Background

The National Resilience Programme (NRP) is a unique Programme of the Government of Bangladesh being implemented with Technical Assistance of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). Funded by the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Programme with USD 12 million, will provide strategic support to sustain the resilience of human and economic development in Bangladesh through inclusive, gender-responsive disaster management and risk informed development. The purpose of the Programme will be to achieve substantial increase in resilience and reduction in disaster risk, loss of lives and livelihoods of men, women, girls and boys and better protection of the health of persons, businesses, and communities in Bangladesh.

The Programme consists of four sub-projects or parts. Each sub-project will be implemented by one implementing partner from the Government. These implementing partners are: (1) Department of Disaster Management (DDM) of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, (2) Department of Women Affairs of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, (3) Programming Division of the Ministry of Planning, and (4) Local Government Engineering Department of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives.

The NRP: DDM part works towards improving community resilience by creating replicable, cost-effective models for local disaster risk reduction and risk management through social safety nets, Forecast-Based Financing and Earthquake Preparedness and institutionalizing the Flood Preparedness Programme (FPP) that have shown promise in earlier initiatives. The objectives of the Ministry of Disaster Management’s part of the National Resilience Programme (implemented through the Department of Disaster Management) are:

1. To advocate for implementation of the Sendai framework and build necessary capacity to monitor that implementation;
2. To strengthen disability-inclusive, gender-responsive national capacities to address recurrent and mega disasters (including training of key personnel);
3. To strengthen disability-inclusive, gender-responsive community preparedness, response and recovery capacities for recurrent and mega disasters.

DDM sub-project of NRP supported MoDMR in content developing, and publishing National Plan for Disaster Management 2021-2025, SOD 2019 and drafting National Recovery Strategy. The project also achieved substantial results of the piloting activities on Earthquake Preparedness, DRR inclusive Social Safety Net, Flood Preparedness, and Disability Inclusive DRR for strengthening Community and institutional capacities for resilience.

NRP DDM has supported GoB in the establishment of Sendai Framework implementation monitoring and reporting system. The project assisted MoDMR reporting against the different targets regarding reduce- mortality, number of affected people and enhance -national and local DRR strategy, international cooperation and Early Warning. Earlier the project mobilized Parliamentary standing committee for MoDMR, 22 Ministries, Departments on SFDRR through workshop and training. Currently, the project consulted with ministry to prepare a road-map to conduct a Midterm Review of the Implementation of the Sendai Framework.

The project has developed a location specific ‘End to End’ flood warning system which involves generation of warning product and, it’s last mile dissemination and help at-risk people responding to the warning. As part of this, 50 local trainers were trained on the DFRM and 1440 Community Volunteers (F 576, M 864) on warning dissemination. A color-coded flags were hoisted in the public places in 2021 flood - as one of the main ways of local dissemination for better preparedness by the community. NRP is currently prototyping an application for sending flood early warning through mobile apps among the at-risk communities from 2022 monsoon.

The project has worked with 4 cities since inception to develop a scalable and cost-efficient earthquake preparedness model for all actors. Project facilitated to activate 12 ward disaster management committees and 3 Building Construction committees, trained 1920 Urban Community Volunteers (UCV) and 82 GoB officials on earthquake safe construction. Alongside, with technical support from BUET-JIDPUS, 12 ward level earthquake contingency plans for Rangpur City Corporation, Tangail, Rangamati and Sunamganj pourashavas have been prepared through risk assessment. Building Construction Committee’ is being activated to ensure the safe and resilient construction through systematic approval of plan proper construction monitoring.  The project also assisted the development of earthquake sensitive land use plan in Sunamganj to guide safe construction practices and provide comprehensive guidelines for earthquake sensitive development. UCVs played vital role in firefighting, rescue, water logging, clean city awareness, tree plantation and COVID-19 vaccination in the said cities. Two UCVs – one from Rangpur city and other from Tangail municipality - have been awarded as best volunteer in the International Volunteer’s Day 2021.

