Background

UNDP designed and is implementing a program aimed at reducing exposure of Georgia’s communities, livelihoods and infrastructure to climate-induced natural hazards through the implementation of a well-functioning nation-wide multi-hazard early warning system and risk-informed local action. The program encompasses three interrelated projects funded by SDC, under which the current position is being announced, Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Swedish Government (SIDA). The GCF funded interventions are targeting expansion of the hydro-meteorological network & modelling capacities and improving community resilience through implementation of EWS & risk reduction measures. SIDA project will contribute to the public awareness raising and structural measure components.

The project funded by SDC is aimed at reducing exposure and vulnerability of communities in Georgia, through development of multi-hazard risk information and relevant capacities;  Geographical coverage of the project interventions is nation-wide, covering the 11 major river basins in Georgia: Enguri, Rioni, Chorokhi-Adjaristskali, Supsa, Natanebi, Khobi, Kintrishi, Khrami-Ktsia, Alazani, Iori, Mtkvari (same as Kura) focusing on the following hazards: floods, landslides, mudflows, avalanches, hailstorms, windstorms and droughts.

The project aims to develop standardized and harmonized national multi-hazard mapping and risk assessment methodologies and multi-hazard maps and risk profiles for 11 river basins in Georgia. The multi-hazard maps will be developed by the National Environmental Agency under the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

The legal entity of public law – National Environmental Agency (NEA) under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia is the institution which is responsible for monitoring of environmental quality conditions (atmospheric air, surface and groundwaters, sea, soil) and meteorological, hydrological, and geological processes taking place on the territory of Georgia. NEA’s departments of Hydrometeorology and Geology are responsible for the monitoring, assessment and mapping of hydrometeorological and geological hazards in the country.

The National Environmental Agency possesses main information and historical data on hydro-meteorological and geological hazards and have respective databases. The staff is experienced in monitoring, assessment and mapping of natural hazards, obtaining, collecting and processing of respective data and information.

However, there is no definitive hazard, risk or vulnerability mapping for Georgia for any of the hydro-meteorological and geological hazards that it faces and the technical and financial capacity to undertake such mapping is lacking.

Mandates for risk assessment based on multi-hazard mapping and vulnerability are not clearly defined in the country. Emergency Management Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs is the main body responsible for emergency risk management including the emergency risk assessment, which only focuses on identification of potential emergency cases and is not based on the hazard and vulnerability assessment. Though vulnerability assessments are conducted in the country, they are limited to specific donor-funded project scopes and conducted usually by NGOs, without unified approach applied.

While the SDC project will develop the unified methodologies for the modelling and mapping of the seven hazards, the project funded by GCF will develop the methodology for multi-hazard risk and vulnerability assessment.  In addition, many of the applications of hazard modelling within the wider program such as development of flood forecasting and early warning systems, identification, prioritisation and design of risk mitigation measures, development of river basin multi-hazard risk management plans, municipal emergency response plans, sector resilience plans and community DRM and CBEWS are highly dependent on the development of the methodologies and mapping  approaches for hazard assessment to be developed by the SDC funded project. Preparation of vulnerability assessments of 11 river basins is one of the components of the project as well.

Thus, the program is expected to provide both NEA and EMS with required international expertise to support the development of a unified multi-hazard mapping and risk assessment methodologies as well as provide technical support and guidance in developing the multi-hazard maps and risk profiles.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall responsibility of the incumbent will be to undertake the development of a unified methodology for avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment with detailed SoPs and guidelines, identify on-job trainings needs, provide technical oversight over the avalanche hazard modelling,  and mapping and assessment to be implemented by NEA.  The assignment will be implemented under the supervision of international Team leader for Multi-hazard Modelling and Mapping and general technical oversight from project Chief Technical Advisor and UNDP project manager.

The incumbent will be responsible to:

• Conduct a detailed desk research and comparative analysis of avalanche practices both internationally and nationally, through:
  • Stakeholder mapping for avalanche hazard mapping, to identify main users and uses of avalanche hazard and the information (type and level of detail) that is required for each use.  Stakeholder mapping should include governmental agencies, sectoral players, and academia to form a working group for consultation on and validation of the methodologies; 
  • Conduct in-depth comparative analysis of international best practices and national experience in hazard mapping for avalanches, in Georgia in close consultations with project partners and stakeholders; 
  • Conduct in-depth analysis of WMO requirements and EU commitments that apply to the methodology for hazard mapping of avalanches with consideration of national requirements; 
  • Provide guidance to NEA in review of existing data and detailed analysis of all available data for conducting avalanche hazard assessment to assess data availability, quality and needs for avalanche hazard modelling and mapping. Based on the results of the analysis identify the sufficiency of the data and the quality to adopt the methodology to be adopted.
• Undertake the technical capacity assessment of NEA staff for undertaking avalanche hazard modelling and mapping, through the capacity assessment scorecard developed by the Institutional Capacity Assessment Expert. Develop the technical capacity development plan for avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment for NEA;
• Identify on-job training needs in avalanche modelling and mapping, identify and develop the most appropriate training strategy (including relevant online courses, training materials etc.);
• Review and identify appropriate software for avalanche hazard mapping in close cooperation with NEA
• Develop the unified methodology for all types of avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment, through:
  • Establishment of a nationally consistent system of data collection, research and analysis to ensure a sound knowledgebase on natural hazards to include field survey data methods, procedures and programmes. Methods of collecting/acquiring/modelling other essential datasets for hazard modelling and mapping.  
  • Development of mathematical modelling and mapping methodologies for avalanches. To include, review of international best practice approaches and selection of the most appropriate modelling methods for the Georgian context, taking account of geographical and climatic context, data availability, necessary technical, financial and resources capacities, and technology requirements for sustainability of modelling approaches.  
  • Developtechnical documentation for avalanche hazard modelling and mapping methodologies, procedures and guidelines, including all the required templates (survey briefs, data review and etc.)
  • Undertake extensive consultations with national partners as well as consultations with UNDP experts including International Forecasting and Early Warning expert, International Socio-economic risk and vulnerability modelling and mapping expert and others as necessary to ensure compatibility for all long-term uses of avalanche hazard models and maps (e.g. for forecasting and early warning, risk and vulnerability mapping, emergency response planning and management etc.);
  • For the outline of the methodology please refer to Appendix A available at link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pC-vsmStOMjZ4jHCLrVuFivSDB3IG4Kh/view?usp=sharing. Sample document Outline for avalanche hazard mapping methodology.  The outline should be further elaborated per chapter and agreed with UNDP beforehand.
• Provide technical support and oversight over avalanche modelling, mapping and assessment to be implemented by NEA for 11 basins of Georgia. Provide Regular technical and progress reporting to international Team leader for Multi-hazard Modelling and Mapping, UNDP CTA and PM., through:
  • quality control of the data collected by NEA, through filed visits during field data analysis, and processing
  • supervision, guidance and review on specific hazard mapping and quality control of the works

 Deliverables:

1 December 2020 – 31 December 2021 (48 consultancy days)

1. A draft report on detailed desk research and comparative analysis of avalanche practices both internationally and nationally (22 December 2020) that includes:
   • reports on stakeholder mapping for avalanche hazard mapping, to identify main users and uses of avalanche hazard and the information (type and level of detail) that is required for each use
   • comparative analysis of international best practices and national experience in hazard mapping for avalanches,
   • in-depth analysis of WMO requirements and EU commitments that apply to the methodology for hazard mapping of avalanches
   • technical note for data availability review and quality analysis 
2. Completed scorecard on technical capacity assessment of NEA for undertaking avalanche hazard modelling and mapping and list of urgently needed on-job training courses for NEA staff 
3. AnchorAnchorDraft method on avalanche modelling, assessment and mapping including the data availability and quality analysis report, and templates for survey briefs 
4. A final report on detailed desk research and comparative analysis of avalanche practices both internationally and nationally 
5. Technical capacity development plan for avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment for NEA 
6. Report on the on- job training needs in avalanche modelling and mapping, with the most appropriate training strategy (including relevant online courses, training materials etc.); 
7. Unifiedmethodology for all types of avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment;
8. The progress report on the technical oversight provided to NEA in avalanche hazard mapping, with indication of the progress achieved, challenges, risks, lessons learned and recommendations.

1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022 (40 consultancy days):

• Progress report on the technical oversight provided to NEA in avalanche hazard mapping, with indication of the progress achieved, challenges, risks, lessons learned and recommendations

1 January 2022 – 10 November 2023 (40 consultancy days):

• Progress reports on the technical oversight provided to NEA in avalanche hazard mapping, with indication/measures of the progress achieved, challenges, risks, lessons learned and recommendations.

Management Arrangements:

The work of service provider will be directly supervised by the Project Manager under the overall supervision of the Environment and Energy Team Leader and guidance of the Chief Technical Advisor. The service provider will be directly responsible to, reporting to, seeking approval from, and obtaining certificate of acceptance of outputs from the above-mentioned persons.

Payment modality:

The payment schedule is given below and will be made upon satisfactory completion/submission and approval of the deliverables by the supervisor:

First Consultancy year: 1 December 2020 – 31 December 2021

• 25% of the first-year consultancy fee: upon successful submission and clearance of deliverables 1 and 2; due by 22 December 2020
• 25% of the first-year consultancy fee: upon successful submission and clearance of deliverables 3 and 4; due by 31 January 2021
• 15% of the first-year consultancy fee: upon successful submission and clearance of deliverables 5 and 6; due by 31 March 2021
• 25% of the first-year consultancy fee: upon successful submission and clearance of deliverable 7; due by 1 May 2021
• 10% of the first-year consultancy fee: upon successful submission and clearance of deliverable 8; due by 15 December 2021

Second Consultancy year: 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022 

• Payments will be made on quarterly basis upon successful submission of Quarter progress reports. 4 reports in total - 25% of the second-year consultancy fee per quarter

Third Consultancy year: 1 January 2023 – 10 November 2023 

• Payments will be made on quarterly basis upon successful submission of Quarter progress reports. 4 reports in total - 25% of the third-year consultancy fee per quarter

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Understanding of the mandate and the role of UNDP would be an asset;
• 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

Functional competencies:

• Strong communication and analytical skills;
• Demonstrated skills in drafting reports;
• Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
• Actively generates creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving;
• Computer literacy

Leadership and Self-Management skills:

• Builds strong relationships with the working group and with the project partners; focuses on impact and results for the project partners and responds positively to feedback;
• Cooperates with working group effectively and demonstrates strong conflict resolution skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy, positivity and a constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates strong influencing and facilitation skills;
• Remains calm, in control and good humoured under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change, new ideas and ability to manage ambiguity;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates ability to transfer knowledge and competencies;
• Is able to work independently and hurdle competing priorities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least MSc in Meteorology, Climatology, Hydrometeorology or Environmental Sciences (minimum requirement: Master's degree - 15 points, PhD - additional 5 points).

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment (minimum requirement: 7 years - 20 points, more than seven - additional 5 points)
• Experience in developing/implementing systematized national methodology for avalanche hazard modelling, mapping and assessment is an asset (3 points)
• Experience of working in Georgia and/or knowledge of the region’s context is an asset (2 points).

Language requirements:

• Proficiency in both spoken and written English.

Evaluation:

Offerors will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis method, against combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum total obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria (desk review and interview) equals to 70 and for financial criteria – to 30. Offerors that do not meet any of the Minimum Requirements will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. Technical evaluation will comprise of desk review and interview stages. Candidates who collect 70% (35 points) of points obtainable as a result of the desk review will form up short list and be invited to the interview. Offerors passing 70% threshold as a result of the interview (i.e. obtain minimum of 14 points) will be recommended for financial evaluation. 

Financial evaluation:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount. Maximum 30 points will be assigned to the lowest price offer. All other price offers will be scored using the formula (inverse proportion):  Financial score X = 30* the lowest price offer/suggested price offer. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal as well.