Individual Consultant for development of a Plan for fire protection and rescue for the City of Skopje and a Plan for the improvement of the capacities of the Firefighting Brigade of the City of Skopje

Background

The City of Skopje, in cooperation with UNDP, is implementing the Resilient Skopje: Scaling-up for Sustainability, Innovation and Climate Change. The main purpose of the project is to establish models for enhancing urban resilience, resistance to risks and climate change.

The City of Skopje as the capital of the country, like all other municipalities, faces many challenges of the 21st century including the effects of climate change, increased migrant impact, inadequate infrastructure and cyber-attacks. Additionally, the city is threatened by other hazards, as earthquakes, floods, environmental degradation, droughts, fires, epidemics and other different threats, that oblige us to adapt, transform and be prepared for both the expected and possible crises, disasters and risks.

The City of Skopje as a unit of local self-government has a key role in establishing the system for strengthening the resilience of the city to different disaster hazards and reducing their impact. The city together with the other municipalities need to work on reducing the different disaster threats and their impact, because the hazards have local specific characteristics that require precise and special measures and activities on local level.

The need for this assignment is to respond to the obligations and requirements arising from the legal framework on Law on Protection and Rescue, the Law on Firefighting, Methodology for assessment of threats and planning for protection and rescue and other national legislation. Moreover, the City of Skopje is in the process of preparation of the new general urban plan for the city, where standards for prevention and reduction of the consequences of dangers, risks and disasters should be applied.

The aim of this assignment is to assess the institutional and technical capacity of the Firefighting Brigade of the City of Skopje and to prepare a Plan for protection and rescue of fires in the City of Skopje, as well as and a Plan for improvement of the capacities of the Firefighting Brigade.  

Duties and Responsibilities

 SCOPE OF WORK

The objective of this assignment is to prepare a  Plan for protection and rescue of fires  for the City of Skopje which will based on assessment of current sat up and capacities, as well as development of a Plan for improvement of the capacities of the Firefighting Brigade to prevent and respond to urban and wildfires in the City of Skopje.  The document shall be in line with the Law on Rescue and Protection, Methodology for assessment of threats and planning of the protection and reuses, and the Law on Firefighting

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the supervision of the Project Manager and in close cooperation with the relevant departments of the City of Skopje, and in consultation with the Directorate for Rescue and Protection, the Consultant shall be responsible for carrying out the following tasks:

TASK 1: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS, assessment of CURRENT FIRE threats to the City of Skopje, and assessment of the institutional and technical capacities of the fire brigade of the city of skopje

This task is of crucial importance as base to all the subsequent tasks and it comprises review of the extensive existing documentation and legislation,  and an assessment of current fire threats to the City of Skopje, assessment of the institutional and technical capacities of the Firefighting Brigade and the Department for Protection and Rescue.

More specifically, work under this task would include:

• Review relevant regulatory documents, as well as existing relevant assessments, e.g. e-assessments of hazards and risks for the City of Skopje, strategies, plans, guidelines concerning fires management;
• Collect available historical relevant data regarding fires appearance on the territory of the City of Skopje (urban fires and fires on open space), and analyze various aspects related with their appearance e.g. reasons, patterns, spatial distribution,  type and extend of damage, etc.;
• Identify zones on the territory of the City of Skopje with higher risk of fires;
• Identify critical infrastructure for which there is a higher risk of fires and bigger damages;
• Identify hydrants network and its accessibility on the territory of the City of Skopje;
• Assess the current institutional/organizational/human and technical capacity of the Firefighting Brigade;
• Assess the need for organization of specialized firefighting units
• Assessment of the current location of the Firefighting Brigade;
• Identify the communication and coordination challenges before and during  the firefighting, including all the relevant stakeholders and entities;
• Identify the operational challenges and synchronized involvement of entities of the system before and during the firefighting;
• Identify other possible entities which may be involved in a future prevention and protection from fires (e.g., volunteer groups, CSOs/NGOs, companies etc.) and how they can be involved;
• Conduct interviews with the employees from the Fire Department (Brigade).

TASK 2. development of a plan for protoection and rescue from fires for the city of skopje  

The Plan for Protection and Rescue from fires shall be focused on measures for prevention of fires, aa well as preparedness measures for firefighting, and recovery after fires.

The Plan should contain but will not be limited to the following elements:

-  Information about the Firefighting Brigade (number and structure of employees, 

-  Organization of preventive measures for protection from fires in urban environment and on open spaces;

- Overview of potential fire risk zones and critical infrastructure exposed;

- Overview of available human and technical resources, accompanied with a plan for their deployment;

-Overview of available resources and fire distinguishing equipment in public and other enterprises, government entities, condominiums, etc.

- Schemes of critical infrastructure, firefighting routes, hydrant networks, with guidelines for their use and prioritization;

-Tables presenting level of knowledge and experience of firefighting brigade and table presenting available equipment;

- Proposal for organizational structure and development of the firefighting brigade in accordance with the Law on Firefighting

TASK 3. DEVELOPMENT OF A PLAN FOR capacity building for the fireFIGHTING brigade OF THE CITY OF SKOPJE

One of the priorities of the City of Skopje is to strengthen the  capacities of the Firefighting Brigade in order to be able to actively work on fire protection, as well as to respond to urban fires and/or wildfires on the territory of Skopje. Therefore, a comprehensive capacity building plan shall be prepared as part of the overall task, and it will be based on the previous assessment of the current capacities of the Firefighting Brigade and the requirements of the applicable legislature, as well as the Plan for protection and recuse from fires.

