Background

Financed by Green Climate Fund (GCF) this project will support the Government of Azerbaijan  to facilitate the development of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and improve climate change adaptation (CCA) actions in three priority sectors identified by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) of the Republic of Azerbaijan through stakeholder consultations: water, agriculture and coastal areas.

The NAP readiness support objective is to increase capacity on climate resilience and adaptation in those three sectors through the implementation of actions and activities that will reduce or eliminate barriers for an effective adaptation process at both the national and local levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED WORK

In the scope of the project, the UNDP Country Office in Azerbaijan will contract the services of the legal expert to assist the Project to analyze the current legislation and regulatory frameworks for the three sectors (agriculture, water and coastal areas). Based on the initial assessment, the consultant will organize roundtable discussions for participatory discussion to develop new legislation options (legislative acts), one for each sector and design TORs for an independent legal institution to design new legislative acts. In addition, The selected consultant in collaboration with local legal experts will help define and align proposed governing processes and institutional arrangements for oversight and coordination of adaptation related issues, multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism that includes the private sector as well as women and other vulnerable groups, the frequency and timeframes of the NAP planning cycles and of the related monitoring and evaluation systems with national legislation.

S/he will work closely with the project national consultants, under overall supervision of the National Project Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specifically his/her responsibilities will include but are not limited to the following:

• Review the UNDP GCF NAP Project Document and the Azerbajiani legislation with regard to environment and climate change issues to obtain an understanding of the context of the legal operating environment of the project;
• Prepare a comprehensive legal review of the climate change policy in Azerbaijan with a focus on climate change adaptation for three priority sectors (agriculture, water resources and coastal zones);
• Identify gaps in legislation and propose recommendations for improving legislative basis on climate change adaptation in Azerbaijan
• Based on the findings of the legal review, design a Terms of Reference for an independent legal institution to design drafts of the new legislation options (legislative acts), one for each sector, with CCA indicators;
• Participate in the evaluation of technical proposals received from the procurement case of hiring independent institution to design drafts of the new legislative documents with CCA indicators;
• Support the creation and operationalization of the Adaptation Working Group to be created under the project;
• Consult and support the work national legal team created under the project;
• Support project to facilitate a workshop, to discuss the perspectives of alignment of national legislation on climate change with the EU acquis, as well as to present the project findings, roadmap and gap analysis results.
• Participate in and co-facilitate trainings and workshops with the UNDP GCF Project team whenever required.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;

- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;

- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

- Treats all people fairly without favoritism;

- Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies:

- Strong leadership, communication and interpersonal skills;

- Excellent organizational and time management skills;

- Strong oral and written communication skills - use of simple and clear language;

- Demonstrated ability to work in a team (strong task management and team leading competencies);

- Ability to work under pressure and in a politically sensitive environment;

- Demonstrated cultural sensitiveness and sound judgment;

- Sound knowledge and understanding of gender sensitivity and social inclusion in middle income countries.

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced university degree in environmental law, law, international law,;
• At least 5 years of experience in the sector of law/jurisprudence, environmental law, administration or other related field;
• Proven experience in development of legal and regulatory documents and strategic documents;
• Knowledge of EU climate related political frameworks
• Experience with climate change related projects of international organizations.
• Fluency English is required

Working Experience in Azerbaijan would be considered as an asset.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

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

• Offeror’s letter to UNDP conforming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment
• CV or duly filled out and signed P11 Form
• Description of Approach to Work
• Breakdown of Costs Supporting the Final All-Inclusive Price as per Template

Offeror’s Letter to UNDP confirming Interest and Availability For The Individual Contractor (Ic) Assignment and its Annex 2 can be downloaded here (please follow link below and scroll down to Hiring Consultants / Individual contract application forms section): https://www.az.undp.org/content/azerbaijan/en/home/procurement.html

If any of the above-mentioned documents is missing UNDP holds the right to reject the respective proposal altogether.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Contract Payment:

• Lump sum contracts

The payments will be made in accordance with the deliverables in the attached TOR. In the financial proposals, candidates should show the total amount expected for this work. The payment will be done due to the following schedule:

1. 1st installment - 10% of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #1;
2. 2nd installment - 20 % of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #2;
3. 3rd installment - 20 % of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #3;
4. 4th installment - 10 % of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #4;
5. 5th installment - 20 % of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #5;
6. 6th installment - 20 % of the total amount upon completion of deliverable #6;

EVALUATION

Experts will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative evaluation that takes into account both financial offer and the technical expertise of the potential candidates being reviewed and compared. The Price Component will be reviewed only for those individuals whose Technical Component meets the requirements for the    assignment. The total number of points which individual may obtain for both components is 100.

A two-stage procedure will be utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical component being completed prior to any price component

The technical component, which has a total possible value of 70 points, will be evaluated using the following criteria:

International will be hired if he or she meets the following requirements:

• At least 5 years of experience in the sector of law/jurisprudence, environmental law, administration or other related field - 20
• Advanced university degree in environmental law, law, international law - 15
• Proven experience in development of legal and regulatory documents and strategic documents - 15
• Approach to work - 20

If the substantive presentation of a technical proposal achieves the minimum of 49 points, the competitiveness of the offered consultancy expenses will be taken  into account in the following manner:

The total amount of points for the fees component is 30. The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest fees proposed that is compared among those invited individuals which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical proposal. All other proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest fees; e.g;

[30 Points] x [US$ lowest]/[US$ other] = points for other proposer’s fees

Note: Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top 3 shortlisted candidates for an interview.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES AND TIMETABLE

Location: The assignment will be through providing guidance and backtopping remotely through various electronic means (e.g. e-mail and skype). However, at least 2 country visits (each lasting 4 days max.) to Baku (Daily DSA rate for Baku is 157 USD according to the latest UN’s DSA circular report) are envisaged under this contract. Please see below the tentative dates of country visits:

December 2021: Workshop 1 (Gap analysis presentation)

February: 2022: Workshop 2 (Recommendations and TOR/Work Plan for Legal Institution)

Travel: Travel expenses will be covered separately.

Note: The workshops should be conducted online if travel is restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reporting:

S/he will be reporting to the National Project Manager. The consultant  must ensure timely fulfillment of his/her assisting and support actions, including reporting, thus making timely and sufficient contribution to the timely preparation and submission of the project implementation and procurement plan as well. The consultant should closely collaborate with the National Project Manager in order to complete the above-mentioned deliverables with high quality. The language of the report should be discussed with the National Coordinator priorly after finalizing the contracting process and shall be submitted in English.

8. MONITORING

The monitoring of fulfillment of the assignment by the consultant will be conducted by the Project Manager.

9. ATTACHMENTS:

• Project Document
• UNDP General Conditions of Contracts for the services of individual contractors
• Template for confirmation of interest

Please combine all your documents in one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to procurement.aze@undp.org. UNDP will respond in writing or by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.