Over history (1610 BC to AD 2014), there have been 1212 confirmed tsunamis, of which 245 have been deadly.  In the last 50 years alone there have been 37 deadly tsunamis or approximately one deadly tsunami every 1.5 years[1]. Although catastrophic tsunamis may not be as frequent as extreme climate events, the loss of lives and economic consequences of such events are substantial. Asia Pacific region is highly vulnerable to tsunami risk. Seventy-six per cent of tsunamis that have occurred took place in the Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) tsunami were two of the worst tsunamis in recent years. Despite progress make in seismological and tsunami science in the last 50 years, these tsunamis caused devastating damage in the affected countries.

The impact of these events has exposed that countries are not prepared to cope with such devastating and large scale events. There are several reasons for this: a) Lack of technical understanding of what kinds of earthquakes trigger tsunamis, b) Unreliable tsunami warnings due to lack of technical understanding, c) Early warning not understood by communities at risk, d) Lack of awareness of how to prepare or respond to tsunami risk, e) Inability to prepare for or respond to structural inundation due to tsunami.

While both measures are important and required, structural measures such as building sea walls can be costly and may not be long term solutions to withstand tsunami waves. Tsunami awareness and preparedness are key to mitigate the impact of tsunamis and prevent loss of lives and property. A lesson learnt from the 2011 GEJE was that people should not be too dependent on early warning systems but be able to react based on their own judgement, and they can do this only if they are aware.

United Nations Development Programme, in collaboration with the Tohoku University, Japan and the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC), USA is implementing a project “Partnerships for strengthening school preparedness for tsunami in the Asia Pacific region”. The main objective of the project is to mitigate the impact of tsunamis by enhancing school preparedness in high risk communities in the Asia Pacific region. It will benefit school children in schools to be selected in 18 countries in the region that are vulnerable to tsunamis.

The envisaged project outputs are:

1. Tsunami evacuation drills based on existing plans are prepared with engagement of schools and local authorities.
2. Tsunami evacuation drills for high risk schools are conducted and documented.

[1] Source: International Tsunami Information Center/ Pacific Tsunami Warning System ITIC/PTWS

The consultant will provide support to DRR / Early Warning System Team at UNDP Cambodia and support the implementation of the global UNDP initiative in Cambodia as part of the “Partnerships for strengthening school preparedness for tsunami in the Asia Pacific region”.

To support the project output specified above, a School Safety Consultant is sought to provide an analytical assessment of the feasibility of conducting a Tsunami and/or Coastal / Multi Hazard evacuation drills at the five selected schools, located in the coastal zone of Cambodia.

The consultant will undertake a desktop study on the hazard and vulnerability of the areas / province / region where the schools are located and undertake three missions in the selected schools in Preah Sihanouk Province, whose details and objectives are specified below:

1. Feasibility / Scoping Mission, to be undertaken in the second week of February 2018.

• Duration of mission: 7 days (including desktop research and 3-day travel to the field)
• Description of task:
  • Conducting desktop study on the areas’ hazard and vulnerability, taking into consideration the UNDP’s developed criteria for school selection in areas vulnerable to tsunami / coastal hazards.
  • Conducting field mission to the target areas and visiting the 5 target schools;
  • Conducting interviews with key stakeholders from national and provincial counterparts. The list of suggested counterparts will be provided by UNDP Cambodia;
  • Drafting the mission report and submitting it to UNDP Cambodia and UNDP Regional Office in Bangkok for comments;
  • Finalizing the reports with all comments incorporated.
• Output: Scoping mission report. Description of output:

1.a. A report entailing the hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment of the school based on the earlier-conducted desktop research and field validation. The report provides brief analysis of the readiness / preparedness level of the selected / targeted schools as part of the tsunami/ coastal/ multi-hazard school preparedness programme and identify the gaps.

1.b. A set of recommendation, based on the analysis above, to conduct the drill as part of the preparedness programme of the selected schools. The plan should highlight the timeframe, materials and extra support needed to conduct the drill.

2. Mission to conduct Training of Trainers for the selected five schools, to be undertaken in March 2018.

• Duration of mission: 7 days including travel.
• Description of task:

• Facilitating workshop involving the five selected schools, which focuses on, but not limited to, the list of tasks mentioned below:

1. Hazards awareness to the school communities that the drills will take place (communicating the result of the desktop analysis).
2. Facilitating the development of School Safety Committee or School DRM Committees at the selected schools.
3. Defining roles and responsibilities of those conducting the drills
4. Designing the drill process that each school will adapt, i.e. providing recommendation on how the drill should be conducted in each school.
5. Discussion on education materials to be disseminated to the targeted schools.
6. Production of simple education / public awareness materials (in Khmer and English) to be disseminated to the targeted schools (in consultation with UNDP).

• Output: Mission report entailing strategic plan and Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in conducting the drills in the five schools, incorporating the tasks mentioned above

3. Advisory / Monitoring mission, to be undertaken in March 2018.

• Duration of mission: 5 days.
• Description of task:
• Monitoring the final preparation of the drills at the selected five schools.
• Monitoring and supervision of the drills conducted at the selected five schools and providing on-site guidance/ advisory services to ensure that the drills are conducted according to the developed SoP.
• Conducting debrief with five schools (with schools’ authorities and DRM committees) and local authorities.
• Reviewing the communications materials and outreach
• Lessons learnt report and recommendations

Output: Final report entailing observations, gaps, lessons learnt and recommendation for a more comprehensive school-level disaster preparedness programme for a tsunami / coastal/ multi-hazards.

Interested offeror must  read  the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=43886 for more  detail information about term  of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Functional Competencies:

• Time management (in managing deliverables);
• Team management;
• Professionalism, courtesy, patience;
• Outstanding inter-cultural communication, networking and coordination 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;

Education:

•  Advanced Degree in Disaster Management, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Geography, Human Geography, Sociology, Social Science, or any other  development-related fields.

Experience:

• A minimum 5 years of demonstrated experience in disaster management / disaster risk reduction in Asian Region.
• Experience in conducting Training of Trainers.
• Experience working in community mobilization in Cambodia, preferably with school children.
• Experience in conducting community drill.
• Experience in working / liaising with local government in Cambodia.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency of English language and Khmer is essential.

Interested offeror must  read  the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=43886 for more  detail information about term  of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on­line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e­mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email pheara.lek@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org.  While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice.