Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities Project (LIUPCP) targets urban poverty issues through direct implementations of infrastructural improvements, promoting poverty reduction policies, providing technical support and delivering financial support to achieve widespread results. It is aimed at safeguarding sustainable improvements in the living conditions and the livelihoods of the urban poor communities across cities and towns in Bangladesh. The project is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Government of the United Kingdom. It is implemented through a collaboration between Local Government Division (LGD) of the Government of Bangladesh and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

LIUPCP closely works with the national and local governments to efficiently empower the urban poor communities, civil society and private sectors. The aim is to understand the issues of the urban poor in order to advocate for their needs as well as facilitate in their tool development. This ultimately leads to the successful building of confidence, capacity and capability across the country at all levels ranging from community, regional to national levels. There are up to 20 targeted cities and towns (both tertiary and secondary) that are aided by LIUPCPs interventions. These cities vary in size, location and specific contextual needs and hence are provided with customized schemes to ensure effective outcomes. In addition, a major dedicated component for the project is to ensure Climate Resilient schemes and implementations for all intervention cities. This is embedded throughout all then activities that are piloted in the intervention Cities.

LIUPC will concentrate on supporting the municipal level for improved mechanisms and identification of ways to incorporate value-for-money measures that: A) address the needs of the poorest B) enable towns to plan and budget for future Climate Change impacts.

The UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) present tremendous collaborative opportunity in which their integrated programming amongst UNDP Country Offices will address and tackle various urban issues under the new Country Programme Document (CPD). To localize the 2030 agenda of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and striving for progress through the frameworks of the Paris Agreement (the NDC) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, BRH aims to focus on sub-national level targets, formation of policies, and allocating financial support. This will essentially establish a resilient urban master plan. The local context within Bangladesh can incorporate this master plan into an existing plan to integrate and improve priority elements of the SDGs, the NDC, and the Sendai Framework.

The focus is to initiate progress that cascades down to the sub-national level and fills in any gaps on concerns with awareness building, institutional preparedness and enabling environments. Focusing on City-levels will assist subnational government bodies to deliver effective action which will further allow for “cascading up”, and the assemblage of national-level government changes. Hence cities and towns are targeted as the entities which will facilitate national economic growth, and this will ultimately also make way for future replications for cities to contribute to National Determined Contributions (NDC). Urban Resilience Support Programme will assist municipal governments in forming road maps to ultimately establish a resilient urban master plan. The key elements of the Road Map will comprise of the following: 

• Consensus about what the resilient urban master plan is for the municipality based on locally specific context and consultations with relevant stakeholders;
• Baseline analysis of risks and sources of vulnerability that undermine the achievements of the SDGs, the NDC and Sendai Framework;
• Outline of hazard and risk assessments to be undertaken to inform future investment needs;
• Baseline analysis of the existing institutional arrangement and an analysis of barriers in developing and delivering on an integrated urban resilience master plan;
• Baseline analysis of existing financing arrangement for local development and an outline of the proposed financing plan for implementing the master plan;
• Capacity building requirements of key stakeholders;
• Stakeholder engagement plan for developing a resilient urban master plan;
• Timeline for developing the master plan. 

The National Consultant will ensure the establishment of road maps in a participatory manner, awareness of local stakeholders are heightened in the process, and the roadmap is widely accepted as guidance with which to help the municipality move towards the development of a resilient urban master plan. It is imperative to have a strong technical approach that thoroughly integrates the 3 development frameworks mentioned. To continue to expand the provision of support to Municipalities, lessons learned must be incorporated for further efficiency and effectiveness.

Objectives:

The objective of this assignment is to develop a roadmap towards establishing a resilient urban development plan in a city (TBD) under Bangladesh while receiving technical guidance & inputs from International Consultant and UNDP-Bangladesh & BRH experts.

Throughout this assignment, the consultant will support in the development of the roadmaps with the support from the NUPRP that guide the development of a resilient urban master plan and risk-informed and inclusive urban development in a city (TBD) in Bangladesh.

A large range of the components for BRH’s Urban Resilience Support Programme encompasses the objectives and strategies of LIUPCP. This integrated urban offer with LIUPCP will facilitate the formation of city road maps and strategies to prepare a holistic, low-carbon, inclusive, and disaster-resilient development plan which correspondingly addresses the SDGs. The partnership between LIUPCP and BRH will ensure innovative methods and experiments that can strengthen a wide range of initiatives towards urban resilience.

Under the overall supervision, control and guidance of the IC-Urban resilience, ITA-NUPRP & Infrastructure and Urban Services Coordinator, the Urban Resilience National Consultant will utilize and build on risk-informed planning, such as climate risk assessment, disaster vulnerability assessment, socioeconomic survey tool, gender mainstreaming, etc. Moreover, the Consultant will review the available NUPRP different assessment reports/tools related to urban resilience so as to establish an urban resilient development plan in the targeted City/town. To do so, the local Consultant will also develop the capacity of the City officials to help in fulfilling the project objectives. Moreover, the Consultant will discuss with UNDP Country Offices and identify the thematic priority areas for the target municipalities.

Expected key Result:

1. Enhance understanding of urban resilience in the context of the 2030 Agenda and ways to integrate climate and disaster risks and resilience into planning and policy with the Municipality and relevant stakeholders;

2. Assess the urban resilience baseline;

• Facilitate consultations to identify and prioritize risks and develop framework for urban resilience roadmap; and
• Develop a resilience roadmap.
• Stock-taking of risk mapping, including climate hazards.
• Ensure coherence of the national priority targets of SDG in Urban Resilience Roadmap with the effort to localise SDGs.
• Identify key capacity gaps and organise capacity development training for the municipality on urban resilience.
• Develop a framework to integrate the urban resilience roadmap with the municipality plan.
• Support/ facilitate Cox’s Bazar Municipality to conduct policy advocacy based on roadmap recommendation.

Among the expected key results the first four have already been achieved. This consultancy will entail to achieve the last 5 key results.

Key Functions will include the following:

1. Enhance understanding of urban resilience in the context of the 2030 Agenda and approaches to integrate climate and disaster risks and resilience into planning and policy with the Municipality and relevant stakeholders:

• Select the pilot city following set criteria developed by NUPRP upon consultation with UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) experts & International Consultant. 
• Provide introductory training to the concerned elected representative, officials of the targeted city/ Municipality and LIUPCP officials on the urban resilience roadmap pilot process in collaboration with BRH-UNDP and LIUPCP, detailing the road map and elaboration of each activity and sub-task. 
• Raise awareness among City officials about the progress made at the national level with respect to different development frameworks like SDGs-2030, the NDC, National Adaptation Plan (NAP), and Sendai Framework.
• Raise awareness with city officials and relevant stakeholders at the municipal level on approaches and available tools for integrating climate and disaster risks into planning and policy.

2. Assess the urban resilience baseline:

• Assess willingness of City Officials to develop the urban resilience roadmap pilot, help improve the governance system to provide better service to citizens, and tackle emerging urban issues.
• Assess the status of national actions towards fulfilling the three development frameworks and how they have or have not cascaded down to the sub-national level.
• Review the different assessment reports (i.e. IFCA, Infrastructural Assessments, CCVA), existing risk and vulnerability information, institutional and policy/regulatory set up & current financing arrangements to implement activities as they relate to the three development frameworks. 
• Consult with national and local stakeholders to identify gaps in vulnerability and risk information. 
• Identify the most effective institutional, policy and financing arrangements for a functional and effective urban resilience master plan.

