UNDP Jobs - 59705- Contribute to the Arab Cities Resilience Report -

Contribute to the Arab Cities Resilience Report - Seismic and Geophysical Risk Analysis to Cities, Towns and Municipal Areas in Arab States

Location :

Amman, JORDAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Sep-2015

Application Deadline :

08-Sep-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Up to15 December 2015

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Urban Disaster and climate risks in Arab States

Arab region is urbanizing very fast. Urban population in the region is growing double then the overall growth in population, while the overall growth rate of the region remains highest in the world. Between 1970 and 2010, urban population of the region increased by four times. Over 56 % of the Arab population presently lives in urban areas (large cities and small towns), while in some countries the percentage of people living in urban areas is as high as 100%. The average urban population for Gulf region is 80%, while the Maghreb is above 70%. Arab cities are a major source of economic and human development due to the opportunities they provide in the form of employment, education, health, communications facilities, trade and tourism. Many cities are also important historical and cultural centers.

Disasters pose a serious threat to the Arab region in general and to urban centers in particular. Many Arab cities and towns are located in high risk areas, including coasts and highly seismic zones, which expose them to disaster risks from earthquakes, flash flooding and storms thus leading to losses in lives, assets and livelihoods. Climate change has increased the frequency and severity of hydro-meteorological incidents. The climate change induced disasters have manifested themselves in the form of flash flooding, droughts, desertification, and storms during the recent years. Growing Arab cities are increasingly exposed to climate change related coastal erosion, sea level rise, storms/cyclones and flash flooding among other risks. The 2008-11 flash flooding in Riyadh, Jeddah and Yemen, the 2007-12 cyclones in Oman, the 2013 winter storm in Palestine, the 2011 famine and drought in the Horn of Africa, the 2008-11 droughts in Syria, Iraq and Jordan are but a few reminders about the increasing intensity and frequency of climate change induced disaster events. Seismic activity is also a significant risk in the Arab region. For example, the Jordan rift valley system places a number of countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria) at high risk from earthquakes. Similarly, some countries in the Maghreb region (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have been exposed to seismic activity in the past. Devastating earthquakes have occurred in Palestine (1927), Lebanon (1956), Morocco (1960), Egypt (1992) and Algeria (2003).

A variety of factors serve as drivers of risk in the Arab cities. First, the rising urban population coupled with poor quality of housing, infrastructure and services is a key driver. Second, the city governments in the region have limited authority and funding to take local level action for DRR due to the centralized nature of state.

Third, the expansion of urban centers is occurring without adherence to legal frameworks, building codes, or land use plans. Often an urban plan does not exist or is outdated. Significant percentage of poor urban population is forced to live in unsafe areas thus exposing themselves to risks of disasters. Building codes and regulations remain poorly developed and implemented in the Arab region, although the quality of building construction vary greatly across the region with a high quality construction in the Gulf to medium quality in Mashriq and Maghreb, to very low quality in the Horn of Africa and Yemen. As a result of poorly planned urbanization, environmental resources have suffered losses, which could be a key driver behind enhanced flash flooding, changes in rainfall patterns, desertification and landslides.

The combination of natural hazards and risk drivers has the potential to cause serious losses to urban populations, infrastructure, economy and livelihoods in the Arab region. Therefore there is an urgent need to start city level action for disaster risk reduction so as to develop systems to minimize risks to sustainable development from disasters and climate change.

UNDP Programme on Arab Cities Resilience

In order to address urban risks, UNDP in collaboration with the UNISDR and SDC proposed the Aqaba Declaration on Disaster Risk Reduction in Cities at the First Arab Conference on DRR, which was held in Aqaba Jordan from 19-21 March, 2013. The Declaration prescribes achievable and time bound targets to be implemented by city governments. The targets are supposed to be achieved during the five year period of 2013-17.

In 2014, UNDP launched the Arab Cities Disaster Resilience Programme to facilitate the implementation of the Aqaba Declaration. The project has two components. The first component is focused on working with high risk cities to improve their resilience. The second component is regional which focus upon building partnerships, networking, knowledge products, and south-south sharing. At the moment the project is being implemented in the cities of Khartoum (Sudan), Saida (Lebanon) and Ain Draham (Tunisia). UNDP plans to expand the project to other cities in the region.

At the regional level, UNDP plans to launch a regional Arab Cities Resilience Report. The Study Urban disaster risks in Arab States – A trends analysis is being conducted to support the production of the Arab Cities Resilience Report. The purpose of the study is to serve as an advocacy tool to convince decision makers at the city and national levels about the need to invest in urban disaster risk reduction, so as to ensure sustainable development and increase societal resilience. It will offer analysis of disaster/climate risk trends for urban areas, including analysis of the causes of growing exposure and vulnerability. The study will also identify bottlenecks in urban disaster risk reduction and opportunities that are available for disaster and climate risk reduction. The study shall include an assessment about the existing disaster risk management systems at city level with an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of geographic and city coverage, since it is impossible to cover all cities as individual entities, the study would therefore delimit itself to following dimensions of analysis. It will include analysis about all capital cities in the 22 Arab countries. It will include analysis about other cities which have been affected by major disasters in the past 50 years; e.g. the Algerian earthquakes, the Jeddah flooding, cyclone Gonu of 2007, Khartoum flooding, Syrian drought of 2007-12, cyclone and flooding in Yemen, Flooding in Lebanon and Egypt, sandstorms in Gulf (Kuwait) to name a few. The study will include analysis about any other cities about which data is available either in terms of risk analysis or real time disasters. The study shall specifically include analysis about coastal urban sprawl in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.

