Antecedentes

In Uganda, wetlands provide many important functions to the people, particularly in the context of food and security. This is in addition to its role as a habitat for biodiversity that is also important for the economy. Wetlands also serve as habitats for important flora and fauna, have aesthetic and heritage values, and contain stocks of biodiversity of potentially high pharmaceutical value. Over 80% of the people living adjacent to wetland areas in Uganda directly use wetland resources for their household food security needs.” In addition to supporting food and water security, wetlands support income generation and employment. “Of a total population of 34 million Ugandans, it is estimated that wetlands provide about 320,000 workers with direct employment and provide subsistence employment for over 2.4 million.”

In addition, wetland ecosystems play an integral role in maintaining the quality and quantity of water. However, over the last 20 years, excessive sedimentation, high levels of degradation and non-native species invasions have resulted in reduced wetland coverage and deterioration of water quality.

Wetland health and resilience can easily be compromised by climate change.  Climate change models for Uganda predict that temperatures will continue to increase by between 0.7oC and 1.5oC by 2020 and even further to between 1°C and 3.1°C by 2060. They also predict an increase in annual rainfall of 10-20% during the 21st century, as well as a change in seasonal distribution of rainfall and an increase in the frequency of intense rainfall events.[1] Increases in temperature and erratic rainfall will result in more frequent and intense floods, droughts and heat waves, which will directly threaten wetlands and livelihoods that rely on its healthy ecosystem services.

Already, changes in rainfall patterns have led to changes in the hydrological regime, leading to changes in water availability for key areas such as domestic use, watering livestock, and irrigation for agriculture. Uganda is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Drought in 2008 caused losses of approximately 3% of the value of all food and cash crops in 2010/2011 Uganda lost US$470 m in food crops, cash crops and livestock, 16% of the total annual value of these crops, was lost to drought.

The water table in both Eastern and Southwestern wetland basins has experienced and is expected to experience frequent and sudden drops due to Climate change. Livelihood activities in wetlands and catchments (such as fishing and farming, hunting, extraction of reeds) are unsustainable. This is resulting in direct effects on wetlands that are reducing their ability to provide critical services. For example, in Kabale District, within the southwestern wetland basin, 58% of wetlands have been drained for farming and other activities.  Communities are searching for land in the wetlands because soils in the catchments are becoming increasingly infertile due to temperature increases and other climatic changes. As a result, the wetland ecosystems have lost their capacity to retain nutrients and store and filter water. This impacts water supply to surrounding communities, which are dependent on water from wells constructed near wetlands. In addition, the ability of these wetlands to adapt to climate change are also compromised, reducing their ability to control floods, store and filter water, and maintain the microclimate.

As part of the assessments, a cost of wetlands restoration is to  be carried out in all project districts  to assess which wetland and catchment restoration opportunities are viable and most appropriate for central government, district local governments, local communities, private sector and individuals to undertake.

The assessments underpin the work MWE and its partners are and have been conducting on wetland restoration to initiate restoration of 150,000 hectares of degraded wetlands by 2025.  MWE through WMD is undertaking the implementation and UNDP is providing technical support to this process and it is on this basis that we are seeking a wetland/ natural resources restoration economist to undertake a cost analysis to assess which wetland restoration opportunities are viable, most appropriate and those that will generate a positive rate of return on investment from public sector, private sector, local communities and individuals in project districts.

The economic analysis should make a strong case and justification for the need to restore the identified degraded wetland areas, especially among policy makers, development partners, private sector players, local communities as well as individual farmers. In addition, the cost analysis should quantify should provide a clear indication of “best bets” for achieving climate mitigation and adaptation benefits from wetland  restoration interventions in project districts quantified as short-term and long-term economic benefits.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The overall objective to undertake a cost analysis that will quantify and  provide a clear indication of “best bets” for achieving climate mitigation and adaptation benefits from wetland  restoration interventions in project districts quantified as short-term and long-term economic benefits.

The specific objective includes:

To establish costs and identify benefits of investments in wetland  restoration in the project districts  and ensuring that the restoration opportunities identified are economically viable and appropriate, and will generate a positive rate of return on investment from public sector, private sector, local communities and individuals, while generating appropriate mitigation and adaptation benefits e.g. from avoided wetland degradation, carbon sequestration, and improved resilience for local communities and ecosystems:

• To identify and analyze the types of finance and resourcing options available to support the implementation of wetland restoration interventions;
• To recommend a finance mix suitable and feasible for the different types of wetland restoration interventions emerging from the assessment (e.g., public and private, national and international;
• To indicate in monetary terms the total amount required to restore one hectare of    a degraded wetland in each of the project districts. This information will guide future wetland restoration efforts.

The key deliverables of this assignment include:

• Costs and benefits of investments in wetland restoration in the project districts to different stakeholders ;
• Types of finance and resourcing options available to support wetland restoration interventions;
• Recommend financial mix suitable and feasible for the different types of wetland restoration interventions;
• Amount of money  required to restore one hectare of   a degraded wetland in each of the project districts. (Tabulate).

Scope of work:

The assessment studies will, among other things, focus on the following: 

• Familiarization with governance issues, equity issues, structure, mandates, purpose, resources and legal frameworks relevant for wetlands restoration through interaction with key institutions and partners including environment civil society;
• Gather relevant documents and information required for conducting the cost analysis;
• Familiarization with the social, economic and cultural relationships, interactions and resources that may affect effective restoration process;
• Strategies for systematically collecting detailed and relevant data for monitoring changes in the wetlands, including developing capacity for data collection in the different sectors.

Specific assignments:

 Carry out a sensitivity analysis, to quantify the risks of adopting each restoration activity on key risk risks dimensions, including market prices, production/yield, climate change, etc;

• Collect and review available information with regards to restoration opportunities in Uganda, to get a deep understanding of restoration initiatives in the country; 
•  Based on best practice and available data for Uganda  develop a robust methodology to quantify costs  and  benefits of  implementing restoration practices and  actions such  as natural regeneration,  riparian vegetation restoration/riverine buffer zoning and other interventions . This would include developing ecosystem service models that capture crop production, watershed conservation, carbon, erosion, soil fertility enhancement, and other important variables;
• Collect data from a representative priority wetland system and catchment to carry out the analysis based on the proposed methodology, and for at least 3 wetland restoration scenarios. The idea here is to carry out Cost Benefit Analysis for a few models: e.g., Business As Usual, and two models that show some level of optimization of financial returns and social and environmental benefits;
• Quantify both adaptation and mitigation benefits for the restoration scenarios.
• Based on results, build compellingeconomic  case for investmentn wetland  restoration, atnationalandsubn-ationallevelsasoutcomefromtheOAMprocessesby identifyingppropriatesourcesoffndingandafinancemix.

Competencias

• Excellent interpersonal;
• networking skills, especially in multi-stakeholder contexts.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualifications:

• A natural resource management specialist with at least a Master’s degree in Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Development Economics with a bias in natural resources;

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of experience applying economic analysis to inform natural resource management (policies and public and private investments);
• Familiarity with natural resources economic analysis, restoration economics, and climate mitigation and adaptation;
• Demonstrated regional and national level experience of using economic analysis to tackle environmental issues in developing country contexts (experience working in Uganda would be preferred);
• Proven ability to work in an interdisciplinary manner, both independently and in a multi sectoral team;

Language requirements:

• Effective communications skills (in writing and speaking) in English language.

Price proposal and schedule of payment:

The contract will be lump sum with single payment at the end of the contract, upon successful delivery of the expected product from this consultancy as cleared by the UNDP RTA and Uganda Country Office.

Evaluation method and criteria:

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:

• responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight;  70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points

• Criteria A: Relevance of Education – Max 5  points;
• Criteria B: Special skills, Language, etc.- Max 5 Points;
• Criteria C: Proven experience in developing/ implementing similar projects- preferably in the region and  in development and approval of the PIF– Max 30 points.

Criteria D: Description of approach/methodology to assignment. – Max 30 Points

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org/. (Reference #43696).

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website - http://jobs.undp.org (Ref no.76812).

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
• 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.

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
• Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
• Annexes 1 and II - may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/ - under reference #43696. For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org;

Interested applicants should submit applications through uploading of all their required documentation in one single pdf document on this website only.