3. Facilitate consultations to identify and prioritize risks and develop framework for urban resilience roadmap:

• Facilitate consultations with city officials/key stakeholders to analyse systemic risk vulnerabilities across a variety of sectors and their potential to introduce climate resilient initiatives to identify gaps and resilience needs. 
• Assist City government to identify climate and disaster resilient activities at the subnational level necessary to fill gaps and add value in strengthening resilience and targeting climate change risks, disaster risk reduction and urban governance.
• Refer to the technical guidance from the regional consultant, identify assessments required for informing the urban resilience master plan; sources of data and expertise to conduct such assessments.

4. Guide and provide technical inputs to the development of a resilience roadmap:

• Assist the municipality to articulate activities and needed assessments identified into the resilience roadmap.  Ensure activities are user-friendly, gender sensitive and disable friendly via effectively communicating with the City/PHQ Engineers. 
• Identify potential funding sources for the resilience roadmap activities, including co-finance, with the assistance of NUPRP City/PHQ Team and UNDP Bangkok regional Hub Experts/International Consultant.
• Finalize the tailor-made resilience roadmap upon discussion with the respective City Officials based on the city context and provide assistance in building low-carbon, climate and disaster resilient development plans that encapsulates the SDGs. 
• Assist the city leadership to better understand the risks identified and facilitate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate resilience strategies and a resilience plan with institutional adherence and sustainable budgets. This will help in building the city’s capacity to plan and implement strategies that will reduce disaster and climate risks.

Up to this stage, the activities have been completed. Now the Consultant will have to carry out the newly added activities as mentioned in the following sections in coherence with the previous activities and the expected key results.

5. Stock-taking of climate and disaster risk and vulnerability information and mapping:

• Analyse and extract insights from the existing risk and vulnerability assessments to show the severity of risks including urban poor settlements to further strengthen the evidence in the Resilience Roadmap..
• Based on the priority hazards and risks that have been identified in the Resilience Roadmap, develop an inventory of the existing climate and disaster risk data and information - including mapping, reports, data sets, etc. – to serve as a reference for the city and assist in identifying gaps.
• Incorporate climate change projection information into the Resilience Roadmap where applicable, drawing on national and regional data where local projections are not available.

6. Ensure coherence of the national priority targets of SDG in Urban Resilience Roadmap with the effort to localise SDG.

• Review SDGs localization efforts and achievements of the Government of Bangladesh particularly in Cox’s Bazar.
• Explore the National Priority Targets (NPT) of SDGs for Bangladesh and suggest where greater attention is required while localizing the SDGs in the contexts of Cox’s Bazar urban resilience.

7. Identify the key capacity gaps and organise key capacity development training for the municipality on urban resilience issues:

• Conduct a rapid assessment on institutional capacity to show if the institutional set-up of the urban local body is capable of incorporating the urban resilience in their principle planning process.
• Analyse the existing organogram of the municipality with illustration of different relevant sections/units of the local government. Also demonstrate examples of the connectivity of the local government with other institutions including the community organizations on urban resilience issues.
• Assess whether the local government has sufficient manpower and if these local government officials have enough capacity to understand and plan for urban resilience in local contexts.
• Explore any financial aspects which may prevent the inclusion of urban resilience in the local planning process.
• Using the strategies for urban resilience road map for Cox’s Bazar, identify any limitations and challenges associated that can impede the implementation of the road map, and explore pathways to achieve solutions.
• Recommend anyways forward to improve the capacity of the urban local governments and other relevant stakeholders to address urban resilience in during the planning, and implementation of the resilience strategy.
• Following the development of the Urban Resilience Road Map with a framework to integrate the roadmap with the municipality plan, organise a capacity development training on urban resilience for the key municipal staffs.

