Background

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

UNCDF’s Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) facility was designed and launched in 2011 with the aim of promoting climate change–resilient communities and local economies by establishing a standard and internationally recognized country-based mechanism to channel climate finance to local government authorities in LDCs and to increase local resilience, thereby contributing to achievement of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the goals of poverty eradication (SDG 1) and climate action (SDG 13). LoCAL increases awareness and capacities to respond to climate change at the local level, integrates climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems in a participatory and gender-sensitive manner, and increases the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation. 

LoCAL combines performance-based climate resilience grants (PBCRGs) with technical and capacity-building support. PBCRGs ensure programming and verification of climate change expenditures at the local level and offer strong incentives for general performance improvements targeting areas of importance for enhanced resilience. The PBCRG can be seen as an earmarked cross-sectoral grant with conditions attached to the use of its funding for climate change adaptation beyond business as usual. Combined with regular grant allocations, PBCRGs enable 100 per-cent of the investments in climate-sensitive sectors to become climate resilient over time. They include a set of minimum conditions, performance measures and a menu of eligible investments. LoCAL focuses on the delivery of four outputs that will directly contribute to increasing local governments’ access to climate finance and building resilience to climate change:

• Output 1 – Awareness and capacities to respond to climate change adaptation at the local level are increased;
• Output 2 – CCA is mainstreamed into government’s planning and budgeting systems and investments are implemented in line with the PBCRG mechanism;
• Output 3 – The PBCRG system is effectively and sustainably established in participating countries and leads to an increased amount of CCA finance available to local government and local economy;
• Output 4 – The role of local authorities and of the PBCRGS in addressing climate change are increasingly recognized at international level, through outreach, learning and quality assurance. 

The Programme operates in three distinct phases:

• Phase I: Piloting, consists of an initial scoping analysis, followed by testing in two to four local governments. As of December 2018, The Gambia, Lesotho, Tanzania and Tuvalu are in Phase I; Ghana, Lao PDR, Mali, Mozambique and Niger are preparing to enter Phase II.
• Phase II: Consolidating, takes place in 5–10 local governments in a country. It involves collecting lessons and demonstrating the mechanism’s effectiveness at a larger scale. As of December 2018, Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia and Nepal are in Phase II.
• Phase III: Scaling-up, is full national roll-out of LoCAL based on the results of the previous phases and lessons learned. LoCAL is gradually extended to all local governments, with domestic or international climate finance, and becomes the national system for channelling adaptation finance to the local level. Bhutan is in Phase III, with budget support from the European Union; Cambodia has also begun Phase III preparations.

Since its global scale up in 2014, LoCAL has engaged 99 local governments in 14 countries representing over 6 million people. Between 2014 and 2018, it delivered close to USD 16.5 million, with grants and technical assistance to countries totalling USD 10.9 million. During the same period, 517 climate change adaptation interventions were finalized across 11 countries using grants, with another 77 under implementation or being planned. 

In 2016, the LoCAL Board, a South-South platform composed of LoCAL Countries representatives, development partners and stakeholders, established the objective for LoCAL ‘to become a standard and recognized country-based mechanism’ for LDCs that supports ‘direct access to the GCF’ and transfers ‘resources to local governments through national institutions and systems for building verifiable climate change adaptation and resilience’.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Based on the abovementioned LoCAL Board decision and considering the growing number of countries and respective local government authorities (LGAs) interested in adopting the LoCAL mechanism, an increased demand has emerged for the standardization of indicators and metrics to guide and ensure effective promotion of local resilience and climate smart investments at the subnational level through LoCAL/PBCRGs, while setting up a benchmark for standardized comparability among participating LGAs and LoCAL countries. 

