Central Africa is home to the second largest tropical rainforest in the world. Forest loss is accelerating despite ongoing efforts, as government action alone has not been sufficient to establish an effective balance between the interests of the forest and economic development.

On this basis, a coalition of willing donors together with Central African partner countries – Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Gabon – have decided to enter into a collaborative partnership to establish the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI). The objective of this initiative is to recognize and preserve the value of the forests in the region to mitigate climate change, reduce poverty, and contribute to sustainable development. This objective will be attained through the implementation of country-led, national scale REDD+ and Low Emissions Development (LED) investment frameworks that include policy reforms and measures to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and promote sustainable development.

The CAFI Trust Fund is the principal means to implement the Central African Forest Initiative.

The DRC and CAFI share the ambition of stabilizing forest cover and promoting sustainable development, and have set respective engagements to implement a REDD+ Investment Plan over the 2016-2020 period, through a Letter of Intent which defines eight policy objectives, broken down into 47 milestones, covering all sectors (agriculture, energy, forestry, mining, land-use planning, land-tenure, demography).

CAFI has pledged a financial commitment of 200 million USD in two tranches (120 and 70 million USD) to implement DRC’s REDD+ investment plan and help DRC meet the ambitious political commitments taken in the Letter of Intent. With CAFI’s first tranche of funding, fifteen (15) programmes are being implemented, while three others still wait for approval from the Steering Committee of the National REDD+ Fund. Following the 2019 independent evaluation of the partnership with DRC, which revealed that most of the intermediary milestones from the Letter of Intent had been either partially or fully met, CAFI released the second tranche of funding. CAFI’s objective for DRC post 2020 is now to step-up the programming efforts, developing a new portfolio of programs that help DRC to fully achieve the milestones from the Letter of Intent by the end of 2020. To guide these efforts and to mobilize aligned funding from institutional donors, a new strategic programming framework needs to be elaborated.

Objective & specific results

Support the CAFI Secretariat with strategic programming in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the alignment of programs and investment frameworks with the main relevant programs in the region as detailed below and foster CAFI’s coordination with regional partnerships. More precisely:

1. For CAFI’s new phase of partnership with DRC (post 2020), provide input for the revision of the strategic framework for programming.

2. Ensure the alignment of CAFI’s strategic frameworks, national Investment Frameworks and program portfolios with the existing programs in the region in DRC, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Gabon

3. Develop a strategic framework for regional coordination with other relevant partnerships (such as the COMIFAC, GGSC and the FAO regional study on deforestation drivers) approved by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (several versions will be provided by consultants as the negotiations progress).

Deliverables & payments

Payments will be done upon days worked per calendar month.  The column on the right side of the table below presents the tentative tranches that may change upon the course of the consultancy. The consultant will have a total of up to 50 days to complete the above-mentioned tasks and deliverables.

Duration & location

The (home-based) consultant is expected to start on January 2, 2020 and work finalized on/or before April 30, 2020. A detailed work plan will be discussed and agreed upon with the CAFI Secretariat.

Reporting

The consultant will report directly to the Head of the CAFI Secretariat and submit the final review and the claim for payments to UNDP.

• Excellent team player with good interpersonal and communication skills;
• Ability to demonstrate sufficient technical knowledge to perform effectively and independently;
• Ability to manage workload with minimum supervision;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Ability to accommodate additional demands on short notice;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

Educational background: Master’s degree in Agronomy, Agricultural Engineering, Forestry, or Geography.

Professional experience:

• At least 20 years of professional experience in the field of management of natural resources, rural development and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa;

• At least five years proven experience and expertise in the analysis of rural development and environment policies, policy dialogue in the forestry sector (APV FLEGT) and beyond (REDD+), project management and evaluation, rural development, private sector engagement;

• Knowledge of the global climate change framework, international negotiations on climate change as well as mitigation concepts such as CDM and REDD+;

• Work experience in the management and facilitation of regional partnerships such as the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) is an asset;

• At least five years proven experience in the assessment, development and implementation of large projects in the field of Natural Resource Management in the Central African region;

• Proven adaptation capacity in a multicultural environment and in fragile state context

Language requirement: Fluency in English and French is required.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The individual consultant will be compensated based on an all-inclusive daily fee, to be paid on amonthly basis, upon submission of a signed time sheet with corresponding deliverables, to be cleared by the Supervisors, and approved by the Principal Policy and Technical Advisor. 

If mission travel is required, this will be administered and processed separately in accordance with standard UNDP travel policies and procedures.

Presentation of Offer

UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer:

• is deemed technically responsive / compliant / acceptable (only technically responsive applications with a minimum score of 70 points/ candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation); and
• has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores

The application submission is a two-step process. Failure to comply with the submission process may result in disqualification of the application:

Step 1:  Interested individual consultants must apply online and include the following documents when submitting the application in the UNDP job shop (enter hyperlink).

• Personal History Form (P11) or

• An updated curriculum vitae (CV)

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal

Technically qualified applicants will be instructed to submit their financial proposals using the UNDP IC Offeror’s letter template. Daily fee/rate must be expressed in US dollars. The offeror’s letter/financial proposal should be submitted separately by email to the panel/staff who will conclude the technical-financial evaluation.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

The consultant’s offer will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Combined Scoring method – where the technical qualifications will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70/100 points would be considered for the financial criteria.

The key criteria for rating the qualifications are as follows:

Technical Criteria – 70% of total evaluation – max. 100 points

• Criteria A: Educational background - Master’s degree in Agronomy, Agricultural Engineering, Forestry, or Geography (max. points: 10)
• Criteria B:  Thematic work experience: At least 20 years of professional experience in the field of management of natural resources, rural development and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa and at least five years proven experience and expertise in the analysis of rural development and environment policies, policy dialogue in the forestry sector (APV FLEGT) and beyond (REDD+), project management and evaluation, rural development, private sector engagement (max. points: ) and work experience in the management and facilitation of regional partnerships such as the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) is an asset (max. points: 40)
• Criteria C:  Partnership work experience: at least five years proven experience in the assessment, development and implementation of large projects in the field of Natural Resource Management in Central Africa (max. points: 30)
• Criteria D:  Proven adaptation capacity in a multicultural environment and in fragile state context (max points: 10)
• Criteria E:  Fluency in English and French is required (max points: 10)

Financial Criteria: 30% of total evaluation