Background
Cambodia remains heavily affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of internal and regional conflicts that took place from the 1960s to 1998. Mine Action, or more specifically mine clearance, started in Cambodia in 1992 in response to the need to repatriate and resettle refugees from the Thai border camps into safe areas. When Cambodia became a signatory to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) in 1997 and hostilities ceased in 1998, there was recognition of the need for Cambodia to more holistically plan and manage its national mine action programme.
This led the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to establish the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) in 2000 under Royal Decree No. 160 with the mandate to regulate, coordinate and monitor the mine action sector in Cambodia. Currently, the CMAA has five Departments (Regulation and Monitoring (R&M); Socio-Economic Planning and Database Management (SEPD); Victim Assistance (VA); Public Relations (PR); and General Administration (GAD)) within its organizational structure, with each Department overseen by a Department Director and coordinated by a Deputy Secretary-General under the authority of a Secretary-General.
The Department’s functions include - but are not limited to - setting up and monitoring processes and procedures, standards, and guidelines; preparing national plans, monitoring project proposals and other strategies related to the national mine action programme; managing and centralizing data; ensuring coordination with donors, agencies, and relevant authorities; registering information and compiling reports; and ensuring effectiveness of mine action as per development plans. CMAA is also the focal point for coordination of mine action in Cambodia, through mechanisms such as the Technical Working Group - Mine Action (TWG-MA), the Mine Action Coordination Committee (MACC), various Technical Reference Groups (TRGs), and as Chair of the Project Board for Clearing for Results Phase IV (CfRIV) project.
In 1999, the RGC ratified the APMBC, becoming a State Party committed to eliminate all landmines. Cambodia initially committed to achieve this by 2009, however, on 11 May 2009, Cambodia submitted a request to extend its mine clearance deadline. The request was granted at the Cartagena Summit and a new deadline was set for 1 January 2020. Upon a feasibility assessment of the mine action sector in Cambodia, and considering the operational and financial challenges at hand, the 2019 extension deadline was deemed unachievable. In September 2015, Cambodia initiated a long and detailed process of reviewing and developing its new strategy. In 2016, an independent review of the Mine Action Sector in Cambodia undertaken by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) with financial support from UNDP, recommended that the Cambodian mine action sector fine-tune and develop a new and well-informed strategic plan to guide the future direction for Cambodia’s humanitarian mine action program.
On 27 March 2019, Cambodia submitted a second request to extend its mine clearance deadline. The request was granted at the Fourth Review Conference of the States Parties, Oslo, Norway, and a new deadline set for 31 December 2025. Simultaneous to preparing the second extension request, the CMAA developed the National Mine Action Strategy (NMAS) 2018-2025 by building on lessons learned and rich experience gained from the implementation of previous strategies, reports and reviews, and the result of numerous stakeholder consultations. Already recognized globally as a leader in mine action in terms of planning, technical knowledge, and innovation, the NMAS serves as strategic guidance to the follow-on Implementation Plans which outline how Cambodia will address its landmine/ERW problems to support national development planning in terms of alleviating poverty and accelerating economic development to achieve international obligations and prepare for what remains as mine/ERW residual threats going forward.
The NMAS 2018-2025 aims to achieve the vision “Cambodia is mine free and the threat of explosive remnants of war is minimized, and human and socio-economic development takes place safely”. It outlines how Cambodia will address its mine/ERW problem, specifically to release all known Anti-Personnel Mines (APM) and Anti-Tank Mines (ATM) areas by 2025 and will prepare to address mine/ERW residual threats after 2025. To achieve this vision, eight strategic goals have been set together with 27 objectives, and their respective strategies. The eight goals are:
Goal 1: Release all known landmine contaminated areas by 2025.
Goal 2: Release prioritized cluster munitions contaminated areas by 2025.
Goal 3: Address the threats from other explosive remnants of war.
Goal 4: Minimize mine/ERW including cluster munitions casualties and improve livelihood of survivors and mine/ERW affected communities.
Goal 5: Contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
Goal 6: Promote regional and international disarmament and cooperation in mine action.
Goal 7: Establish a sustainable national capacity to address the residual threats after 2025.
Goal 8: Ensure mine action activities are supported by enhanced quality management system and effective information management and are gender and environment protection sensitive.
Furthermore, in addition to the global 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the RGC established a local goal (CSDG 18) to end the negative impact of Mine/ERW and promote victim assistance.
As of June 2022, some 2,431km2 of landmine and ERW contaminated land has been cleared and released to affected communities for productive use and development. Clearance has resulted in 1,142,391 APM, 26,051 ATM, and 3,008,323 items of ERW, including cluster munitions, removed and destroyed. Cambodia still has some 1,992km2 to be cleared, of which, 716km2 is contaminated by landmines (APM/ATM).
In this framework, UNDP has partnered with the CMAA through the Clearing for Results project since 2006, aimed at building the national capacity of the RGC to manage Cambodia’s national mine action programme. Now in its fourth phase, CfRIV 2020-2025, is focused on continued support to the national authority to integrate land clearance and release activities, victim assistance, mine risk education and gender mainstreaming in mine action efforts and broader national and international frameworks while supporting enabling factors which will allow for development in villages declared mine free. Concentration is also now shifting to enhancing the RGCs capacity to move from proactive clearance of mines/ERW to managing residual risks, namely efficiently and effectively responding to individual explosive ordnance hazards identified post 2025.
Duties and Responsibilities
The NMAS MTR will assess progress towards the achievement of the eight NMAS 2018-2025 goals and associated objectives and strategies. It will assess early signs of success or failure with the aim of identifying the necessary changes to be made in order to set the Strategy on-track to achieve its intended results of achieving the country’s APMBC obligations under Article 5. This will include recommendations for further mine action sector stakeholder support to the CMAA/sector during this period. The NMAS MTR must address gender equality and inclusion and other cross cutting issues within its scope.
The NMAS MTR aims to:
- Gauge and assess how the NMAS 2018-2025 is progressing towards achieving its results by reviewing the design, implementation, results, and adaptive management requirements.
Review and assess the Strategy’s impacts and results against what was expected to be achieved.
Draw out lessons learned, good practices, and case studies.
Assess the ongoing suitability and sustainability.
Make recommendations for course corrections to enhance outcomes and impact.
The results will be shared with the CMAA, the UNDP and other relevant stakeholders to inform on the achievements and shortcomings of the NMAS 2018-2025 and provide guidance to enable a corrective course of action.
Competencies
Functional competencies:
Good understanding of RGC and Cambodia’s mine action programme
Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners and ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel;
Excellent written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills and accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing;
Self-motivated, ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work with tight deadlines.
Ability and willingness to travel to provincial areas
- Computer literate (MS Office package)
Corporate competencies:
Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
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.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- A minimum of a Master’s degree in a field demonstrably relevant to their role in the assignment
Experience:
At least 7 years of experience in conducting monitoring and evaluation
Strong technical background in mine action (experience of the Cambodia context is an advantage)
Good experience in project management
Experience working with local communities and the rural livelihood development context
- Previous relevant work experience with United Nations or other multilateral/bilateral development assistance agencies considered an advantage
Language Requirement:
English – fluency in speaking and writing
- Khmer would be an asset
Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=93741 more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.
UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.
Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.
Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.
Interested individual offeror must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
1. Proposal: Letter of explaining why they are most suitable for the work
2. Financial proposal (Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP)
3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references
Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email pheara.lek@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 3 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC).