Background

Climate change is already profoundly impacting the conditions for resource availability and agricultural activities. Over the last decade, the country has experienced a large number of extreme events, such as droughts and major floods, along with the cumulative effects caused by increased mean temperature and the uneven distribution of precipitation throughout the year, which have had negative consequences on the country's economy, and its population wellbeing and health. Severe droughts are recurring more frequently, causing significant economic losses. The increasing scope and intensity of extreme events have also resulted in increased frequencies of high-risk situations. By 2050, an increase of 2–3ºC in the average temperature, an additional 32 days that exceed the current maximum temperature by 10%, and another 12 days with zero precipitation are projected.

The Government sees the National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process as key to achieving the adaptation objectives outlined in its 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy of the Republic of Moldova and its 2020 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), as well as the continued mainstreaming of climate change considerations into its policies and budgeting processes. The proposed project supports the Republic of Moldova's Government in advancing the second cycle of its National Adaptation Planning process (known as NAP-2). The outcomes of the NAP-2 national adaptation planning processes are:

Outcome 1: To strengthen and operationalize the national steering mechanism for climate change adaptation (CCA);

Outcome 2: To improve the long-term capacity on planning and implementation of adaptation actions through CCA technologies;

Outcome 3: To improve the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation through the increased alignment of national development priorities in the priority sectors (forestry, health, energy, and transport).

The project will contribute to UNDAF, 2018-2022 outcome #3 (The people of Moldova, especially the most vulnerable, benefit from enhanced environmental governance, energy security, sustainable management of natural resources, and climate and disaster-resilient development). Additionally, the project will contribute to the UNDP Country Programme Output 3.3 (National and sub-national governments have improved capacities to integrate resilience to climate change and disasters into development plans and practices to reduce population's vulnerability). Other than that, the project will contribute to the National Development Strategy "Moldova 2030" by ensuring resilience to climate change by reducing risks related to climate change and by facilitating adaptation in six sectors priority - agriculture, water resources, health, forestry, energy, and transport.

The preliminary work under the first cycle of the NAP (known as NAP-1) supported developing a NAP as a process, conceptualizing and developing its elements, including the national steering mechanism, and laid down the groundwork towards long-term adaptation planning. Despite the progress, significant gaps remain in integrating climate change considerations into many of the national priority sectors' development policies and their associated budget priorities. National appropriations for CCA remain limited.

The NAP-2 goals will be achieved within two parallel implementation tracks. The first track implemented by UNDP expands and deepens the national approach developed under the NAP-1 and strengthens synergies both vertically, at different levels of the governance, and horizontally, between the sectors affected by climate change to reduce duplication of efforts, pool scarce resources for efficient use, and ensure a coherent and comprehensive approach to the integration of CCA responses into development planning. In contrast, the second track will focus on adaptation in the agriculture sector and will be concurrently implemented under FAO's auspices.

The National Designated Authority has coordinated with the UNDP and the FAO country offices to ensure the complementarity and congruency of the activities and exchange, as appropriate. By its very nature, the NAP-2 will facilitate the integration of CCA into existing strategies, policies, and programs and establish a strong foundation for the integration of methods, tools, and information systems in day-to-day planning activities to inform decision-makers on the climate risks effectively, and to enable the informed formulation of resilient projects and financing strategies.

As Moldova progresses in its adoption of a holistic approach to adaptation and towards increased integration of CCA considerations into medium- and long-term planning, it must rely on a strong evidence base to strengthen its ability to appraise available adaptation options. There is a need to strengthen the knowledge base for CCA and focus on improving the accessibility and availability of climate-related information through a climate change information and knowledge management portal (CCIKMP). In this context, an international consultant will be contracted to develop a knowledge management framework for sourcing, sharing, and practical application which is consistent with the national CCA authorities' mandates and National Adaptation Planning requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

This assignment's overall objective is to enhance the countries' knowledge to reduce vulnerability and increase adaptive capacity by sharing data, information, and knowledge gathered from the CCA activities. This would be achieved through a Knowledge Management Strategy to a central, web-based national climate change information and knowledge management portal (CCIKMP) that will store the available climate information such as a geospatial database on weather and climate-related data/maps/info, harmonize/standardize data processing, modelling, and projections and will enable the linking of multiple climate information sources into a "one-stop" centre. The specific tasks are listed below:

• Mapping all key stakeholders to be involved in the knowledge management process and identify all relevant providers and end-users of climate change adaptation knowledge;
• Assess past and on-going work and knowledge on climate change adaptation (e.g., publications, assessments, projections, educational programs, including Capacity Development Plan designed under NAP-2) and integrate into the KMS;
• Assess the needs of knowledge on climate change adaption and prioritize knowledge management directions;
• Develop the Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Management Strategy and the Action Plan into a detailed and well-structured document;
• Develop a Concept of an informative and interactive CCIKMP that will serve as a “one-stop” resource for climate change adaptation-related information, data, and tools;
• Recommend on retrieving relevant climate change adaptation data from the globally available sources, including the EU one such European Space Agency and techniques to integrate such data into an interactive climate-info instrument to be integrated into the CCIKMP;
• Organize two online workshops with all relevant stakeholders: one consultative and one final on Knowledge Management Strategy and the Action Plan and CCIKMP framework;
• Integrate all stakeholders’ recommendations into the final version of the documents;
• Develop indicators for monitoring the degree of implementation of the KMS.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Competencies

Academic Qualification:

• University degree in communication, environmental sciences, social sciences, etc.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in management of climate change adaptation knowledge and/or similar experience;
• Professional experience in Europe and/or Eastern Europe would be a strong asset;
• Proven experience in developing strategic and sectorial documents, in climate change adaptation or related fields. Experience in development of knowledge management strategies and plans would be a strong asset.

Competencies:

• Sound knowledge of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation indicators; result-based management, data analysis and other areas relevant to the assignment;
• In-depth understanding of climate change and development issues;
• Good understanding of providers and end-users of climate change adaptation knowledge at various levels;
• Good communication and organizational skills, with demonstrated evidence of capacity to produce and present useful reports.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English is required for this assignment, Romanian and Russian is an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Initially, individual consultants will be long listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

• University degree in communication, environmental sciences, social sciences, etc;
• At least 7 years of experience in management of climate change adaptation knowledge and/or similar experience.

The long-listed individual consultants will be further evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall 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 – 60% (300 pts);

* Financial Criteria weight – 40% (200 pts).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 210 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Winning candidate:

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

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DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following required documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability, including financial offer, according to Annex 2;
2. CV, including information about experience in similar assignments;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.

Incomplete applications shall not be considered.

For supporting documents (Terms of Reference and Procurement Notice and Offeror's Letter, including Financial Offer template) please visit https://sc.undp.md/current_jobs3/ or https://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/2191/. 

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