Conservation Programme Consultant for The Lion’s Share project

As the largest single operational and financial UN player in the field of environmental sustainability, UNDP is widely recognized as a global leader in supporting governments to sharpen policy, access finance and develop capacity for the management of biodiversity and ecosystems for sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Under the Strategic Plan covering the period 2018-­2021, UNDP’s work in Ecosystems and Biodiversity (EBD) has as an overall strategic objective to maintain and enhance the goods and services provided by biodiversity and ecosystems in order to secure livelihoods, food, water and health, enhance resilience, conserve threatened species and their habitats, and increase carbon storage and sequestration. UNDP support over 300 country projects it the field of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management, sustainable land and forest management, and ecosystem-based mitigation and adaptation.

In addition to the country portfolio, the EBD Team has a growing body of global work funded by bilateral donors and partners, including the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), Green Commodities Programme, and Nature for Development Programme. It hosts the Secretariat for the Lion’s Share Fund established in partnership with advertising and commodities companies.

The Lion’s Share Fund supports to stem the rapid loss of biodiversity by leveraging private sector leadership in the establishment of the first-ever multi-partner global platform for wildlife conservation and animal care. The Lion’s Share asks corporate leaders to enable change by donating to conservation 0.5% of their media spend for any advertising that includes images of animals. By engaging private sector companies and other partners, it aims to raise significant capital to realize The Lion’s Share vision to address the rapid loss of wildlife and habitat that erodes natural ecosystems underpinning human survival and sustainable development

UNDP requires services of a Conservation Programme Consultant to carry out a number of tasks supporting functioning of The Lion’s Share Secretariat and implementation of the conservation investment plan, as well as to ensure the coherence between The Lion’s Share supported programmes and broader UNDP EBD programme.

Objective:

The consultant will provide support to the Principal Technical Advisor (PTA) for Ecosystems and Biodiversity for programme design and oversight for The Lion’s Share Fund, monitoring and evaluation for the GEF portfolio, as well as, advocacy, communication and knowledge management work.

• Support the Secretariat of The Lion’s Share in designing, implementing, and monitoring the conservation programmes including Partnerships for Change, Lion’s Cub Small Grants, Crisis Window and Challenge/Innovation Fund;
• Support conservation partnership development and relationship management to consolidate the conservation partner support base for The Lion’s Share;
• Maintain close communication with The Lion’s Share grantees to ensure close monitoring of projects supported by The Lion’s Share;
• Develop the Lion’s Cub Small Grants awarding process including identification of grant delivery agents, selection criteria and manage the process,
• Support development and/or technical content quality assurance of communication materials for The Lion’s Share Executive Board and Steering Committee, as well as, for partners and general public;
• Support coordination of the capitalisation phase of the Lion’s Share Fund, liaising with the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTFO), and founding private sector partners;
• Support communication and advocacy through organisation of campaigns and development of products and planning, and execution of events related to international days such as the World Wildlife Day;
• Provide support for preparation and running of The Lion’s Share Steering Committee and Executive Board meetings, providing inputs on conservation programming;
• Ensure coherence between The Lion’s Share programming and broader UNDP EBD programming, through support for the EBD global and country portfolio development, annual monitoring and management.

Anticipated Key deliverables:

An indicative list includes:

• 6 High quality project concept notes and project documents for The Lion’s Share and other grants (40%);
• 10 High quality The Lion’s Share annual reports and programme communication materials (10%);
• 1 Successful Executive Board and Steering Committee meetings (5%);
• 5 Successful coordination of Lion’s Share/environment related events (30%).
• 6 Project monitoring reports and legal documents for project operationalisation (15%);

Key performance indicators:

• Effective, timely, high-quality, and often independent support;
• Number of successful steering committee, events;
• Number of new partnerships.

Information on Working Arrangements:

• The consultant will initially work from home in line with COVID-19 guidelines in place.  Once restrictions have been lifted, the consultant will work from UNDP offices in New York, USA with a limited amount of mission travel not exceeding 80 days’ travel over a 3-year period;
• Estimated level of effort (including travel): approximately 220 days per year.  Maximum working days over the three-year period would be 660 days; 
• The consultant will report to, and be directly supervised by, the Principal Technical Advisor (PTA) for Ecosystems and Biodiversity;
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• While working from home base, the Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop, and mobile phone and service plan.  Once based in New York offices, UNDP-GEF will provide a working station, internet, landline, scanner/printer, etc.;
• The consultant will engage daily with the Supervisor. In addition, the consultant will also engage with other UNDP colleagues based in NY, relevant regional hubs, and country offices;
• 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 where applicable;
• Payments will be made upon submission of a time sheet and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the Principal Technical Advisor on days worked (with a “day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and satisfactory delivery of outputs.

Travel:

• International travel may be required once travel restrictions are lifted. 2-5 missions are estimated during the first year, with expected mission duration of approximately 5 days per mission. Exact locations to be determined and discussed upon commencement of the assignment;
• Any necessary mission travel must be approved in advance and in writing by the Principal Technical Advisor;
• The BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
• Consultants are responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
• 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/;
• The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;  
• All related travel expenses will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F-10 claim form and supporting documents.  Costs for mission travel should not be included in financial proposal. 

Corporate

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Professionalism

• Demonstrated organizational skills, attention to detail, ability to work with quickly and accurately while under pressure and within short deadlines;
• Able to work independently and remotely with minimal supervision;
• Capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time;
• Experience in working with social media channels, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.;
• Works towards creative solutions by analysing problems carefully and logically;
• Facilitates discussions and meetings effectively and efficiently;
• Has a dynamic, positive and adaptive attitude towards work-related challenges.

Communications

• Demonstrated strong research and excellent writing skills;
• Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and work with diverse people at Headquarters, Regional Bureaux, Country Offices and field-based.

Education

• Master’s degree in environmental or natural science, geography, natural resource management, development, economics, international relations, or other closely related field (max. 10 points).

Experience  

• Minimum of 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of biodiversity and wildlife conservation, environment, and development (max. 15 points);
• Demonstrable experience in conservation grant management process, including selection and awarding and monitoring of grant activities (max. 10 points);
• Experience in organisation of international meetings, events, partner coordination, and logistics planning (max. 10 points);
• Experience in conducting research, summarizing material, and meeting outcomes in EBD-related fields, and preparing draft inputs to written/oral communications pieces. Please attach two recent pieces of written work prepared such as technical report, conference report, and/or communication pieces (max. 10 points);
• Knowledge of project design and management, results-based reporting, monitoring and evaluation and communication on programme/project implementation is considered an asset (max. 10 points);
• Experience working on projects submitted to the Global Environment Facility or similar vertical funds will be highly desirable (max. 5 points);

• Working experience in an international organization is an advantage, as is knowledge of UNDP policies, procedures and practices (max. 5 points).

Languages

• Excellent verbal communication and writing skills in English (Pass/Fail)
• Working knowledge of other UN languages an advantage.  (max 5 points)

Evaluation method:

• Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;

• Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70%, and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
• The technical criteria (education, experience, language [max. 80 points] and interview [max. 50 points]) will be based on a maximum 130 points;
• Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 56 points from the review of the education, experience and language will be considered for the interview; 
• Candidates obtaining 35 points or higher on the interview will be deemed technically qualified and considered for financial evaluation;
• Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment); 
• The applicant receiving the highest combined score and who has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract. 

Documentation required

• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) and/or CV including Education/Qualification, Professional Certification, Employment Records /Experience;
• Please attach two recent pieces of written work prepared such as technical report, conference report, and/or communication pieces;
• Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed Annex II – Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment to be downloaded from the UNDP procurement site.

YOUR APPLICATION MUST BE SUBMITED THROUGH UNDP eTENDERING SYSTEM  

LINK –https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=64807

APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED HERE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

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