Background

Malawi is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, being exposed to extreme weather events such as floods and droughts and highly dependent on natural resources for livelihood. Climate change coupled with high rates of population growth and urbanization gives a huge pressure on the environment and natural resources in the country, posing a serious risk to achieving development goals and sustaining development achievements at national, district and community level.

The Government of Malawi has put policies in place in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and build resilience of the nation. The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III (2017-2022) aims to promote resilient nation and integrates the Sustainable Development Goals with Agriculture, Water Development and Climate Change Management being one of the five key priority areas. MGDS III advocates more of systemic and coordinated approaches with up-scaling and value-adding initiatives rather than having small-scale and fragmented projects. There also has been increasing emphasis put on decentralization of CCA work.

UNDP Malawi is supporting the Government of Malawi to find solutions to its development challenges based on the Country Programme Document 2019-2023. UNDP is focusing on integrating CCA into national, sub-national and sector development plans, including accelerating adaptation investments based on community priorities. Climate Resilience Initiative in Malawi (2019-2022), funded by Government of Flanders, aims to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities to the impacts of changing climate and enhance the capacity of district councils to better manage, monitor and respond to climate change in Mzimba and Kasungu districts. It will bring in successful practices and lessons learned from currently ongoing yet soon-to-be phasing out two other CCA projects funded by GEF: Adapt Plan and Climate Proofing.

However, there still exist gaps and challenges in CCA that need to be tackled. Lack of robust tracking tools for adaptation actions makes it difficult to keep track of adaptation actions taking place at sub-national level in a comprehensive and systemic way. Even though framework and policy are in place, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation at national and district levels have not yet been harmonized. Lack of coordination among projects with similar components prevents opportunities for greater synergies. Against this background, UNDP Malawi is looking to recruit an International Climate Change Adaptation Specialist to provide technical and management support.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of Portfolio Manager of Resilience and Sustainable Growth Portfolio, Climate Change Adaptation Specialist will ensure the effective coordination within and across the programmes as well as provide solid technical backstopping. The consultant will be responsible for strengthening UNDP’s capacity to engage in policy advisory for the Government of Malawi regarding CCA issues. The consultant will also lead formulation of potential initiatives and resource mobilization for future CCA projects. The consultant will work together with UNDP Programme Specialist, Programme Analysts, Gender Specialist, M&E team and service contractors among others to deliver the following duties and responsibilities.

Project assurance and oversight (working closely with UNDP Programme Analysts and Programme Specialist)

• Identify and prioritize transformative models, innovations and technologies that can contribute to CCA goals of UNDP Malawi;
• Establish adequate feedback mechanisms to reflect best practices and lessons learned from CCA into projects development, analytical reviews, implementation and monitoring and evaluation;
• Promote and observe UNDP Gender Equality Strategy (2018-2021) especially focusing on gender equality aspects in addressing climate change vulnerability initiatives;
• Attend Cross-cutting Team meetings (e.g. District Intervention, Private Sector Engagement) within UNDP Malawi to ensure adequate CCA coordination across the programmes; 
• Provide support in translating UNDP’s priorities into local interventions at district as well as community level;
• Provide support in reviewing Annual Work Plan for CCA programmes to ensure climate change vulnerability, adaptative capacity, risk management and resilience indicators are effectively captured;
• Screen CCA programmes for risks and opportunities, with an aim to reduce risks of maladaptation;
• Supervise, review and assess CCA related products/services provided by subcontractors, consultants and counterpart experts for quality assurance and recommend appropriate actions to take for improved outputs

Policy advisory

• Provide climate change-related policy advice to government of Malawi and UNDP;
• Provide technical assistance for assessing the impact of climate change on development and integrating CCA measures into development plans and sector policies;
• Develop policy briefs to identify gaps as well as capture opportunities in terms of interventions based on global and local practices;
• Support senior management with external dialogues in various forums with background research and briefs focusing on CCA, climate economics, green energy, disaster risk reduction, etc;
• Ensure that the programmatic experience from the ground informs and is well-integrated into UNDP Malawi’s strategies and development plans;
• Provide technical advice to UNDP and GoM on international experience in the mainstreaming CCA into national development policy-making, planning and budgeting processes;

Formulation of new initiatives and resource mobilization

• Identify strategic and innovative programme areas based on thorough analysis of the political, social and economic context of the country in line with national strategic thematic areas and prepare a concept note;
• Support designing future initiatives and developing Project Document in line with The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2019-2023) as well as UNDP Malawi Country Programme Document (2019-2023);
• Lead an analysis of potential donors and formulate funding proposals with donor briefings on possible areas of cooperation to identify opportunities for cost-sharing;
• Prepare proposals for mobilization of human, technical or financial resources from various development partners or private sector when necessary for CCA programme interventions

