UNDP Jobs - 70943- National Consultant to undertake a feasibility stu

National Consultant to undertake a feasibility study for the Green Climate Fund Proposal – Strengthening Hydro-meteorological Services for Adaptation and Resilience

Location :

Kampala/ Field work, UGANDA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

16-Mar-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

60 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

60 working days

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

Uganda’s vision is to attain upper middle economy status by 2040. In tune with the Vision, the Government of Uganda is implementing the National Development Plan(NDP) II whose theme is “Strengthening Uganda’s Competitiveness for Sustainable Wealth Creation, Employment and Inclusive Growth’’, with the main goal of attaining middle income status by 2020. One of the strategic objectives of NDP over a five years’ period (2016-2020) is to increase Sustainable Production, Productivity and Value Addition in Key Growth Opportunities. On the other hand, Uganda’s economic and human development is closely tied to a number of climate-sensitive resources and sectors, such as agriculture, water, environment, natural resources, health, transport and housing.

The second National Development Plan (NDP II) recognizes that if climate and disaster risks are not addressed and proactive adaptation actions taken they could slow down Uganda’s transformation. This is because Uganda is susceptible to natural hazards, of which 70 per cent are of hydro-meteorological origin. Examples include floods, droughts, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and landslides. Uganda experienced 2,500 disasters in the last decade, and in 2010-2011[1] rainfall variability costed the country about USD 1.2 billion. Natural hazards lowered the performance of the GDP by an average of 3.5 per cent between 2010 and 2014.[2] Uganda’s multi-hazard profile shows that the proportion of people affected by hazards is 51 per cent for drought, 35 per cent for floods, 4 per cent for landslides, 4 per cent for storms, 1 per cent for hailstorms and 2 per cent for others.[3] The ‘hot spots’ for disaster are the fragile dryland cattle corridor districts especially the Karamoja sub-region, mountainous and hilly areas of Mt. Elgon and Mt. Rwenzori sub-regions, south-western Uganda, low-lying areas and settlements in Kampala and Teso region. A large proportion of the Ugandan population has a low capacity to adapt to climate change.

Climate change impacts are likely to be particularly negative on Uganda’s rural population because of their high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resource-based livelihoods. Therefore, capacity to adapt to climate-related hazards should be developed to limit the negative impacts of climate change and address the country’s socio-economic and developmental challenges effectively.

Improving hydromet services is integral to planning and implementing adaptation strategies, increasing resilience, and enabling sustainable socio-economic development in Uganda. Accurate, timely hydromet information is a critical requirement for i) protecting lives, livelihoods and infrastructure from extreme events, ii) developing and managing water resources including irrigated agriculture, hydro power and an improved water supply iii) planning and delivering better health services iv) providing access to safe air and road transportation, and developing risk financing tools and social safety net programs. An effective hydromet service reduces the economic and social impacts of hazardous hydromet phenomena such as lightning, flooding and drought.

The provision of hydromet services is key to ensuring timely early warning and preparedness. However, such hydromet services are still inadequate in Uganda. A recent survey carried out by the WMO concluded that in Sub-Saharan Africa “there are wide-spread deficiencies in hydrometeorological observation networks, tele-communications, and informatics systems and very limited capacity in data management and product customization. The national hazard warning capacities are uneven, even nonexistent in some countries, while early warning programs often do not address all significant meteorological, climatological and hydrological hazards.”

Over the past three years, with the support of various development partners, including the UNDP-GEF, the short term prediction accuracy of weather and climate information which had stagnated in the range of 40 to 50 per cent has improved significantly with the long-term prediction now estimated at 85 per cent. Through the UNDP-GEF funded Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems(SCIEWS) Project 25 automatic weather stations 16 automatic water level stations were procured, installed and linked to the Automatic messaging system thus enabling Uganda to provide timely and reliable hydromet prediction and forecast. improving the capacity of the Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) and the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM) to generate and monitor hydro-meteorological information and disseminating to end users. As a result of this input, there is a significant improvement in the functionality of the meteorological systems including: the upper air observations; the weather stations that have been expanded, automated and in a few cases modernized in terms of now-casting technology; expanding the revenue basis for meteorological products.

Uganda is aiming at attaining a middle income country status by 2020, and through the Second National Development plan, is mobilizing the resources needed by organizations and communities to achieve this goal. Within this initiative, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is responsible for helping mobilize and match resources to programme and projects prioritized on a strategic basis. In this regard, Uganda intends to build on the positive gains of the ongoing UNDP support to scale up an sustain functionality of the enhanced hydro-meteorological early warning systems in Uganda with a private sector orientation. This would build onto the Cost and Benefit analysis that has already demonstrated the true value of investing in climate information, and has illustrated that the products could be marketed, hence creating a vibrant market for CI products and services which could be emulated across the continent.

