National Specialist in Social Forestry, Agroforestry and Soil & Forest Restoration

Background

The GEF-7 delivery model incorporates three impact programmes which collectively address major drivers of environmental degradation and/or deliver multiple benefits across the many thematic dimensions the GEF is mandated to deliver. These Impact Programs also contribute in significant ways to each one of GEF’s Focal Area Strategies while at the same time delivering multiple benefits across several Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

One of these impact programmes is the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme (FOLUR IP), which recognizes that the environmental and sustainability challenges associated with food and commodity production systems require an integrated and multi-level approach working across local, national and global scale. Achieving this transition will require a holistic, system-wide approach integrating both horizontal (land and natural resources) and vertical (food value and supply chain) dimensions. Land degradation, declining agricultural productivity, malnutrition and rural poverty are interrelated problems that require a systems-level approach to planning, management, monitoring and decision making.

The “Integrated Landscape Management of Heart of Borneo landscapes in Sabah and Sarawak” is one of the child projects of the GEF-7 FOLUR IP. This project aims to transform land use planning and management in Sabah and Sarawak to contain the footprint of palm oil production and maintain high-value forest for environment and development benefits. This will be achieved through four interrelated components of work, to be undertaken in parallel:

• Component 1: Development of integrated landscape management systems in Sabah and Sarawak
• Component 2: Promotion of responsible value chains for palm oil and smallholder support
• Component 3: Conservation and restoration of natural habitats through public-private-community partnerships
• Component 4: Knowledge management and impact monitoring

UNDP Malaysia is currently seeking a qualified National Specialist on Social Forestry, Agroforestry and Soil & Forest Restoration to support a team of consultants contributing to the delivery of interim Project Preparation Grant (PPG) tasks (see below) and to develop individual funding proposals and project documents (ProDoc) and the corresponding individual CEO endorsement requests (CEO ER) to be submitted for endorsement to the GEF.

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Consultant will support the Project Preparation Grant (PPG) team leader on all aspects of the project related to social forestry, agroforestry, community co-management of forests, and restoration of depleted croplands, degraded forests and aging oil palm.

Responsibilities and Deliverables:

The list below outlines key responsibilities and deliverables of this contract. The PPG Initiation Plan for this project provides further and more detailed guidance regarding the responsibilities of the prospective PPG team and must be consulted accordingly.

1. Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews: Prepare inputs and support the required analyses/studies, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader, including:

• Baseline study of Social Forestry, Agroforestry and Soil & Forest Restoration: challenges, opportunities, baseline initiatives through government and NGO sector, barriers to change;
• Baseline assessment of forested areas within project site, summary of stakeholders’ existing mapping and identification of HCV/HCS forest, identification of areas suitable for community forest management, and forest restoration, in consultation with stakeholders;
• Design of detailed interventions through project;
• Estimate GHG emissions reductions/avoidance through project interventions. 

2. Formulation of the ProDoc, CEO Endorsement Request and Mandatory and Project Specific Annexes: Prepare inputs and support the development of final PPG deliverables, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader.

3. Validation Workshop (Component C):

• Contribute to the validation workshop; and
• Support all necessary revisions that arise during the workshop, as appropriate.

4. Final Deliverables:

• Baseline report: Social forestry, agroforestry, forest restoration, soil restoration and palm rejuvenation: challenges, opportunities, baseline initiatives and barriers to change;
• Landscape profile – forestry aspects;
• Costed action plans for implementation;
• ToRs for technical consultancies for implementation;
• Estimate of the GHG emission mitigated.

Methodology:

The methodology employs a number of investigative, analytical and consultative methods and tools to complete the tasks; and based on the needs:

• Collect data from public domains and official documents including policies, legislation, strategies and plans etc.
• Supplement the data analysis with literature review.
• Active stakeholder consultations and engagements.

Handling of Data, Information and Documents:

All data, information and documents obtained under this assignment is the property of the United Nations Development Programme and be treated as strictly confidential. No such information shall be used by the expert for any other purpose other than the preparation of deliverables.

All soft and hard copies of the data, information and documents must be returned to UNDP upon completion of this assignment.   