Duties and Responsibilities

The task of the consultant is to contribute to the Arab Cities Resilience Report. This will be done by conducting research and writing analysis in the form of chapters (or sections in chapters) as per mutually agreed outline of the report.

The emphasis of research and writing of the consultant will be upon analysis seismic and geophysical disaster risks in the Arab States region and the factors that contribute to urban exposure and vulnerability to disaster risks. The research will thus have two dimensions; i) to analysis the hazards and the potential threats they pose to urban areas in the region, ii) factors that contribute to exposure and vulnerability of urban areas.

In answering the first dimension of research, the consultant shall conduct analysis of geo-physics of the hazards, major historical disasters, areas/cities affected, impact of past disasters, the expected return period of hazards and the expected losses and damages in current context.

In answering the second dimension of research, the consultant shall conduct analysis socio-economic, environmental and management factors that are behind growing exposure and vulnerability of the urban population, settlements and infrastructure to disaster risks. The socio-economic factors would include the impact of Population growth, urban-rural migration, conflict, and poverty in increasing exposure and vulnerability. The environmental factors include management of natural resources; e.g. green belts, parks, flood plains, drainage and sewerage systems and climate change. The management factors cover issues related to urban planning, land-use planning, building codes, insurance, industrial safety practices, and disaster preparedness or lack of it. In analysing these factors the consultant must provide both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The quantitative analysis shall focus on providing estimates in numbers; e.g. what percentage of urban population is at risk in the region and country by country, what is the size of poor population in urban areas, what is the percentage of people living in urban slums, what is the size of rural-urban migration, what is the percentage of old/poor quality building stock, what is the size of industry in city A or B etc. The qualitative analysis shall focus on issues related to building codes, land-use, insurance etc, the causes of poor urban management, poor industrial safety practices and examples of good practices etc.

Responsibilties:

Prepare and submit an annotated outline of the study contents that the consultant will undertake for his/her task in line with the agreed structure of the Report;
Prepare and submit a work plan to conduct various activities to complete the study. The work plan must include list of activities, time line, places to be visited, list of people to be met, and literature to be reviewed etc.;
Conduct a literature review on urban seismic and geophysical disaster risks in the Arab region including analysis of factors that increase urban exposure and vulnerability to disaster risks in the region;
Conduct interviews with relevant stakeholders from city authorities, civil society, academia, donors, United Nations, cities networks etc.;
Fill surveys by city representatives and key stakeholders; e.g. youth groups, women’s organizations, academia, media, civil society organizations, interest groups etc.;
Conduct site visits for field observation concerning urban exposure, vulnerability and risk factors, if essential;
Prepare the draft report by writing the required sections and chapters and submit to UNDP for review;
Participate in sub-regional consultation meetings to seek feedback from stakeholders;
Finalize the report based upon expert comments and inputs.

Competencies

Functional Competencies

Research:

Demonstrated ability to undertake multidisciplinary research including scientific analysis, socio-economic analysis, environmental and institutional analysis to identify determinants of risk, exposure and vulnerabilities in urban centres, define bottlenecks and opportunities in promoting resilience.

Networking:

Advanced skills in accessing large number of individuals and organizations in the Arab States to acquire information about urban areas, concerning climate and disaster risks.

Communication and use of ICT:

Experience in using multiple information technologies to access open source, online information about climate and disaster risks in urban areas of Arab States.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A Master’s Degree in urban development, architecture, seismology, water resources, meteorology, disaster risk management, environment, climate change, social sciences, engineering or fields related to urban disaster risk reduction.

Experience:

10 years of research experience preferably about disaster risk management, environmental management and urban development and management;
Knowledge of disaster risk, climate change and urbanization trends in the Arab States;
Network of professionals in Arab states and especially networking with municipal authorities and urban planning ministries.

Languages:

Fluency in English, Arabic and knowledge of French preferable.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposal

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

Cover Letter: Brief one-page letter explaining why the applicant thinks they are an outstanding candidate for the job;
Detailed Technical proposal for the assigned tasks;
Financial proposal: indicating all-inclusive lump sum fee in USD;
Personal CV and/or signed P-11: including past experience in similar projects and the name and contact details of 3 references.

Evaluation

Cumulative analysis

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:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
Technical Criteria weight; [100] 70%;
Financial Criteria weight; [100] 30%.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 60 point would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 100 points:

CV and knowledge of the subject matter -10;
Previous experience in conducting similar research assignments -10;
Research methodology for the assignment-20;
Knowledge of consultant about published, unpublished and online sources of information on climate and disaster risk management systems in Arab Cities - 15;
Ability of consultant to access information about maximum number of Arab cities using his/her personal contacts and networks-15.