UNDP Jobs - 78232- International Expert on Economic Analysis

International Expert on Economic Analysis

Location :

Monrovia, LIBERIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2018

Application Deadline :

25-Apr-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

20 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

20 days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The Government of Liberia (GOL), with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is designing a project to protect vulnerable coastal communities and infrastructure in the Monrovia Metropolitan Area (MMA) from the impacts of sea level rise (SLR) and related extreme events. The project will:

Strengthen local technical/institutional capacity to manage climate change induced coastal flooding from the expected sea-level rise;
Implement critical soft and hard coastal protection measures to reduce the exposure of coastal communities in MMA to flooding caused by climate change induced sea-level rise and incidences of extreme precipitation events.

A time sensitive output of the proposed project is the implementation of critical infrastructure (both hard and soft) measures to protect high priority economic and social assets from imminent threat of recurrent and worsening incidences of flooding.
Objective
In the context of the development of this project, and in collaboration with the GOL, UNDP is seeking the services of a consultant to contribute towards the preparation of an economic cost-benefit analysis of the proposed investment project. The results of the analysis will be used to inform the formulation of the project proposal in line with UNDP and Green Climate Fund guidelines.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

Working in coordination with UNDP staff, the consultant will be responsible for the design and conduct of the economic appraisal of the proposed investment project. The appraisal will be guided by UNDP in line with an approach that is in line with UNDP requirements. Detailed guidance will be provided on the preferred methodology.
The specific objectives are to:

Conduct an cost-effectiveness analysis of the proposed interventions/project;
Prepare the economic cost-benefit analysis, of the proposed interventions/project;
Based on the outcome of the analysis, make recommendations pertaining to the adoption of proposed interventions in the context of the project;
Provide remote technical advisory support to UNDP Liberia and the project design team on the economics of adaptation including on applying economic appraisal techniques.

The tasks associated with this Terms of Reference are expected to be completed through a combination of (a) home-based preparatory work; (b) leading or participating in country level missions (together with UNDP staff) in Liberia (if necessary); (c) remote technical assistance.

Tasks and activities including Deliverables
Working in coordination with other experts at the national and regional level, UNDP and the Government staff, the consultant will be responsible to:

Review draft project concepts and documents and consult with UNDP staff to identify information needs to conduct the cost-benefit appraisal in line with UNDP guidance (to be provided);
Organize, lead and coordinate with UNDP staff, both on-field and remotely, to gather data, documentation, contacts and insights relevant to the analysis;
Complete an economic cost-benefit appraisal of the project to inform the UNDP staff member of the implications of the project design in terms of performance metrics (economic internal rate of return and net present value);
Conduct the economic appraisal in a timely manner to ensure it does not result in delays in the concept development or proposal development in order to meet submission deadlines;
Based on the conducted appraisal findings, advise UNDP staff on economic viability of the proposed project interventions;
Provide input into the discussions on the design of the proposed project among the full funding proposal (FFP) development team, including UNDP staff, and provide substantive advice to the team, Government and stakeholders on the economic viability of the proposed project;
Lead the stakeholder consultations to determine the economic viability of the proposed project design including during missions to develop the funding proposal, the consultation on the funding instruments to be utilized, co-finance, partnerships and implementation arrangements;
Support the finalization of the economic analysis sections of the funding proposal and Pre/Feasibility Study and accompanying documents;
Prepare and submit a report on the economic appraisal of the project, including sensitivity analysis (Excel model is required). The report will include description of the key elements of the project that were considered in the appraisal, the methodology for the analysis, description of data, assumptions and justifications, results including robustness, and conclusions;
As necessary, advise and make recommendations based on the economic appraisal to UNDP staff for further discussion during stakeholder consultations undertaken during the project development phase;
Support the project team responding to comments and questions presented by the Green Climate Fund on the economic analysis in the course of the various rounds of review up until final submission of the project to the GCF Board for approval.

Output Due date Payment term

Submission of workplan: 10%;
Submission of first drafts of the project economic analysis (excel sheet) and the Liberia detailed economic analysis: 14 days, 40%;
Submission of final report of the project economic analysis (excel sheet) and the Liberia detailed economic analysis: 3 days, 30%;
Submission of final report of the project economic analysis (excel sheet) and the Liberia detailed economic analysis: addressing GCF comments 3 days, 20%.

Reporting Lines:
A Joint UNDP HQ, Regional and Country Office and Government of Liberia Project development and facilitation Team will be established to guide and assist the preparatory process. This team will consist of climate change adaptation UNDP/GEF Head and assigned regional RTA, UNDP CO Program Specialist & Analyst Poverty & Environment, UNDP Liberia DRR–P as head of programs, UNDP Liberia DRR-O as head of operations and Project, Environment Protection Agency (EPA) representatives and Focal Points in the key ministries to ensure close collaboration with the Government. The consultant will report to this team. The company will also work closely with other staff in the UNDP Addis Regional Hub as well as other the Bangkok regional Hubs.

Reporting Language:
The reporting language will be in English.

Locations of Work:
Home based with travel to Liberia. In order to obtain the required information for completion of the assessment, the contractor is expected to travel to Liberia as and when necessary for the duration of the assignment. All costs related to travel shall be borne by the contractor such as visa issuance, tickets, daily living allowances, transportation etc. Therefore, the contractor shall quote for all relevant costs in his financial proposal as applicable.

Terms of Payment:
Payments shall be processed within 30 days from receipt of signed and stamped invoice specifying the achieved deliverables as specified in this ToRs with relevant documents evidencing achievement of the given output.
All of the deliverables are subject to approval from UNDP Project manager in order to process payments to the contractor.
UNDP will not accept any payment request outside of this TOR.
All payments shall be made in USD. All planned costs related to this consultancy must be specified in the proposal by contractor for this assignment.

Contracting Authority:
Contracting Authority for this ToR is UNDP - Liberia Country Office, and the contract amount will be provided through the assigned budget under Liberia GCF Project.

Tax Obligation:
The Contractor is solely responsible for all taxation or other assessments on any income derived from UNDP. UNDP will not make any withholding from payments for the purposes of income tax. UNDP is exempt from any liabilities regarding taxation and will not reimburse any such taxation to the contractor.

Monitoring and evaluation:
All activities will be monitored and evaluated based on qualitative and quantitative information. Within the proposal the contractor is requested to submit an M&E plan highlighting what types of data and information will be available when; which will ensure that activities and outputs delivered as part of this activity, is of good technical quality and contribute to the achievement of the project outcomes.

Confidentiality:
The contractor undertakes to maintain confidentiality on all information that is not in the public domain and shall not be involved in another assignment that represents a conflict of interest to the prevailing assignment.

Services and Facilities Provided by UNDP

Organization of meetings with key stakeholders as required by the consultant to conduct the assigned task;
Provision of work-space in the Country Office during missions;
Support with the organization of travel related to any missions conducted in lieu of the assignment.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN values and ethical standards
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
Treats all people fairly without favouritism
Excellent analytical and organisational skills

Functional Competencies:

Good inter-personal communication skills, flexibility;
Excellent report writing skills;
Proven capability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.

Knowledge Management and Learning

Promotes a knowledge-sharing and learning culture;
In-depth knowledge of development issues;
Ability to provide and advocate for policy advice;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and successfully applies newly acquired skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

At least PhD degree in economics, finance and/or environmental economics.

Experience:

At least 7 years of relevant experience including in areas such as economics of adaptation, teaching in applied research departments, institutional capacity-building for public administrators on economics and finance development planning and budgeting, development management, public administration and related initiatives;
Proven experience of conducting similar nature of assignment in past preferably for multi-lateral development banks;
Proposers should demonstrate capacity to fulfill services and provide examples of relevant experience in project financial analysis and developing project funding models.

Languages:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Technical proposal:

Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;
Providing brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work.

Financial proposal
Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references (please use the UNDP P11 form provided in Annex 2 @ the following links) http://www.lr.undp.org/content/liberia/en/home/operations/procurement/? ;http://procurement-notices.undp.org/).
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. Payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based on specific and measurable deliverables as specified in the TOR upon completion of the deliverables.
In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). Please use the Financial Proposal Form provided in Annex 3 for the submission of your financial proposal @ the following links) http://www.lr.undp.org/content/liberia/en/home/operations/procurement/? ;http://procurement-notices.undp.org/).

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.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract will 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 70% of the maximum points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Criteria Weight Max. Point
Technical
Relevance of Academic Qualifications 10.5% 15;
Professional Experience in similar projects 24% 35;
Appropriateness of proposed methodology for the requirements 30% 20;
Adequacy of competencies and skills 10% 7;
Financial 30 points x price of the lowest price proposed / price of proposal 30%.