Background

UNDP has been supporting the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in meeting its national and international environmental priorities and commitments. These include close to 40 projects in the area of biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource management, climate change and chemical management. UNDP’s support focuses on technical and policy advisory, institutional strengthening and building capacities of various stakeholders to utilize natural resources in a sustainable way, while increasing resilience to climate variability and associated risks and impacts. UNDP also supports India’s engagement with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and works with Central Ministries and state governments to implement GEF financed projects.

UNDP India is developing a GEF-supported project entitled, “Strengthening institutional capacities for securing biodiversity conservation commitments”. The project would be led by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in partnership with National Biodiversity Authority and UNDP. The project aims to mainstream biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use and management into local level self-governance institutional planning and budgeting systems in two high biodiversity landscapes in India.

UNDP seeks to engage a National Community Engagement & Gender Specialist who will be responsible for supporting the GEF Project Development Specialist and provide inputs for relevant sections on stakeholder engagement especially engagement with the communities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The list below outlines key responsibilities and deliverables for the consultant:

Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews (Component A):

1. Prepare inputs and support the required analysis/studies, as agreed with the GEF Project Development Specialist including:
2. Finalize a stakeholder engagement plan for the PPG, including for appropriate consultations with local communities and indigenous peoples/ethnic groups;
3. Support the SESP pre-screening process of the PIF; and detailed assessment of all project risks including consultations with local stakeholders;
4. Assess the presence of Indigenous Peoples/ethnic minorities within project landscapes and their interests. If present, assess potential impacts of the project on rights and interests, lands, territories, resources, and traditional livelihoods and determine when FPIC applies in accordance with national contexts and preferences. Carry out consultations with communities at demonstration landscape to assess level of understanding and capacity to give consent and identify community preferences for FPIC process; assist and/or advise the PPG Team in securing initial FPIC, where required;
5. Prepare the comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan for project implementation;
6. Provide inputs to the International Safeguards Specialist for the development of an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) in line with UNDP’s Guidance Note on Assessment and Management;
7. Provide inputs, advice and/or feedback on relevant sections of the ProDoc to ensure alignment with and consideration of safeguards, including FPIC as needed including to: Gender Analysis and Action Plan; Risk Table and “Risks and Assumptions” section; Relevant project Outcomes and/or Outputs; Terms of Reference for the project management unit.
8. Conduct participatory gender analysis and prepare a Gender Action Plan and Budget for the project with concrete outputs to facilitate implementation of activities that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
9. Provide inputs for a gender-responsive theory of change; develop the project’s results framework ensuring that gender-responsive outcomes, baselines, targets, and indicators are included; ensure that all applicable indicators are disaggregated by sex and other relevant, intersecting forms of identity. 

1. Support the completion of any additional studies that are determined to be needed for the preparation of the ProDoc and all other final outputs as guided by the PPG Team Leader.

Formulation of the ProDoc, CEO Endorsement Request and Mandatory Annexes as well as project specific annexes (Component B):

1. Complete the SESP, based on assessments undertaken during Component A and detailed development of project interventions, and identify management measures to mitigate risks to be incorporated into the ProDoc;
2. Support the agreements on project management arrangements and ensure that gender and safeguards are adequately incorporated into these arrangements.

Validation Workshop (Component C):

1. Contribute to the validation workshop; and
2. Support all necessary revisions that arise during the workshop, as appropriate.

Competencies

Competencies:

• Analytical skills: Able to synthesize large sets of inputs and data to form coherent outputs
• Ability to interact with senior members and stakeholders effectively and efficiently
• Must be detail-oriented
• Communication skills: Able to communicate clear ideas across a variety of mediums
• Writing and presentation skills: Able to produce high quality reports and presentations
• Team skills: Able to work independently as well as in teams
• Great organizational and time-management skills

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualification:

• Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field, such as environmental studies, gender and development, women and environment, or international development

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of demonstrable experience in the technical area of community engagement  
• Experience of developing and implementing Stakeholder Engagement Plans for development projects
• Demonstrated understanding of the links between sustainable development, social and gender issues;
• Demonstrated experience working on policy and programmatic issues with national and local governments and civil society organizations including community organizations;
• Experience with project development and results-based management methodologies is highly desired;
• Excellent analytical, writing, advocacy, presentation, and communications skills are required

Language:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English

Expected Deliverables

• Finalized PPG Stakeholder Engagement Plan outlining proposed consultation processes;
• Substantive inputs to the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF);
• Comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan for project implementation, incorporating FPIC as needed for any Indigenous Peoples or Ethnic Minorities present within the demonstration landscape;
• Gender Action Plan with concrete outputs, budget and timelines
• Detailed documentation of any consultations with local communities in support of FPIC;
• Appropriate inputs to the final UNDP-GEF project document based on guidance from the PPG Team Leader and International Safeguards Specialist

Payment Scheduled: Payments will be deliverable linked per the following schedule of payments:

Evaluation Criteria

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as Responsive to the requirement. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

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

•           Technical Criteria weight - 70%;

•           Financial Criteria weight - 30 %

Technical Criteria (70% of the total evaluation)

Criteria 1: Prior Experience (30%)

7 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience in community engagement, sustainable development, social and gender issues.

Criteria 2: Experience of developing Stakeholder Engagement Plans and multi-stakeholder coordination (20%)

Demonstrable experience of developing and implementing stakeholder engagement plans demonstrated experience in coordinating and working with multi-stakeholder groups.

Criteria 3. technical competency to undertaking the task (20%)

The methodology/approach for undertaking the assignment, including stakeholder engagement process/plan.

Financial Proposal:

Technically qualified consultants will be requested to submit their lump sum rate i.e. consultants who score more than 70% i.e. 49 marks with respect to the above-mentioned evaluation criteria. Consultant should not specify their consultancy fee on their CV or with the submission. The CV will not be evaluated further in case the consultant submits the same.

Note:

• CV should be submitted with a technical proposal (2 pages max) with the methodology/approach to be adopted to deliver on the assignment. (Upload as 1 document)
• The shortlisted applicants may be invited to present on their technical competency as per the requirement of the position.