UNDP Jobs - 67439- Provision of individual services of an UNDP-GEF Mi

Provision of individual services of an UNDP-GEF Midterm Reviewer.

Location :

Beirut, LEBANON

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

12-Aug-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

10 working-days starting 01 October 2016, and shall not exceed two months from the signature of the

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

10 working-days starting 01 October 2016, and shall not exceed two months from the signature of the

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

The project was designed to catalyze and remove barriers to the widespread application of decentralized renewable energy-based power generation in Lebanon, with a target to facilitate the installation of at least 1.75 MW of new, decentralized renewable energy power generation capacity during the implementation of the project. In addition, the project has a yearly target of 3,285 MWh/year as renewable energy generation, a total target of 35,500 tonnes of CO2eq savings over the 20-year default lifetime of the investments made during project implementation, and a total volume of investments mobilized equal to $8.75 million.
The project’s key outcomes are:

Investments in decentralized renewable energy power generation increased;
supportive policy and regulatory environment enforced for attracting investments for privately-owned, grid-connected renewable energy power generation;
Monitoring and quality control of RE-based decentralized power generation introduced and sustained.

The project spans over four years and is being executed in Lebanon with a total budget of $1.575M from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UNDP. The co-financing for the project will come from the Central Banks’ NEEREA loans ($4.6 M), the Ministry’s in-kind donation ($500,000), Transenergie ($134,000), and the UNDP CEDRO, MED-SOLAR, and LECB Projects ($6.257M).
The project is be nationally executed by the Ministry of Energy and Water of the Government of Lebanon and implemented by UNDP through the “Support to the NIM” modality. The Ministry has assigned two senior officers as a National Focal Points to coordinate the project activities with activities of other Government entities and certify the expenditures are in line with approved budgets and work-plans.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVES OF THE MTR

The MTR will assess progress towards the achievement of the project objectives and outcomes as specified in the Project Document, and assess early signs of project success or failure with the goal of identifying the necessary changes to be made in order to set the project on-track to achieve its intended results. The MTR will also review the project’s strategy, its risks to sustainability.

MTR APPROACH & METHODOLOGY

The MTR must provide evidence based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The MTR team will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. PIF, UNDP Initiation Plan, UNDP Environmental & Social Safeguard Policy, the Project Document, project reports including Annual Project Review/PIRs, project budget revisions, lesson learned reports, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based review). The MTR team will review the baseline GEF focal area Tracking Tool submitted to the GEF at CEO endorsement, and the midterm GEF focal area Tracking Tool that must be completed before the MTR field mission begins.

The MTR team is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach1 ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts (the GEF Operational Focal Point), the UNDP Country Office(s), UNDP-GEF Regional Technical Advisers, and other key stakeholders.

Engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful MTR.2 Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to UNDP CEDRO Project, UNDP LECB Project, the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC), Banque du Liban (BDL), and Électricité du Liban; executing agencies, senior officials and task team/ component leaders, key experts and consultants in the subject area, Project Board, project stakeholders, academia, local government and CSOs, etc. Additionally, the MTR team is expected to conduct field missions to be determined during the mission.

The final MTR report should describe the full MTR approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review.

DETAILED SCOPE OF THE MTR

The MTR team will assess the following four categories of project progress. See the Guidance For Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects for extended descriptions.

Project Strategy:

Project design:

Review the problem addressed by the project and the underlying assumptions. Review the effect of any incorrect assumptions or changes to the context to achieving the project results as outlined in the Project Document;
Review the relevance of the project strategy and assess whether it provides the most effective route towards expected/intended results. Were lessons from other relevant projects properly incorporated into the project design;
Review how the project addresses country priorities. Review country ownership. Was the project concept in line with the national sector development priorities and plans of the country (or of participating countries in the case of multi-country projects);
Review decision-making processes: were perspectives of those who would be affected by project decisions, those who could affect the outcomes, and those who could contribute information or other resources to the process, taken into account during project design processes;
Review the extent to which relevant gender issues were raised in the project design. See Annex 9 of Guidance For Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects for further guidelines;
If there are major areas of concern, recommend areas for improvement.

Results Framework/Logframe:

For ideas on innovative and participatory Monitoring and Evaluation strategies and techniques, see UNDP Discussion Paper: Innovations in Monitoring & Evaluating Results, 05 Nov 2013.

For more stakeholder engagement in the M&E process, see the UNDP Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results, Chapter 3, pg. 93:

Undertake a critical analysis of the project’s logframe indicators and targets, assess how “SMART” the midterm and end-of-project targets are (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound), and suggest specific amendments/revisions to the targets and indicators as necessary;
Are the project’s objectives and outcomes or components clear, practical, and feasible within its time frame;
Examine if progress so far has led to, or could in the future catalyse beneficial development effects (i.e. income generation, gender equality and women’s empowerment, improved governance etc...) that should be included in the project results framework and monitored on an annual basis;
Ensure broader development and gender aspects of the project are being monitored effectively. Develop and recommend SMART ‘development’ indicators, including sex-disaggregated indicators and indicators that capture development benefits;

Progress Towards Results:

Progress Towards Outcomes Analysis:

Review the logframe indicators against progress made towards the end-of-project targets using the Progress Towards Results Matrix and following the Guidance For Conducting Midterm Reviews of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects; colour code progress in a “traffic light system” based on the level of progress achieved; assign a rating on progress for each outcome; make recommendations from the areas marked as “Not on target to be achieved” (red).

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Excellent communication skills;
Demonstrable analytical skills.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Kindly refer to the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice and all related Annexes by visiting the below link:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/operations/procurement/

Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualification:

Graduate university degree in energy, engineering, environment or equivalent.

Years of experience:

Experience working with the GEF or GEF-evaluations is preferable;
Experience working in Arab States is preferable;
Work experience in relevant technical areas for at least 10 years;
Project evaluation/review experiences within United Nations system will be considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

Good command of English (written and spoken);
Arabic language is an asset.

Kindly refer to the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice and all related Annexes by visiting the below link:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/operations/procurement/

Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete