National Specialist, Natural Resource Management

Background

The GEF-7 delivery model incorporates three impact programmes which collectively address major drivers of environmental degradation and/or deliver multiple benefits across the many thematic dimensions the GEF is mandated to deliver. These Impact Programmes also contribute in significant ways to each one of GEF’s Focal Area Strategies while at the same time delivering multiple benefits across several Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

One of these impact programmes is the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme (FOLUR IP), which recognizes that the environmental and sustainability challenges associated with food and commodity production systems require an integrated and multi-level approach working across local, national and global scale. Achieving this transition will require a holistic, system-wide approach integrating both horizontal (land and natural resources) and vertical (food value and supply chain) dimensions. Land degradation, declining agricultural productivity, malnutrition and rural poverty are interrelated problems that require a systems-level approach to planning, management, monitoring and decision making.

The “Integrated Landscape Management of Heart of Borneo landscapes in Sabah” is one of the child projects of the GEF-7 FOLUR IP. This project aims to transform land use planning and management in Sabah to contain the footprint of palm oil production and maintain high-value forest for environment and development benefits. This will be achieved through four interrelated components of work, to be undertaken in parallel:

Component 1: Development of integrated landscape management systems in Sabah
Component 2: Promotion of responsible value chains for palm oil and smallholder support

Component 3: Conservation and restoration of natural habitats through public-private-community partnerships
Component 4: Knowledge management and impact monitoring

UNDP Malaysia is currently seeking a qualified National Specialist on Sabah’s natural resource management to support a team of consultants contributing to the delivery of interim Project Preparation Grant (PPG) tasks (see below) and to develop individual funding proposals and project documents (ProDoc) and the corresponding individual CEO endorsement requests (CEO ER) to be submitted for endorsement to the GEF.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Role

The National Consultant will support the PPG team leader aspects of the project design relating to national and sub-national policy, legal and institutional environment and engagement, biodiversity conservation, degraded land restoration, and integrated landscape management and governance issues.

Responsibilities and Deliverables:

The list below outlines key responsibilities and deliverables of this contract. The PPG Initiation Plan for this project provides further and more detailed guidance regarding the responsibilities of the prospective PPG team and must be consulted accordingly.

(A) Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews: Prepare inputs and support the required analyses/studies, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader, including:

Review of national, and local policy and legislative frameworks related to land use planning (including the possibility of conservation/restoration set aside under concession area), commodity production, and sustainable forest management; identification of trends and opportunities for change;
Review of relevant past and ongoing initiatives for lessons learnt and synergies through project;
Profiling of the delineated project landscape, including working with the state governments e.g. Land & Survey, Forestry sectors on mapping current land use and natural resource management;
Undertake the capacity development needs assessment and prepare a capacity development plan (template to be provided);
Coordination of overall site selection process for all on-the-ground interventions (with other PPG team members and in consultation with stakeholders)

(B) Formulation of the ProDoc, CEO Endorsement Request and Mandatory and Project Specific Annexes: Prepare inputs and support the development of final PPG deliverables, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader.

(C) Inception and Validation Workshops (Component C):

Contribute to the inception and validation workshops; and
Support all necessary revisions that arise during the workshop, as appropriate.

(D) Final Deliverables:

Landscape profile
Identification of the targeted intervention sites and help formulate indicative project activities
Review and update of the draft annex on the policy, legal and institutional framework around land use planning, commodity production and sustainable forest management
Review of relevant past and ongoing projects for lessons learnt and application to project design
Prepare a capacity development plan
Review costed action plans for implementation
Support the development of updated ToRs of technical consultancies related to the subject matter

METHODOLOGY

The methodology employs a number of investigative, analytical and consultative methods and tools to complete the tasks; and based on the needs:

Collect data from public domains and official documents including policies, legislation, strategies and plans etc.
Supplement the data analysis with literature review.
Active stakeholder consultations and engagements.

Handling of Data, Information and Documents

All data, information and documents obtained under this assignment is the property of the United Nations Development Programme and be treated as strictly confidential. No such information shall be used by the expert for any other purpose other than the preparation of deliverables.

All soft and hard copies of the data, information and documents must be returned to UNDP upon completion of this assignment.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS, DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Deliverables/ Outputs

Indicative Days

Target Due Dates

Fee (%)

Review and Approvals Required

1. PPG inception workshop report: support PPG Team Leader with the preparation of the inception report

5 days

1 December 2021

10%

UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor

2. Stakeholder consultation and validation workshop: Support PPG team leader with the preparation of validation workshop and report for GEF

10 days

15 December 2021

10%

UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor

3.Final draft of the UNDP-GEF Project Document with the mandatory annexes and the CEO Endorsement Request including:

Landscape profile
Updated annex on policy, legal and institutional framework around land use planning commodity production and sustainable forest management

30 days

28 February 2022

30%

UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor

4.Submission of the documents to UNDP-GEF Directorate for technical clearance and submission to GEF SEC for CEO endorsement

10 days

20 April 2022

30%

UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor

5. Address comments from GEF and completion of assignment upon approval of GEF Secretariat

5 days

30 September 2022

20%

UNDP CO Malaysia and UNDP-Global Environment Finance Regional Technical Advisor

TOTAL

60 days

100%

Institutional Arrangement

The National Consultant will report to and seek approval and/or acceptance of deliverables from the Environmental Focal Point of UNDP Country Office in Malaysia.

The National Consultant is expected to liaise/interact/collaborate/meet with the UNDP Country Office in Malaysia, PPG Team Leader, UNDP-Global Environmental Finance Unit in Bangkok and HQ, and collaborate with the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources as the lead implementing government agency and other agencies including Sabah Forestry Department etc.

Duration of the work

The assignment will require up to 60 days starting from 15 November 2021 until 31 December 2022.

Duty Station

Home-based with occasional trips to Putrajaya. This assignment also requires one return trip of domestic travel to Sabah, estimated 10 days, the COVID-19 travel restrictions permitting;
Consultant has to complete the new mandatory security awareness training prior to commencement of travel: BSAFE;
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/.
Consultants will be responsible for providing her/his own work station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to reliable internet connection;
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;

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates high moral integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
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.

Functional competencies:

Strong analytical, writing and communication skills.
Excellent financial and budgetary skills.
Ability to prepare concept note and proposal.
Strong motivation and ability to work and deliver under short deadlines.
Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to critical feedback.
Able to work independently with little or no supervision.
Familiarity with UNDP and government strongly desired.
Due to the current COVID-19 travel restrictions, potential candidates currently based in Sabah may be given priority consideration should he/she has a minimal score difference with the top candidate who is not based in Sabah.

Required Skills and Experience

This assignment is open to Malaysian nationals and/or with permanent resident status.

Education:

Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field, such as natural sciences, environmental studies or other related fields (15 points).

Experience:

Minimum 10 years of demonstrable experience in land use policy and landscape planning, natural resource management in Sabah and/or Malaysia (20 points).
At least 5 years of experience in preparation and review of policies, legal and regulatory frameworks for natural resource management (20 points).
At least 3 years of experience in food systems, land use and restoration, or biodiversity related project design/development in Sabah or other parts of Malaysia (10 points).
Experience with UNDP and/or GEF is an advantage (5 points).

Language Requirement:

Fluency in written and spoken English and Bahasa Malaysia.