UNDP Jobs - 81487- An Individual Contract (IC) to Support the prepara

An Individual Contract (IC) to Support the preparation of a Feasibility Study for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) (National Gender Specialist)

Location :

Khartoum, SUDAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Nov-2018

Application Deadline :

21-Oct-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

50 working days

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

50 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

As part of the UN country team in Sudan, UNDP aims to contribute to the significant reduction of extreme poverty throughout the country and to support the establishment of a critical mass among Sudan’s people that is ready and able to engage in the development process of the country. In line with the overarching SDG goal “Leave No One Behind” (embedded among others in SDGs 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 13), our programme interventions target localities characterized by high levels of poverty and exclusion and those affected by conflict. UNDP Sudan activities are fully aligned with UNDP’s corporate Strategic Plan as well as with the UNDAF developed and embedded in the global SDG framework. To that end, we support stabilization and governance for peace as well as environmentally sustainable development. We pay particular attention to the inclusion of all groups, including women and youth representing the most promising potential for change in Sudan.

As part of the Environmentally Sustainable Development, the Environment, Energy and Climate Change activities focus on strengthening capacities at local, regional and national level to manage and utilize natural resources in a sustainable way, to enhance resilience and adaptive capacity to long-term climate change including variability impacts and to reduce the associated risk of natural disasters.

Given the urgency and seriousness of climate change, the United Nations and Member States have established a new Green Climate Fund to make a significant contribution to the global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat climate change. Sudan is one of the member countries of the GCF and submitted a concept note to the GCF, entitled on “Strengthening Capacity of Rural Primary Health Care Services to Address Adverse Impacts of Climate Change on Health”. The GCF Secretariat reviewed the concept note and gave technical comments which will guide to the formulation of the full-fledged project formulation process. The proposed project seeks to strengthen resilience of health systems to climate change impacts, through three complementary outputs. These are i) Integration of climate health information into national health and adaptation strategies; ii) Strengthened capacity for effective climate-health service delivery; and iii) Ensured reliable energy supply for health care facilities in the most climate vulnerable zones.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective: The primary objective of the proposed services is to support a “Gender and Social Action Plan” of the project which will prepare by international consultant and contribute requested data set (i.e. gender policy, gender mainstreaming, gender equality, etc…) to international consultant (s) which the findings will inform to the formulation of project design.

Overall scope of Works:

The national consultant will be working closely with an International Consultant (s) on the preparation of a Feasibility Study for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), responsible for completing the following tasks over a period of 50 working days with the technical assistance and guidance of the Regional Technical Advisor (RTA) of Climate Change Adaptation; International Consultant (s), UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit and the Task Force members of the project formulation team.

The specific scope of assigned tasks comprises two components:

Component One: The main scope of the component will prepare site descriptions and project design layouts prepared for Solar System installation in targeted health facilities in the context of good international practices and based on specific site infrastructure, access etc. Climate Change and Environment specialist will take a lead role for drafting of the feasibility report, oversee the proposed activities, support calculation on financial analysis of the project life time to the international consultant and suggest detailed interventions from the financial point of view. Moreover, Climate Change and Environment Specialist will conduct preliminary consultations undertaken with stakeholders based on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as to the use of the land and building for the installation of solar system, provide required data set for Social and Environment framework report, M&E plan and prepared Result and Resource Framework for the project document. The national Renewable Energy consultant will undertake an assessment of the proposed design and recommend possible alternatives so as to make the designs realistic and implementable, under Component Three where an appropriate Solar System is identified as the feasible solution. In addition, the national Renewable Energy specialist needs to be collected for market analysis and private sector engagement and suggested interventions for capacity building in consultation with national health specialist. National health specialist will provide technical assistance on background information of health-related information system, structure and design of healthcare centers, the trend of the disease related on climate change. Finally, Gender Specialist will conduct gender mainstreaming, provided required data set to the national and international consultants for gender action plan report and gender budgeting in the project document.

The overall scope of work for Component One consists of four phases:

Inception meeting with national consultants: An inception meeting between the Task Force (comprising UNDP Country Office, WHO Country Office, Ministry of Water Resources Irrigation and Electricity, Ministry of Health, National Designated Authority-GCF) and the national consultants will be held to further clarify the: (i) the terms of reference; (ii) the scope of service; (iii) the work plan; (iv) appropriate sources or reference material needed;
Site Visit to the targeted health facilities (attached in annex): Selected site visits will be carried out by national consultants as stated in the annex. The Renewable Energy consultant will take a lead role for collection of the following data set from a to h. While, the Climate Change and Environment, Health and Gender specialist will make use of these data set and collect additional information for financial analysis, market analysis and private sector engagement and capacity building; social and environmental impact assessment and FPIC; gender sensitive data set include but is not limited to:
Health facilities compound structure including size, boundary locations, fences, slope, number of buildings, elevation etc.
Existing power supply accessibility and availability (both on and off grid)
What existing infrastructure is located on the site, including but not limited to the specific location and dimensions (length, width and height) of all current buildings, building construction, roof type, roof slope, roof area, roof condition, necessary improvements needed, and inventory of existing associated roof infrastructure including gutters, downpipes etc, where current roof structure for targeted buildings are acceptable for solar systems
Sustainable design and costing of the solar system (3 kwp per BHUs; 5 kwp per PHCs and UHCs; 35 kwp per RSHs; 70 kwp per SSHs; 60 kwp per GSHs, 60 kwp per Sectoral Hospitals; 80 kwp per SFHs; 130 kwp per NRL; 1000 kwp per NMSFs central store and 100 kwp per NMSFs state stores) – attached in annex
The potential siting of solar system and what if any additional works (i.e. bricks, frame, power cable) are required to site the solar systems
Distances from power source and measurements for distance
Power demand-supply calculations for each the specific location, and
Preliminary consultations undertaken with stakeholders based on Free, Prior and Informed Consent as to the use of the land and building for the installation of solar system
Undertake consultations including presentations to UNDP, international consultant and Task Force on preliminary data collection and proposed
After collecting data from sample targeted structures, there will be a discussion amongst the stakeholders of this project; and subsequent actions on data collection, analysis, and recommendation of the suite of solar system solutions for the targeted structures under component one of this consultancy

Component 2: Building on the preliminary findings from component one above, the national Renewable Energy consultant will undertake an assessment of solar system, and power demand and preferences for the select project targeted sites in consultation with national climate change and environmental specialist, Health and gender expert. In undertaking this, the national Renewable Energy consultant will need to conduct detailed power source, supply and demand, options analysis for the targeted sites for the project – see in the annex.

The scope of the component involves site-based analysis of climate risks/exposure and vulnerabilities/needs of target populations related to the provision of safe, reliable access to solar power and detailed options analysis, recommendations, and design of proposed appropriate solutions for each of the targeted sites.

The component broadly involves the following activities:

Analysis and assessment of the climate risks and exposure related to the current power situation in the targeted sites including future trends of climate change and impacts on existing power situation for health facilities. This should elaborate on the impacts over the baseline power situation including quality of the power and availability scenario from observed and projected climate change risks;
Undertake an options analysis, collect and compiling federal and state specific data and information on the existing health and solar energy activities, availability, supply and demand of the targeted populations and year-round solar energy solutions for the targeted sites. The options analysis should be informed by community consultations and buy-in; and
Develop recommendations and design details for the solutions for each site (from 3 kwp to 150 kwp) including technical design specifications, cost estimates, operation and maintenance modalities, management and institutional arrangements engaging community/staff based management structures, and private sector engagement strategies and sustainability. The solutions should be designed with sustainability and long-term adaptive capacity considerations, focused on women, girls and youth.

The overall scope of work of Component Two consists of three phases:

Identify the specific sites for targeting solar system installation in health facilities based on the map provided by Ministry of Health with climate impacts (i.e. shortage of electricity by using hydro and fuel based electricity) and triangulating with National Communication Reports and Ministry of Energy data and information. Targeting and site-selection needs to be coordinated with Ministry of Health, Global Fund project and development situation of the state level;
For each identified location, the national consultant should consider the construction of solar energy solutions at the particular site, collect the following data
Health facilities compound structure including size, boundary locations, fences, slope, number of buildings, elevation etc;
Existing power supply accessibility and availability (both on and off grid);
What existing infrastructure is located on the site;
The potential siting of the infrastructure and what if any additional works are required (i.e. brick, cement, frame);
Sustainable design and costing for each solution that is being considered;
For hybrid (back up for hydroelectricity), where the power for the operation would be obtained from and its reliability;
Electricity supply demand-supply calculations for each the specific location, and
Preliminary consultations undertaken with stakeholders based on Free, Prior and Informed Consent as to the use of the solar systems where the infrastructure might be located.
Prepare a consolidated report that provides information and background for the baseline conditions, and climate change risks and impacts, issues and constraints related to solar energy provision to the targeted populations, lessons learned and best practices that inform the proposed approaches across Sudan. In addition, the report that encompasses the analyses and proposed recommendations as described in the broad scope of work with specifics on each location covering site-specific infrastructure and access to electricity including supply and demand analysis related to climate change risk and impacts. As part of this, the national consultant will undertake an options analysis (across technology choices as well as community preferences and buy-in); a description and assessment of the proposed interventions (justification, sustainability and exit strategy, O&M, cost estimates, design specifications), and an analysis of how the proposed solar system will provide longer term climate resilient access to reliable and affordable energy in light of the changing climate. Specifically, the report should include:
Context Analysis – baseline socio-economic situation of the targeted states;
Climate Change risks and issues related to health services including source, supply, access, and distribution aspects;
Barrier and issues analysis;
Lessons learned and good international practices for solar for health activities;
Identification and mapping of the access to solar energy options to address climate change;
Demand and supply as well as gap analysis for current energy to meet the year round needs of the targeted populations given the seasonal variation of rainfall;
Identification of the positioning of the solar intervention, government priority and plan;
Assessment of the feasible options including technology choices, investment options (BC ratio, NPV and IRR); Social and Environmental impact, gender consideration, community-buy in and management, cost-effectiveness etc.;
Preparation of site description with detailed map, based on facility type, and design layouts for each type (Ministry of Health will provide detail structure of the BHUs, PHCs, State Hospitals and Sectoral Hospitals) for targeted Basic Health Units and Primary Health Centers; State Hospitals (Rural, Specialized and General), Sectoral Hospitals; Federal Hospitals; National Reference Lab; National Medical Supplies Fund central store and National Medical Supplies Fund state store. Auto CAD design and photos should be included. The national consultant will also need to prepare solar energy requirement and IRR calculation based on spreadsheets. Where practicable, the national consultant should consider any relevant environmental and social issues in the project design layouts. Further, the consultant should provide a general operation and maintenance regime for the solar systems;
Recommendations of the climate resilient solar technologies across different health facilities as appropriate to meet all year demand. The recommendations should include O&M and sustainability mechanisms;
Conceptual design for the proposed solutions including cost estimation for each intervention (The information from Component One would feed into this section of the report);
Estimated overall budget for total health facilities including contingencies; and
Management modalities and institutional arrangements at the local level for future sustainability and replication with a strong focus on gender empowerment.

Specifically, the national consultant (Gender) will be conducting the following tasks:

Desk review of the technical and policy documents: The national consultant (Gender) will collect and review the relevant policy and technical documents for environment, climate change, energy and health sector in general including health facilities and prepare a draft matrix for further required actions (i.e. gender-responsive and socially inclusive actions to be taken under the activity areas of the project, policy, rules, regulations concerning on gender, CEDAW etc…).
Field missions to the targeted states for consultations with concerned stakeholders on the health facilities and their feasibility focusing on social and gender point of view: The national consultant (Gender) should conduct missions to states clusters to consult with technical staff members from various state level organizations including communities and staff members from health services and advise on the feasibility of the suggested interventions for social and gender point of view.
Advice on the suggested interventions for the health facilities from the social and gender point of view: Based on 1 and 2 above, the national consultant (Gender) will advise the International Consultants on advice the suggested interventions for the health facilities. The national consultant (Gender) should also assist the International Consultants (Lead Writer and Gender consultant) in identifying the project baseline including information on policies, plans and programs that are active in the country, as relates to health and Renewable Energy sector, highlighting opportunities for synergies and coordination; indicate risks, that might prevent the project objectives from being achieved, and propose measures that address these risks.
Facilitate and validation of the feasibility with concerned stakeholder in Khartoum: The aim of the consultation meeting is to discuss the main elements of feasibility study and to fill the gaps of technical findings and requirements for feasibility study report. The participants are researchers, technical staff from concerned ministries, UN agencies, private sector, NGOs, task force members and communities from the targeted states.
Contribute substantively to finalizing the Gender and Social Action Plan, feasibility study and project design: Elaborate on the information provided to the International Consultant and compilation of comments from UNDP CO, Task Force Members and UNDP Regional Office to incorporate in the final feasibility study and project design.

Competencies

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;
Ability to work with a multi-cultural and diverse team.
Functional Competencies:
Demonstrated experience in project design and formulation
Demonstrated experience in technical issues related to adaptation to climate change
Ability to analyze large amounts of complex and diversified data related to climate change adaptation in least developed countries.
Demonstrated strong coordination and facilitation skills;
Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to initiate discussions about climate change adaptation and reliance issues specifically in the water and agricultural sectors.

Required Skills and Experience

At least a master degree in gender, economy, environment, climate change, health, energy or related disciplines.
Minimum 7 years of experience in climate change adaptation, health sector strategic frameworks and research activities
Minimum 3 years of experiences in project development, research designs and analysis
Experience with multilateral supported climate change adaptation and/or mitigation such GEF/LDCF/other donors especially with the new GCF is an asset.
Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings for the preparation of quality Technical Feasibility Study