UNDP Jobs - 81065- International Consultant: Water Supply and Demands

International Consultant: Water Supply and Demands Management Expert

Location :

Home-based with missions

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

29-Sep-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 October 2018 – 31 March 2020

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Approximately 80 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

The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) (www.thegef.org) unites 183 member governments—in partnership with international institutions, non-governmental organizations and the private sector—to address global environment issues. An independently operating financial organization, the GEF provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer and persistent organic pollutants. Since 1991, the GEF has provided US$12.5 billion in grants and leveraged US$58 billion in co-financing for 3,690 projects in 165 developing countries. Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP) the GEF has made more than 20,000 grants totaling about US$1 billion to civil society and community-based organizations.

The GEF International Waters (IW) focal area targets transboundary water systems, such as shared river basins, lakes, groundwater and large marine ecosystems. The IW portfolio comprises 242 projects to date and some US$1.4 billion of GEF grants invested in 149 different countries. This investment has leveraged about US$8.4 billion in co-financing.

UNDP GEF Kura Project “Advancing Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) across the Kura river basin through implementation of the transboundary agreed actions and national plans” will be implementing the Strategic Action Program for the Kura River Basin in partnership with the Governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan. The SAP is framed around four agreed Ecosystem Quality Objectives (EQO) which are:

To achieve sustainable utilization of water resources to ensure access to water and preserve ecosystem services;
To achieve water quality such that it would ensure access to clean water for present and future generations and sustain ecosystem functions in the Kura river basin;
To achieve and maintain ecosystem status whereby they provide essential environmental and socio-economic services in a sustainable manner in the Kura River Basin; and,
To achieve mitigation of adverse impacts of flooding and climate change on infrastructures, riparian ecosystems and communities.

The GEF will support priority activities towards these objectives. The GEF funded SAP implementation Project has the objective “to integrate water resources management in the Kura river basin to address water-energy-food-ecosystem security nexus through the implementation of agreed actions in the SAP”.
There will be five components to support the countries to achieve this objective. These are:

Project Component 1: Establishment of effective cross sectoral IWRM governance protocols at the local, national and transboundary levels in the Kura Basin;
Project Component 2: Strengthening national capacities to implement multi-sectoral IWRM in the Kura basin;
Project Component 3: Stress reduction in critical areas and pre-feasibility studies to identify investment opportunities for improving river system health;
Project Component 4: Targeted education and involvement projects to empower stakeholders in implementing local / national / regional actions in support of SAP implementation;
Project Component 5: Enhancing science for governance by strengthening monitoring, information management and data analysis systems for IWRM.

Location: Home-based with missions to Baku Azerbaijan and Tbilisi Georgia

Duties and Responsibilities

Sustainable management of water resources in the Kura river basin will become increasingly complex in the future as climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of drought and water shortages. There is an increasing concern about the effective and efficient use of water for agriculture, and the volume of water losses in the municipal water supply networks. The promotion of effective water use and on-farm water management are identified as important aspect in the Strategic Action Program (SAP) and the UNDP-GEF Kura II project document.

The UNDP-GEF Kura II project developed national plans for rational water use in the municipal and agriculture sectors in both Azerbaijan and Georgia. The project is planning to design and implement demonstration projects in both countries for rational water use in these two sectors. The project will follow up the implementation of these projects and develop technical reports on the effectiveness of such interventions and its actual impacts on water use in each sector.

During last year, the UNDP-GEF Kura II project developed an assessment report on the geographic distribution of groundwater and surface water in the Kura river basin. This report depends on the limited data and information available in the two countries, specifically groundwater data. The project established a regional working group for the management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water shared between Azerbaijan and Georgia. This working group will review the current practices in managing the transboundary groundwater and surface water in the two countries and develop a guideline for the proper management of these resources. This working group will be supervised by the international expert to provide guidance and technical support in developing that guideline.

The project also developed a simple mathematical model for Kura basin water balance. This model can be an efficient tool for water resources planning and it can be used as a basis for building more complex modelling capabilities in the two countries.
As flood risk management is getting more attention from water managers in both Azerbaijan and Georgia because of the sever events occurred in the last two decades. It is expected that the rate of occurrence of such sever events will increase due to climate change. The root cause of high flood risk and extensive flood damages in Azerbaijan and Georgia is the continued reliance on outdated flood protection measures, based on localized structural solutions rather than developing and implementing integrated national flood management plans. There is a need to review and develop flood risk maps for the Kura basin in the two countries, and review/update the existing flood risk management plans in both countries.

The services of a qualified and highly competent consultant will be required to assist the Project Coordination Unit in developing the above-mentioned tasks and prepare the needed technical reports.

Scope of Work
The water supply and demands management expert will work closely with the UNDP-GEF Kura II project PCU team to conduct 3-staged training program for hydrological modelling for the water management professionals in the two countries. He/She will also follow up the implementation of this hydrological model in one of the sub basins in each country as on the job training for core team of experts in each country.

He/She will also work closely with the national experts for flood risk management in each country to provide guidance and technical support for them in the review and update the current flood risk management plans in each country. The national experts will be responsible on providing all data and information on the current flood risk management plans. While the international expert for water supply and demand will be responsible for the finalization of the updated flood risk management plan for each country in line with the EU Flood directive.

The consultant will also provide support to the project PCU in the monitoring and final evaluation of the demonstration projects for rational water use in the municipal and agriculture sectors in each country. He will develop the final reports on the evaluation of these demo project and assess its effectiveness in reducing the water losses in these two sectors.

The consultant, in collaboration and close coordination with the national experts, Project Coordination Unit and the National Focal Points, shall carry out the following activities:
For Flood Risk Management:

Review the national reports on the current practices for Flood Risk Management in Both countries
Develop two national reports on the updated flood risk management plan in each country including the development of the flood risk maps in each country
Conduct 1 field mission to the region to present the updated plans to the concerned stakeholders in each country

For Rational Water Use:

Conduct 2 field missions to the region to follow up the implementation of these demo projects
Develop the final reports on the assessment of these demo projects and evaluate its impacts on reducing water losses and the lessons learned.

For the Training on Hydrological Modelling

Conduct the 3- staged Hydrological Modeling Training
Develop a report on the hydrologic modelling training
Start Apply the Hydrological model on one sub basin in each country
Conduct 2 field missions to the region to follow up the implementation of the hydrological model in the selected sub basins.
Develop Final Report on the implementation of the hydrological model on the selected sub basins

For support the development of the guideline for management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources

Provide work plan for the development of the technical guideline for management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources
Conduct a field mission to the region to present the work plan to the regional working group for groundwater and surface water management and agree on the methodology for developing the guideline
Collect data and information from the working groups members and draft the technical guideline
Conduct a Field mission to the region to present the draft guideline to the main stakeholders in each country
Finalize the technical guideline for the management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources.

Timeframe for Key Deliverables and payment arrangements:

Instalment 1:

Submission and approval of detailed work plan for implementation of activities

Start date: 1 October 2018
End date: 15 October 2018

Payment due: 10% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Instalment 2:

For Flood Risk Management: (1 mission to the region for 5 days)

Review the national reports on the current practices for Flood Risk Management in Both countries
Start date: 1 October 2018
End date: 31 October 2018

Develop two national reports on the updated flood risk management plan in each country including the development of the flood risk maps in each country

Start date: 1 November 2018
End date: 31 January 2019

Conduct 1 field mission to the region for 5 days to present the updated plans to the concerned stakeholders in each country

Start date: 1 February 2019
End date: 28 February 2019

Payment due: 20% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Instalment 3:
For Rational Water Use: (2 missions to the region)

Conduct 1 field missions to the region to follow up the implementation of the demo projects for Rational Water Use

Start date: 1 May 2019
End date: 31 May 2019

Develop the final reports on the assessment of these demo projects and evaluate its impacts on reducing water losses and the lessons learned.

Start date: 1 February 2020
End date: 31 March 2020

Conduct 1 field missions to the region to present the final results of the demo projects for Rational Water Use

Start date: 1 April 2020
End date: 31 May 2020

Payment due: 15% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Instalment 4:

For the Training on Hydrological Modelling
Conduct the 3- staged Hydrological Modeling Training (3 missions to the region)

Start date: 1 October 2018
End date: 31 March 2019

Develop a report on the hydrologic modelling training

Start date: 1 April 2019
End date: 31 May 2019

Payment due: 15% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Instalment 5:

Apply the Hydrological model on one sub basin in each country

Start date: 1 September 2019
End date: 28 February 2020

Conduct 2 field missions to the region to follow up the implementation of the hydrological model in the selected sub basins.

