UNDP Jobs - 99561- Local Legal Expert to Support the Process of NAP D

Local Legal Expert to Support the Process of NAP Development

Location :

Home-based and Podgorica, MONTENEGRO

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Jul-2021

Application Deadline :

03-Jul-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 June 2021 - 30 September 2023

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

180 consultancy 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 climate change poses serious, wide-ranging risks to economies, societies and ecosystems. Reducing these risks requires action to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), combined with measures to increase resilience to the impacts that occur (adaptation). Through the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) opportunities are created to ensure a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for all.

In many countries, Montenegro included, UNDP has an important role in working towards this future.
Working in partnership with the Government of Montenegro ad with support from the Green Climate Fund, Montenegro is now in a position to start the implementation of the project entitled “Enhancing Montenegro’s capacity to integrate climate change risks into planning”.

Relying on cooperation with national stakeholders and in close cooperation with the Government of Montenegro, a stocktaking exercise to inform the development of an adaptation process concluded that water, agriculture, tourism and health sectors were the initial priority sectors for intervention.

Despite the actions taken and progress made so far in prioritizing adaptation planning within policy and institutional frameworks the prioritisation and development processes identified several gaps and barriers limiting functioning and effective adaptation planning process. These barriers are: (i) the coordination framework for adaptation planning and action are partially established and underperforming with a need for improvement and more effective organizational design, clear roles and responsibilities, improved capacity (technical and functional) and institutional arrangements designated for mainstreaming climate change into work-programmed at the sector level (ii) limited institutional and technical capacity at the national and sectoral level to address climate change through adaptation with need to improve the technical capacity to collect, generate, use and disseminate climate information and services (iii) adequate information required for conducting informed and effective adaptation planning and investments is unavailable. It is difficult to accurately gauge and cost adaptation options at national and sectoral levels without relevant information on climate impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity in a medium to long-term perspective (iv) national and alternative sources of finance to fund adaptation investments are not optimized as the full costs of adaptation are not yet known.

Responding to these challenges, the proposal was developed for funding under The Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme. The financing of the project was approved by GCF with the overarching objective to improve Montenegro’s institutional capacity for long term adaptation planning. To achieve this, the proposal is focused on (i) improving the institutional coordination framework and increasing institutional capabilities, (ii) increasing climate information and identifying potential adaptation responses/measures, and (iii) identifying financial requirements and resources to fund adaptation investments.

The design and sequence of the project activities have been made in a manner to create efficiencies and be effective. By building enabling institutional, planning and programming environments for adaption at the national and sectoral level, Montenegro will be able to identify climate-induced risks, and vulnerabilities, and use that information to inform adaptation planning process and to explore appropriate adaptation responses.

Within the context of the project “Enhancing Montenegro’s capacity to integrate climate change risks into planning” implemented by UNDP Montenegro and financed by the Green Climate Fund, is inviting eligible candidates to act as local consultant, legal adviser, and support NAP development process. The consultancy will aim at securing twofold support: the NAP development process supports and the support to the Directorate mandated with climate change issues with legal analysis of proposed interventions as well as policy development.

The selected consultant will help define and align proposed governing processes and institutional arrangements for oversight and coordination of adaptation related issues, multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism that includes the private sector as well as women and other vulnerable groups, the frequency and timeframes of the NAP planning cycles and of the related monitoring and evaluation systems with national legislation.

The work of the selected consultant will be focused, but not limited to, primarily cooperation with relevant national institutions and securing that proposed solutions are in line with relevant legislative framework.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment:

Job content:

The Consultant will be engaged under an Individual Contract agreement and will work under the supervision of the Project Manager. The work of the selected consultant will be focused, but not limited to, primarily cooperation with relevant national institutions and securing that proposed solutions are in line with relevant legislative framework.

The consultant is expected to conduct the following tasks:

Review the NAP Project Document and the Montenegro legislation with regard to environment and climate change issues to obtain an understanding of the context of the legal operating environment of the project,
Assist in reviewing the legal material and any other relevant documents and to identify the most important issues that need to be sorted out on a priority basis;
Draft legal opinions, memoranda and draft legal documents enabling the integration of environmental and climate change aspects in national as well as sectoral legal acts. This includes, but is not limited to: a) development policies and plans, b) decrees on climate change issues, b) shaping the technical text of the national and sectoral adaptation plans, their implementation strategies and other related documents from the perspective of legislative acts, c) preparation of amendments to environment and climate change related legislative acts whenever necessary, etc.
Work in close co-operation with Directorate and UNDP-GCF NAP Project team as well as respective units of the stakeholder ministries to facilitate consultations on the developed draft documents aimed at preparation of the final packages to be sent out to stakeholders and Government of Montenegro,
Participate in the events related to the above-mentioned activities and make presentations whenever required,
Participate in and co-facilitate trainings and workshops with the UNDP GCF Project team whenever required,
Provide reports on all undertakings as relevant.

Based on the above conclusions, from the legal aspect:

Understand the decision-making process and legal effects of this process. Prepare recommendations for improvement as needed;
Support the review and defining the governing processes and institutional arrangements for oversight and coordination of adaptation related issues;
Support the review and defining a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism for the NAP that includes the inclusion of the private sector, women and other vulnerable groups in the decision-making process;
Suppor the review and defining the frequency and timeframes of the NAP planning cycles and of the related monitoring and evaluation systems to be established.
Support developing Standard Operating Procedures for coordination of adaptation plans and activities between sectors and agencies as well as among working groups at national and municipal levels. The SOPs will be approved by the government in line with the law on Climate Change – Jurisdiction and Obligations.

Expected results/ Deliverables:

Secure that recommendations produced are legally viable and aligned with national legislation and relevant international framework;
Legal opinions, memoranda and draft legal documents enabling the integration of environmental and climate change aspects in national as well as sectoral legal acts

Time duration: The Consultant will be engaged during the period 10 July 2021 – 30 September 2023 (180 consultancy days) and payment to the individual contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
Reporting language: Outputs will be delivered in English and local language, based on needs of the documents produced.

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN/UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
Demonstrates ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University degree environmental law, law, public administration or another relevant field
Advanced degree would be considered as an asset

Experience:

Minimum 8 years of working experience in the fields listed above;
Experience in review and elaboration of drafting legal policies and legal acts (law and by-laws) and strategic documents in the climate change adaptation field would be considered as an asset;
Experience in supporting the Government policy coordination in sustainable development / CC area
Knowledge of EU climate related political frameworks;
Knowledge of the specific climate change adaptation measures in Eastern Europe would be considered as an asset;;
Knowledge of the country-specific processes will be an asset;
Working experience in Montenegro, in/for public sector would be considered as an asset;

Language:

Fluency in English and local language;

Other:

Excellent social, communication skills and writing skills;

Criteria for selection:

Combined Scoring method will be used. 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: (i) responsive, compliant, acceptable, and (ii) 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% (Background and education 10%; Relevant previous experience 20%; Substantial knowledge/Required competencies 30%; Required language 10%);
Financial criteria weight - 30%.

Only offerors obtaining a minimum 490 points for technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation. For more information on procurement methodology for Individual Contractors, please refer to Procurement Notice.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications by July 3, 2021 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at https://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/jobs.html. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file.

Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted and requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work envisaged in the section "Description of Responsibilities".