Background

The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) aims to support governments in the region as they implement reforms and enhance investments to address such challenges as poverty, food insecurity and climate change through reducing the rates of deforestation and forest degradation in 6 partner countries. More information available on CAFI’s website.

Deforestation accounts for 10% of annual carbon emissions worldwide, nearly equivalent to the emissions from all cars and trucks on the planet combined. Meanwhile, protecting forests could eliminate these emissions entirely and reduce global emissions through carbon sequestration. Because climate change is a global crisis, proposed responses have tended to emphasize similarly global-level, public sector-driven actions. Nevertheless, given the high percentage of greenhouse gas emissions originating at the household level, individual citizens have a role to play. Effective and comprehensive environmental strategies must therefore include tactics to inspire ordinary people to do what they can, both to reduce harmful behaviors and to participate in restoration work.

As part of its efforts to improve outreach to the general public, the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) will launch a new website in August 2020 to strengthen the visibility of ongoing policy dialogues and programming results in our partner countries. The website’s content will be updated to better suit a broader audience, as it seeks to transform scientifically rigorous data into awareness-raising materials to highlight the importance of Central African forests. In addition, stronger outreach efforts on Twitter will be necessary to draw new audiences to our website and sensitize the public of the role these forests play in mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable development.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and direction of the CAFI Head of Secretariat, the consultant will develop content, transforming scientifically rigorous data into awareness-raising materials to engage the different audiences through CAFI’s various communication platforms.

Tasks and responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for the following activities: 

• Develop an in-depth questionnaire (max. 300 multiple choice questions) based on scientific materials;
• Develop CAFI storyline by adapting scientifically rigorous data to different audiences

Competencies

• Analytical Skills: Excellent ability to articulate, conceptualize or solve complex problems by making decisions that are sensible given the available information

• Written communication: Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to write in a clear, simple, concise way for non-technical external audiences

• Knowledge Management: Ability to efficiently research, analyze and share information and knowledge

• Organizational skills: Ability for problem-solving, multi-tasking, meeting deadlines and working under pressure

• Teamwork: Ability to engage with other units/teams and forge productive working relationships. Ability to work as part of a team in a constantly evolving work environment

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Background:  PhD in Biology, forestry or another related field

Professional Experience

• 10+ years professional experience as a scientist in the field of natural resources management, forest ecology and climate change;
• Demonstrated ability to work within a multi-disciplinary and international framework with a wide range of partners, particularly at the science-policy interface;
• An intimate knowledge of research history and instant access to hundreds of datasets related to forest ecology, carbon stocks and climate change;
• Experience in developing high quality collaterals and turning quantitative and qualitative information into awareness raising materials.

Language Requirements – Proficient in written and spoken English and French

Institutional Arrangement

The individual consultant will be homebased. S/he will be supervised by, and report to the CAFI Head of Secretariat.  In addition, s/he will be expected to liaise, collaborate and work with the CAFI Secretariat team and relevant stakeholders.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

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/ candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation)

• And has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores.

The individual contractor will be compensated based on an all-inclusive daily fee, to be paid on upon submission of a signed IC time sheet, to be cleared and approved by the Head of the CAFI Secretariat.

Presentation of Offer

Applicants will apply online (UNDP Jobs site) and will be requested to submit/upload the following:

• Personal CV or P11 form for ICs

• 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. A methodology is recommended for intellectual services, but may be omitted for support services. 

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

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.

• Personal History Form or
• An updated curriculum vitae (CV)

Step 2:  Submission of Financial Proposal

Technically qualified (shortlisted) 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 will be requested separately by email by the panel/staff who will conclude the combined technical-financial evaluation.

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

• Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology 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 points (100 maximum points) would be considered for the financial criteria.

The criteria for rating the qualifications are as follows:                      

Technical Criteria – 70% of total evaluation (minimum passing score of 70/100 points)

• Criteria A:  10+ years professional experience as a scientist in the field of natural resources management, forest ecology and climate change; demonstrated ability to work within a multi-disciplinary and international framework with a wide range of partners, particularly at the science-policy interface; intimate knowledge of research history and instant access to hundreds of datasets related to forest ecology, carbon stocks and climate change; experience in developing high quality collaterals and turning quantitative and qualitative information into awareness raising materials (max points: 50)
• Criteria B: Educational background (max points: 20)

Financial Criteria – 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points