Myanmar: Climate Resilience International Consultant

May 3, 2020 | Cordaid
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Cordaid is an international NGO from the Netherlands and is part of the Caritas family. Cordaid was established in 2000 and is present in 22 countries worldwide. Cordaid’s vision is “We have inherited the earth from our ancestors. It is our job to leave it a better place for future generations: a world where people are safe, can live with dignity, develop themselves and have the freedom to speak out.” The moto of Cordaid is to build flourishing communities. Cordaid works on the thematic areas of health, resilience (disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation), good jobs, security & justice and humanitarian aid / emergency response. Cordaid became involved in Myanmar in 2008, after cyclone Nargis and became more involved in Myanmar in 2014. Cordaid in Myanmar is working on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and other resilience improving activities.

According to the Myanmar government Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (MAPDRR) 2017, Myanmar has laid a long-term vision for building resilience by 2030. In it 32 priority actions are identified and the implementation requires strong cooperation and coordination among government departments, development partners, private sector actors and communities. Regarding the MAPDRR, Myanmar has endorsed and committed to a number of new global and regional frameworks, plans and agreements related to disaster, climate (change) and development.

According to the Myanmar Climate Change Master Plan (2018 - 2030) it clearly defines high-priority activities and the responsibilities of stakeholders in the Myanmar Climate Change Strategy. The Master plan defines it as “climate-smart agriculture, fisheries and livestock for food security, sustainable management of natural resources for healthy ecosystems, resilient and low-carbon energy supply, transport and industrial systems for sustainable growth, building resilient inclusive and sustainable cities and towns in Myanmar, managing climate risks for people’s health and well-being, and building a resilient Myanmar society through education, science and technology”.

Cordaid Myanmar has been piloting urban resilience and build resilient in Hlaing Tharyar Township since 2017. Hlaing Thar Yar Township is a peri-urban area in Yangon that has experienced rapid growth as more and more people from the rural areas seek employment in and around its industrial zones. Informal settlements have sprouted in the township and the community faces multiple risks both from natural hazards (i.e. seasonal flooding) and man-made hazards (i.e. fire, water shortage, criminal cases, accumulation of garbage, and sanitation problems).

The main risks that have been identified in the Cordaid targeted urban community are the lack of proper waste management, poor drainage system, fire outbreaks, crime, floods, and limited access to clean water and sanitation. The most important part that the Cordaid Urban Resilience (UR) team has identified is the need for better systems and structures, in order to address behavior which highly contributes to urban issues. Therefore, Cordaid is setting up Resilient Community Action Planning (RCAP) and implementation strategy with multi-stakeholders’ platform. The consequences of climate change contribute a major threat to the urban population and community. People should be aware of the impacts and must change their behavior to reduce environmental impacts and global warming. Based on 175 paragraphs of New Urban Agenda in the UN HABITAT III, Cordaid Myanmar is focusing on three areas from the following:

• paragraph 51 – urban resilience and environmental sustainability,
• paragraph 63 – pressure on ecosystems, pollution, natural and human-made disasters, and climate change and its related risks,
• paragraph 74 – promote environment and waste management, reducing, reusing and recycling.

The Cordaid Myanmar UR team is currently composed of a program manager and a senior community facilitator and a community facilitator. The Climate Resilience consultancy will be done in Yangon and in Hlaing Tharyar Township. The Climate Resilience consultant will report directly to the Cordaid country director, will closely work with the Program Manager in Hlaing Tharyar, and will train and assist staff from the Yangon Region Environmental Conservation Department (ECD).

Objective of the assignment:

The main objective of the assignment is to strengthen the knowledge of Cordaid staff and Government stakeholders, particularly on climate resilience concepts and frameworks. The training should be linked to climate resilience knowledge for project design, other good practices of the climate actions framework, and climate resilience law and legislation, for the Cordaid country team and the Yangon government.

Secondly the objective is to provide Training of Trainers (ToT) to local NGOs on community awareness raising on climate resilience, and perhaps have a special focus on air pollution(*).

Specifically, the consultancy will focus on the below tasks:

1. To facilitate a training in Yangon to support the high-level knowledge for Cordaid Country team for project design and a framework re. climate resilience;
2. Training to Environmental Conservation Department (ECD) of the Government for enhanced knowledge, concept and planning re. climate resilience;
3. Training to Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and Members of Parliament, particularly on climate resilience concept, planning, and laws and legislation.
4. Co-facilitate with ECD a Training of Trainers for Cordaid field team and Urban Strength team (Cordaid trained CSO) for community awareness raising on climate resilience in Hlaing Tharyar Township.

(*) The topic of air pollution is suggested, as this was discussed between Cordaid and the ECD, as a finding from the New Urban Agenda Forum’s statement held in Myanmar in January 2020.

Skills and Requirement of Consultant:

• Preferable PhD or master’s degree with 10 years experiences in Climate resilience actions.
• A resource person (freelance), who has strong knowledge and experiences on Climate resilience, climate change, climate adaptation and climate actions
• A person who has knowledge on urban context, new urban agenda, urban planning and urban climate
• A person who has background knowledge on Asian context and culture
• An International consultant who can work in Yangon, Myanmar for maximum 25 days
• Able to design and establish a training for higher level participants by collaborating with Cordaid and ECD.
• A person, who has strong facilitation skills, able to provide training with his/her background experiences
• Tools / reference documents:
• Myanmar Climate Change Master Plan (2018-2030), New Urban Agenda (HABITAT III), Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2016), Myanmar climate change strategy (2018-2030), Assessing climate risk in Myanmar (2019 Cordaid report).
• Expected result: At the end of the assignment,
• Cordaid Myanmar Country team has received high-level knowledge on climate resilience concept and framework, and skills on climate resilience project design and planning;
• Environmental Conservation Department (ECD) staff is confident on the required skills of urban climate resilience actions and confident on a future government urban climate resilience master plan;
• Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and Members of Parliament are aware on the importance of climate resilience, urban planning, and related laws and legislation;
• Urban Strength team (Cordaid trained CSO) has full knowledge and role models for community awareness raising and behavior change re. climate resilience in Hlaing Tharyar Township.

How to apply

Please submit your technical and financial proposal (including daily fee rate in Euro) to Cordaid Myanmar via an e-mail to Naw.NauHtoo@cordaid.org not later than 1 June, 2020