UNDP Jobs - 84443- National Consultant

National Consultant – Legal Expert

Location :

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

17-Apr-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Apr 2019 – August 2020 Maximum up to 50 consultancy days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

Due to a long period of neglect and under-investment during and after the Bosnian war (1992-1995), public infrastructure, in particular buildings, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is now in a dire state and in urgent need of upgrade and modernization. In its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, BiH explicitly recognizes the potential of public sector buildings for GHG emission reduction and emphasizes that to “increase emission reduction amount and develop a sustainable system for public building renovation, international financial support is required”. Seeking to help solve this problem the UNDP applied for an received a grant of some $17.34 million USD by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which combined with an additional US$ 105.22 million of co-finance from a range of sources, such as the Environmental Funds, entity and municipal budgets, and international organizations (UNDP, GEF, World Bank, SIDA), seeks to scale up investment in public sector buildings in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Specifically, the project, which started in September 2018, seeks to:

Output 1 - provide technical assistance (TA) to public and private sector stakeholders at municipal, cantonal, entity and national level in BiH to help address non-financial barriers, and to create conducive policies, regulations and capacities for implementation of the National Investment Framework for Low-Carbon Public Buildings;
Output 2 - facilitate implementation of the National Investment Framework for Low-Carbon Public Buildings, including the required investment support to improve risk-return profiles and to bring prospective low-carbon building projects to financial close, 54

The GCF project aims to deliver a four- to five-fold increase in the level of investment in low-carbon public buildings; this, in turn, will enable BiH to meet its stated objective to reduce GHG emissions from the public buildings sector.

Building on UNDP’s Derisking Renewable Energy Investment (DREI) approach , the proposed project consists of two closely related outputs aimed at addressing financial and non-financial barriers respectively, thereby reducing the risks and achieving an attractive and acceptable risk-return profile.

Output 1.1: Addressing non-financial barriers to investment in low-carbon buildings and infrastructure (“Policy de-risking”). Under Output 1, technical assistance (TA) will be provided to public and private sector stakeholders at municipal, cantonal, entity and national level in BiH to help address non-financial/structural barriers to investment.

Output 1.2: Addressing financial barriers to low-carbon investment in buildings and infrastructure (“Financial de-risking and Investment support”). Output 2 will support implementation of the National Framework for Low-Carbon Investment in Public Buildings to address identified financial barriers and to establish a blueprint for a more effective, better coordinated and harmonized approach to allocation of public funding to stimulate investment in low-carbon buildings. Under the Framework, all public buildings (regardless of jurisdiction) will be able to receive technical assistance for EE-RE project preparation (to be provided under Output 1). Those projects that meet minimum technical, financial, socio-economic and environmental requirements will be eligible to receive GCF funding to co-finance investment and the GCF grant will be used at the minimum level to make those projects viable. The financial requirements, i.e. simple pay-back of 8 years and above, has been defined in such a way as to ensure that GCF resources are not blended with IFI financing for a specific building retrofit project, but rather complement and fill in the remaining financing gap which can’t be addressed through IFI’s concessional funding, but is required to make such investment viable.

Table 5 Minimum requirements for buildings participating in the National Investment Framework for Low-Carbon Buildings

Technical

Building should have a remaining lifespan of at least 20 years
Availability of data on building energy use for at least 2 consecutive years
Achievement of a minimum level of energy performance (as per the EU’s EPBD technical requirements for EE retrofits)
Mandatory implementation of fuel-switch (RE supply) measures

Financial

Simple pay-back: 8 years or higher
Meeting minimum co-financing requirements, including secured co-financing for non-EE related measures

Socio-economic

Project ensures compliance with minimum occupancy standards in building
• Project contributes to increased local employment and skills building
• Number of women beneficiaries: at least 50%
• Evidence of stakeholder consultations and support

Environmental

Low environmental risk rating, as per UNDP SESP policy
Minimum 20% reduction in GHG emissions compared to baseline

The following table shows an example of financing package under National Framework for Low-carbon Investment in Public Buildings.

Overall, the project should result in a direct reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 2,02 million tCO2e over the lifetime of the investments enabled, at a cost to the GCF of US$ 9/tCO2e. Additionally, significant indirect emissions can be expected –7.1 - 8.1 million tonnes of CO2 reduction due to the project enabled market transformation – yielding a total estimated cost per tonne of CO2 reduced to US $1.8. The project will also directly benefit 150,000 people – occupants and users of public buildings (4% of the total population), including 80,000 women, and will lead to creation of over 5,630 new full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide legal expertise and support to the International Consultant for the National Framework for Low-Carbon Public Buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the efforts to comprise an integrated package of policy, regulatory, technological, informational, financial and managerial solutions designed to address country-specific risks and barriers to investment.

More specifically, with this assignment the local consultant will use abilities and prior experience in the legal energy environment in BIH to provide full support towards the design and implementation of the National Framework for Low-Carbon Investment in Public Buildings.

The consultant is responsible to provide technical assistance to support the development and facilitate the adoption of a transformational and harmonized (among entities and state-level) policy, regulatory, and finance framework for investment in low-carbon public buildings, including support with energy knowledge/analyses in provisions enabling:

Support the development of the BiH’s Investment Framework and Programme for Low-Carbon public buildings,
Identification of existing and future legal arrangements and possibilities to be utilized in BiH under the BiH’s Investment Framework and Programme for Low-Carbon public buildings,
Identification of legal barriers, gaps and recommendations to overcome those barriers for BiH’s Investment Framework and Programme for Low-Carbon public buildings (and all of its financial mechanisms to be proposed),
Support the development of Operational Guidance for the National Framework (based on the developed BiH’s Investment Framework and Programme for Low-Carbon public buildings) for decision making for project stakeholders Investment Framework Guidelines.
Support the implementation of the BiH’s Investment Framework and Programme for Low-Carbon public buildings.

