Background

World’s largest tract of mangrove, the Sundarbanssupports Asia’s last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins - the Endangered Ganges River Dolphin (Platanistagangetica), and the Vulnerable Irrawaddy Dolphin (Orcaellabrevirostris). While these species are generally threatened with extinction across their range, both occur in the Sundarbans in populations large enough for early conservation interventions to be effective in ensuring their long-term survival. In 2012, the Government of Bangladesh declared three Dolphin Protected Areas comprising of six ‘five km channel segments that support especially high densities of these two dolphin species. UNDP Bangladesh in partnership with Bangladesh Government and with support from GEF is taking up the ‘Expanding the Protected Areas System to Incorporate Important Aquatic Ecosystems’ project to implement some long term solution and removing barriers to strengthen conservation management of the globally significant aquatic biodiversity of the Sundarbans taking into account development imperatives, need for sustaining livelihoods and retrogressive factors including climate change. The immediate objective of the project is to build capacity to effectively manage the existing protected areas established for dolphin conservation and also expand their operational coverage while still meeting the livelihood aspirations of local communities especially the fishers.

The objective of this assignment is to:

* Conduct an assessment of existing research gaps in the Sundarbans and propose priority research studies to be carried out.

Scope of Work
The necessary researches are required to trigger the much needed alterations in the management approach to secure the long-term survival of the cetaceans. Broadly, the GEF investment aims at triggering a change in resource governance in the target project area and generate the  global, national and local benefits.In this line, the contracted expert will work under the guidance of the Project Manager, Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Important Aquatic Ecosystems Project(EPASIIAEP). IC will submit  report to the Project Manager, EPASIIAEP.

The consultant is expected to identifying shortcomings in the knowlwdge level in line of aquatic biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management. S/He will also lead all discussions with stakeholders and experts, including the conceptualization of the views.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities of the Research Gap Analysis Specialist will include but not limited to:

• Specify key thematic areas and topics for research/study.
• Provide specific and detail guidelines for conducting research/study.
• Collect, collate and synthesize necessary information and data from suitable and authentic sources.
• Liaise and collaborate with relevant Universities, research institutions, networks, government departments, NGOs and community members.
• Organize and attend meetings, consultations, workshops, brainstorming sessions as required, and prepare related documents and reports.
• Listing out priority works and describing the process(s)needed  for periodic Monitoring and Evaluation of the project activities.
• Priotirise research based on needs of the managementwhich will level as high, medium and low
• Produce reports and documents as per necessity of the project management.
• Present his/her work and findings in the meeting of project board and/or any other levels, and addressing the relevant feedbacks.
• Contribute to the dissemination of study finding and actualization of relevant output.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables: 

Inception Report with detailed Work Plan: Work procedure specifying the adopted methodologies, Outline key issues to be covered, Work Plan (including meeting, field visit etc.) Annotated table of contents for the final report,  Timeline - 1st week of November 2017 - 20 % of the contracted amount with prior accepatance and approval of UNDP Contract Administrator 
 

Draft Report:   Draft report which covers the main findings of the study. Timeline - 1st week of December  2017 - 50 % of the contracted amount with prior accepatance and approval of UNDP Contract Administrator

Final Report:  Final report on detailed Research and knowledge gap analysis forthe important ecosysytem of  sundarbans supporting globally threatened cetacean species. - 2nd week of December 2017 - 30 % of the contracted amount with prior accepatance and approval of UNDP Contract Administrator

TIMEFRAME AND DEADLINES:

The assignment is for a total of 20 days over a period from 19 October 2017 to 15 December 2017

The consultant will report directly to the Project Manager (PM), Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Impotant Aquatic Ecosystems Project (EPASIIAEP). The Individual Consultant will work closely with the PMU, in particular the PM, with technical guidance from the Programme Specialist, UNDP Bangladesh.

INPUTS:  The duty station will be home based and the field visits will be required as per the work plan and requirement of the methodology submitted by the Consultant. Consultant also needs to organize 2  consultation and validation meetings at stakeholder levels (one in Dhaka and other one at Khulna Project Site with 20 -30 participants/researcher/stakeholder per meeting ). The Consultants also organized by a numbers of sharing/coordination meeting in the Project Office and UNDP Country Office.

Competencies

COMPETENCIES:

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Comprehensiveness knowledge of Cetacean biology, social attributes, global development concerns and climate change;
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum Masters  degree in the field of biodiversity, wildlife biology, marine science, forestry, environment science or any closely related field. Ph.D. will be preferred

EXPERIENCE: 

• At least 7 years of proven research experience in the relevant field of sundarbans and other mangrove forests.
• Authored at significant number of scientific papers published in important national and international journals.
• Past experience of working with the government, NGOs, CSOs, local communities and in participatory approaches

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Lump sum contracts: 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 output, 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).

EVALUATION

Individual Consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

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:

1. responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% point in technical criteria would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Evaluation: (Total obtainable score – 30)

All technically qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals receive points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)                                                                

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

• Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• Personal CV or P11, 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; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc
• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; b) a brief methodology, on how you will approach and complete the assignment, including a tentative table of contents for the final report; and c) a list of similar assignment with topic/name of the assignment, duration, role of consultant and organization/project
• Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:
• http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.