Competencies

• Excellent analytical, writing, advocacy, presentation, and communications skills;
• Demonstrated ability to work in multi-cultural and inter-disciplinary environments;
• Demonstrated ability to work in an independent manner;
• Openness to receive feedback and change;
• Demonstration of integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive and constructive attitude to work;
• Sensitivity to different culture, gender, religion, race, nationality and age

Required Skills and Experience

Requirements for Experience and Qualifications:

The consultant should meet the following combined requirements and attributes:

Education

• Master Level Degree in one of the following, or related fields: Climate Change Adaptation, Human Geography, Agriculture, Environmental Policy, Disaster Risk Management, Environmental Economics, Development Studies;

Experience

• More than ten (10) years of demonstrated experience in CCA;
• Substantive experience in conducting research and analysis in CCA and at least one other related theme such as Ecosystem-based development or Climate-smart agriculture;
• At least five (5) years of demonstrated experience in designing and facilitating CCA tools such as CBA, EbA, community action planning, policy analysis, gender equality and other themes listed above in least developed countries;
• Experience in working with working group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be an advantage;
• Demonstrated substantive experience in working with least developed countries and undertaking policy and programmatic work in expertise listed above;
• Demonstrated experience in working on policy and programmatic issues with national and local governments and civil society organizations including community organizations;
• Knowledge of climate financing and localisation of NDC is desired;
• Strong understanding of the links between climate change, poverty, agriculture, natural resource management, gender issues and SDGs;
• Experience or strong familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other multilateral organizations;
• Familiarity with the Malawian context and/or other countries of similar vulnerability and economic status will be an asset (ideally in Southern Africa);

Language:

• Excellent proficiency in English language.

Expected Deliverables

• Workplan outlining responsibilities and timeline for deliverables (within one (1) week)
• A matrix for general CCA practice indicators and a set of CCA indicators for Annual Work Plans (within two (2) months)
• Bi-monthly policy brief (every two (2) months)
• Capacity development proposals (within three (3) months)
• Portfolio of tools and guidelines for CCA (within three (3) month)
• Produce CCA screening and tracking tools (within four (4) months)
• Bi-annual reports on best practices and lessons learnt (every six (6) months)
• Training products for national and sub-national level (within six (6) months)

Institutional Arrangement

• The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UNDP Portfolio Manager for Resilience and Sustainable Growth and in close collaboration with Programme Specialist, Programme Analysts as well as other staff;
• The consultant’s performance will be evaluated by the supervisor upon the completion of first 30 working days on the contract. The performance evaluation must yield satisfactory results, or the contract can be terminated based on the recommendation of supervisor;
• The consultant is required to exhibit his or her full-time commitment with UNDP;
• The consultant is expected to liaise and collaborate with other consultants working on CCA subject

Baseline Study

• Conduct a baseline assessment using Community Based Resilience Analysis (CoBRA) for Climate Resilience Initiative in Malawi Project
• Identify and prioritize Community Based Adaptation and Ecosystem-based Adaptation activities based on community-led needs assessment

Duration of the work

• Duration of the consultancy work is for 1 year and it can be renewed based on performance assessment and availability of funds.

Duty Station

• The consultant will be based at UNDP Malawi in Lilongwe, reporting regularly during official working hours. Trips within and outside Malawi in pursuit of relevant activities will be included if required. 

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment (maximum 5 pages)

Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offer must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 

Scope of price proposal

• Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Lump Sum Amount. The contract price is fixed regardless of changes in the cost components. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the consultant in completing the assignment are already factored into the fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the duty station) should be identified separately.
• In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
• In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Schedule of payments

• Payments shall be done on monthly basis based upon verification of completion of monthly workplan and approval by the supervisor.

Evaluation

• The offer will be made to the Individual Consultant who has obtained the highest score using “Combined Scoring method”. In Combined Scoring method, the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max of 70% combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%.

Rating Methodology ( Maximum scores = 70 points.

• Degrees in relevant area – 5
• More than ten (10) years of practical work experience in CCA – 15
• Substantive experience in conducting research and analysis in CCA – 10
• Demonstrated substantive experience in working with least developed countries and undertaking policy
• and programmatic work – 10
• Work experience or strong familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other multilateral organizations – 5
• Work experience in Malawi or other African countries with similar context – 5
• Work experience in multi-cultural and inter-disciplinary environments – 5
• Analytical, writing, advocacy, presentation, and communications skills – 5
• Methodology) Have the important aspects of the task to be accomplished been detailed as per the ToR? - 10

Financial Proposal - 30

Interested candidates that meet the above specifications should submit an application to procurement.mwi@undp.org by 23rd April 2019. Applications that do not meet above specified requirements will not be considered. Please include “CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION SPECIALIST” in the subject line of the email. The UNDP will not accept proposals via printed hardcopy.
UNDP Malawi P.O. Box 30135, Lilongwe 3, Malawi.

Attention: The Deputy Resident Representative (Operations) a.i.