Background

The 12th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2012-2016) sets a vision in moving Thailand towards a low carbon and climate resilient society and aims to promote sustainable economic and social growth that is environmentally-friendly. Important steps have been taken to pave the way for low carbon and climate resilient society, however, local authorities especially municipalities are facing a wide range of challenges in the transition towards ensuring a low carbon urban development. Rapid economic development, urbanization and climate change pose a threat to the management of municipalities/cities with regards to sustainability. In support of the Royal Thai Government and the local administration, Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) and UNDP Thailand designed a country-led intervention on strengthening the capacities and processes at local level for bottom-up integrated low carbon development planning and the sustainable management of low carbon development projects.

The “Achieving Low Carbon Growth in Cities through sustainable Urban Systems Management in Thailand (LCC) Project” aims to strengthen the capacities and processes at local level for bottom-up integrated low carbon development planning, the implementation and sustainable management of low carbon development projects. The four-year project (May 2017- April 2021) focuses on low carbon urban systems, in particular, waste management, sustainable transport and efficient use of energy, in four cities, Chiang Mai, KhonKhaen, Samui and Nakhon Ratchasima municipalities. Experiences will be shared with other cities to learn from.

The project objective is to “promote sustainable urban systems management in selected cities to achieve low carbon growth.” The objective will be achieved by removing barriers to adoption of low carbon development in cities in Thailand through the following components:

• Low carbon sustainable urban development planning in four cities, which will enable them to formulate and implement low carbon sustainable urban development plans,
• Low carbon investments in four cities leading to more energy efficient urban systems
• Financial incentives and institutional arrangements to increase volume of investments in energy efficient urban systems by government and private sector

To support the implementation of the project and ensure quality of delivery within project time frame, UNDP is recruiting the International Technical Advisor (ITA) to provide technical support and develop the monitoring and evaluation system to track progress of project implementation. The ITA will work closely with TGO, UNDP, partner cities and selected service providers. There are five service providers separately hired under the LCC project. The first service provider is responsible for MRV, the other four are responsible for implementation of low carbon demonstration projects in the four partner cities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

The objectives of the assignment are to:

• Develop the monitoring and evaluation framework (M&E) for the LCC project implementation;
• Develop tracking tool to track progress of all three layers-- low carbon demonstration activities/project, city, and the LCC project;
• Strengthen the capacity of key governmental officials in the partner cities to manage the low carbon projects; and
• Provide technical support, including review service providers’ reports and provide recommendations to the Project Management Unit, TGO, service providers and the cities on technical issues related to implementation of the LCC project.

Scope of work:

With overall supervision from the Project Manager and in consultation with TGO, partner cities and the selected service providers, the ITA will support on the technical aspects of project implementation and develop the M&E framework. Scope work covers the followings:

• Task 0 Assignment Work Plan. The ITA will develop his/her workplan to respond to the scope of work, time frame and deliverables.
• Task 1 Develop Project Monitoring and Evaluation System
  • Task 1.1 Develop a matrix summarizing GHG reduction targets and key benefits. The matrix presents expected outputs from implementation of each individual low carbon demonstration project, including but not limited to, the amount of GHG emissions reduction, amount of waste to be reused/recycled, fuel and energy saving, investment figures by the end of project (April 2021) and its lifetime. The matrix shall reflect the most-up-to-date city’s demonstration projects implementation plan under the LCC project. The ITA is required to perform a reality check with the partner cities and/or the assigned service providers and provide recommendations to ensure that results of implementation in each city will meet the LCC project’s result framework. This matrix needs to be developed at the beginning of the contract no later than January 2019 and updated in January 2020 and December 2020.
  • Task 1.2 Develop a tracking tool. The tool intends to track progress and achievement of low carbon demonstration projects in each partner city. The tool will track the progress against targets developed in Task 1. The tracking tool is intended to be used for all service providers assigned to the project which allows easy compilation based on transparency, accuracy, comparability, consistency, and completeness. The tools will track progress of the followings:
    • Individual low carbon demonstration project;
    • Individual partner cities against their GHG reduction targets and other co-benefits; and
    • The big picture of LCC project, covering four cities against project result frame work.

The compilation function should be built into the tracking tool.

• Task 1.3 Develop activity reporting template. The activity reporting template is intended to be used by service providers assigned to each city to allow easy compilation and comparison.

• Task 2: Provide Technical Guidance and Review Service Providers’ Reports on low carbon demonstration projects, and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). The ITA will review, provide comments on the reports and recommendations as well as summarize the progress of the LCC project as follows.
  • Service Providers’ inception reports (five reports for five service providers);
  • MRV methodologies for the waste, transport and energy sectors developed by the MRV service providers (one report per sector);
  • GHG baseline assurance report (one consolidated report by the MRV service provider);
  • GHG emission reduction assurance report #1 (one consolidated report by the MRV service provider);
  • GHG emission reduction assurance report #2 (one consolidated report by the MRV service provider); and
  • Cities’ activity reports (mid-year and end of the year) for 2019 and 2020 (2 reports/city/year).

The ITA will review Service Providers’ reports and prepare the ITA’s Review Report as follows:

1. ITA’s Review Report #1 covers the review of:
   1. Inception Reports (five reports, one from each service provider),
   2. MRV framework for waste and energy sectors (one report per sector),
   3. Four activity reports (one per city)
2. ITA’s Review Report #2 covers the review of:
   1. MRV framework for transportation sector (one report)
   2. Four project baseline reports for assurance (one per city)
3. ITA’s Review Report#3 covers the review of:
   1. Four activity report (one per city)
   2. Four GHG monitoring report #1 (one consolidated report)
4. ITA’s Review Report#4 covers the review of:
   1. One baseline assurance report for all projects in four cities
   2. Four activity report (one per city)
5. ITA’s Review Report#5 covers the review of:
   1. Four activity report (one per city)
   2. Four GHG monitoring report#2 (one consolidated report)
6. ITA’s Review Report#6 covers the review of:
   1. GHG emission reduction assurance report covering all projects in four cities (one consolidated report)
   2. Four Draft Final Report (one per city)

In each ITA Report, the ITA shall summarize technical recommendations provided to the service providers and the Project Manager as well as the progress to date.

• Task 3: Prepare the Annual Project Report for 2019 and the Final Report.
  • Task 3.1 The 2019 Annual Report will summarize overall status of project implementation in 2019, achievements against set targets and key issues. Recommendations and lessons learns will also be provided.
  • Task 3.2 The Final Report will summarize project implementation throughout the entire performance period, including achievements against set targets, key issues, project sustainability, and lessons learned.
• Task 4: Missions in Thailand. The ITA will make several trips to Thailand as follows:
  • The First trip (5 days), in Bangkok, tentatively in October 2018. The ITA will meet with five service providers (firms/universities) to establish a mutual understanding of the LCC project (e.g., project objectives, expected outputs, approaches, schedule) and assignments of each service provider. The ITA will have opportunities to discuss with:
    • TGO (the implementing agency) and UNDP.
    • Service providers that are assigned to work with the partner cities to implement the low carbon demonstration projects.
    • MRV service provider that is assigned to develop monitoring and reporting scheme and perform assurance services on both baseline and GHG emission reduction reports.
  • The Second Trip (10 days), tentatively in May 2019. The ITA is required to visit four partner cities outside Bangkok. Local transportation from Bangkok to the sites and accommodations in the field will be covered by TGO, the implementing partner.
  • The Third Trip (10 days), tentatively in October 2020. The ITA is required to revisit the project sites in four cities. Local transportation from Bangkok to the sites and accommodations in the field will be covered by TGO, the implementing partner.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the followings:

Subject to be revised as per discussion agreed at both sides.

Institutional Arrangement

The International Technical Advisor (Consultant) will work under the supervision of the Project Manager and in close consultation and collaboration with TGO, service providers, partner cities and with relevant team members of UNDP Thailand and UNDP-Bangkok Regional Hub.

Duration of the Assignment

This assignment is anticipated to take place between 01 October 2018 and 15 January 2021 (for a total maximum of 85 working days, including three missions to Thailand).

Duty Station

This assignment will be home-based with possible travels within Thailand.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

The following are the minimum required qualifications:

Education:

• Master’s Degree in environment, engineering, technology, climate change, low emissions, environmental science, economics, sustainable development or related fields

Work experience:

• Minimum 10 years at the national or international level, related to environment, planning, climate change, low carbon or sustainable development;
• Relevant experiences in low carbon project development cycle.
• Experience working on topics related to transport, waste management and/or energy sector planning, building carbon footprint;
• Strong interpersonal, managerial and advocacy skills;
• Previous experience working in Thailand or Asian countries related to sustainable development or low carbon development is an advantage; and
• Willingness to travel to and within Thailand is required.

Language requirement:

• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Speaking/understanding Thai is an advantage

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

The method of payment is output-lumpsum based scheme. The payments shall be released upon UNDP’s satisfaction of the consultant’s submission of each deliverable by or before the due dates as agreed with the UNDP Thailand team.

Payment Schedule:

Payment will be made after satisfactory acceptance and certification of the deliverables and in accordance with UNDP procedures:

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual amounts but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.? The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

The criteria which shall serve as the basis for evaluating offers is as follows:

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 to the required qualifications; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical criteria for evaluation (Maximum 100%)

• Criteria 1: Educational background - Max 15%
• Criteria 2: Relevant experience in the entire cycle of low carbon projects development - Max 40%
• Criteria3: Experience in managing international climate change projects, monitoring and evaluation or similar projects – Max 30%
• Criteria 4: Others/special skills/language, experiences in Thailand etc. - Max 15%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total technical points) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documents to Be Included When Submitting the Proposals:

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document/ or one ZIP File as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as contact details (email and telephone) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) professional references;
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability, and financial proposal using the template provided in Annex III, that indicates the daily rate/fee of the candidate, in US dollars;
• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment with maximum 5 pages.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Proposals that fail to meet the required information as described above will not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR_ International Technical Advisor (Consultant)

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at :http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=49485