Background

Project Title

Strengthening community resilience to climate-induced disasters in the Dili-Ainaro Road Development Corridor, Timor-Leste

Project Description

The Dili-Ainaro Road Development Corridor project, aims at strengthening the resilience of communities living in the Dili-Ainaro Road Development Corridor to climate-induced disasters such as floods and landslides and to reduce the risk of damage to road infrastructure.

The Dili to Ainaro Road is a joint investment between the Government of Timor-Leste and the World Bank. It aims to upgrade the road infrastructure linking Dili to the district capitals of Aileu and Ainaro. This road infrastructure and the communities living in the Dili-Ainaro Road Development Corridor (DARDC) are at risk to climate-induced natural disasters such as floods and landslides. Damage to road infrastructure is expensive to repair and restricts: i) economic development; ii) market access; iii) access to services such as education and health care; iv) evacuation during natural disasters; and v) provision of disaster relief. Furthermore, the risk of damage to road infrastructure is exacerbated by ecosystem degradation resulting from the existing land-use practices such as: i) timber logging; ii) slash-and-burn agriculture; iii) overharvesting of fuel wood; and iv) burning for hunting and fodder production.

The “Dili-Ainaro Project”, which is financed through the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF) and implemented by the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) with support from UNDP, seeks to address the expected increase in climate-induced natural disasters by minimizing the potential risks and damages to the Dili-Ainaro road infrastructure. The project aims to achieve this by strengthening capacities and providing investments for disaster risk management (DRM) measures using ecosystem-based approaches.

C.Scope of Work

Timor-Leste is one of many Pacific countries with bamboo resources and the potential to produce over 20 tons of bamboo wood per hectare. Bamboo, a perennial crop with annual production capacity, can grow in a wide range of agro ecological zones and can be used to rehabilitate degraded and eroded lands when planted as an agricultural crop. It also helps with soil moisture retention and increases the soil organic matter in order to support and maintain the soil’s micro-flora. Compared to trees, bamboo is also productive in terms of woody biomass it produces per year. Possessing these kinds of benefits, bamboo is therefore regarded as a highly deemed agroforestry crop that can not only help smallholders intensify crop productivity, but also provide them with a secured livelihood alternative that can generate important household revenue.

The Government of Timor-Leste recognizes the importance of forests and its contribution to the country’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing by putting in place measures for forest protection and maintenance to tackle challenges of overexploitation, forest conversions and degradation.

Justification:

Bamboo is naturally found in the Timor-Leste and bamboos are also grown in farms and homesteads in the islands. Since bamboo has not been widely cultivated in the country, there is a concern that not enough has been done to create awareness on the benefits of growing bamboo. There have even been instances where farmers would replace bamboo with other crops because of the lack of an integrated policy for bamboo development, which would ensure that bamboo development is mainstreamed into sectorial policies, such as soil conservation action plans, environment and agriculture policies in order for bamboo activities to be implemented effectively.

Currently in Timor-Leste, there are forestry activities that are interlinked to many different sectors due to the cross cutting nature of benefits forests can provide. The major policies, in which forestry has been mainstreamed, include the National Environment, Population, and Agriculture policies, where the relationship with the forestry sector has been acknowledged to solve soil erosion problems, environmental degradation and low agricultural production. Forestry has also been mainstreamed in the country’s water, energy, industry, gender and land policies to decrease dependence on biomass energy, to enhance access to clean water, to increase value addition of primary production, to improve livelihoods of vulnerable groups, and to establish an equitable land tenure system.

A similar inter-linkage needs to be done for developing a bamboo products sub-sector, in which bamboo contributions would be recognised in the wide spectrum of the forest development sector, and in which a strategy for bamboo development action plan can be fully implemented nationwide. The current capacity of bamboo production and consumption is limited in Timor-Leste. The bamboo is mainly used for local household purposes and building traditional houses. There is a small scale industry set up by the government namely Institute of Bamboo with the aim to research and development of bamboo products. However, the production and marketing capacity of the institute is limited.

