Antecedentes

 BACKGROUND

The State of Palestine acceded the UNFCCC on the 17 March 2016 and submitted its Initial Communication Report (INCR) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) to the UNFCCC in November 2016 and its National Determined Contribution (NDC) in August 2017. The Environment Quality Authority as the Chairman for the National Climate Change Committee has been very active in mainstreaming climate change into national policies and development plans. The Palestinian Government nominated the Environment Quality Authority (EQA) to be the National Designated Authority (NDA) to liaise with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The nomination of EQA was acknowledged by the GCF on 25 November 2016.

 UNDP as is the readiness delivery partner of Palestine received approval from the GCF in February 2018 to execute a grant aimed at strengthening the capacity of NDA in Palestine to effectively engage with GCF. The readiness and preparatory support project will enhance EQA’s capacities to effectively engage with the Fund, including monitoring and oversight of climate finance and active engagement of the stakeholders in the preparation of a gender and social-inclusive country programme that focuses on priority investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

 Over the last six months, a proposed multi-level institutional structure with decision-making mechanism to access and utilise climate finance to achieve the development and climate goals was prepared and validated by climate change stakeholders in October 2018, see the institutional mechanism in Annex 1.

 UNDP is currently seeking the service of International consultant to support the NDA in the development of a gender sensitive GCF country programme document including a framework for engagement of private sector.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The assignment’s specific objectives are:

• Strengthening NDA and stakeholders’ understanding of GCF finance modalities
• Develop GCF country Programem Document in Palestine and have it validated
• Identify priority working areas for the international accredited entities
• Develop a framework for private sector engagement
• Develop policy note to advance participation of women in different thematic working groups and to mainstream gender in climate change interventions.

Deberes y responsabilidades

SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant, upon signing contract with UNDP in Palestine, shall closely work with the NDA to produce the deliverable specified in section 4. s/he shall the carry out the followings tasks to achieve the desired results of the assignment:

1. Review the Palestinian National Adaptation Plan (NAP), institutional decision-making system to access and utilize GCF Fund, No Objection procedures, climate change vulnerability assessment, national determined contribution report, national policy agenda and sector related strategies to identify area of priorities with respect to climate change.
2. Organize and conduct as deemed necessary stakeholders’ consultations with government institutions, civil society (including women NGOs); academia, private sector, and UN and international organizations such as FAO, WB, EU, EIB, UN Environment.
3.  Carry out at least 4 working sessions with stakeholders, (20 Participants in each session) to develop an inclusive and gender sensitive country programme in alignment with GCF framework.
4. Carry out bilateral meetings with key stakeholders as deemed necessarily for the development of the country programme document.
5. Organize and conduct a workshop targeting approximately 50 participants, to facilitate policy dialogue among stakeholders to demonstrate good practices, lessons learned, identify potential engagement opportunities and partnerships. Through the consultation process gender issues would be highlighted and addressed to make sure that gender issues and equality are taken into consideration throughout.
6. Discuss with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other key stakeholders to maximize participation of women in the established thematic working groups and develop policy note to advance participation of women in different thematic working groups and to mainstream gender in climate change interventions.
7. Conduct one workshop to review and validate GCF portfolio in the country, 40 participants.
8. Organize one working session with existing accredited entities in Palestine to identify priority working areas for the accredited entities based on the national priorities, and entities’ comparative advantages
9. Organize one working session with existing accredited agencies in Palestine priority working areas for the accredited entities.

 DELIVERABLES:

The consultant shall deliver the followings over the assignment period:

1.  GCF Country programme document in Palestine developed and validated by stakeholders. The Country programme document may entail the below suggested outline:
   • Section 1. Country Profile: development aspirations; climate change profile; response to climate change; and gaps and opportunities
   • Section 2. Country Agenda and GCF Engagement: institutional arrangement; roles and responsibilities of key partners; identification of country priorities for GCF; country portfolios (costed pipelines); mitigation priorities; and adaptation priorities;
   • Section 3. NDA’s communication and coordination strategy.
   • Section 4: Monitoring and Evaluation of country programme implementation
   • Section 4: any relevant Annexes
2. Gender policy note to maximize gender participation in the development and implementation of the country programme document.
3. agreed list of priorities with existing accredited agencies.
4. Framework for engagement of Private Sector developed and validated.

PAYMENT TERMS:

The assignment will have a duration for 12 calendar months with a proposed working days distributed between the consultant home and Palestine. At least 50% of the contracted days will be required to be performed/worked in Palestine. The consultant is expected to carry out at least 4 missions to Palestine.  A proposed timeline of the activities indicating number of working days in Palestine should be submitted as part of the consultant detailed workplan in the proposal submitted by interested applicants.

LEVEL OF EFFORTS

It is estimated that a total of 90 working days will be required to complete the assignment.

