Iraq: International Individual Consultant - International NAMA Strategic Planning Expert

May 14, 2022 | United Nations Development Programme
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The United Nations Development Programme is a United Nations organization tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development.

Please read all details around scope, requirements, and evaluation criteria included in the TOR at the provided link.

Background

1. Facility for Economic Reform (FFEER)

Facility for Economic Reform (FFER) is a programme of support financed by the USAID and implemented by the UNDP to support the Government of Iraq (Federal) and the Kurdistan region in carrying out their economic reform agenda. Given the high importance of Climate Change, Environment and Energy issues to the reforms, based upon request of the GoI, the USAID and UNDP have agreed to provide advisory support on a number of aspects of the climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially with regards to formulation of policies and strategies.

2. Assignment Context:

Iraq is recognized as one of the most affected countries by the harmful effects of climate change. The average temperature is expected to rise by two Celsius degrees and the rainfall is expected to fall by 9% by 2050 due to climate change. Iraq ratified the UNFCCC in the end of 2009 to start its paradigm shift plan to develop non-fossil fuel – dependent industries and develop renewable energy plans and strategies as well as design its national adaptation plan to tackle climate change.

Iraq Vision 2030 is in alignment with the environmental goal to create a clean, safe and sustainable environment for the current and future generations.  Iraq ratified the Paris Agreement on January 14, 2021. President Saleh said at the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit; “This move marks the Iraqi government’s intention to shift from relying heavily on oil to more renewable energy sources.”

Iraq has approved its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which define Iraq’s strategic objectives and commitments towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. Iraq plans for transition towards green economy. More than ever before, it recognizes that a healthy and sustainable economy is that the diversified and green one, this includes renewable energy and environmentally-sound technologies and enhance the resilience of communities most vulnerable to climate change.

According to the NDC, Iraq aims to achieve reduction between 1% and 2% of its total emissions between 2021 to 2030 through the national effort and 15% subject to the international financial and technical support. Iraq aims to develop its National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) with priority to the electricity sector by investing in renewable energies of up to 12 GW based on the Cabinet's economic decisions for 2021.

To support the GoI with implementing its NDC and NAMA, UNDP FFER-Federal is seeking an international expert with following scope of work and qualifications.

Duties and Responsibilities

3. Scope of Work

The overall objective of this assignment is to support the Ministry of Environment and other line ministries in establishing the national capacity for formulating and seeking support for NAMAs, and further develop the local capacities to design and implement NAMAs in the energy sector (in coordination with the Ministry of Electricity). This will help not only to compile information on NAMAs, but also set the ground for NAMAs implementation, particularly internationally supported NAMAs.

The work under this consultancy will help to establish institutional mechanisms for cross-sectoral engagement and build consensus among policy makers and other stakeholders on lower carbon development path. The work would involve identification priority activities and analyse potential NAMA projects.

For the duration of this post, the expert will be working under the overall guidance and supervision of the special advisor to the Minister of Environment. The expert will report to the Portfolio Manager of the UNDP EECC and coordinate with the Project Manager of FFER-Federal as required. For technical purposes, the expert will organize activities in coordination with the Climate Governance Technical Lead, the national NAMA expert and the UNDP gender focal point in the formulation of the NAMA strategic plan.

Key duties and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

1. Review existing NAMA-related policies and reports in Iraq such as Iraq’s NDC, national communication reports, Biennial update reports, etc, and accordingly define National reference GHG emission baseline for NAMA strategic planning in Iraq.
2. Develop detailed marginal abatement cost curves for key sectors to demonstrate effective mitigation policies and economic scenarios
3. Develop approaches, methodologies and guidelines for classifying and prioritizing NAMAs in Iraq.
4. Develop national NAMA vision and sectoral objectives and activities in consultation with the concerned ministries in line with Iraq’s final NDC.
5. Develop voluntary emission reduction targets in key priority sectors in Iraq.
6. Define priority programmatic sectoral NAMAs. This involves developing 1-page description of each NAMA project with basic info such as project objectives, outputs, outcomes, problem statement, cost, timeframe, potential donor, etc.  
7. Design National NAMA registry to include all NAMAs for Iraq and track the progress towards detailed design and delivery.
8. Collaborate with the gender expert to generate NAMA gender mainstreaming strategy
9. Establish institutional mechanisms for cross-sectoral engagement on NAMA, this should define the roles and responsibilities, coordination process, NAMA development and approval process. 
10. Develop an institutional framework and organizational linkages for Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable (MRV), including link to in the national registry mechanism.
11. Compile all NAMA strategic components into one strategic NAMA plan document for Iraq.
12. Ongoing consultations with key Government counterparts through meetings, workshops, calls, etc.
13. Capacity Building: Deliver 2 training sessions (2 days each) on subjects related to NAMA development and potential financing.

