Background

Overview:

The Kuan Kreng landscape (KKL) in southeastern Thailand contains the country’s second largest peat swamp forest area. These peat swamps provide many ecosystem services ranging from livelihoods for local communities, acting as a rainwater and runoff reservoir, buffering from the impact of rains and floods, acting as a natural sediment filter before waters drain into Songkhla Lake, being a major store of carbon, and harboring important biodiversity including a number of globally threatened species. By some estimates, however, about 65 percent of the KKL remains under constant threat of degradation from various threats with the primary one being conversion to oil palm cultivation and associated drainage and forest fires. The area of natural peat lands that harbor biodiversity and sequester carbon is being reduced. The long-term solution is to change the trajectory of baseline approaches and facilitate a transformative shift from unsustainable to sustainable and integrated use of peat swamps in Thailand.

The project, “Maximizing carbon sink capacity and conservation, restoration and management of peat swamp ecosystems,” is in line with Thailand’s 5th National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP 2014-2017) which highlights actions to improve participatory management of peat lands as one of the priorities towards achieving the Aichi Targets. In conserving and restoring peat lands to increase their capacities to act as carbon sinks, as habitats for globally important species, and as sources of ecosystem services for improved livelihoods, the project intends to improve the status of indicator species in KKL, to demonstrate good peat swamp forest management practices, to maintain the carbon pool, to reduce emissions from peat lands, to enhance institutional capacity to account for GHG emission reduction and increase in carbon stocks, and to develop a national strategy to guide the management of peat swamps.

The project has been divided into three components, and will be implemented over a period of four years (2016-2020). The first component of the project focuses on improving effective protection of remaining natural peat swamp forests in the second-largest peat swamp landscape of Thailand. The second component of the project helps to implement innovative approaches to avoid drainage and restore peat swamps. The third component of the project helps to improve national strategies for land use in peat swamps by creating an enabling environment for a landscape approach to management of peat swamp areas.

The project is financially supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with the Office of National Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) as the Implementing Partner. The total GEF-supported funding is US$ 3,224,400, with US$ 13,382,711 co-financing from the Thai counterparts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

Project Coordinator (Geographic Information System – GIS) will work closely with the project team of Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) undertaking the Output 3.3 Comprehensive Inventory and Database of Thailand’s Peat Swamp Areas and Output 3.4 National Strategy for Peat Swamp Areas Drafted for Government Approval, under the supervision of the Project Director at the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) to support ONEP, an implementing partner, in coordinating with relevant agencies on activities to be carried out during the project implementation phase.

Scope of work:

• Assist in reviewing the database of peat swamp inventory, boundaries and mapping of peat swamps in Thailand
• Responsible for communication, drafting, organizing and filing of documents and other information related to project
• -Assist in the coordination between individuals and other partners on project both in and outside of ONEP.
• Assist in organizing workshops/meetings/events under the project
• Occasional travel to project sites, as necessary
• Draft meeting minutes, presentation decks and related reports as assigned by Project Director (ONEP)
• Provide related organizational and logistical support

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Each month, the Project Coordinator (GIS) shall submit a progress report on tasks undertaken, challenges encountered, and work plans for the following month to Project Director at the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) and the Programme Specialist or Programme Analyst, as representative of the Inclusive Green Growth and Sustainable Development Unit, UNDP Thailand, for review and approval.

Payment shall be made within two weeks after the receipt of approved timesheet and progress report.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Project Coordinator (GIS) will report to the Project Director at the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) and the Programme Specialist or Programme Aanlyst, as representative of the Inclusive Green Growth and Sustainable Development Unit, UNDP Thailand.

Duration of the Assignment:

The Project Coordinator (GIS) shall provide support during the period of 16 June 2019-15 June 2020 (not exceeding 240 days in the contract year). The Project Coordinator (GIS) shall be paid an all-inclusive daily fee. This position does not qualify for overtime pay.

Duty Station:

Duty station is at the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP), Bangkok, Thailand. The work station and necessary office equipment will be provided by ONEP.

The consultant is anticipated to travel to project sites when relevant to the assignment as follows:

Two trips to Prince of Songkhla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla Province (max 2 nights per trip)

Two trips to the project site in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province (max 2 nights per trip)

UNDP will make payment as reimbursement for actual costs upon presentation of receipts, boarding passes for economy class air tickets and receipt of accommodation at average rate.  The travel claims will be payable at the same period of the timesheet.

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 minimum qualifications are required:

• Thai national with at least 3 years of working in GIS technology
• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, environmental engineering, geography, law, liberal arts, political science, social science or other related field

• Familiarity with coordination mechanisms of government institutions

• Computer proficiency, in particular Arc GIS and Microsoft Office applications
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills and able to coordinate with diverse stakeholders
• Work experience in the government sector and strong English language skills are preferable

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Daily Fee. Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC 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 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:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

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; 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 points)

Criteria 1 Eg. Relevance of Education – Max 25 points

Criteria 2 Eg. Special skills, Language, etc.- Max 15 Points

Criteria 3 Eg. Relevance of experience in area of specialization (e.g. geographic information system)– Max 30 points

Criteria 4 Eg. Relevance of experience in key areas (e.g. leading research teams) – Max 30 points

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

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal using the template provided in Annex III. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Thai Baht.
• Personal CV, 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.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ Project Coordinator (Geographic Information System – GIS)

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=55608