Background

NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability - http://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx - to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org  with Subject: Job ID 86704.

Development losses caused by disasters as well as population and GDP exposure to hazards are continuously being increased in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The country is exposed to various hazards, with most common ones being earthquakes, floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, landslides and man-made hazards with climate change forecasts predicting an acceleration of extreme weather phenomena. Numerous challenges the country faced after the war, combined with political deadlocks and weak economic situation, resulted in non-prioritization of disaster risk reduction (DRR). This lead not only to weak general capacities of civil protection but also to unabsorbing of improvements and new approaches in dealing with disaster risks. Today, disasters in the country range from high-frequency small disasters to devastating events such as May 2014 floods that caused total of 2 billion EUR losses and damages. As the level of government closest to the citizens, local governments are on the frontline of the prevention and response in all disasters. Their significant exposure to natural and manmade hazards offers them the opportunity to initiate changes in order to reduce the risk of disasters at the local level.

In this context, aim of the Joint Swiss-UN Programme “Reducing Disaster Risk for Sustainable Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina”  is to address key priorities in DRR identified by local authorities and various actors in the sectors of protection and rescue, education, social and child protection, health and agriculture. The Programme will work with 10 municipalities on improving local coordination mechanisms in the area of DRR, as well as on affirmation of the strategic risk planning processes and implementation of identified actions with an emphasis on the most vulnerable categories of population. Through the Programme Local Disaster Risk Reduction Platforms will be established in 10 beneficiary municipalities. These  Platforms will be acting as municipally owned and led coordination mechanisms of multi-stakeholders coming from different social and economic sectors (protection and rescue, education, social and child protection, health and agriculture), gathering local governments and local public institutions, non-governmental organizations, as well as representatives from vulnerable population groups and the private sector. The overarching mandate of a Local DRR Platforms is to ensure strong local ownership and leadership of the DRR process, based on a shared understanding of DRR with its multisectoral and multi-disciplinary nature to contribute to building the community’s resilience.

Objective of this assignment is to develop capacity assessment methodology that will serve as tool for assessing the current capacities of newly established Local DRR Platforms in 10 municipalities and development of training recommendations based on the analysis of the capacity assessment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the UNDP DRR Project Manager, Expert for capacity assessment of DRR Platforms is to develop detailed capacity assessment methodology for assessing capacities of newly established Local DRR Platforms.  The Expert is NOT expected to conduct the capacity assessment of established Platforms, this will be done by local UNDP team. Analysis of the assessment conducted by local UNDP team will serve as the input for Expert for capacity assessment of DRR Platforms to develop training recommendations for local DRR Platforms.

In detail consultant is expected to:

• Deliver a workplan for the assignment that will include detailed list of relevant domestic and international documents that will be reviewed (regulations, policies, studies, methodologies, etc.) including best practices, list of interviews/meetings to be conducted with relevant domestic and international stakeholders. Final workplan will be approved by UNDP.
• Based on the analysed documents and conducted interviews the consultant is expected to draft detailed methodology for assessing the capacities of Local DRR Platforms. Methodology should enable detailed assessment of all functions and all sectors of Platforms. It should include in detail described principles, methods, questionnaires and instructions for conducting the capacity assessment. Draft methodology will be shared with relevant stakeholders and based on the received comments potential additional improvement of methodology will be conducted. Final methodology will be approved by relevant local stakeholders and UNDP. The Expert is NOT expected to conduct the capacity assessment of established Platforms, this will be done by local UNDP team.
• After local UNDP team conducts capacity assessment of established Platforms, analysis of the assessment will be delivered to Expert. This assessment will serve as input for Expert to develop training recommendations for increasing capacities for established Local DRR Platforms. Expert will provide up to 3 recommendations for each established and assessed Platform. Recommendations will provide scope of the training, relevant resources such as existing practices, trainings (including on-line), guidebooks etc. and will take into consideration innovations and new technologies in the field.

All tasks will be done in close collaboration and support of local stakeholders and disaster risk reduction experts and UNDP. The duration of this task is estimated to be 15 working days including one mission to BiH within 3 months.

Deliverables/outputs

Competencies

a. Corporate Responsibility and Teamwork:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Plans, prioritizes and delivers tasks on time;
• Strives for and promotes excellence in performance continually;
• Participates effectively in a team-based, information-sharing environment, collaborating and cooperating with others;

b. People Skills:

• Demonstrates ability to work harmoniously with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Recognizes and responds appropriately to the ideas, interests, and concerns of others;
• Builds trust and engenders morale by displaying open, transparent and credible behavior;
• Respects individual/cultural differences; utilizes diversity to foster teamwork;
• Ensures others’ understanding of, involvement in, and adaptation to a change process.

c. Partnering and Networking:

• Communicates sensitively and effectively across different constituencies;
• Ability to work as a member of a team as well as work autonomously.

 d. Results-Orientation:

• Plans and procedures quality results to meet established goals.

e. Communication:

• Technical writing skills, formulates written information clearly and persuasively;
• Strong communication skills;
• Presents information in a clear and articulate manner.

f. Job Knowledge and Expertise:

• Strong analytical skills;
• Knowledge and experience in disaster risk reduction;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in disaster risk management, environment or development or other related fields.
• BA in combination with 2 additional years of working experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of relevant working experience in the areas of disaster risk reduction;
• Strong understanding of disaster risk reduction and in particular multi-sectoral development oriented DRR;
• Proven knowledge and previous experience in DRR capacity assessment;
• Proven knowledge and previous experience in designing DRR trainings.

Languages Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English language is required for this assignment.

Technical criteria:

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 point would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

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:

• Proposal:

  • Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;

  • Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work; or sample of previous document/strategy/paper done by the consultant.

• Latest personal CV, including past experience from similar projects, and email, telephone and any other contact details for references;

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

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.