Background

The fast-growing economy of Lao PDR is largely based on its wealth of natural resources, with over 50% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) derived from agriculture, forestry, mining and hydropower over the past decade.  The recent influx of foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country has accelerated GDP growth, contributed to government revenues and is a force for reducing poverty.  However, these investments have also led to rapid loss of natural ecosystems, on which the large majority of rural Lao people depend for their food and incomes and has increased livelihood uncertainty through change in traditional livelihood systems and loss of farming lands.

The ambitious target of at least 8% annual GDP growth set forth by the 7th National Socio Economic Development Plan (7th NSEDP) for 2011-2015 will lead to increasing demand for exploitation of the country’s natural resources. With the aim to achieve the goal of quality growth as set out in the 7th NSEDP, the Government of Lao PDR (GoL) urgently needs to respond correspondingly and manage investments in such a way that this growth is translated into substantive revenues for the government, real development benefits for the people and sustainable management of the environment.

UNDP currently works with the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Department of Planning (DoP) to mainstream poverty-environment issues in the implementation, monitoring and assessment of the 7th NSEDP and the provincial and local-level plans under the five-year programme (2011-2015), “Realizing the MDGs in Lao PDR - Consolidated Programme of Support to MPI for the Achievement of the Valuable Goals of the 7th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) 2011-15.”

The UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) programme in Lao PDR, with the goal of ensuring the country’s rapid economic growth that generates inclusive and sustainable development, is supporting a number of activities as part of UNDPs wider support to the Department of Planning at MPI. One of these activities includes the further development of green growth planning in the national planning process to promote a green economy and the finalization of the 7th Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of the assignment is to initiate local level green orientated planning for sustainable development that integrates poverty-environment concepts. This will be achieved through the development of a broad set of criteria that can be used to rapidly assess Public Investment Programme (PIP) projects and One District One Product projects for “green growth” attributes with an end goal of transforming a number of identified green grown investment opportunities into short concise investment profiles that can later be showcased to investors and the donor community for financing and implementation.

This is the 7.5 months consultancy service with maximum of 70 working days, starting from May to mid-December 2015. The duty station is Planning Department of Ministry of Planning and Investment and/or UNDP Country Office, Vientiane, Lao PDR, with possible travel to 3 provinces. The consultant will undertake below tasks:

  • Desk review of document related to green growth implementing in Lao PDR and define screening criteria for the selection of green growth projects;
  • Coordinate with DoP and relevant agencies to collect, consolidate and prepare list of PIP and One District One Product projects from PEI pilot provinces including those projects that have already secured funding;
  • Use screening criteria to assess the portfolio of projects to determine the inclusiveness of green growth concepts that will cater to the establishment of a green economy;
  • Through the assessment above, identify one of the most promising green growth project ideas from three of PEIs pilot provinces and transform each of these into short concise Investment profiles that clearly presents each investment opportunity. This will be done in close coordination with DoP/IPD/province/district while using the PEI/GiZ developed guidelines on developing investment profiles;
  • Assist DoP to pilot Poverty and Environment specific indicators that are part of the 8th NSEDP M&E Framework;
  • Assist DoP to review and assess annual development plan of the three PEI pilot province to assess and identify gaps in poverty and environment integration.

Expected Results and Deliverables

  • Inception report that suggests planned activities and approach of the assignment (by 4 May  2015)
  • In close consultation with DoP, the consultant will be required to develop a set of Green Growth screening criteria accompanied by a clear description of why each of the criteria was chosen and what information the criteria provides to the GoL to support the implementation of Green Growth planning.(by 29 May 2015) 
  • Prepare and deliver a concise report that lists all PIP and One Product One District projects for four PEI pilot provinces with their respective score for “green” based on the developed green growth screenings criteria. This report should provide the GoL a good summary of level of green growth planning for the pilot provinces and identify the 6 projects that will be used to prepare investment profiles - with clear justification for their selection(15 June 2015).
  • In coordination and consultation with DoP and DPIs, conceptualize, lead and finalize the development of three green growth investment profiles identified in the report above (16 July 2015) 
  • As a result of DoP consultations in Vientiane province on the  8th Plan M&E framework indicators, the consultant needs to prepare a user friendly handbook that clearly shows how the 8th plan  indicators in the M&E framework should be collected i.e. methodology, why this information is important and how each indicator will inform the planning process. During this assignment, she/he should determine which of these indicators can be attributed to Poverty and Environment (PE) concerns and the difficultly of data collection ( mid-October 2015)
  • Prepare a report on piloted indicators from the 8th Plan M&E framework. This will be done by providing methodology on chosen indicators to provincial authorities and piloting data collection against these indicators in THREE provinces to determine if there are any complications experienced to collect the data. The consultant will be required to compile data provided by the authorities to assess if there were any problems experienced, as well as providing recommendations on how these indicators in the 8th NSEDP could be improved. (end of November 2015)

Competencies

Functional competencies:

  • Extensive understanding the socio-economic development and environmental management in Lao PDR;
  • Strong knowledge of, and experience with participatory planning at the local level;
  • Strong knowledge of monitoring and evaluation tools is desirable, particularly results based management;
  • Substantive knowledge and understanding of green growth and green development issues;
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills and full computer literacy.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards;
  • Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly and without favoritism; and
  • Shows strong corporate commitment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master Degree in Economics, Development Studies, Environment, Natural Resource Management or related fields.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience on issues related to inclusive and equitable growth, particularly on national and local level economic and socioeconomic development, annual plan formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in developing countries;
  • Extensive experience in reviewing and conducting results-based policy analysis in the area of national development policies, poverty reduction, environment, Green growth, MDGs and human development;
  • Experience in working with the Government on national and local level policies in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia;
  • Experience in providing awareness raising and capacity building workshops for the Government officials;
  • Field experience is required, preferably in countries of the transitional economies.

Language:

  • Fluent in English.

Application procedure:

All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links:

In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents which are also available on our web-site here http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/:

  • TOR (Annex I)
  • Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
  • Offeror's letter to UNDP comfirming interest and availability(Annex III)

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Technical and Financial Proposal as per Annex III “Offeror's Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability"

  •  Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
  • Providing a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work including the work schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverable;
  • CV including past experience in similar project and contact reference of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar services;

Financial proposal:

  • Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear cost breakdown against each deliverable.

Note:

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 monthly outputs, 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 (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. UNDP accept travel costs not exceeding of an economy class air ticket.

Instructions for on-line submissions:

  • Step 1:  Please prepare all required documents electronically;
  • Step 2: Combine all documents in one single file (preferably in PDF however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above;
  • Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Incomplete proposals or proposals received after the deadline will be rejected.

Please kindly refer to the Terms of Reference Annex I for detailed information on:

  • Project’s background;
  • Scope of work and Responsibilities;
  • Deliverables;
  • Requirements for Experience and Qualifications.

Cumulative analysis: The award of the contract will be made to a consultant who offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria:

* Technical Criteria weight; [0.7]

* Financial Criteria weight; [0.3]

Only a consultant obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical rating would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Note: Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: anongly.phimmasone@undp.org with CC to phadthakone.sophavilay@undp.org

UNDP Lao PDR will respond in writing by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be notified. 

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more detailed information about UNDP Lao PDR please visit our website at http://www.la.undp.org/lao_pdr/en/home.html.