Background

A. Background/Project Description

The Arafura and Timor Seas (ATS) is part of the North Australian Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (LME), which is a tropical sea lying between the Pacific and Indian Oceans and extending from the Timor Sea to the Torres Strait and including the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The region is adjacent to the Coral Triangle, which hosts the world’s highest marine biodiversity and contains some of the pristine and highly threatened coastal and marine ecosystems. At the regional scale, the ecosystems of the ATS play an important economic and ecological role in the littoral nations bordering the Arafura and the Timor Sea: Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

The marine environment in the ATS region is in serious decline, primarily because of overharvesting and other direct and indirect impacts of anthropogenic stresses and global climatic changes. Fisheries in the ATS region represent an extremely complex productive, socioeconomic sector, with multiple actors, target species sought, and technology used. In addition to climate change, unsustainable harvesting, Illegal, Unreported Unregulated (IUU) fishing, and bycatch are having significant impacts on the populations of key marine species in the ATS region, particularly globally threatened coastal marine megafauna including migratory, rare, and threatened species of turtles, dugongs, seabirds/shorebirds, sea snakes, cetaceans, sharks and rays. Lastly, potential sources of marine pollution in the ATS region include marine debris, marine-based pollution from oil and gas activities, as well as waste from fishing and shipping vessels.

ATSEA-2 is the 2nd phase of the GEF-financed, UNDP-supported ATSEA program, building upon the foundational results realized in the first phase of the ATSEA program, covering Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.  This 5-year project will support the implementation of the following governance and environmental objectives of the ATS regional Strategic Action Program: (i) Strengthening of ATS regional governance; (ii) Recovering and sustaining fisheries; (iii) Restoring degraded habitats for sustainable provision of ecosystem services; (iv) Reducing land-based and marine sources of pollution; (v) Protecting key marine species; and (vi) strengthening adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

The ATSEA-2 project will support the protection of priority coastal and marine habitats and the conservation of protected species.  The first step will be a regional stock-taking of key biodiversity habitats, including coral reef, seagrass, and mangrove ecosystems, and identifying priority conservation areas. This will be used to support the designing of a resilient network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), covering an estimated 1.5 million hectares and extending from the Lesser Sunda region to the south coast of Timor-Leste, southeast Aru Islands in Indonesia, and over to Kolepon Island located at the far eastern reaches of the Arafura Sea, near Merauke.

The project is also providing resources to support efforts at strengthening regional biodiversity information management systems. Furthermore, the potential impacts of climate change on the biodiversity of the coastal and marine ATS ecosystems will be addressed, and adaptive strategies will be integrated into the protected area management plans and regional action plans for enhanced protection of key species.

The UNDP Timor-Leste and Directorate General of Fisheries (DGF) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery (MAF) is seeking to engage a national consultant (capacity assessment specialist) to support the undertaking of a capacity and needs assessments of the relevant government ministries and/or agencies in strengthening institutional and human resource capacity towards integrated approaches in natural resource management, coastal and marine biodiversity conservation through protection of habitat and species in Arafura and Timor Seas portion of Timor-Leste.

Duties and Responsibilities

B. Objective

The overall objective of this TOR is to seek a qualified national capacity assessment specialist to support the undertaking of capacity and needs assessments of the relevant government ministries and/or agencies in strengthening institutional and human resource capacity towards integrated approaches in natural resource management, coastal and marine biodiversity conservation through protection of habitat and species in Arafura and Timor Seas portion of Timor-Leste. The government ministries include, but are not limited to, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery (MAF), the Secretary of State for Environment (SSE), and the Ministry of State Administration (MSA). In addition, the consultant will also support the Team Leader for this assignment to identify and assess the capacity and needs of other stakeholders (e.g. Research Institutions, NGOs, CBOs, Private Sectors, etc.) that will make up the Stakeholder Partnership Forum (SPF) of the Timor-Leste ATSEA-2 program.

