The climate change poses serious, wide-ranging risks to economies, societies and ecosystems. Reducing these risks requires action to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), combined with measures to increase resilience to the impacts that occur (adaptation). Through the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), opportunities have been created to ensure a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for all.
In many countries, Montenegro included, UNDP has an important role in working towards this future.
Working in partnership with the Government of Montenegro and with support from the Green Climate Fund, Montenegro is now implementing a project entitled “Enhancing Montenegro’s capacity to integrate climate change risks into planning”. 
Relying on cooperation with national stakeholders and in close cooperation with the Government of Montenegro, a stocktaking exercise to inform the development of an adaptation process concluded that agriculture, water, tourism and health sectors were the initial priority sectors for climate change adaptation interventions. 

Despite the actions taken and progress made so far in prioritizing adaptation planning within policy and institutional frameworks, several gaps and barriers are limiting the functioning and effectiveness of the adaptation planning process. These barriers are: 
(i)   The coordination framework for adaptation planning and action are only partially established and underperforming, with a need for improvement and more effective organizational design, clear roles and responsibilities, improved capacity (technical and functional) and institutional arrangements designated for mainstreaming climate change into work-programmed at the sector level 
(ii)  Limited institutional and technical capacity at the national and sectoral level to address climate change impacts through adaptation actions, with a need to improve the technical capacity to collect, generate, use and disseminate climate information and services 
(iii) The information required for conducting informed and effective adaptation planning and investments is unavailable. It is difficult to accurately gauge and cost adaptation options at national and sectoral levels without relevant information on climate impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity in the medium to long-term 
(iv)  National and alternative sources of finance to fund adaptation investments are not optimized as the full costs of adaptation are not yet known.

In responding to these challenges, the proposal was developed for funding under The Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme. The project’s overarching objective is to improve Montenegro’s institutional capacity for long-term adaptation planning. To achieve this, the proposal is focused on (i) improving the institutional coordination framework and increasing institutional capabilities, (ii) increasing climate information and identifying potential adaptation responses/measures, and (iii) identifying financial requirements and resources to fund adaptation investments.
The design and sequence of the project activities have been planned to create efficiencies and have a greater change of being effective. 
By building enabling institutional, planning and programming environments for adaption at the national and sectoral level, Montenegro will be able to identify climate-induced risks, and vulnerabilities, and use that information to inform adaptation planning process and to explore appropriate adaptation responses.
Within this  context, the project is inviting eligible candidates with relevant experience in mainstreaming gender and/or climate change issues into agriculture sector policies, previous experience in capacity building interventions, training program design and implementation of training programs to, in cooperation with local experts (3 local experts , one for each of sectors), lead international expert and UNDP/national partners, support  development of gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators for agriculture sector and identify entry points for integrating gender-sensitive climate adaptation measures for NAP Montenegro.

Objective of the assignment: 

The overall objective of this set of activities is to start establishment of the M&E system, initially with a smaller number of indicators and with additional indicators to be included over time, as the country is gaining experience with M&E and adaptation actions. Consequently, the expected activities will have a component of capacity building as well as specific work on developing gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators for agriculture sector and identify entry points for integrating gender-sensitive climate adaptation measures for the NAP in Montenegro.

The process will benefit from ongoing comprehensive review and consolidation of available climate risk assessments within or related to the four priority sectors implemented by the project, while the process is expected to contribute to establish a monitoring and evaluation framework for adaptation planning and its effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis for prioritized CCA investment options. 

The overall objective of the assignment is to provide support to the lead expert in development of gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators for agriculture sector. A secondary objective is to develop training materials and module focused on agriculture sector that will contribute to increasing capacity on the M&E of adaptation. 

Expected results of the assignment:

The process will highlight how the forthcoming NAP could be strengthened on gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators integration in alignment with good practices, therefore consists of three steps. Namely, the consultant is expected to:

1. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and undertake desk review of the relevant documents to identify a subset of adaptation actions for analysis in line with the UNFCCC, EU Adapt, national strategic framework with a view to identify partnerships.

2. The second part will be support to in-depth gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators analysis together with national consultants, programme staff and national counterparts to identify gender issues, priorities and strategies for developing target setting in the new NAP. This will have to be done in line with the country’s relevance, priorities and ongoing work and available financial and human resources.

3. Lastly, do a synthesis of findings to develop programmatic responses, outputs and indicators to track progress and assess the resource requirements for agriculture sector. This will lead to the development of action points for the new NAP, training programs, identify entry points for integrating gender-sensitive climate adaptation measures.

Specific tasks are:

1. Become fully acquainted in detail with the role of all stakeholders in the CCA monitoring and reporting system, identify key national institutions responsible for generating and processing data with a focus on adaptation to climate change, and the process of collecting, processing, archiving, and sending data.

2. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and map potential requirements, including legal and administrative requirements for establishment gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets, and indicators.

3. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and assess the extent to which programming has been effectively integrating and setting up goals, targets and indicators in the implementation of the current programmed designs, strategies and activities of 4 NAP sectors. For each sector assess the quality of existing targets in programme planning, implementation through the following aspects:

a. Review multi-year and annual work plan, concept notes and donor proposals.

b. Review the programme planning, monitoring, reporting, research and evaluation through review of programme monitoring reports, and research and evaluation reports.

c. Assess capacity of programme staff in ensuring effective integration and propose corrective measures where gaps exist.

d. Organize sector meetings to review their results frameworks with a view to identify issues, priorities and bottlenecks and way forward

4. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and specify the resources, processes, capacities and systems that will be required to integrate gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators in agriculture sector. This will include mapping of the sectoral outputs and activities; an in-depth review of selected outputs; and integrating specific action points into the NAP process, assessment of the capacity building needs and opportunity for all staff to strengthen cross sectoral knowledge.

5. Support the lead expert in development gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators, taking into account their quantitative, temporal, spatial, initial costing and descriptive aspects for agriculture sector. The resulting report will be circulated with sector planners and the NAP team to inform planning and is expected to serve as a model for other sectors. Reports will be made published online available to the public. 

6. Support lead expert in designing pathway describing all steps for implementation of the proposed framework, including responsible entities, a timeframe, and related costs to the extent possible

7. Review and analyze sectoral development plans and policies (agriculture), identify entry points for integrating gender-sensitive climate adaptation measures and provide input for the report identifying entry points and opportunities for integrating gender-sensitive adaptation measures into agriculture sector plans and policies. Report is circulated with planners including the NAP team, Working Group of National Council for Sustainable Development on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change, sector planners and other relevant stakeholders.

8. Produce and deliver following knowledge products: 

a. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and develop modules for training program with the approach of train the trainers targeting Division for Climate Change and Working group of National council for sustainable development responsible for issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation on Climate Change in agriculture sector. 

b. Support development of the report summarizing relevant international best practices on adaptation and indicators and objectives in the NAPs and to promote the incorporation of these into the Montenegrin context. This may also include engaging with UNDP's regional and global experts on this topic and discussions with relevant UNDP specialists about international best practices, indicators, targets and objectives, conducting desk review of available documentation to identify key sectoral results, indicators, and outputs, desk review of relevant international materials, including other good examples, especially from other countries in the region.  

9. Develop and agree methodology with lead expert and produce inputs for final report

Expected Deliverables of the assignment:

Time duration: the assignment should be implemented during the period from 10 February to 30 September 2022, with 40 working days. 

The Consultant is expected to adhere to the following reporting requirements: S/he will be reporting to the project manager on biweekly basis through e mails, teams or zoom calls.

The Consultant will be reporting his/her progress through e mails as a mode of communication to the contract supervisor. The Consultant will therefore submit all the agreed contract deliverables through e mails and these documents should be in word unless when he/she is submitting final versions where he/she has to submit both word and PDF versions. The Consultant should provide needed inputs and submit the agreed deliverables; Inception Report detailing methodology to be used, Action Plan with clear deliverables and timelines; Draft Mapping of results (outputs, activities, indicators) with recommendations on the existing opportunities including potential partnerships; Report summarizing relevant international best practices on adaptation and indicators and objectives in the NAPs and to promote the incorporation of these into the Montenegrin context, training program with developed modules and implementation guidelines, Final report with finalized gender-sensitive adaptation goals, targets and indicators for each of the four priority sectors and identify entry points for integrating gender-sensitive climate adaptation measures for NAP Montenegro and Communications Plan. 

• Demonstrate integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promote the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN/UNDP;
• Display cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrate good oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrate ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills.

Education:

• At least a master’s degree in a relevant field (environmental science, agriculture and natural resource management, hydrography or similar).

Experience:

• At least 7 years professional experience with mainstreaming gender and climate change issues into sectoral policies, previous experience in capacity building assessments, training program design and implementation of training programs.
• Demonstrated experience in working with government partners and other stakeholders, 
• Experience with the usage of various systems analysis methods and techniques would be considered as advantage. 

Language:

• Knowledge of Montenegrin language;  
• English language knowledge. 

Other:

• Excellent social, communication skills and writing skills;

Criteria for selection:

Combined Scoring method will be used. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: (i) responsive, compliant, acceptable, and (ii) 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% (Background and education 10%; Relevant previous experience 20%; Substantial knowledge/Required competencies 30%; Required language 10%);
• Financial criteria weight - 30%.

Only offerors obtaining a minimum 490 points for technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation. For more information on procurement methodology for Individual Contractors, please refer to Procurement Notice.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications by February 1, 2022 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at https://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/jobs.html. 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.

Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted and requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work envisaged in the section "Description of Responsibilities".