This endeavour complements international efforts to support cities and regions, both in rural and urban areas, in the promotion of de facto resilient communities and sustainable development pathways. ISO 37120 Sustainable Development of Communities: Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life, for instance, defines a comprehensive set of 100 indicators that enables any city, of any size, to measure and compare its social, economic, and environmental performance in relation to other cities from around the world, currently being applied by more than 60 cities worldwide. Likewise, ISO 37123 Indicators for Resilient Cities is currently being developed within ISO to create standardized metrics for resilience to assist local governments to determine their exposure to and capacity to cope with potential hazards, extreme events or stresses while maintaining their essential functions and safeguarding their population.

ISO creates documents that provide requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose. Therefore, LoCAL as an ISO standard to help local governments address climate change is a solid base on which to create public policy or adopt a standard mechanism for local governments that meets international commitments and addresses the many challenges that climate change brings. 

Accordingly, UNCDF is seeking expertise to develop proposal for a new field of technical activity as per ISO’s rules, regulations, directives and guidelines, to be submitted to the responsible ISO’s Technical Committee in support of LoCAL becoming a standardized mechanism for local governments for promoting climate change resilient communities and local economies.

SCOPE OF WORK

Working under the overall guidance of the LoCAL Programme Manager (Africa), in close collaboration with the LoCAL Secretariat, the expert will be responsible for undertaking and contributing to the following tasks:

In performing the tasks, the incumbent will, inter alia, undertake, organize and facilitate consultations and promote participation at all steps of the process, as well as document clear processes and timelines involved in submitting a standard to the ISO Technical Committee for consideration in deploying the LoCAL mechanism as a standard.

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT, DUTY STATION AND EXPECTED PLACES OF TRAVEL

Duration:  50 working day over June – September (4 months)

Duty Station and expected places of travel: Home based with occasional travel to Brussels and New York.

The schedule of travel will be agreed on with the incumbent according to the requirements of the assignment and the LoCAL Secretariat.

FINAL PRODUCTS/deliverables and payment terms

PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

A schedule of days worked, outputs produced, and costs incurred will be monitored by LoCAL Programme Manager (Africa) in close consultation with the Global LoCAL Secretariat.

Payment will be made against key deliverables. Payments will be authorized by LoCAL Programme Manager (Africa).

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNCDF and LoCAL;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly.

Functional Competencies:

Leadership:

• responsible for own work, takes initiative and capacity to engage with a wide audience of diverse background.

Innovation:

• Creates new and relevant ideas and leads others to implement them
• Analyzes complex technical materials (including data) and makes concise, relevant recommendations.

Delivery:

• Meets goals and timelines for delivery of products or services

Technical Skills:

• The suitable candidate for this consultancy shall have extensive experience in research, developing and/or implement international standards, particularly related to environment sustainability;
• Good understanding of decentralization processes and climate actions at the local level.

Communication:

• The consultant will have written and oral fluency in English and French.

Teamwork:

Ability to establish and maintain good working relations with colleagues in multi-cultural environment

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:

•  Postgraduate degree in Environmental Science or Management, Climate Change, International Development, Public Administration or Management, Economics or other related fields.

Experience:

• At least 10 years work experience in PFM and decentralization processes and/or in climate change issues, particularly on local climate resilience;
• At least 5 years work experience with drafting standards, particularly to the ISO Technical Committee;
• Familiar with ISO rules and guidelines on writing standards
• Familiar with ISO Strategy and Action Plan for developing countries 2016-2020
• The expert must have participated or developed ISO Standards and work in the field of climate change adaptation and local governance but not limited to academic theories and understands and anticipates the challenges of this sector;
• Experience with performance-based grants and similar tools like budget support, ideally for climate change adaptation will be an added advantage; 
• Strong analytical and writing skills and track record in producing relevant ISO standards and other communication and knowledge materials;
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills and experience in organizing and facilitating consultations and workshops;
• Sensitivity to diverse opinions and difficulties arising from differing social and cultural perceptions.

Languages:

• Written and spoken fluency in English and French is required. 

Application procedures:

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications: (NOTE: the system does not allow multiple uploads of document. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR.
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy.
• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.
• 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.
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive daily fee, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• Technical Evaluation Weight - 70%
• Financial Evaluation Weight - 30%