The project continued developing Disability Inclusive DRR models through demonstration of infrastructures like flood resilient accessible house, ramps, roads etc. It also set examples of integrating persons with disability in different decision-making bodies and building their capacity – i.e. Self Help Group. A policy recommendation will be made using the lessons from the piloting to integrate disability issues at all stages of disaster risk management.

To make Social Safety Net flexible to DRR the project demonstrated 15 risk-informed social safety net schemes, trained 20 Upazila level GoB Officials from agriculture, fisheries, and livestock department on resilient agriculture including crop, livestock and fisheries. Under the piloting, 200 EGPP beneficiaries were trained on resilient livelihood options.

Purpose of the Consultancy:

The Disaster Preparedness Specialist, as the key technical backstop of NRP: DDM project, is responsible for providing technical advice to the MoDMR on issues relating to policy reform, SFDRR reporting, disaster preparedness, primarily earthquake. S/he will be responsible for supporting DDM in delivering results in output areas 1, 2 and 5 of the programme. S/he also responsible to guide the programme quality and model documentation along with socialization and upscaling.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION

1. Technical advisory support to DDM and MoDMR on issues relating to DRR and disaster preparedness
2. Oversight management and technical guidance to implementing partners and consultants
3. Preparation of the policies, and evidence-based advocacy materials
4. Building synergies with other Sub-projects and contributing to UNDP Corporate Requirements

Technical advisory support to DDM and MoDMR on issues relating to DRR and disaster preparedness

• Contribute in the policy reform and establishment of the national SFDRR reporting system. 
• Provide technical advisory support on disaster risk reduction and preparedness to DDM and MoDMR as and when required.
• Maintain close dialogue with key DRR and DM stakeholders in GoB to ensure sustainability of sub-project outputs within GoB and relevancy of activities to national needs.
• Facilitate national dialogues, consultations and workshops to assess and strengthen national capacity for preparing for and reducing risk of large-scale and recurrent disasters.

Oversight management and technical guidance to implementing partners and consultants

• Oversee and provide technical guidance to executing partners of the sub-project in the implementation of local-level pilot activities.
• Lead implementation, supervise field assistants/consultants/implementation partners and ensure high quality of documentation of community level Earthquake Preparedness Model activities in Rangpur, Tangail, Rangamati and Sunamganj.
• Work closely with short-term experts and consultants conducting gap and capacity assessments, developing tools and models, and implementing capacity building programmes to ensure quality, relevance and coherence of sub-project activities related to national and local earthquake preparedness and risk reduction, flood early warning, disaster risk inclusive social safety net, disability inclusive DRR and post-disaster needs assessment and recovery planning.

Preparation of the policies, and evidence-based advocacy materials

• Support the development of evidence and strategic policy and advocacy materials building on sub-project activities to inform strategic and policy discussions related to disaster risk reduction and preparedness.
• Be responsible to coordinate actions and ensure quality implementation and timely reporting according to agreed work plan.
• Coordinate with technical level counterparts of other ongoing DRR and DM initiatives to ensure synergy and leveraging of experience in sub-project activities.

Building synergies with other Sub-projects and contributing to UNDP Corporate Requirements

• Support the documentations of training/orientations, workshops, inputs on different papers etc, workshop reports;
• Collaborate with other sub-projects to ensure synergy and leveraging experiences through joint planning;
• Review relevant reports, technical documents from IPs, DPs, DWA, UNDP etc;
• Assist UNDP to develop business cases for expanding horizons.

Competencies

Corporate competencies: 

• Demonstrated understanding of effective outreach and monitoring; 
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; 
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP; 
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

Functional competencies:

Leadership

• Identifies opportunities and challenges and recommends options
• Checks assumptions against facts
• Assumes responsibility for decisions and outcomes
• Shares information proactively, also when not required to do so
• Innovation
• Analyzes complex technical materials (including data) and makes concise, relevant recommendations
• Contributes reliable production of knowledge services and transactions
• Identifies and addresses potential challenges quickly and develop action plans
• Sees specific opportunities for immediate improvement within own field

