Background
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established by the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in 2010, as a unique global initiative to respond to climate change by investing into low-emission and climate-resilient development. GCF was established by 194 governments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, and to help adapt vulnerable societies to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
The Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservancy, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany-funded (BMUB) “Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme”, jointly implemented by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Resource Institute (WRI) is supporting 9 countries (Benin, Colombia, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, and Uzbekistan) to improve their national systems to access, manage, and monitor climate finance, particularly from the Green Climate Fund, or GCF (http://www.gcfreadinessprogramme.org). The programme is on its last year of implementation, therefore it is now critical to identify, aggregate, document, and disseminate lessons and best practices, across climate finance and development practitioners, government actors, donors, and other relevant stakeholders.
Further, UNDP also serves developing countries as a delivery partner for the GCF-funded readiness support programme, under the legal context of the framework agreement signed between UNDP and the Fund. The demand for this support is increasing, resulting in a growing global portfolio.
In this context, UNDP is seeking a consultant with climate finance or climate policy experience to: 1) provide knowledge management services to the BMUB-funded GCF Readiness Programme, and 2) support the day-to-day management of the global readiness portfolio of projects funded by the GCF
Duties and Responsibilities
The consultant will be responsible for:
- identifying and analyzing lessons and best practices from the BMUB programme to develop learning material for dissemination to key programme stakeholders. For this purpose, the Consultant is expected to collaborate actively with global coordination units in UN Environment (UNEP) and World Resource Institute (WRI).
- Providing day-to-day portfolio management support and liaison with national counterparts and UNDP country offices, under the GCF-funded readiness programme.
Scope of Work:
The consultant will work under the guidance and supervision of the GCF Readiness Programme Manager, based in UNDP-GEF unit, in UNDP HQ (New York) to undertake the following:
Under the BMUB-funded programme:
- Conduct a desk review of all 9 project documents and work plans, donor progress reports, reports from South-South workshops, side-events, GCF Readiness Coordination Mechanism (RCM) meetings and regional dialogues, etc., and liaise with programme partners and all national coordinators and governments to identify key challenges, lessons, and best practices during implementation to advance readiness goals;
- Work jointly with a communications specialist and editor to develop a publication on lessons learned from the programme for dissemination across other practitioners, donors, governments, readiness delivery partners, and the GCF;
- Conduct monitoring/knowledge management missions to participating countries of the programme when needed;
- Assist in the execution of south-south learning events, workshops, panels or side-events, as needed;
- Support development of communications outputs (newsletters, blogs, videos and media) in collaboration with the communications specialist;
- Establish linkages between the UNDP-GEF readiness portfolio and other UNDP-led like-minded readiness initiatives supporting NAPs, LEDS, NDCs, NAMAs, etc.;
Under the GCF-funded programme:
- Liaise with Country Offices and national governments to carry out the following tasks: proposal development, respond to GCF Secretariat reviews, process proposal approvals, monitor implementation, and develop requested progress reports;
- Liaise with UNDP-GEF Management and Programme Support Unit, UNDP-GEF Directorate Unit, and the GCF Secretariat to ensure quality assurance of all projects and compliance with UNDP Corporate Policies, and the legal framework agreement during all stages of the project management cycle;
- Revise standard operation procedures and guidance on reporting, M&E and other issues, as needed;
- Participate in all coordination teleconferences with GCF Secretariat and other readiness delivery partners, and GCF regional and global dialogues, as needed.
Working Arrangements:
- The consultant must have a valid permit or visa to work in the United States or be a US citizen or permanent resident to apply to this consultancy;
- The consultant will be based in UNDP-GEF offices in New York, USA and will report directly to the GCF Readiness Programme Manager;
- Estimated level of effort including travel days: 180 days;
- The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
- The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop and mobile phone with active calling and data plan;
- Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;
- Payments will be made upon submission of a detailed time sheet and certification of payment form and acceptance and confirmation by the Supervisor on days worked (with a “day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and outputs delivered.
Travel:
- Mission travel will be required (at least three missions, of 3- 5 business days each, to Africa, South East Asia, Pacific and/or Latin America);
- Any necessary mission travel must be approved in advance and in writing by the Supervisor;
- The Advanced and Basic Security in the Field II courses must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
- Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
- Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives, set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/;
- Consultants are responsible for obtaining security clearances and any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
- The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
- All related travel expenses will be supported by the project travel fund and will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations for consultants. Costs for airfares, terminal expenses, and living allowances should not be included in financial proposal.
Competencies
Corporate:
- Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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.
Technical:
- Expertise and sound understanding of global climate change negotiations, climate finance and multilateral climate funds, readiness, climate change mitigation and adaptation proposal development, project implementation, etc;
- Project management expertise, including budget management, Monitoring & Evaluation, reporting, knowledge management, results-based monitoring.
Communication:
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English language.
Professionalism:
- Demonstrated ability in analytical thinking;
- Strong organizational, reporting and writing abilities;
- Capacity to work independently, plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time;
- Flexibility to travel for work to all regions and under short notice.
Teamwork:
- Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
- Ability to work under pressure;
- Ability to work in and manage in multi-partner teams.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree in international relations, economics, development, environmental/climate change policy, natural resource management, or related field (max. 20 points).
Experience:
- At least 4 years of proven work experience in climate change policy, negotiations, finance, and/or climate change project development or management (max. 20 points);
- Demonstrated experience in knowledge management and/or results-based monitoring and evaluation, including development of knowledge management products, such as case studies, success stories, etc., preferably in climate change field (max. 20 points);
- Demonstrated experience in project management which requires coordination with multiple stakeholders (max. 20 points);
- Previous experience in UNDP is an advantage (max. 5 points);
Language Requirements:
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English (max. 10 points);
- Fluency in Spanish or French is an advantage (max 5 points).
Evaluation Method:
- Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Incomplete applications will not be considered;
- Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
- The technical criteria (education, experience, language [max. 100 points] and interview [max. 30 points]) will be based on a maximum 130 points. Only the top 3 candidates scoring 70 points or higher from the review of education, experience and language will be considered for the interview;
- Candidates obtaining 21 points or higher from the interview will be deemed technically qualified and considered for financial evaluation;
- Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
- The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
- Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.
Documentation to be submitted
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) to be downloaded from the below link;
- Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment to be downloaded from the UNDP procurement site.
Kindly note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).
UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.
General Conditions of Contract for the ICs:
Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment:
http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=36336