Local Expert to Support the Process of Updating the Mission and Mandate of the Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change (NAP Process) – Local Institutions

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 consultants and support selected team leader in improving work processes of Working group of council of Sustainable development. The consultancy will aim at improving the mission and mandate of the thematic Working Group of National Council on Sustainable Development focusing on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change (WG MACC) in order to appropriately include issues related to adaptation in order to enhance action, coordination, and accountability.

The selected consultant will help define the governing processes and institutional arrangements for oversight and coordination of adaptation related issues, define a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism that includes the private sector as well as women and other vulnerable groups, define the frequency and timeframes of the NAP planning cycles and of the related monitoring and evaluation systems.  The expert will help develop 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. Specific focus of this assignment will be to introduce and establish processes to secure the gender mainstreaming in the work of the Council and its working group as well as decision making processes of the council.

The work of the selected consultant will be focused, but not limited to, primarily cooperation with private sector and NGO representatives. The second local consultant will support the same process, but his/her primary activities will focus on national Institutions.

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 and support the process of updating the mission and mandate of the Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change (NAP process). The work of the selected consultant will be focused, but not limited to, primarily cooperation with relevant NGOs and private sector representatives. The incumbent will have to seek synergies with another local consultant who will support the process, but his/her primary activities will focus on national Institutions.

The consultant is expected to implement through implementation of, but not limited to, following tasks:

Expected tasks in the first phase:

• Engage and liaise with the Project Team to confirm the review of scope and priorities, identify and request key documents required and arrange for discussions with national experts;
• Support the review existing set up of the Council, existing procedures and composition and effectiveness of this set up in relation to the work of the WG on MACC;
• Support the review the WG MACC’s capacities and conduct an assessment on current strengths, weaknesses, capacity and resources needed to integrate CCA into current and in future processes of development planning of central and sectoral planning authorities focusing on NGOs and private sector (local and national level) relevant for the work of the WG MACC’s and National Council;
• Provide guidance to the Project Team and international experts on development of capacity assessments to: (i) understand gaps in institutional, policy and legal framework for climate change; (ii) capacity for the planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation for climate; (iii) capacity for climate change knowledge management; and (iv) capacity for community engagement;
• Support the institutional mapping, establish baseline capacity and conduct gap assessment of Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change;
• Support the preparation of draft consolidated gap assessment to the Project Team for review that clearly outlines the gaps for climate related capacities;
• Prepare and submit the draft recommendations for improvement of decision making and coordination procedures of the Council in order to better institutionalise decisions and recommendations of the Working group in the context of national institutions. The recommendations are intended to secure improvement of Councils decision making processes in order to more efficiently implement recommendations from the Working group.

Based on the above conclusions:

• Understand the decision-making process at the level of the Council, and effects of this process on Work group work. Prepare recommendations for improvement as needed;
• Support the review and update the mission and mandate of the Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change as it relates to adaptation in order to enhance action, coordination, and accountability.
• 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;
• Support 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:

• Guidelines on improving decision making process at the Council level;
• Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change institutional gap assessment;
• Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change capacity gap assessment;
• A formal set of recommendations and guidelines that establishes the mandate of the Working Group on Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change as it relates to adaptation prepared.

This entails the preparation of following:

•  ToR and selection criteria for institutions,
• ToR and selection criteria for individuals,
• Recommended composition of the working group with gender and representations considerations,
• 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.

Time duration: The Consultant will be engaged during the period 30 June 2021 – 30 June 2023 (80 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 in local language.

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 in social sciences, sustainable development, environmental law, environmental economics, public administration or another relevant field
• Advanced degree would be considered as an asset

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years of working experience in the fields: environmental sciences, sustainable development, environmental law, environmental economics, public administration or another relevant field; 
• Experience in review and elaboration of strategic policy documents in the climate change adaptation field in Europe and/or Eastern Europe would be 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;
• 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 language; 
• Montenegrin 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 June 14, 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".