As a part of follow up activities of high level study tour in China and south-south cooperation between China and Timor-Leste, development of national strategy has been proposed. This assignment will therefore look into the current status of bamboo sector, specifically the existing legal framework, the different organizations and institutions working with bamboo resources, the marketing and trade status and bamboo resource management among other issues. The consultant through a participatory process, is expected to examine the current governance related response options, policy strategy gaps, instruments and implementation designs which would be relevant in designing a National Strategy for Bamboo Development action plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific tasks and responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of UNDP Representation to Timor-Leste, and in close collaboration with the relevant project teams in Timor-Leste, the consultant is required to undertake the following tasks:

• Review relevant government overall objectives, policies statements, countries’ direction related to bamboo management and status;
• List and examine related legislations and policy instruments. This should include advice on policy review and key gaps and processes (including government responsibilities) that must be improved to grow the bamboo sector.
• Review constraints within the sector and come up with suggestions how up-scaling mechanisms within the country can be enhanced.
• Assess bamboo resources, impacts and effects.
• Conduct socio-economic survey and assess the livelihood strategies of the local communities and identify groups of potential bamboo entrepreneurs within these communities.
• Assess the viability of selected bamboo products, and analyze the most sustainable and appropriate types of bamboo enterprises to be developed
• For each of the strategic focus, the consultant will present the objectives and expected results, propose activities and logical framework, a timing for the realization of the strategic focus;
• Propose suited mechanisms for mainstreaming and implementation of a National strategy for bamboo;
• Present the developed strategy to the Government of Timor-Leste and relevant Ministries and stakeholders in order to create ownership;
• Integrate the comments of the stakeholders and submit the final report of the National strategy for bamboo in Timor-Leste;
• Be responsible for the revision of the draft document and sharing of comments to stakeholders within the country;

Submit the final report to UNDP and relevant Ministries for approval.

Expected output and Deliverables:

Delivery 1: Inception report: The consultant should provide an inception report describing methodology, schedule, field visit plan, etc before commencing field visit in Timor-Leste.

Delivery 2: Interim report: The consultant should prepare an interim report based on the preliminary findings and present it to all stakeholders at the end of the field visit in Timor-Leste. The project will organize a national workshop to discuss the interim national bamboo strategy.

Delivery 3: Final National Bamboo Strategy. The final output of the consultancy is a “National strategy for bamboo products”, outlining the directions for the Government of Timor-Leste on how best to mainstream these resource in existing development sector policies.

The strategy paper is expected to cover the following points:

The role of the Government of Timor-Leste

•  Government Responsibilities
•  Institutional arrangements and identification of constraints in developing a Bamboo sector

1. Current Status of bamboo development

• Current status of bamboo resources in Timor-Leste in terms of species, spatial distribution and quantity of resources
• Current local and industrial uses of bamboo in Timor-Leste
• Legal framework
• Organizations and Institutions working in the bamboo sector
• Bamboo management in the country
• Research and development for Bamboo resources

1. Marketing and trade

• Status of Timor-Leste’s bamboo trade and marketing opportunities and capabilities
• Identification of constraints in marketing Bamboo marketing and trade strategy
• Potential of TL bamboo species for industrial products   

1. Strategic focus

• Improving awareness of Bamboo
• Entry points for improvement the legal framework and regulatory processes
• Capacity building needs for integrating the Bamboo sub-sector in the political and economic orientation of the country
• Creation of marketing channels, and processing of bamboo for increased revenue streams at the various levels

1. Framework for implementing strategy

• Principles for  implementation of this bamboo  strategy
• Mechanisms and entry points to support incorporation of proposed bamboo development strategy into existing development policies
• Potential risks and key mitigation measures

1. Summary of recommendations for National Strategy for Bamboo in the country

4. Duration of assignment and Duty Station

The consultant will work both from home travel to minimalities for data collection. Under this assignment the successful consultant will be offered a 25 working days upon signing the contract.

E. Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the CTA / Project Manager of the DARDC Project and the general guidance of the MAF. He/She will update them on progress and through milestone reports identified in these terms of reference.

The Consultant will consult and work closely with MAF and other relevant ministries including Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Trade and with stakeholders such as NGOs, INGOs and CBOs.

The DARDC project will provide office space for the time the Consultant will work in Dili and transport for any work-related travel to the districts. The project will also fund workshops /meetings needed for the purposes of the consultancy and printing and translation of any documents if need be.

Competencies

Timeframe and Schedule of Payments

Criteria for selection of the Best offer

Cumulative analysis

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

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) 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 49 points or 70% of the technical criteria would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

DETAIL EVALUATION CRITERIA

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

Education:

• Advanced university degree (M.Sc. or PhD) in a relevant subject, e.g. forestry, agriculture, policy, environment etc.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years professional experience in bamboo sector, policy development and economic development.
• Experience with introduction of new and innovative concepts and practices in communities and government systems.
• Experience with policy and national strategy development processes ideally related to the bamboo sector.
• Experience in consulting with various stakeholders, including government officials and community members.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Portuguese, Bahasa, Tetum and/or local dialects in the project area is advantageous.