Background

UNDP Sri Lanka has been working as a key development partner of the Government since 1967, to achieve sustainable human development on economic, social, and environmental fronts. Working closely with the Government at national, regional, and local levels, civil society, and the private sector,  UNDP aims to eradicate extreme poverty and reduce inequalities and exclusion to protect both people and the planet.

In recent years, UNDP has been working with the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to collectively meet the SDGs while addressing the long term impacts of  climate change. Being the single greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, climate change is threatening water and food security, health, livelihoods, and the safety of billions of people. Sri Lanka is no exception and the country  is among the most affected countries due to climate change. Water is highly vulnerable while being the lifeline for flora and fauna. Inefficiency in water resources management and inadequacy and ineffectiveness of policy and institutional framework for water management put the country in a critical situation in  meeting the country’s present and future water demands. In order to address these challenges, Sri Lanka needs to put in place a comprehensive strategy for integrated water resources management and bring all relevant partners and stakeholders together to collectively plan and address the challenges to ensure water for social, economic, and environmental needs. 

Sri Lanka’s Water Resource Development and Management (WRD&M) necessitates urgent attention on several critical subject areas, including  improving water use efficiency among significant water users and scientific assessments of future water resource availability and demand. At present, water resources management in Sri Lanka is faced with several challenges imposed by climate change and increasing water demands from different sectors specially in an immerging economy and changing land use patterns. As a result, currently developed water resources and water infrastructure are inadequate and not efficient enough to meet competitive demands such as from drinking, agriculture, power generation, inland fisheries, environment, wild life, and industry. It is natural to create competition among stakeholders to meet the individual sector demands with giving due consideration to the national priorities. This situation has affected health & livelihoods of People, increased poverty, increased rural to urban migration, and on the whole, affected country’s economy. Based on all such information, Sri Lanka must develop a sustainable, long term water resource development and management strategy to meet the future water demand in all sectors equitably. In this context, UNDP has planned to support the GoSL in developing a long-term water resource management and development strategy while setting up a proper baseline. Further, there is a need to carry-out structured dialogue among development partners involved in the water sector to identify policy and knowledge gaps in the water sector. UNDP has already initiated discussion with international development agencies to establish a Water Platform among interested parties, which is expected to be led by the Government eventually.

Further, UNDP has started  few initiatives with the Ministry of Irrigation (MoI) to address these issues. GCF funded Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management Project (CRIWMP), developing a set of baseline information on water resources in Sri Lanka and identifying a roadmap for a long-term strategy are examples for the initiatives taken so far.  The design of the CRIWMP  is aiming for a paradigm shift in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), which is expected to be achieved over the remaining period. Moreover, the annual performance report of the CRIWMP is crucial to ensure that the Project results are systematically captured and reported to the donor, i.e., GCF. 

In this context, in order to provide high quality technical advisory services to the Government of Sri Lanka and UNDP on the above initiatives and support UNDP to develop the annual performance reports of the GCF funded CRIWMP,UNDP is looking to hire a Water Resource Advisor with suitable qualifications and experience in WRD&M and with clear understanding of IWRM principles. The Water Resource Advisor will be part of the UNDP's technical team of the environmental portfolio and is responsible for providing overall technical advisory services to implement the related projects and initiaitives.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work 

The objective will be achieved through the following key activities:

a) Work with Ministry of Irrigation (MoI) and finalize a baseline of water resources in Sri Lanka which can be used for future water resource development and planning processes and projects.

b) Support the MoI to mobilize partnerships and resources to develop and operationalize an investment support framework for the water sector.

c) Liaise with the Technical Working Committee (TWC) of CRIWMP, submit papers for their review and approval, and facilitate incorporation of their advice to the cascade water resource management.

d) Provide technical inputs to the proposed multistakeholder water platform and advise the CO on  the way forward. 

e) Provide technical direction for water management in cascades with upgraded village irrigation systems (VIS).

f) Develop Annual Progress Report of CRIWMP by compiling and incorporating sectoral inputs and information from the technical specialists 

g) Provide any other technical advice to the CRIWMP team when and where necessary. 

Key Indicators:

The Water Resource Advisor will provide high quality technical advisory services, and maintain high level of professionalism  in all the conducts, in line with UNDP principles, policies and procedures . In addition, the Water Resource Advisor will assist to build  partnerships with key actors of the water sector and enable resource mobilization. Specific indicators of success of the assignment are as follows: 

a) Report on the comprehensive water resource database, which can be used for future water resource development and planning processes and projects

b) Report on the multistakeholder water platform with recommendations

c) Report on the status of water management during next cultivation seasons

d) Draft Annual Progress Report 2022 of CRIWMP and the final APR 2022 after incorporating the comments from the Regional Technical Specialist of UNDP and other relevant parties

Institutional Arrangement

The Water Resource Advisor will report to the Policy Specialist and Team Leader – Climate and Environment Team and work closely with the Project Manager of Integrated Water Management Project and Technical Specialist of the CRIWMP and UNDP CO. 

Travel:

Frequent travel to the project’s sub-office, project districts and CSO offices 

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience