Antecedentes

Bangladesh is commonly cited as a country that is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Given the combination of its geographic location, topography, dense population and levels of poverty, natural hazard events unfortunately often result in disasters with high loss of life and economic damage. Trends in the data indicate that the situation in terms of preparing for and responding to disasters is improving over time, with massive improvements in the reduction of lives lost. One important element of this has been improvements in early warning systems (EWS) and cyclone shelters in particular. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters estimates that close to 229 million people have been directly affected by natural disasters during last few decades, with over 7,700 killed and economic damage in the order of US$5.6 billion.

At the same time, Bangladesh is one of the country’s most at risk from the impacts of climate change, therefore it is likely that both acute (such as flooding or cyclonic events) and chronic hazards (such as drought, sea level rise and saline intrusion) will increase in frequency and severity in the coming decades. The nature and scope of the hazards are well-documented in a range of existing literature.

UNDP Bangladesh’s Early Recovery Facility (ERF), 2011 – 2015 followed a unique project approach that offered, quick activation of a flexible mechanisms and tools for fast operationalization of early recovery assistance in order to complement the national disaster risk reduction efforts.

The overall objective of ERF was to assist the victims of natural disasters in Bangladesh by putting in place systems that allowed coordinated and effective early recovery under a collaborative framework involving Government, development partners and humanitarian actors. The ERF aimed to support and empower the Government’s central coordinating role in coordination/supervision of disaster recovery activities under a flexible and rapid implementation arrangement, in conformity with the UN’s Country Programme Action Plan framework.

With the closure of the Project, UNDP Bangladesh seeks an International Expert to, with the support of a Project Analyst (R & IG) under a terminal evaluation.

The Expert will be guided by the Assistant Country Director (R & IG) and will work in close coordination with the UNDP Country Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

The terminal evaluation of ERF has the following objectives:

-perform holistic outcome and output analysis

-assess the achievement of the project objectives taking into consideration:

• implementation approach
• stakeholder participation
• relevance and effectiveness
• sustainability
• financial planning
• cost-effectiveness
• monitoring & evaluation

review a broad range of strategies such as ERF’s contribution to the national early recovery efforts, following disasters, analyze the main findings and indicate the key lessons to be learnt with examples of best practices.

Deberes y responsabilidades

SCOPE OF WORK

The International Expert is expected to lead the evaluation. The proposed evaluation seeks to assess the impact of the project over a broad range of strategies mentioned above and would specifically address the following:

Strategic orientation:

• Assessment of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the project strategy in contributing to the project outcomes
• Evaluating the relevance of ERF in the context of current national priorities in the DM sector

Programme performance:

• Assessment of the progress in planned outputs;
• Assessment of the perception of the communities and key stakeholders on the direct and indirect benefits derived from the programme;
• Analysis of important factors that influenced the programme performance;
• Assessment of the impact of ERF interventions during recent disasters;
• Assessment of the monitoring strategy;
• Assessment of key project activities with a focus on qualitative and quantitative factors and indicators of performance/achievements.

Lessons learned:

• Identification of innovative approaches/methodologies;
• Identification of approaches/methodologies that failed in achieving the desired results and documentation of the reasons for failure for corrective actions;
• Identification and documentation of the best practices including risk, challenges and partnership building of the programme for replications and wider dissemination;

Sustainability:

• Assessment of the sustainability of the project results in the light of the current policy and programmatic thrust of the Government of Bangladesh;
• Review the ongoing activities and their adequacy to sustain the project outcomes.

Partnership strategy:

• Assessment of the effectiveness of ERF’s partnership strategy (with GoB, NGOs and civil society) over the project in achieving the results and sustaining the gains;
• Assessment of relevance of partnership ERF has established over the project with various NGOs, institutions and agencies.

Future Opportunities vis-à-vis UNDP’s support to GoB in disaster response and early recovery:

• Identify specific recommendations on corrections and actions required to address the gaps in achieving the outcomes, including future partnerships, which can be incorporated into future support to GoB;

 The assignment will focus on the following areas and activities:

• Preliminary meetings with UNDP, GoB, development partners, implementing (contracting) partners;
• Submission of inception report (outline, proposed methodology, evaluation tools)
• Implementation of evaluation [including field visits], analysis of the data, preparation of reports etc
• Submission of draft final reports
• Presentation of findings

Submission of final reports

Methodology

The FE methodology will cover three areas:

1. Review of key documents;
2. Interactions/ interviews with key stakeholders including DDM, MoDMR, donors, implementing partners, beneficiaries and other relevant informants;
3. Field based observations, including visits to implementing Ministries, Departments, Disaster Management Committees (DMCs) and beneficiary communities.