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Deliverables/ Outputs	Estimated Duration to Complete	Target Due Dates	Review and Approvals Required
1. Inception report outlining the methodologies for the assignment including workplans for each deliverable and travel plans 1.1 Meeting and coordination with other PPG members 1.2 PPG inception workshop in Sabah and Sarawak	5 days	15 August 2019	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
2. Baseline report: social forestry, agroforestry, forest restoration, soil restoration and palm rejuvenation 2.1 Landscape profile – forestry aspects 2.2 Challenges, opportunities, baseline initiatives and barriers to change in Sabah and Sarawak	15 days	30 September 2019	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
3. Baseline assessment of forested areas within project sites 3.1 Summary of stakeholders’ existing mapping and identification of HCV/HCS forest 3.2 Identification of areas suitable for community forest management, and forest restoration, in consultation with stakeholders	10 days	31 October 2019	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
4. Design of detailed interventions through project 4.1 Estimate GHG emissions reductions/avoidance through project interventions	10 days	30 November 2019	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
5. Indicative capacity development plan (template to be provided) 5.1 Costed action plans for implementation	5 days	31 December 2020	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
6. Inputs to the drafting of the project document (ProDoc)	5 days	31 December 2019	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
7. Final consultation and validation workshop 7.1 Support PPG team leader with the preparation of validation workshop and report for GEF	5 days	31 January 2020	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
8. Address comments from GEF 8.1 Completion of assignment upon approval of GEF SEC	5 days	31 July 2020	UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor
TOTAL	60 days

Institutional Arrangement:

The National Consultant will report to and seek approval and/or acceptance of deliverables from the Head of Sustainable and Resilient Development of UNDP Country Office in Malaysia.

The National Consultant is expected to liaise/interact/collaborate/meet with the UNDP Country Office in Malaysia, PPG Team Leader, UNDP-Global Environmental Finance Unit in Bangkok and HQ, and collaborate with the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources as the lead implementing government agency and other agencies including Sabah Forestry Department etc.

Duration of the work:

The assignment will require up to 60-man days starting from 1 August 2019 to 30 July 2020.

Duty Station:

• Home-based with occasional trips to Putrajaya. This assignment also requires two return trips of domestic travel to Sabah and Sarawak each with estimated 3 days in each sites;
• Consultant has to complete the new mandatory security awareness training prior to commencement of travel: BSAFE;
• Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director.
• Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/.
• Consultants will be responsible for providing her/his own work station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to reliable internet connection;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;

Schedule of payment:

Payment to be made based on completed deliverables against the TOR, which will be assessed and verified by the UNDP Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environmental Finance Regional Technical Adviser.

Payment Schedule	Expected Due Date	Percentage
Upon completion and acceptance inception report (deliverable 1).	15 August 2019	10%
Upon completion and acceptance of baseline report: social forestry and baseline assessment of forested area by UNDP Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environmental Finance Regional Technical Adviser (deliverables 2 and 3).	31 October 2019	40%
Upon completion and acceptance of report on intervention design and costed action plan by UNDP Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environmental Finance Regional Technical Adviser (deliverables 4, 5 and 6).	31 December 2020	40%
Completion of assignment upon acceptance of IP document by CEO ER from GEF SE (deliverables 7 and 8).	31 July 2020	10%
TOTAL		100%

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates high moral integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Strong analytical, writing and communication skills;
• Excellent financial and budgetary skills;
• Ability to prepare concept note and proposal;
• Strong motivation and ability to work and deliver under short deadlines;
• Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback;
• Able to work independently with little or no supervision;
• Familiarity with UNDP and government strongly desired.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field, such as natural sciences, environmental studies or other related fields.

Skills and Experience Required:

This assignment is open to Malaysian nationals and/or with permanent resident status.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of demonstrable experience in Forestry and Forest Restoration.
• Specialist knowledge of and experience in conducting KBAs, HCS and HCVF assessment.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bahasa Malaysia.

Documents to be included when submitting proposals:

Interested individual applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability (Annex 1) provided by UNDP;
2. Technical Proposal on how your qualifications, experience and list of track records can lead to successful deliverables of this assignment within the required timeframe, and provide a methodology and approach on how you will approach and conduct the assignments;
3. Financial Proposal (Annex 2) should specify unit price (daily professional fee in USD), travel and relevant costs using the financial proposal template in Annex 2.
4. Personal CV including areas of expertise and past experiences in similar projects and at least three (3) references.

How to Apply:

• Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
• Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions;
• Click the ‘apply’ icon and complete what is required;
• Scan all documents into 1 pdf folder and then upload;
• For clarification question, please email to procurement.my@undp.org. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put "MyIC/2019/038" as the subject matter.

Forms and General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

• The UN Personal History Form (P11) is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/P11%20for%20SC%20&%20IC.doc?download
• The Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Financial Proposal Template at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/MyIC_2019_040%20Annex%201-2.docx
• The General Terms & Conditions for Individual contract is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/General%20Conditions%20of%20Contract%20for%20IC.pdf?download
• The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement%20_%20Terms%20&%20Conditions.pdf?download 

Criteria for selection of the best offer:

The award of the contract will be made to the Individual Expert who has obtained the highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions. Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. The offers will be evaluated using the “Combined Scoring method” where:

1. The technical proposal including educational background and experience on similar assignments will be weighted a max. of 70%;
   • Minimum 10 years of demonstrable experience in Forestry and Forest Restoration (30%).
   • Specialist knowledge of and experience in conducting KBAs, HCS and HCVF assessment (40%).
2. The financial proposal will weigh as 30% of the total scoring.