People Management

• Demonstrates behaviours such as teamwork, knowledge sharing, maintaining relationships
• Recognizes potential road blocks to completing tasks and seeks guidance from supervisors to address issues.
• Based on formal and informal feedback received, takes action to address areas for growth and improvement
• Encourages team engagement
• Expresses encouragement to those who try to develop or who show improvement
• Involves team in different steps of the process;
• Seeks and values other’s initiatives and expertise

Communication:

• Learns to relate constructive knowledge to others
• Presents coherent analysis
• Adds rigor and technical expertise to discussions
• Represents self and work with appropriate professional standards
• Eager to voice new ideas
• Productive in challenging situations
• Demonstrates a desire to support colleagues by actively helping others

Delivery:

• Takes responsibility for addressing critical situations
• Demonstrates commitment to clients and quality
• Works to agreed goals dealing with challenges constructively
• Takes responsibility and works towards planning targets, overcoming obstacles, setbacks  and uncertainty
• Always acts in a compliant manner and uses resources responsibly

Others skills and knowledge: 

• Editing and writing materials in Bengali and English
• Skills in documentation

Language Requirements:

• English and Bengali

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Education:

Minimum Master's Degree in Social sciences or Environmental Science/ Natural Science discipline. Higher education/professional training in disaster risk management, Climatic Change and other relevant subjects will be preferred.

Experience:

• At least 12 years of experience in development field of which minimum 5 years working with implementation of disaster risk reduction and preparedness in UN, international development agency or NGO;
• Demonstrated abilities and contributions to policy and guideline formulation, government capacity building, and partnership development, preferably in a capacity related to the UN system (at least two assignment and completion with DRR project with govt. /UN/INGOs);
• Publications on DRR and CCA related policy, study, modules, and experiences on media/journals are desirable.
• Demonstrated experiences in organizing workshops/seminars, organize training, prepared modules and reporting in the accomplished events
• Extensive field experience in disaster environments and an in-depth knowledge of disaster governance, systems and actors in Bangladesh.
• Experience to work with UN and GoB will be an asset.
• Ability to work under pressure and time constraint.

Institutional arrangements and other terms

The consultant will under the supervision of NRP DDM Project Manager, with guidance on DRM & Inclusion issues with the Disaster Preparedness Specialist, NRP Programme Coordination and Monitoring Team. NRP shall be the owner of all existing ‘Intellectual Property’ and any Intellectual Property embodied in materials, printed matters, deliveries or reports performed or created in relation to and for the purpose of this assignment. ‘Intellectual Property’ includes the items like patents, copyrights, design, models, trademarks, confidential information etc. whether or not registered.

Documents

The Consultant will prepare and submit the documents mentioned above in the assignment deadline dates.  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

The NRP: DDM will provide office space for desk works and the consultant is expected to bring his/her own required computer and accessories.  S/he is also expected to spend of his/her full time of the assignment at NRP Office. NRP: DDM will facilitate meetings and access to key stakeholders.

Travel and DSA

No DSA will be paid for IC in this assignment, the contract agreement is all inclusive. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UNDP, and upon prior agreement/approval the Consultant may plan for the visit. In such cases daily subsistence allowance will be given as per standard rate of UNDP.

1.Payment Schedule

2.EVALUATION 

Evaluation of the Candidates: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should 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 70% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks):

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out of 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/z)

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

RECOMMENDED PRESENTATION OF OFFER

Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided   http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx
4. Suppose an organization/company/institution employs an Offeror and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA). In this case, the Offeror must indicate this at this point and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated into the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.  

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

Note: The individual consultant who does not submit the above documents/requirements shall not be considered for further evaluation.

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to ebidbox@undp.org.

OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS  

1. UNDP holds the right to accept or reject any proposal without giving any verbal and/or written rationale
2. All reports and documents prepared about the assignment will be treated as UNDP property
3. The reports/documents or any part, therefore, cannot be sold, used, and reproduced in any manner without the prior written approval of UNDP.
4. UNDP reserve the right to monitor the quality and progress of the work during the assignment