The Paris Agreement aims for “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change”. Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development is one of the main ways set in Article 2.1 of the Paris Agreement to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

Under the Paris Agreement, Ukraine has committed to develop and regularly submit to UNFCCC its National Adaptation Communication, to set and implement its national adaptation goals with NDC framework. Ukraine will need to undertake continuous iterative adaptation planning and action, and to communicate about those actions to the international community.

UNDP’s Strategic Plan (2018 – 2021) lays out a commitment to enhance national prevention and recovery capacities for resilient societies. In this context, UNDP is currently supporting a number of countries to implement a portfolio of climate change adaptation projects, which have designated sets of indicators to track project activities and impact. Among these initiatives is one that focuses on supporting Ukraine to advance its national adaptation plan (NAP) process, which is meant to result in the integration of climate change considerations into planning and budgeting systems at the country level.

In order to implement its international commitments, Ukraine has already developed national legislation framework on both mitigation and adaptation, including the State Climate Policy Concept till 2030 and Action Plan to Implement State Climate Policy Concept till 2030 adopted in December 2016 and 2017 respectively. Both documents foresee detailed mitigation actions and only some basic steps on adaptation. For example, the new Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection (MEEP) of Ukraine, plans to develop “medium-term strategy of climate change adaptation of Ukraine for the period until the year 2030” and GoU plans to approve in 2020 “Ukraine’s 2030 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy”.  Sectoral adaptation plans are also at the early stage of development. The Ministry of Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has developed and currently in the process of public consultations on the “Adaptation Strategy of agriculture, forestry and fishery of Ukraine till 2030”. 

Given the direct and existential threat of the climate change, the European Union launched in 2019 a new regional initiative called EU4Climate, aiming to support the six Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine) to develop and implement climate-related policies based on the countries’ commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Association and Partnership Agreements with the EU, the Eastern Partnership policy initiative “20 Deliverables for 2020,” (in particular the climate-related Deliverables 15 and 16) and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (in particular SDG 13 on “Climate Action”). The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme. The project goal is to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and the development towards a low-emissions and climate-resilient economy in line with the Paris Agreement in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. This project operates on both regional and country level. It supports regional cooperation, learning, knowledge exchanges and policy dialogue among the beneficiary countries, as well as between the countries and the EU partners. 

All six countries are highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. An increase in extreme weather events, more frequent heat waves, forest fires and droughts, heavier precipitation and flooding are just some of the consequences, which are likely to enlarge the magnitude of disasters and to lead to significant economic losses, public health problems and deaths.

Under the EU4Climate project UNDP Ukraine support the Government of Ukraine with the national adaptation planning (NAP). This includes scoping study, road map, NAP development, institutional, coordination, financing, monitoring, reporting and communication frameworks for the NAP. NAP development will include gender analysis and will use data disaggregated by sex and age, take into account how climate change impacts affects men and women differently, and identify key sectors, strategies and mechanisms for gender responsive policy and action.

Through this TOR, UNDP Ukraine is seeking a qualified local expert to provide assistance in establishing and coordinating the Working Group on Climate Change Adaptation for development of the framework National Adaptation Strategy for Ukraine.

2. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of the assignment is to support the national adaptation planning in Ukraine. In particular the consultant is expected to:

• Support EU4Climate project team and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine (MEPNR) in activities aimed to develop the Framework National Adaptation Strategy (FNAS);
• Serve as a liaison between the EU4Climate project and a broad group of stakeholders to ensure that all parties are involved in the transparent, gender-responsive and inclusive manner on all relevant steps of NFAS development;
• Support in establishment of and then keep on coordinating the Climate Change Adaptation Working Group (CCA WG) – a coordination mechanism for the relevant stakeholders to participate effectively in the development of the FNAS and have the ownership of the process and products developed.
• Support EU4Climate project team and the MEPNR in outreach activities on climate change adaptation and the FNAS development process.
• Inform the EU4Climate National Coordinator in a timely manner for any problems occurring during the FNAS development process.
• Provide analytical support to the EU4Climate project team with regards to the summary of CCA WG meetings, inputs to the project report and analytical papers, etc.