8. Develop a framework to integrate the urban resilience roadmap with the municipality plan:

• Develop a framework to enable municipality to take into consideration disaster resilience when preparing the municipality plan.
• Review the master plan preparation process and explore ways to introduce urban resilience in core planning and activity, including by sectorial areas.  Identify any challenges and ways forward.
• Identify the entry points in the planning processes in Cox’s Bazar, taking into consideration the local and national contexts of budgeting, planning, implementation, as well as the administrative and political influence of the potential entry points.
• Elaborate the resilience strategies with detailing of key activities under each strategy with an easily understandable ‘theory of changes’, showing the various activities are helping achieve each objective and how all activities may be helping reach the goal of promoting urban resilience.
• Define the role and scope of involvement of Cox’s Bazar Development Authority within the framework when making plans. Suggest a mechanism to coordinate with the urban plan making institute (UDD, LGED) to ensure the presence of ‘urban resilience’ in their institutional memory.
• In order to ensure sustainability of the urban resilience efforts, suggest an ‘exit strategy’ of the roadmap in a way the implementation efforts are phased out strategically.  
• Devise any other ideas around the exit strategy e.g., ways to hand over/take over different activities/processes/end products of the resilience initiatives.

9. Support/ facilitate Cox’s Bazar Municipality to conduct policy advocacy based on roadmap recommendation:

• Prepare a stakeholder mapping for urban resilience road map.
• Provide a guideline to orient the Cox’s Bazar Municipality on the key aspects of urban resilience strategy for their future policy advocacy. In order to achieve this, conduct a small-scale workshop/meeting with relevant key municipal officials to orient the strategies for a resilient community development and prepare necessary materials which are easy to understand, in advance (e.g., concept note, keynote paper, participants list, presentation etc.) Crucially, ensure that relevant key stakeholders are identified for participation. 
• Explore further opportunities for additional funding scope for partnership with like-minded stakeholders to implement the urban resilience roadmap, including the possibilities of a consolidated effort with multiple agencies.
• Incorporate the feedback from the workshop and create any action plans that will help to implement the urban resilience strategy of Cox’s Bazar.

Throughout: Perform regular field visits to targeted City/Town for better implementation of the planned activities & consistency with budget.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Urban Resilience National Consultant will be supervised by Infrastructure & Urban Services Coordinator /International technical Advisor-NUPRP.

Duration of Work: 17 October 2021 to 28 February 2022 (50 Working days over 5 months period)

The assignment will be managed by the BRH task team & LIUPCP. The Urban Resilience National Consultant will ensure Project Identification through the preliminary proposal of interventions, facilitate Pro-Poor climate resilient schemes and development of road maps and engage in further related analysis required for course of action to achieve key results. The Consultant will contribute towards the project goal of achieving its Outputs and will also contribute to the achievement of the Outcomes.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

Tentative payment schedule: 

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. But the Consultant is eligible to claim DSA following UNDP policy if she/he travels outside of Dhaka as per requirement of this assignment.

UNDP shall affect payments, by bank transfer to the consultant’s bank account, upon acceptance by NUPRP/UNDP of the deliverables specified in the ToR. Payments will be based on milestone deliverables upon submission of invoice and upon certification of the work completed by IUS Coordinator and approved by Project Manager.

Personal qualities:

• A strong commitment to gender sensitive, inclusive and pro-poor development works.
• Ability to work with multi-disciplinary team.
• Consultative and empowering management style and willingness to learn from others.
• Willingness to stay full time in any of the project towns and travel as required.
• Willingness to work with urban poor communities.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English. An ability to communicate in Bangla.

Criteria

Weight

Technical

70

Expertise of consultant

Educational qualifications

10

Experience in working with local communities, society partners, NGOs or governmental organizations, private sector related to sustainable infrastructural development.

15

Experience in urban project design, urban planning and development, disaster risk reduction, and/or urban research and assessments

15

Experience working with private sector/public-private partnerships especially on Livelihood Improvement in poor settlement and operations for small, medium and multinational enterprises

10

Experience in the policy development processes associated with environment and sustainable development issues in the context of climate change risk

10

Experience in working with national and local governments to address local resilience and form awareness, policy reform and advocacy

10

Financial

30

Total

100