Background

Project Title

Environmental Law Expert

   Project Description 

Organizational Setting:

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment. The West Asia Office of UNEP delivers advisory services and capacity building support to countries to achieve environment and sustainable development objectives. This consultancy is established at the West Asia Office within the framework of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between UNEP and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Consultant will report to the Programme Manager at UNEP West Asia Office.

This consultant will work closely with UNEP, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and its executive centers in Saudi Arabia, all other governmental entities involved.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager in UNEP West Asia Office and in coordination with the respective department in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in Saudi Arabia, the Consultant will carry-out, inter alia, the following duties and responsibilities:

• Support Legal Team of MEWA in one or more areas of international environmental law, such as environmental rule of law, human rights and the environment, environmental crime.
• Provides legal advice on the interpretation and application of international environmental law.
• Provide legal advice on diverse substantive and procedural questions of considerable complexity, which may include those related to environmental justice and the sustainable management of natural resources through the rule of law, institutions support, capacity building, etc.
• Performs extensive legal research and analysis in the field of environmental law and correspondence.
• Develop an assessment of existing institutional and legal frameworks (including laws, regulations, and policies) relevant to the National Environment Strategy of the Kingdom. This assessment should consider relevant commitments of the Kingdom under relevant multilateral environmental agreements as well as relevant policies and strategies and identify legal and institutional gaps as well as associated capacity-building needs.

    Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Baseline report on legal and institutional frameworks and initial assessment of capacity-building needs .
•  A country brief on environmental rights in KSA.
• A training manual on environmental law for KSA.

    Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will be supervised by the Programme Manager in UNEP West Asia Office in close collaboration with the relevant department in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia.

 Duration of the Work[1]

The contract duration will be for an initial period of six months with a possibility of extension subject to availability of funding and performance.

    Duty Station

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Competencies

Competencies

• Conceptualizes and analyses problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
• Ability to identify beneficiaries’ needs and to match them with appropriate solutions.
• Shares knowledge and experience and provides helpful feedback and advice;
• Excellent communication and interview skills (with groups and individuals);
• Excellent interpersonal skills and is able to negotiate with diplomacy and tact.
• Focuses on results for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Ability to handle a large volume of work, possibly under time constraints.
• Strong time management and sensitive deadline abilities.
• Remains calm, in control and works well under pressure;
• Excellent report writing skills.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

All proposals must be expressed in a lump sum amount. This amount must be “all-inclusive”. Please note that the terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal.

Payments shall be made to the individual contractor upon successful completion and certification by UNDP that services have been satisfactorily performed, based upon the actual number of working days.

Payment shall be made as a deliverables-based lump sum payment, to be paid in instalments. The schedule of payment will be distributed upon satisfactory submission of the deliverables listed in the table hereunder:

Required Skills and Experience

1. Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

Education Qualification:

• Master’s degree in environmental protection, environmental science, natural sciences, or related fields. PhD is an asset

Work experience

• Minimum of 10 years of professional technical experience in the field of environmental risk management is required.

Required skills and competencies

• Previous practical experience in environmental risk management

Desired additional skills and competencies

• Knowledge of environmental risk standards in Saudi Arabia is an asset
• Experience working in West Asia is desirable.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

• Fluency in written and spoken in both English and Arabic is required.

1. Recommended Presentation of Offer

For purposes of generating Offers whose contents are uniformly presented and to facilitate their comparative analysis, it is best to recommend the preferred contents and presentation of the Offer to be submitted, as well as the format/sequencing of their presentation. The following documents may be requested:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
3. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the Proposal. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial Proposal submitted to UNDP.

1. Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Technical Criteria (CV review and Desk Review/Interview optional) – maximum 70 points. Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the CV desk review (who will score at least 49 points) will be considered for the next stage of evaluation, i.e. financial evaluation.

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Master’s degree in environmental protection, environmental science, natural sciences, or related fields. PhD is an asset
• Minimum of 10 years of professional technical experience in the field of environmental risk management is required.
• Knowledge of environmental risk standards in Saudi Arabia is an asset
• Experience working in West Asia is desirable.

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic is required.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest-priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described. 

Given the volume of applications that UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.

UNDP reserves the right to reject any incomplete applications.

Please be informed that we don’t accept applications submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit an 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 documents, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online application 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 a maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email mohammed.abbas@undp.org with a copy to ahmed.alsalman@undp.org  While the Procurement Unit would endeavour 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 the 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) Procurement Notice

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, or any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.