3. DESCRIPTION OF TASKS / SCOPE OF WORK

Under the overall guidance of the National EU4Climate Project Coordinator in Ukraine, the Consultant will be tasked with the following specific duties and responsibilities:

• Identify relevant national stakeholders and national experts to be involved in the development of the NFAS and provide the stakeholder mapping report to the EU4Climate National Coordinator and MEPNR for approval;
• Support the MEPNR to establish CCA WG and engage relevant stakeholders and potential contributors to the NFAS implementation to its composition. The CCA WG will consist of state agencies, ministries, private and public business, academia, expert and civil society communities, international TA projects and donors’ representatives in order to ensure the transparency, gender-responsiveness and inclusivity of the NFAS development process;
• Establish (sub-)groups to represent the preferred sectoral (including but not limited to energy, agriculture, transport, water, health, biodiversity, and culture) and regional level.
• Work with appropriate persons from the MEPNR to set priorities for organizing CCA WG meetings, setting meetings agendas, facilitating meetings, and completing meeting memos and meeting minutes in the format, agreed with the EU4Climate National Coordinator.
• Organize and facilitate meetings/events (fiscal or virtual) for the CCA WG, including the FNAS Inception event, at least 6 sectoral climate adaptation workshops and other regular meetings in accordance with the pre-agreed workplan. CCA WG meetings should be organized on a monthly manner.
• Support access and information gathering from relevant national institutions, including research and academia.

• Contribute to development of communication and outreach activities on climate change adaptation and the FNAS development process (informational sheets, presentations, briefs, press-releases, media stories, social media stories, etc.)
• Contribute to the EU4Climate quarterly report.

4. DELIVERABLES

The deliverable of this consultancy will include the following reports:

Final report covering whole assignment. Final report should be submitted in English

The total duration of the consultancy will be a maximum of 120 working days over 12 months from the start date of the assignment. The work does not require traveling.

The Consultant will:

- submit monthly reports capturing the list of deliverables and progress made and timesheets – each month in the format agreed with UNDP;

- submit one final report summarizing all outputs produced.

5. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner. Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director.

Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://europeandcis.undp.org/home/jobs Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Payments will be made as specified in the actual contract upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner, on a monthly basis, filling out timesheets once at the end of each month, and attaching to each timesheet copies of all report(s) written or contributed to by the national consultant.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

6. MONITORING/REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The Consultant will work under the overall guidance of the EU4Climate Project Coordinator in Ukraine. The Consultant will duly inform UNDP of any problems, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

Any copyrights and other kinds of intellectual property emerging in the course of contract implementation and produced by the Consultant under the assignment shall be retained by UNDP; the Consultant shall not be entitled for any intellectual property in this regard.

The Consultant will duly inform UNDP of any problems, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• 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.

7. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

Education

Advanced university degree in climate science, environmental studies, natural sciences, economics, public relations or closely related fields

Experience

• At least 5 years of experience in organization and coordination/facilitating public events
• Experience (at least 3 years) in working and collaborating with governmental stakeholders in Ukraine
• Demonstrated strong presentation and report writing skills (must provide samples of at least 3 previously prepared or co-authored articles or documents)
• Sound, practical understanding of climate/environmental policy
• Experience in the policy development process associated with environment, climate change and sustainable development an asset
• Experience of working with the UN and other technical assistance projects in an asset

Language Skills

• Fluency in English and Ukrainian.

8. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

9. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Lump sum contract

Contracts based on daily fee.

The financial proposal shall specify a daily fee amount. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this daily fee-based amount and number of anticipated working days.

10. EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Advanced university degree in in climate science, environmental studies, natural sciences, economics, public relations or closely related fields {12 pts, – Master; 14 pts, – PhD};
• At least 5 years of experience in organization and coordination/facilitating public events {12 pts, - 5 years; 15 pts – more than 5 years);
• At least 3 years of experience working and collaborating with governmental stakeholders in Ukraine {10 pts. – 3 years; 12 pts. – more than 3 years}};
• Demonstrated strong presentation and report writing skills (provided samples of at least 3 previously prepared or co-authored articles or documents) {8 pts – 4-7 years, 10 pts - more than 7 years};
• Experience in the policy development process associated with environment, climate change and sustainable development an asset {0 pts - no experience; 3 pts - one or more assignment};
• Sound, practical understanding of climate/environmental policy {0 pts - no experience; 5 pts - proven with relevant analytical/policy papers};

• Experience working within the UN and other technical assistance projects in an asset {3 points – demonstrated experience; 0 pts – no experience};
• Language skills {8 pts. – working level of English}

Maximum available technical score - 70 points

Evaluation method

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual contractor whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a)            responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b)            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%

•             Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates that meet a passing score of 70% (49 points) for the technical evaluation will be considered and invited for an interview.