C. Scope of Works

The main scope of works for this assignment encompasses the following:   

1. Provide backstopping to the assessment of national policies and regulations related to fisheries and biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation, with an emphasis towards identifying inadequacies and opportunities for strengthening provisions in support of integrated approaches, such as EAFM, EbA, etc.;
2. Support the work of the Team Leader undertaking a capacity and needs assessment of government ministries (MAF, SSE, MSA, and other relevant line ministries) to identify needs and priorities for government officials charged with planning, design, and implementation roles in marine and coastal management, marine and coastal biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation at the national level and at the municipal level, if applicable;  
3. Identify and assess the capacity and needs of other stakeholders (e.g. Research/Academic Institutions, NGOs, CBOs, Business/Private Sector, etc.) that can make up the Stakeholder Partnership Forum (SPF) of the Timor-Leste ATSEA-2 program;
4. Carry out the stocktaking and support the review of the existing handbooks, guidelines and training curricula relating to integrated natural resources management (including Integrated Coastal Management (ICM), Marine Protected Areas (MPA), management and monitoring, Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management (EAFM), climate change adaptation, etc.) available from concerned line ministries, academic/research institutions, and related projects and programs. Evaluate their suitability to address the identified capacity building needs, and how these can be adjusted to suit local circumstances;
5. Support the Team Leader in coming up with a draft and final report for the overall findings including:
   1. Interests, roles, and mandates from each ministry and stakeholder assessed;
   2. Capacity, needs, and constraints/gaps from each ministry and stakeholders assessed; and
   3. Recommendation for next steps.

D. Approach and methodology

The consultant will be expected to propose a detailed methodological approach and work plan that will effectively cover the scope of work specified in previous section.   

E. Expected Outputs and Deliverables

F. Institutional Arrangement

The capacity assessment specialist will work under the direct supervision of the National Team Leader for this assignment and work closely with the ATSEA-2 National Coordinating Unit, Climate Change and Environment Unit of UNDP Timor-Leste, and Directorate General of Fishery under the State Secretary for fishery of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery. He/she will arrange the necessary travel logistics for the duration of the assignment as well as communicate with the Team Leader, DG Fishery, and UNDP and support provision of regular reports to the ATSEA-2 Project on the implementation progress and completion.

G. Duration and Timeframe and Reporting Requirements

The expected overall duration of this assignment is 2.5 months from 15 October – 31 December 2021 with maximum 35 working days.

1. Duty Station

Dili, Timor-Leste.

1. Facilities to be provided by UNDP

UNDP will provide necessary coordination/technical support including support transportation vehicle for local travel to project sites in the Municipality if and/or when needed.

Competencies

• Experience in providing support to similar assignments in a multi-cultural environment.
• Experience in conducting need assessments as well as a review of policies and programmes is an asset.
• Proven experience in preparation of written reports in an accurate and concise manner, and public presentation skills.
• Proven organizational, time management, and facilitation skills.
• Relevant experience in Timor-Leste

Required Skills and Experience

Min. academic education:

• Bachelor’s degree in fishery, natural resources management, education, or related field.

Min. years of relevant Work experience:

• At least three (3) years of relevant experience in designing and/or running capacity-building programs. He/she should have additional working experience in carrying out marine resources socio-economic assessments and guide the process of having all the relevant fisheries and/or marine resources socio-economic aspects assessed and adequately covered.

Required Language(s) (at working level):

• Fluency in written and spoken English.

1. Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Lump Sum Amount

The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of a lump sum all-inclusive cost linked to deliverables specified in TOR Section E, supported by a breakdown of costs as per the template provided.

Schedule of payments

Per deliverable/s upon submission of its completion deliverables report and accepted by UNDP, each deliverable as per the timeline mentioned in section E (expected outputs and deliverables).

J.      Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested applicants are mandatory to apply online through https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?job_id=103197. Supporting documents/filled templates to be submitted along with the applications are following, and those templates can be downloaded from https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=85534. 

Individual consultants interested in the assignment must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualification in one single PDF document:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (the template to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
2. Personal CV or P11 indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (2) professional references (to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
3. Financial Proposal: that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (the template to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
4. Technical Proposal:
   1. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
   2. A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.

K.      Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%)

Qualification, Experience, and Technical Proposal (70 marks):

1. General Qualification (15 marks);
2. Experience relevant to the assignment (35 marks);
3. Technical Proposal: Brief methodology and work plan on how the consultant will approach and complete the work (20 marks).

Financial Evaluation (30%):

The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);

• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at a later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).

Incomplete applications will not be considered and will be disqualified automatically.