It is against this background that UNDP is seeking services of a competent National Consultant to support government of Uganda to develop a programme towards enhancing and upgrading national hydromet services for strengthening the adaptive capabilities, capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities and the economy for submission to the Green Climate Fund. It is envisaged that the proposed project will become a key element of the National Vision 2040 and contribute to realization of Uganda Nationally Determined Contribution commitment to the Climate Change Paris Agreement.

[1] Uganda integrated rainfall variability impacts, needs assessment and drought risk management strategy, 2010-2011;

[2] World Bank-GoU: Uganda Rainfall Deficit 2010;

[3] http://www.desinventar.net/DesInventar/profiletab.jsp?countrycode=uga;

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

Working closely with the International Consultant, the National Consultant is required to conduct feasibility appraisals of the proposed climate information and early warning system for all relevant sectors and segments of the population. The Consultant will be provided with detailed guidelines to conduct the feasibility study, ensuring that the work complements that produced by the other specialists engaged in the study. The scope of work will include:

Review existing information available at the national and field level for project intervention on the potential to improve climate information and early warning systems
Conduct appropriate site background information gathering (including but not limited to hydromet maps, time-series to demonstrate a trend of reducing/increasingly variable rainfall) to identify site locations for potential observational equipment;
Identify relevant hydromet initiatives being implemented by the Government of Uganda, and or initiatives supported by development partners in the relevant locations;
Conduct a desk review of the existing hydromet observation equipment features, nationally and at the project sites;
Validate the sites identified for hydromet observation equipment with information, including plans for ensuring the climate information and early warning can reach the last mile and the intended beneficiaries;
Assess and estimate the required equipment and infrastructure required to have a fully operational climate information and early warning systems;
Identify sites for the hydromet equipment to feed into the national server and provide ground truthing;
Outline specifications and systems for the hydromet equipment to be procured. Ensure close collaboration with the Uganda National Meteorological Agency (UNMA) and Directorate of Water Resources Management to obtain complementarity and ownership of the equipment.
Outline realistic time line for the proposed set of activities;
Prepare the bill of quantities and costs estimates for the hydromet observation equipment.
Evaluate the technical, financial, economic and social feasibility of developing a functioning system that ensures beneficiaries receive climate information and early warning systems;
Evaluate the expected impact of such a system to contribute to the overall objective of the project;
Identify the barriers and challenges – if any - that could determine sustainability of the project at the local level;
Identify and analyze any governance and capacity issues at the selected national and local level that will be critical during implementation of the project as well as to ensure sustainability of the project.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

After analyzing relevant documents on the current climate information and early warning systems, the National Consultant will undertake the required feasibility appraisals from Kampala and in the assigned Districts within Uganda. The Consultant will then work with the International Consultant from home to complete preparation of a comprehensive draft project proposal along the Green Climate Fund framework (according to the guidelines that will be provided), and which will be annexed to the overall project design strategy.

Competencies

Proven track record in conducting studies for meteorology and early warning systems;
Ability to draw out design specification and costing of meteorology and early warning systems projects;
Knowledge of meteorology and early warning systems vis a vis operation plans;
Ability to parametrize the meteorology and early warning systems and accordingly design the submersible early warning system;
Knowledge of Ugandan existing meteo systems;
Proven experience in conducting similar surveys or data collection;
Demonstrated familiarity of current methods for generating and disseminating weather and climate warnings;
Excellent organizational skill, service-mind, punctual, self-motivated, proactive, reliable and demonstrated ability to work in harmony with staff members of different national backgrounds;
Respect for the principles of the United Nations;
Excellent report writing skills; and
Proven capability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree or higher in Meteorology/ Environmental engineering/Water Resources Management /Civil Engineering/statistics, economics, agricultural economics or other relevant disciplines.

Experience:

A minimum of 10 years’ professional experience in hydro-meteorology in Africa;
Specialist experience in meteorology and information delivery systems;
Familiarity with Green Climate Fund policies and procedures;
Experience in designing climate change adaptation projects.

Language: Fluency in both written and spoken English.

Only the applicants who hold these qualifications will be shortlisted and contacted. Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Evaluation method and Criteria:

Cumulative analysis.

The award of the contract shall 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 this solicitation:
Technical Criteria weight; 70%;
Financial Criteria weight; 30%.

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

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points:

Criteria A Relevance of Education – Max 10 points
Criteria B. Relevance of experience – Max 30 points
Criteria C. Description of approach/methodology to assignment. (if applicable) – Max 30 Point.

Lowest price and technically compliant offer

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as both:

responsive/compliant/acceptable, and;
offering the lowest price/cost “responsive/compliant/acceptable” can be defined as fully meeting the TOR provided.Fluency in English- both written and oral.

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org/. (Reference #.36013).

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website - http://jobs.undp.org (Ref no.70943).

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
Annexes 1 and II - may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/ - under reference #36013. For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org;

Interested applicants should submit applications through uploading of all their required documentation in one single pdf document on this website only.