 PAYMENT TERMS:

 The payments will be delivery-based on progress submitted by the consultant as follows:

 All payments will be issued upon certification of UNDP responsible officer

Competencias

The consultant should demonstrate its proven experience on designing and delivering climate change or natural resources related assignment and shall possess following:

Development and operational effectiveness

• Able to manage complex problems proactively and effectively
• Ability to operate effectively in a changing and complex environment
• Consistently approach work with energy, positive and constructive attitude
• Strong analytical skills, interpersonal and communication skills
• Proven experience in drafting GCF country programme reports

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Professional experience

• The consultant should have at least 10 years of experience in climate policy and climate finance
• At least 3 years of demonstrated work experience with the GCF processes and operations and/or GCF Readiness matters
• At least implemented two similar assignments preferably in similar context

 Language requirements

• Excellent use of English language (written and spoken)

 Educational qualification

• The consultant should hold at minimum a Master’s degree in international development, environmental or climate policy, environmental science, economics or related fields

TECHNICAL PROPOSALS

 Proposal Content

 The proposal should describe the approach and methodology that will be applied by the consultant to meet the objectives and scope of the assignment.

 A narrative of proposed actions and strategies of reaching the expected results and a detailed work-plan with separate lines for each proposed action and corresponding timeframes are requested. The timeframe should be represented on a month-by-month basis.

 The proposal should demonstrate responsiveness to the specification mentioned in the ToR, by identifying the specific components proposed, addressing the requirements, as specified, point by point; and demonstrating how the proposed methodology meets or exceeds the specifications. Focus should be made on the followings

1. Well-structured methodology combined with detailed work plan that includes clear bench marks, including the working days for different experts engaged in the project.
2. List of projects undertaken within the last 5 years that are related to this assignment.
3. Contact details of three previous clients that can be used for reference purposes to whom a project has been completed in a similar size and scope as this assignment.
4. Consultant CV

The proposal shall be valid for a minimum of 90 days from the date of bid closing and shall be duly signed by the international consultant

FINANCIAL PROPOSALS

 The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable deliverables. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. The financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

 Travel;

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. UNDP do 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.

 The offeror is asked to send the Price Schedule as a separate email from the rest of the offer. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount all-inclusive for the provision of the requirement.

 The lump sum amount shall be broken down to the level of detail as per the breakdown of costs form provided in the “offeror’s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the individual contractor (IC) assignment”.

 Payment terms are shown in the relevant ToR.

 Partial offers are not permitted.

 Quoted Price must be excluding of VAT and other applicable indirect taxes.

 Partial Quotes Not permitted.

EVALUATION

 A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposals prior to any price proposal being opened and compared. The price proposal of the Proposals will be opened only for submissions that passed /attained the minimum technical score (70%) in the evaluation of the technical proposals. The technical proposals are evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).

In order for proposals to be considered technically compliant, the technical evaluation score must exceed the minimum as shown below:

*Note: Technical Score = points obtained × 70%.

 Proposals not attaining the minimum technical score will be considered technically non-compliant and disqualified.  Financial Proposals will only be opened if the technical proposal which attains the required minimum score.

 Weightings that will be applied in order to evaluate technical and financial proposals are shown in the above table.

 The following criteria will be used to evaluate the technical proposals:

 Technical Evaluation Criteria

 Evaluation form for the technical proposals follows. The obtainable number of points specified for each evaluation criterion indicates the relative significance of weight of the item in the overall evaluation process.

 In the Second Stage, the price proposal of all Offerors, who have attained the minimum technical score (=49) in the technical evaluation will be opened and evaluated.

 Award of Contract

 The UNDP procuring entity will award the Contract to the Offeror who receives/achieves the Highest Combined Technical and Financial score

 Combined score calculation methodology:

 100 points shall be allocated to the lowest total fees proposed among those invited candidates which were successful in the evaluation of the technical proposal (i.e. obtained a technical score of 70 or more).  All other fees proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest total fees; e.g. [100 Points] x [US$ lowest total fees] / [US$ other] = points for other proposer’s fees.

 The General mark or combined score for each proposal will be arrived as follows:

The formula for the rating of the Proposals will be as follows:

 Rating the Technical Proposal (TP):

               TP Rating = (Total Score Obtained by the Offer / Max. Obtainable Score for TP) x 100

 Rating the Financial Proposal (FP):

               FP Rating = (Lowest Priced Offer / Price of the Offer Being Reviewed) x 100

 Total Combined Score:

Combined Score = (TP Rating) x (Weight of TP, 70%) + (FP Rating) x (Weight of FP, 30%)

 The procuring UNDP entity reserves the right to accept or reject any Proposal, and to annul the solicitation process and reject all Proposals at any time prior to award of contract, without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the ground for the UNDP’s action.

 Logistics

• The selected consultant will be contracted by the UNDP/PAPP.
• The consultant work will be supervised by UNDP/PAPP Project Coordinator.
• UNDP/PAPP project coordinator and NDA’s focal point will work closely with the International consultant and facilitate the work under this assignment
• All required information about the project can be provided upon request. 

 Annex (1): General conditions of contract for the services of individual contractors are availabile online at

http://www.ps.undp.org/content/papp/en/home/procurement.html