4. Key Deliverables Expected:

The consultant is expected to prepare and finalize a detailed work plan in coordination with the Government counterparts (Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Electricity and others as needed) and the EECC Portfolio Manager of UNDP. It should be noted that the following list of deliverables might be subject to review and revision by UNDP in discussion with the consultant in the event of unexpected changes to the context or request from the Government of Iraq during the consultancy period. Payments will be made on deliverable basis upon acceptance and approval by UNDP of the planned deliverables. In case the quality of deliverables is not satisfactory to the UNDP or the GoI, the payments may not be processed until the satisfactory completion of works. 

The expenditures for mission travel will be paid separately upon submission of the relevant documents and receipts duly approved by the Supervisor.

 5. Location and Timeframe for The Assignment Process

An assignment workplan shall be prepared by the consultant in coordination with the UNDP and the Ministry of Environment. The assignment will take place between June 2022 – February 2023. The security situation in each location will be reviewed to make a decision on different activities. The assignment and final deliverable are expected to be completed no later than 28th February 2023 as per the details in the Scope of Work and the Deliverables tables. The consultant may carryout certain activities from home, however, the consultant will be required to travel to Iraq (Baghdad, Erbil and other places) for completion of certain activities, meetings, interviews, consultations, training and presentations.

6. Management and Implementation Arrangements

• The assignment is commissioned by UNDP Iraq’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change Pillar (EECC) with funding from the FFER Project. The main UNDP Focal Point will be the Portfolio Manager (PM) of the EECC pillar. The Portfolio Manager will serve as the focal point to provide substantive and logistical support to the Consultant/s. Assistance will be provided by the PM to make any refinements to the work plan of the selected Consultant/s (i.e. coordination with target entities, access to relevant documents, survey coordination and organization of interviews). This TOR shall be the basis upon which compliance with assignment requirements and overall quality of services provided by the Consultant will be assessed by UNDP.

As part of the assignment:

• UNDP will provide office space with access to the internet and printer when in-country
• UNDP will provide the following list of additional documents to the selected Consultant
• Share any relevant reports or documents 

The Consultant is expected to:

• Have/bring their laptops, and other relevant software/equipment.
• Use their own mobile and personal email address during the consultancy period, including when in-country.
• Make their own travel arrangements to fly to Baghdad and transportation arrangements outside work hours.  UNDP will make arrangements for in-country travel to any other locations, as required.
• UNDP will make arrangements for interpretation services locally, as required.
• Connect to the Ministry of Environment or any other relevant stakeholders
• Support in the holding of stakeholder consultations

Competencies

7. Required Competencies, Qualifications And Experience:

The consultant will require the following qualifications, experience, competencies and language skills. Only applicants who meet these criteria will be short-listed and will be contacted.

A. Education and Professional Qualifications Required:

• A Master’s Degree or equivalent in Environment, Energy, Climate Change, Economics, or related field.

B. Experience Required:

• At least 10 years of relevant working experience in environment, energy and climate change-reform work, with past actual experience of working in NAMA strategic planning;
• Past experience in planning and development of NAMA;
• Experience in facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders at a high political level to formulate, validate and adopt reform priorities;
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate consultative meetings and to make presentations of technical findings to a wide audience;
• Specific experience of work in conflict-affected states would be an advantage.
• Experience with and knowledge of UNDP policies and procedures.
• Experience with UN or international organization working in Iraq would be an advantage
• Fluency in written and oral English required
• Fluency in Arabic an advantage

Required Skills and Experience

• At least 10 years of relevant working experience in environment, energy and climate change-reform work, with past actual experience of working in NAMA strategic planning;
• Past experience in planning and development of NAMA;
• Experience in facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders at a high political level to formulate, validate and adopt reform priorities;
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate consultative meetings and to make presentations of technical findings to a wide audience;
• Specific experience of work in conflict-affected states would be an advantage.
• Experience with and knowledge of UNDP policies and procedures.
• Experience with UN or international organization working in Iraq would be an advantage
• Fluency in written and oral English required
• Fluency in Arabic an advantage

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested international Consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Iraq.  UNDP Iraq will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);
• Annex 2 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 3 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).
• Annex 4 _ Code of conduct forms (The Consultant Firm and each member of the Assessment Team consultant will be requested to read carefully, understand and sign the “UN Code of Conduct”).