Background

The “Building Shoreline Resilience of Timor-Leste to Protect Local Communities and their Livelihoods” is being implemented in close collaboration with the Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) through the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as well as working with other line ministries, local and international partners, NGOs and private enterprise as the issues of coastal areas are complex and cross-sectoral.  It employs an integrated approach, while tailoring activities to address the specific needs, challenges and priorities of the Government of Timor-Leste.

The objective of the UNDP GEF-funded project – Building shoreline resilience of Timor-Leste to protect local communities and their livelihoods is to strengthen resilience of coastal communities by the introduction of nature-based approaches to coastal protection; as well as support inter- and intra-ministerial coordination for collaborative development planning ensuring protection of coastal areas, as well as identify and research potential revenue streams for long term sustainability.

As mangroves are vital natural defense to the impacts of climate change, extensive mangrove protection and restoration will be supported while addressing community pressures (i.e. felling for fuelwood) and introduce alternative mangrove-supportive livelihoods, as well as improve public awareness about the important role of coastal ecosystems in shoreline protection and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Timor-Leste’s landscape is comprised generally steep slopes, hence, the project looks at upland Sustainable Land Management (SLM) activities to reduce impacts of sedimentation, increased runoff and flash floods, and availability of groundwater of the coastal areas.

Mangroves and coastal wetlands are highly vulnerable to the projected impacts of climate change, particularly sea-level rise (SLR). An estimated 80% of mangroves have been lost in Timor Leste, since 1940 (Boggs et al. 2009, Alongi 2014), due to a combination of both, climate related risks (i.e. sea level rise, increased storm events) and also, non-climate related anthropogenic impacts (i.e. demand for fuel wood, building materials, salt production, rice production, uncontrolled grazing).  While the relative contribution of these causal, climate and non-climate factors is unknown, anecdotal evidence (i.e. the lack of natural regeneration in many areas), suggest SLR has had major impacts, particularly on the north coast.  The loss of mangrove forests has resulted in greater exposure to sea surges, inundation, erosion and accretion processes.

These pressures from upland areas, coupled with the rapidly rising sea level, are putting coastal communities (and the ecosystems and resources upon which they depend), particularly at risk. Over the past two decades, mangroves, which serve as a natural defence to the sea, have been severely degraded – leaving the country’s shoreline and coastal communities vulnerable to coastal inundation, erosion, salt water intrusion, and impacts of sea-borne natural hazards (e.g. waves, storm surges, and in extreme cases, small scale tsunamis).

This project will systematically strengthen the synergistic relationship between coastal communities and mangroves ecosystems and ensure that coastal communities in Timor Leste have economic incentives to maintain and safeguard these protective natural systems, without compromising their livelihood options.  This will be achieved through community-led adaptation interventions, that include mangrove re-afforestation, conservation and livelihood diversification options (such as agroforestry, fish ponds, intensive gardening, fruit trees, developed through integrated community-based land use models and adaptation plans (such as the Forest-Fish-Fruit mound-ditch model, successfully implemented in Bangladesh.

The Project has been implementing activities since August 2016, with mangrove restoration activities in seven municipalities (Dili, Liquic¸a, Covalima, Bobonaro, Manuhafi, Manatuto and Viqueque) across coastal communities in Timor-Leste. The project intends to develop a comprehensive mapping, monitoring, and management information system for mangroves and other coastal ecosystems in Timor-Leste. To support this initiative guidelines for mangrove monitoring would be developed by the project as part of the mangrove monitoring protocols for Timor-Leste and the overall Mangrove Restoration Monitoring Plan to support monitoring of mature and planted mangroves at planting sites undertaken, new sites identified and those protected.

Currently there is no system in place to support capture, analysis and reporting of field data from planting sites as well as existing mature mangrove stands. This makes it difficult to track progress of the project in achieving project goals, as well as and report on agreed performance indicators established with the GEF, and coordinate with other Government of Guyana programs such as forestry programmes and REDD+ Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) program.