Expected Outcomes: or deliverables:

The FE team will be accountable for producing:

• Inception report— the inception report will detail the reviewers’ understanding of what is being reviewed and why, showing how the review objectives will be met by way of: appraisal methods and techniques; sources of data (and an assessment their quality); and data collection procedures. The inception report will include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, designating a team member with the lead responsibility for each task or product.
• Draft report—the draft Terminal Evaluation report will submit to ERF UNDP programme management team for comment and to ensure that the evaluation meets the required quality
• Final report - a comprehensive analytical report in English. The length of the report shall not exceed 40 pages in total (not including annexes).
• Presentation of initial findings and de-brief – the consultant will present initial findings at a debriefing at the conclusion of the mission to relevant officials, project management team and relevant

 Evaluation ethics

UNDP ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation can be consulted as reference document in drafting review principles.

TIMEFRAME AND DEADLINE:

The assignment is for 22 working days over a period from 25 April to 10 June 2018.

• UNDP Dhaka Office and Project Field Visit: 14 days
• Home based: 08 days

SUPERVISION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Under the overall guidance from Assistant Country Director (khurshid.alam@undp.org), UNDP Bangladesh, the consultant will directly report to and Program Analyst (arif.abdullah@undp.org), UNDP. The Consultant will work with the Early Recovery Facility team.

 DOCUMENTS:

The Consultant will prepare and submit the documents mentioned above at the end of the assignment. Further work, or revision of the documents, may be required if is considered that the report does not meet the UNDP and the government’s standards, TOR, there are errors of fact or the document is incomplete or not of an acceptable standard.

INPUTS:

UNDP will provide office space for the consultant as required and arrange meetings, consultations, and interviews and ensure access to key officials as mentioned in proposed methodology. Field visit in the project area of Bangladesh, only transportation will be arranged from UNDP.

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should 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 case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UNDP, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UNDP’s expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Deliverables Linked with Payment Milestone:

Competencias

• Good communication and interpersonal skills and experience in working effectively in a multicultural environment;
• Professionalism: flexibility to make ad-hoc changes as and when the need arises;
• ability to perform under stress; willingness to keep flexible working hours;
• Teamwork: ability to establish and maintain effective working relations as a team member, in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect;
• Communications: excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• A team-player and self-starter, able to work with minimum supervision, with sound judgment; and
• Need creativity for graphics design and writing skills.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Relevant post-graduate degree in development-related disciplines, with emphasis on disaster risk reduction, disaster management or associated field
• At least 5 years’ hands-on experience in the evaluation and/or management of disaster management / climate change programmes in relevant field, including at the international level

Additional Required Skills and Experience

• Knowledge of current issues and trends in DRR, including the international architecture and financing mechanisms
• Knowledge of current issues and trends in climate change
• Knowledge of results-oriented evaluation principles and methodology.
• Familiarity with UNDP operations and knowledge of relevant UNDP’ policies are an asset
• Strong analytical skills
• Organizational, administrative and planning skills
• Good interpersonal skills and ability for team work

Language requirements

Fluency of English and Bangla language is required;

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages-

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. Lodging, meals and transport cost for field visit related to this assignment will be paid by the project as per UN standard.

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 and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UNDP, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UNDP’s expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1 Academic Strength or Range/ diversification of Education (year / accreditation/ dimension/degree of educations will be indicator) - 10 Marks
• Criteria 2 Familiarity with UNDP operations and knowledge of relevant UNDP’ policies are an asset – 20 Marks
• Criteria 3 Working experiences in Evaluation and Knowledge of current issues and trends in DRR, including the international architecture and financing mechanisms - 30 Marks
• Criteria 4 Working Experience with UN/Donors/GoB- Max 10 Marks

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• 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; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/
• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; b) a brief methodology, on how you will approach and complete the assignment, including a tentative table of contents for the final report; and c) a list of similar assignment with topic/name of the assignment, duration, role of consultant and organization/project
• Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.