The Consultant will be responsible for carrying out the following main tasks:

• Identify specific capacity building objectives for the current staff of the Firefighting Brigade and the for the new recruited firefighters;
• Develop curriculums for training of the current staff and for the newcomers which will be based on the requirements of the applicable national legislature, and good international practices for fire prevention and firefighting in urban environment;
• Develop a plan for regular refreshment of the capacity building/training activities;
• Identify possible internal and external sources for provision of training
• Make a cost estimation of the proposed training curriculum on annual basis.
• Identify possible external sources for funding of capacity building and/or knowledge exchange with similar entities (eg. Firefighting brigades of other countries, EU Civli Protection Mechanism, etc.)

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

• Deliverable 1: An Assessment of the threats from fires and an Assessment of the capacities of the Firefighting Brigade of the City of Skopje - not later than 15 August 2021;
• Deliverable 2: Plan for Protection and Rescue from Fires for the City of Skopje – not latter than 5 September 2021;
• Deliverable 3: Capacity building Plan for the Firefighting Brigade of the City of Skopje – not latter than 15 September 2021.

DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The assignment shall be carried out in the period July– September 2021.

DUTY STATION AND TRAVEL

The duty station for the assignment is Skopje, and no travel is anticipated and will not be covered additionally.

LANGUAGE

All produced documents must be submitted in Macedonian language.

ADDITIONAL COSTS

The Consultant shall calculate the possible costs for filed works, transportation, acquiring various maps/plans, and other relevant documentation or information that are not in a possession of UNDP but are required for successful finalization of all tasks. UNDP shall not accept any additional expenses which aren't included in the financial offer.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The Consultant shall report to UNDP, through the Project Manager of the project Resilient Skopje: Scaling-up for Sustainability, Innovation and Climate Change.

SUBMISSION OF DATA, REPORTS AND MATERIAL PRODUCED

All primary data, reports and other documentation produced during this assignment shall be made available to UNDP in 2 digital copies on CDs or USB and 1 printed copy.  The digital copes are submitted so that one copy is in PDF format and the other contains the text in Word, tables in Excel and databases in Access. All data acquired and products developed in the course of the assignment will be in the ownership of UNDP and the City of Skopje and cannot be used by the Consultant without prior written permission.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The payment for the services will be carried upon submission and approval of the deliverables.  

Competencies

•     Excellent communications and facilitation skills;
•     Excellent analytical and negotiation skills;
•     Excellent research and writing skills

 

Required Skills and Experience

The selected candidate shall possess:

• Advanced university degree (minimum M.Sc.) in Forestry, Engineering, Technical engineering, Fire protection engineering, or similar. Relevant PhD is considered an asset;
• Minimum 4 years of experience from working on similar assignments (development of prevention/firefighting assessments, studies, strategies and/or plans, implementation of fire management plans or similar);
• Experience from at least 2 relevant projects (assessments of risks from urban and/or wild fires, development of prevention/firefighting studies, strategies and/or plans, implementation of fire management plans or similar, ).

DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED

        Interested offerors are invited submit the following documents/information to be considered:

1. Offeror’s letter with your name as per the following form LINK
2. Most updated CV with focus on required qualification as well as the contact details of at least three (3) professional references;
3. Financial Proposal The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of a lumpsum all-inclusive cost, supported by breakdown of costs (including per deliverable) as per template provided in MKD for this consultancy.

The financial proposal must take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel out of duty station (if required); communications, any other expenses related to this assignment.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFER

The award of the contract shall be made to the offeror whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Being responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score based on the following weight of technical and financial criteria for solicitation as per the schedule below:

* Technical criteria weight: 70%

* Financial criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) in the technical evaluation shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

For the considered offers in the financial evaluation only, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (Pn / Pl) * 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.

Technical Criteria:

Criteria	Maximum points 70
Advanced university degree (minimum M.Sc.) in Forestry, Engineering, Technical engineering, Fire protection engineering, or similar. Relevant PhD is considered an asset;   MA = 5 PhD = 10	10
Minimum 4 years of experience from working on similar assignments (development of prevention/firefighting assessments, studies, strategies and/or plans, implementation of fire management plans or similar);   Minimum 4 years of experience = 20 points More than 4 years of experience = 30 points	30
Experience from at least 2 relevant projects (assessments of risks from urban and/or wild fires, development of prevention/firefighting studies, strategies and/or plans, implementation of fire management plans or similar, ).   At least 2 relevant projects= 20 points 2-4 relevant projects =25 points More than 4 projects =30 points	30

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Step 1

1. Click on the "Apply now" button

2. Input your information in the appropriate sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume, and motivation (cover letter). You can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box.

3. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload other required documents listed in the step 2.

Step 2

Interested individual consultants must submit the documents/information listed in the “Documents to submit section” above.

The system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file.

Failing to submit any of these documents may result in disqualification of the application.

Please note that shortlisted candidates might be interviewed.

If the deliverables are not produced and delivered by the consultant to the satisfaction of UNDP as approved by the responsible Portfolio Manager, no payment will be made even if the consultant has invested man/days to produce and deliver such deliverables.