In line with this, UNDP would like to invite an experienced international consultant (GIS mapping and database) to lead the design and implementation of a comprehensive mapping, monitoring and management system for coastal ecosystems and sustainable land management activities in Timor-Leste. This will be complemented with the relevant training to selected participants at both the national and municipality levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT/SCOPE OF SERVICE

The overall objective of the consultancy assignment is to conduct a needs assessment and develop the comprehensive GIS mapping, monitoring and database system for the project. The consultant will involve project staff and counterparts in the design and development phases of the GIS mapping and monitoring system.  This will support training and capacity development of the project staff and counterparts in the relevant line ministries and municipalities on the application of GIS to mangrove and coastal zone management.

The consultant will work under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager/CTA, Sustainable Development Unit and national counterparts at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. S/he will work closely with the project team to gather all relevant information in order to produce the required result and be responsible for the following tasks:

1. Conduct a needs assessment of the human resources capacity along with the IT infrastructure gaps and needs (hardware equipment and software) for establishing a comprehensive mangrove mapping and monitoring system.

1. Gather available information, maps, spatial data and analyze all geodata related to the coastal resilience (mangrove) project (topographic maps with details of community and district boundaries, social and economic infrastructure, buildings, climatic maps, vulnerability assessment, soil maps, forests, socioeconomic data, villages, GPS data already created by the project, available satellite images, aerial photos, etc.). 

1. Prepare an inception report summarizing the objectives, scope and outputs of the assignment, organization and methodology for achievement of the outputs, including the schedule. It shall also provide details outlining the methodology for developing the GIS mapping and monitoring system.

1. Develop a comprehensive National Mapping and Monitoring System for mangroves in Timor-Leste. The system will support capture, analysis and reporting of field data from planting/rehabilitation and restoration sites in the 7 selected municipalities as well as existing mature mangrove stands and have the capabilities to support monitoring and data captured through satellite imagery and/or aerial photography. Support the acquisition of reports and maps illustrating project activities, survival and growth of planted mangroves, fencing, extent of natural and planted mangroves, mangrove nurseries, potential eco-tourism sites and protected areas. The system would be able to facilitate the storage of a wide variety of ancillary data relevant to the project including scanned maps, photos, monitoring data and other relevant information.

In delivering on this task the consultant will:

1. Support the baseline survey for creation of coastal ecosystem inventory and will provide information such as the biophysical and ecological conditions of coastal ecosystems including mangroves.
2. Create metadata sets, digitalize and spatially geo-reference all the information gathered. This phase will involve working with the project team, MAF, ALGIS as well as interfacing with key partners involved on the project to collect data and analyze existing GIS layers, coordinates and maps.  This will involve inclusion of existing data, planning and development of new layers.
3. Map project boundaries, including locations surveyed, households, indication of conservation status of mangrove areas (new and degraded areas), social and economic infrastructure, conservation sites, water supply and irrigation systems, and critical mangrove sites;
4. Identify and map mangrove and community areas for future mangrove management/rehabilitation interventions;
5. Map areas for promotion of sustainable land management and sustainable alternative livelihood practices;
6. Any other relevant features to be included and mapped based on guidance and agreement with the Project Manager.

1. Develop protocol and tools to support counterparts, field staff, project team to conduct routine field monitoring and mapping exercises to collect relevant geo-data and map new mangrove sites and community areas to regularly update the national mangrove mapping and monitoring system developed.

This will also entail developing a suitable user-friendly interface that can feed data from field monitoring exercises into the national mangrove monitoring and mapping system developed.

1. Training and Capacity Development support

1. Develop and facilitate trainings to enhance the technical capacity of project staff and national and municipality participants. This entails:
   • Conduct a Training Needs Assessment and based on the findings and recommendations, design a tailor-made training to the selected participants. The training will be a combination of classroom sessions and field exercises with attention placed on continuous hands-on training.
   • Develop training materials and prepare a GIS training manual, including providing relevant data sets for distribution to each of the participants to facilitate the training.
   • Training conducted on GIS analysis and mapping skills, with special focus on using datasets on coastal ecosystems (including mangroves) and land use mapping and monitoring. The training will be tailor-made to selected participants at national level and in the selected 7 municipalities. The below provides indicative guidelines for the design of the training programs:
     • 1-day overview for participants at level of Chief of Departments, Directors and selected participants
     • 4 days for participants training in Dili – Part 1
     • 5 days for participants training in Dili – Part 2
     • Field exercises for selected participants (data collection using mapping tools and equipment including GPS and drone technology)
     • Hands-on training will also be provided to national counterparts and project team through a learning-by-doing approach while development the GIS mapping and monitoring system/database.

• Submit training reports which will summarize the activities of the different trainings conducted, including the resources used, findings, presenting the pre-and post-assessment results, capacity development report, lessons-learned.

1. Prepare a Final Report (in English) summarizing the activities undertaken under the assignment relating to the establishment of the mapping and monitoring system for mangroves in Timor-Leste including the resources used, findings, lessons-learned as well as recommendations.

Competencies

1. EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

1. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant will report directly to the Project Manager for the Coastal Resilience Project.  National Project Coordinator and Operation Officer will facilitate administrative arrangements and logistical support throughout the duration of the mission including coordinating the in-country mission and field visits. Extensive field visit and travel will be required to the municipalities. The consultant will be expected to facilitate the respective training, consultations and workshops envisaged as per the deliverables under the TOR.

• The IC will work under the close guidance of the UNDP Timor Leste Country Office (CO), MAF and the UNDP-Regional Technical Advisor
• Conduct frequent communication and advisory services with project team and relevant MAF staff
• The IC will undertake his assignment in the target Municipalities with prior clearance by the MAF authorities and UNDP CO and  direct consultation with local authorities
• The IC will maintain a dialogue with the national counterpart and project team/UNDP-CO as and when problems emerge during the assignment.
• The IC will perform its duties such as baseline survey, design implementation plans and guidelines, consultation and discussion with key government staff, partners and community including organization and facilitation of different workshops and trainings by being here in Timor-Leste
• Frequent communication will be maintained through e-mail, telephone and skype correspondence with all relevant parties mentioned above for smooth accomplishment of the assignment.

1. DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The assignment will be for a period of 60 working days between April 01, 2019 to September 30, 2019 in Timor-Leste.

The consultant must be available for regular meetings with the programme unit and other meeting with the Project and Programmes Manager as well as line partners for consultation and discussion purposes. Arrangement for such visits will be communicated to the consultant so that s/he can schedule time accordingly.

1. DUTY STATION

The duty station of the work is Dili, Timor-Leste with field visit to the project sites/municipalities.

Required Skills and Experience

A.     QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUCCESSFUL INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR

Education:

• Advanced/ MSc. Degree in University degree in Information Technology, Geography, Forestry, Natural Resources Management, or in a related field relevant to mangroves restoration, adaptation and coastal zone management coupled with a combination of professional training, certification and experience in GIS mapping/remote sensing.

Professional Experience:

• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in the field of GIS which includes digitizing, mapping and data analysis, preferably in watershed management, forestry or a related field, including at least two years working experience with government agencies and/or international organizations.
• Demonstrated experience related to coastal zone management, ecosystems restoration, coastal wetlands, watershed and SLM activities as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation;
• Practical expertise in designing and field -testing surveys and other data collection instruments supported with experience in managing data collection, entry and maintenance.
• Ability to communicated effectively orally and in writing, in order to communicate complex, technical information to both technical and general audiences, including strong policy advice skills; and
• Experience in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) specifically in Asia and the Pacific is strong asset.
• Previous experience as a consultant with a government agency or development partner with specific experience in developing and conducting/facilitating at least two (2) GIS mapping and database training event.

Language requirements:

• English language – excellent written and oral communication skills. In addition to excellent command of English, ability to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia, Portuguese or Tetum will be an advantage.

Other Competencies:

• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, including the ability to liaise effectively at project management levels;
• Ability to communicate and function effectively in an international, multicultural environment;
• Ability to work effectively in a team.

1. SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Lump Sum Amount

The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of a lump sum all-inclusive cost linked to deliverables specified in TOR Section C, supported by a breakdown of costs as per the template provided.

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. 

Schedule of payments

C.      RECOMMENDED PRESENTATION OF OFFER

Individual consultants interested in the assignment must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualification:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; template is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=53426
3. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. template is available at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=53426
4. Technical Proposal - Brief description of methodology on how s/he will approach and complete the assignment;

D.     CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE BEST OFFER

The candidates will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points of the technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation.

L.      Annexes to the TOR

M. APROVAL

This TOR is approved by