public policy/social science/Environmental study/sustainable International Development/Geology or other relevant fields (minimum requirement: Bachelor’s degree - 13 points; Master’s degree – additional 2 points)

Experience:

• At least five years of hands-on experience in policy analysis of mining sector (minimum requirement: 5 years – 7 points; more than 5 years – additional 3 points):
• At least four years of hands-on experience in developing a risk assessment and management approaches in mining sector (minimum requirement: 4 years – 5 points; more than 4 years – additional 5 points)
• At least five years of proven working experience with government agencies and/or international organizations implementing or supporting the mining institutional and regulatory reforms (minimum requirement: 5 years - 10 points; more than 5 years – additional 5 points);
• Proven experience and knowledge of Monitoring and Evaluation systems of mining sector;
• Proven experience in elaborating and providing sustainable development approaches to mining policy development throughout the minerals supply chain, specifically focusing on risks assessment methodologies; 
• Experience in working with the public-sector organization will be an asset;
• Experience of working in Georgia and/or knowledge of the region’s context is an asset;

Language requirements:

• Excellent English language skills (both written and oral).

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis method:Offerors will be evaluated against combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 (desk review 50 points and interview 20 points) and for financial criteria – to 30. Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. The offerors who obtain minimum 35 points as a result of the desk review will be invited for the interview. Offerors who pass 70% threshold, i.e. obtain minimum 14 points, as a result of the interview will be requested the financial proposal.

Financial Proposal:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount. Maximum 30 points will be assigned to the lowest price offer. All other price offers will be scored using the formula (inverse proportion):  Financial score X = 30* the lowest price offer/suggested price offer. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal as well.

Payment modality:

The payment schedule is given below and will be made upon completion of activities and submission and approval of deliverables by the supervisor:

• Desk review report of the existing risk assessment methodology within the National Agency of Mines; Review of the international good practice of risk assessment methodologies; Workshop with key stakeholders to present the main findings of the first mission; Gap analysis of actual performance with desired performance: by the end of August - 30% of consultancy fee;
• Draft Risk assessment methodology and matrix; Finalized Risk assessment methodology and matrix: by the end of September - 40% of consultancy fee;
• Workshop with key stakeholders to present the final documents to stakeholders); Meetings at national level (private sector, civil society, and environmental NGO representatives) to introduce the finalized documents; Final consultancy report covering the activities undertaken, the completed accomplishment and recommendations for future implementation: by the end of October - 30% of consultancy fee.