UNDP Jobs - 97090- National Agricultural Expert

National Agricultural Expert

Location :

Beirut, LEBANON

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

11-Mar-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

90 work-days spread out over a period of 5 calendar months

Languages Required :

Arabic English French

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

The UNDP’s “Sustainability, income generation and job creation through the support of irrigation and water collection infrastructure in Lebanon” initiative (the “UNDP’s Irrigation Project”, under the Support to host communities in the WASH sector; KfW) aims at creating short-term job opportunities for vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian labourers during the implementation of the works themselves while also contributing to longer-term benefits such as improved food security, water resource management and potential employment opportunities through the expansion of agricultural lands and increasing agricultural production. The short-term jobs will be created through the labour-intensive infrastructure projects targeting the agricultural sector in Lebanon, the importance of which is increasing due to the recent financial and economic crisis.

The UNDP’s irrigation project is funded by the Government of Germany through the KfW development bank and is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) in Lebanon. The project has so far rehabilitated 15 irrigation canals and 2 hill-lakes covering 21,875 ha of agricultural lands across over 50 municipalities, where approximately 1,800 farmers are benefiting from improved access to irrigation water.

Even though the canal and hill-lake rehabilitation has improved the efficiency and water availability/access at infrastructure-level (c.a., canal network), there is still a significant need for water management on-farm level and in terms of general irrigation water management to mitigate water stress in Lebanon.

From the viewpoints of farmers, the UNDP conducted (internally and informally) a survey covering over 200 farmers in the Bekaa. Results showed that the primary concerns of the surveyed farmers are 1) high cost of inputs (seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer), 2) impacts of extreme weather events and crop pests and disease. Regarding irrigation water management at farm-level, the survey indicated that farmers are managing crop water requirements based on their empirical experience while also following the schedule of water caretaker, instead of minimizing water cost or maximizing crop yields. This implies that it would be more efficient approach to primarily address the main concerns of farmers (input cost, resilience to extreme weather events and crop pests and diseases) while also improving the water management as the co-benefit rather than targeting solely water efficiency.

To design such a training program for farmers, it is necessary to undertake a preliminary rapid assessment of current agricultural and irrigation practices while addressing the overall water management and ensuring environmental soundness. In addition, this exercise should be done in close coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), LARI, and the other relevant agricultural institutions/private sector (e.g. ICARDA), as well as local communities including municipalities, water caretakers and farmers to address their needs.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this consultancy is to design and scope a capacity building program to support farmers for reduction of soaring input cost, resilience to extreme weather events and crop pests and diseases and more efficient water management. The capacity building program should target a specific number of municipalities (to be determined in this consultancy) that the UNDP Irrigation project has implemented activities in. The selection of municipalities and related representatives should take into account the diverse agriculture practices. The capacity building program should be designed by following the principle of environmental-soundness (with special focus on the sustainable use of natural resources) and climate-mitigation/adaptation practices in order to improve irrigation water management while supporting farmers’ socio-economic conditions

This consultancy is divided into the following tasks:

Task 1: Preliminary rapid assessment of current agricultural and irrigation practices both at farm- and municipality-level

Task 2: Identification of environmentally-sound alternative practices/options

Task 3: Design a capacity building plan for farmers and municipalities

Task 4: Drafting terms of reference (ToRs) and cost estimates for implementation

For additional information, please refer to ANNEX I – Terms of Reference

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Proficiency in English and Arabic languages. French is an asset..

Corporate Competencies:

Good analytical and report-writing skills

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

Master’s degree in agricultural engineering with a crop production specialty.

II. Years of experience:

At least 10 years of work experience in field production of fruits and vegetables, preferably in the field of seeds production, crop protection, fertilization, and crop irrigation systems and management.

III. Technical experience:

Extensive field experience of working cooperatively with fruits and vegetables’ producers.

Experience of working with relevant government/public agencies (centrally and/or locally) in phytosanitary and/or irrigation sectors.

Proven knowledge of the Lebanese field crops production systems, preferably in the Project area.

Experience with UN or international donor project(s) is an asset.

How to apply:

The consultancy is open for all national consultants who meet the selection criteria and propose a competitive fee. Interested consultants are requested to apply only through this UNDP jobs portal.

Submissions through any other media will not be considered.

The application must include all of the following documents:

1. P11,

2. Technical Proposal,

3. Annex 3 (Offerors Letter) and

4. Financial proposal

Kindly note that you may find all the required documents on the below link: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=75538 ; whereas the application must be submitted through this Jobs portal
All files shall be submitted in one single document and uploaded as word or PDF file to the UNDP job site.

It has been observed that bidders don’t submit all requested documents and thus reducing their chance to be selected for a contract with UNDP. before you submit your offer please revise that the application is complete and comprises all four (4) documents.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.