Start date: 1 September 2019
End date: 28 February 2020

Develop Final Report on the implementation of the hydrological model on the selected sub basins

Start date: 1 March 2020
End date: 31 March 2020

Payment due: 20% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Instalment 6:

For support the development of the guideline for management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources (2 missions to the region back to back with other missions conducted within Inst. 5)
Provide work plan for the development of the technical guideline for management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources

Start date: 15 September 2018
End date: 30 September 2018

Conduct a field mission to the region to present the work plan to the regional working group for groundwater and surface water management and agree on the methodology for developing the guideline (back to back with the first training of Hydrological modelling)

Start date: 15 October 2018
End date: 30 October 2018

Collect data and information from the working groups members and draft the technical guideline

Start date: 1 November 2018
End date: 31 January 2019

Conduct a Field mission to the region to present the draft guideline to the main stakeholders in each country (Back to back with Flood Risk Management Meeting)

Start date: 1 February 2019
End date: 28 February 2019

Finalize the technical guideline for the management of the transboundary groundwater and surface water resources.

Start date: 1 March 2019
End date: 31 March 2019

Payment due: 20% of the total lump sum on delivery and approval by the CTA

Information on Working Arrangements:

The international water supply and demands management Expert will report to the Project Chief Technical Advisor / Regional Project Coordinator (CTA/RPC). Deliverables will be reviewed and approved by the CTA/RPC.

Time Frame

The expected time frame for the Consultant to complete these activities is 18 months starting from October 1, 2018 with approximately 80 working days during this period (40 days home base working plus 8 missions to the region with 5 working days per mission (each mission will include 3 days in Azerbaijan + 2 days in Georgia)).

Financial Arrangements

Payments as percentage of lump sum will be made monthly on the following based on approval and timely completion of above all deliverables described above.
Any delay of deliverable must be approved by the CTA in writing.

Competencies

Functional competencies

Strong communication and management skills and demonstrable capacity to work with a multi-national team and to work with government institutions;
Demonstrated ability on using hydrological mathematical models for groundwater and surface water management;
Ability to conduct needs assessment studies and conduct training courses;
Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities.

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;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Masters degree in water resources management, or related fields required; Masters degree focusing on the use of hydrologic models in planning of groundwater and surface water conjunctive use a strong advantage. (Criteria A)

Experience

At least 6 years of demonstrated experience in assessment and planning for water supply and demands is required; (Criteria B);
Proven experience in conducting assessment to the water distribution networks in the agriculture and municipal water sectors is required, experience in developing plans on the rational water use and technologies for efficient use of water in these two sectors is an asset (Criteria C);
Proven experience in using hydrologic models in water resources planning and management. Experience with the use of GIS and remote sensing as inputs to the hydrological models for delineating groundwater aquifers is required. Showcases of the application of hydrologic models in water supply and demands management will be an asset (Criteria D)
Proven experience in developing and conducting training courses for multi-disciplinary trainees on hydrological models and its use in water resources planning (Criteria E)
Experience in working with UNDP and GEF through multiple sectors/ministries or work experience in GEF International Waters, and experience in former Soviet States is an asset (Criteria F);

Language:

English is the working language for this assignment, therefore excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required. Ability to communicate in Russian is an advantage (Criteria G)

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the contract should 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 P11 desk reviews and interviews and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates who will receive min. 70% of points in desk review (criteria A-F) will be invited for an interview. Only candidates who will get min. 70% of points in technical evaluation (criteria A-G) will be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation Criteria
Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points:

Criteria A – Academic qualification / education – max points 10;
Criteria B – Experience – max points 10;
Criteria C – Experience– max points 15;
Criteria D – Experience– max points 10;
Criteria E – Experience – max points 5;
Criteria F – Experience – max points 5;
Criteria G – Interview (language skills, communication abilities and technical skills) – max points 15

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Application Procedure:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
Filled P11 form or CV including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from http://www.eurasia.undp.org/content/dam/rbec/docs/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc);
A proposal for the workplan and methodology (max. 2 500 words) indicating the work to be done for achieving the task, main points to be discussed with the countries and to also be addressed in your report, plan for visiting countries, the structure of your final report.
Offeror’s Letter (blank template can be downloaded from https://bit.ly/2KO1okS).
Financial Proposal in USD* - specifying a) total amount for the professional fee for tasks specified in this announcement and b) breakdown of mission related costs ( including i) travel costs and ii) per diem) for 8 missions to the region with 5 working days per mission (each mission will include 3 days in Azerbaijan + 2 days in Georgia)) to meet with stakeholders in the two countries and discuss the draft reports with them.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination, personal security needs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal.

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

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 dss.un.org
General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.
Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.