Background

Over the last 15 years, UNDP has been supporting Uzbekistan in its transition to low-emission development with a particular focus on promoting energy efficiency in public and rural residential buildings through several national and regional programmes and projects, such as the UNDP-GEF  project “Promoting Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings in Uzbekistan”, UNDP project on “Supporting Uzbekistan in transition to Low-Emission Development Path”, as well as the development of a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) on Sustainable Rural Housing in Uzbekistan for NAMA Facility funding, and is continuing doing this within the on-going UNDP/GEF project “Market Transformation for Sustainable Rural Housing in Uzbekistan”. The latter project seeks to transform the rapidly growing rural housing sector in Uzbekistan towards a more sustainable and low-carbon development pathway by designing, piloting and scaling-up a green mortgage market mechanism, which is expected to boost the demand for low-carbon housing among rural population of Uzbekistan. The project objective is to provide Uzbekistan’s rural population with improved, affordable and environmentally friendly living conditions.

In light of the above, a consultancy work is needed to help explore further opportunities of promoting private sector investments into low-carbon housing in Uzbekistan (e.g. based on on-going  Rural Housing Construction Programme) through the development of a proposal on structuring financial investments, with particular focus on GCF requirements applied for development of a viable and bankable full Funding Proposal (GCF Guidance) as a newly emerged source of climate financing.

Duties and Responsibilities

Activity 1: Establishment of Rural Housing Program (RHP) baseline – 2 working days:

• Description of Rural Housing Program (RHP) included objective, background and approved way forward (2021 onward);
• Identification of the program scale: number of target houses to be built, projections, budget;
• Describe housing specs and prices under the current energy-efficient (EE) standard rural houses with precise description of the EE features that are now a default in the RHP; and under the pilot low-carbon (LC) rural houses supported by the on-going UNDP/GEF project “Market Transformation for Sustainable Rural Housing in Uzbekistan”;
• Identification of key stakeholders (developer - Qisloq Qurilish Invest (QQI), contractors, etc.), and their role and procedures for the approval, construction and sale of houses under the RHP;
• Identification of sources of funding for RHP going forward (IsDB, government budget, others), including amounts, terms, etc.

Activity 2: Estimation of GHG emissions baseline – 3 working days:

• Emissions generated by standard housing unit under the RHP (EE house); and pilot LC rural houses;
• Projected emissions over the next 20 years for the whole program (baseline EE houses), based on projected number of houses built from 2021;
• RHP emissions as % of overall country emissions

Activity 3: Description of key project beneficiaries – 2 working days:

• How many households are targeted by the RHP from 2021;
• Any specific regions, income levels or other eligibility criteria;
• Typical household participating in RHP: sources of income, annual income, poverty rate and how these compare with national averages

Activity 4: Establishment of regulatory baseline – 3 working days:

• Current regulation with regards to EE housing: laws and regulations, key terms;
• Any prospective regulatory changes (independent of this project): key terms, implementation timeline
• In particular, energy tariff structure, current and future tariff levels, comparison with other countries in region

Activity 5: Establishment of financing baseline – 3 working days:

• Flow of funds for RHP under the current baseline scenario;
• Funding sources for typical RHP house buyers, in particular availability, eligibility criteria, terms (rates, maturities, loan-to-value ratio) and providers of mortgages at commercial rates;
• Any providers of finance for equipment such as solar panels/solar water heaters, including at what terms;
• Any details on the ADB’s plan to develop a commercial mortgage market by establishing a mortgage refinance facility;
• Any details on the IsDB’s plans with regards to financing the RHP.

Activity 6: Review of other projects tackling emissions from residential housing (from UNDP and other development agencies or NGOs) – 8 working days (including one mission of 5-6 days to Bukhara region, provisionally during October – mid November 2019):

• Project goals, summary of activities, budget and timeline
• If available, provide any evaluation report and a brief summary of key findings
• Explain why such projects provide a partial or ineffective solution to the emission problem;
• In particular, identify any projects promoting the installation of residential solar panels

Activity 7: Development of emission mitigation solution through promotion of low-carbon features (LC), additional to EE features, within the RHP – 4 working days (including mission):

Discuss in detail the following:

• Identify precisely the LC features needed to make substantial further emission savings: solar water heaters, solar PVs and any other solutions;
• Provide technical specs of the LC features;
• Identify who will provide the equipment; is the equipment already available in Uzbekistan; are there any restrictions to imports; and how will procurement work;
• Quantify the incremental emission savings in the inefficient RHP housing unit vs. the standard EE features; and vs LC features;
• Quantify the annual savings in electricity and gas bills (pilot LC vs EE RHP houses);
• Explain why this solution is the most effective to substantially reduce emissions in rural housing. Were other solutions contemplated? Why were they ruled out?
• Provide capex, installation cost and operations & maintenance (O&M) cost estimates for the LC equipment;
• Provide useful life and replacement capex needs for the LC equipment.

Activity 8: Identification barriers to the mitigation solution RHP – 3 working days:

Describe concretely and in detail any barriers preventing the widespread installation of LC equipment in houses built under the RHP; and barriers can include:

• Technological barriers: e.g. product novelty, lack of suppliers;
• Financial barriers: e.g. high cost of equipment vis-à-vis potential electricity/gas savings, lack of financing options;
• Capacity barriers: involving government entities, contractors, installation technicians etc.;
• Awareness and behavioral barriers;
• Regulatory barriers: e.g. electricity prices too low to justify investment, lack of technical standards disciplining solar, etc.

Activity 9: Provide your independent assessment of project activities that you deem critical to address the barriers above and upscale the installation of LC features in the RHP – 2 working days

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards;

Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

Excellent communication skills;

Excellent analytical skills;

Strong oral and writing skills;

Extensive knowledge of PC applications;

Focuses on result for client and responds positively to feedback;

Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;

Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;

Ability to work independently as well as part of a fairly big team;

Ability to operate under strict time limits.

Required Skills and Experience

Application Process:

Interested candidates need to apply online at https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=87973 and upload requested documents (Technical Proposal/Methodology, CV or P11 form, Offeror’s Letter of confirmation and Financial Proposal) in Part 6 of Procurement Notice no later than end of October 17, 2019 (New York time).  Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged to your email address provided in application. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary.

You can review detailed Procurement Notice, Terms of Reference and download templates from the UNDP Procurement Notices Site following the link http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=59896.

Application submitted via email, incomplete applications or received after the closing date (October 17, 2019) will not be given consideration.

For more detailed information about UNDP Uzbekistan please visit our website at www.uz.undp.org UNDP is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified female candidates, people with disabilities, and minorities are highly encouraged to apply. UNDP Balance in Manage Policy promotes achievement of gender balance among its staff at all levels.

Requests for clarification must be sent in writing to pu.uz@undp.org, ensuring that the reference number above is included in the subject line. UNDP shall endeavor to provide such responses to clarifications in an expeditious manner, but any delay in such response shall not cause an obligation on the part of UNDP to extend the submission date of the Proposals, unless UNDP deems that such an extension is justified and necessary.