Scope of work

The consultant is responsible to provide the International Consultant with comprehensive legal support in designing, developing and implementation/monitoring of the National Framework for Low-Carbon Investment in Public Buildings which includes preparation of the Operational Guidance for the National Framework, which will detail the process and procedures for allocation of public funds for low-carbon measures in public buildings, as well as other required regulatory documents to operationalize the Framework, including provision of capacity building to all Responsible Parties (RPs) involved in its implementation.

Operational Guidance will have to be approved by all participating RPs and the Project Board.

The consultant will work in consultation with and under the guidance and supervision of the Project Manager (PM), in close cooperation with project staff and other consultants.

Deliverables/outputs

# Deliverables / outputs Due date Estimated # of days

Development of detailed work plan for accomplishment of tasks of this ToR and collaboration with International Consultant.Plan to be coordinated with and approved by UNDP team. April 30, 2019 5;
Deliver report on conducted research, based on a desk-review of available literature; meetings and consultations with National Stakeholders (representatives of Ministry of Physical Planning of FBiH, Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of RS, Fund for Environment and Energy Efficiency of RS, Federal Environmental Fund, National Experts for Development of National Framework for Low-Carbon Public Buildings in BiH, IFIs, bilateral organization in BiH, commercial FI and UNDP Project Team) with clear guidelines on legal aspects of the development of National Framework for Low-Carbon Public Buildings in BiH. Coordinated with and approved by UNDP. May 30, 2019 10;
Provide draft design of all legal aspects within the National Framework for Low-carbon Investment in Public Buildings which includes preparation of Operational Guidance for the National Framework. June 30, 2019 5;
Provision of support for establishing harmonized and coordinated implementation of the BiHs Investment Framework and Programme for Low- Carbon public buildings including provision of support for establishing of monitoring tools of a harmonized approach to public financing and support mechanisms for low-carbon investment in the public sector. August 15, 2019 5;
Draft version of BiH investment framework and Operational Guidelines communicated with National Stakeholders and UNDP; Final version delivered and approved by National Stakeholders and UNDP, August 30, 2019 5;
Support to implementation of BiH investment framework and Operational Guidelines – training to stakeholders delivered September 30, 2019 5;
Support to implementation of BiH investment framework and Operational Guidelines – monitoring and implementation support to UNDP and stakeholders July 31, 2020 10;
Report with evaluation, lessons learnt analysis, designing follow-up financing scheme, knowledge-sharing. August 15, 2020 5

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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;
Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Functional competencies:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Self-development, initiative-taking;
Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
Creating synergies through self-control;
Managing conflict;
Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
Informed and transparent decision-making

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education

B.Sc. degree in Law; Bar exam and/or Attorney at Law would be considered an asset

Experience

Minimum 10 years of professional experience in in development of legal and policy documents in Energy and Banking
Proven experience in area of Energy Environment and EU Projects
Knowledge of the environmental and energy efficiency issues in BiH, as well as knowledge of banking sector, energy industry and general business sectors in BiH
Senior expert working experience and references
National experience in the relevant area of expertise (e.g. participation in policy, legislative or regulatory development);
Experience in policy formulation; and experience working in a regulatory agency or agencies;

Languages Requirements

Fluency in English required and will be evaluated based on submitted one-page English segment of any relevant study/publication/written document compiled in order to assess language skills.
Excellent drafting skills required

Other Requirements

Knowledge of MS Word, Excel and email communication software;
Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
Good consultation and collaboration skills;
Prior work experience with UNDP/UN Agencies

EVALUATION

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, 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%

Applicants are required to submit an application including:

Documents to Be Included When Submitting the Proposals

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Proposal:
o Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
o Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work; or sample of previous document/strategy/paper done by the consultant
2. Completed and signed the Offeror’s template Confirming Interest and Availability (please follow the link: https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default;
3. Latest personal CV, including past experience from similar projects, and email, telephone and any other contact details for references;
4. Financial proposal which will separately specify professional fee, indicating number of anticipated working days, travel costs (air-ticket or use of private vehicle), living allowance, and all other applicable costs.

Financial Proposal

Lump sum contracts

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diem, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel;
All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP does not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

Criteria Weight Max. Point
Technical 70% 70

Ratings based on Shortlisting Criteria 35% 35
Methodology (document which contains brief explanation on approach to conduct the work) 25% 25
Interview 40% 40

Financial 30% 30

Long/Shortlisting Criteria
Criteria Points

Relevant Education max 30 points (25 points allocated for Bachelor's degree; + 2.5 points for MSc/MA; + 2.5 points for PhD).
Relevant professional experience Max 55 points
Prior work experience with UNDP/UN Agencies max 10 points
Knowledge of English max 5 points - will be assessed as 5 points for fluency and the points decrease as per the level mentioned in the CV: good - 4 points; fair/upper intermediate – 3 points; intermediate - 2 points; beginner - 1 point.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 60 points would be considered for the Technical Evaluation

Note:

For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.