Expert on ODS Verification and HPMP Technical Assistance

Background

Sound chemical and waste management could reduce the risks of exposure to hazardous chemicals and protect the human health and environment. UNDP Montreal Protocol/chemical Programme focuses on providing policy and technical advisory, design and implementation oversight to the chemical projects funded by Global Environment Facility, the Multilateral Fund, and bilateral donors. Chemical team are organized into a number of substantive technical teams with staff located in both HQs and UNDP’s Regional Hubs in Istanbul, Panama, and Bangkok. Currently, UNDP supports over 73 countries in meeting their obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances and its Kigali Amendment on HFCs, Stockholm convention on POPs, Minamata convention on mercury, as well as strategic approach of international chemical management (SAICM). UNDP has been on the forefront of efforts to advance the Kigali Amendment to tackle the climate change and improve cooling efficiency by partnering with developing countries, MLF, GEF, K-CEP, CCAC, Cool Coalition, bilateral donors and private sectors. UNDP’s Chemicals and Waste Programme helps client countries improve their capacities for sustainable production and consumption, clean air action plan, integrated waste management (healthcare waste, E-waste, plastics), sustainable and non-chemical development in SIDS, promotion of Green/Circular Economy, resource efficiency, good practice in Artisanal and Gold Mining sector (ASGM).

More specifically, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer has the objective to phase-out the ozone depleting substances (ODSs) that are released to the atmosphere. The Multilateral Fund focuses on the elimination of the sources of these ODS by assisting developing countries to implement a series of technical assistance and industrial conversion activities, at country level, so companies that produce and consume these substances can stop using these chemicals.

In order to further protect the climate and the ozone layer, in October of 2016, during the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, held in Rwanda, all Parties agreed to amend the Protocol through what was called the “Kigali Amendment”.? In this regards, the Kigali Agreement establishes specific targets and timetables to phase-down the production and consumption of HFCs, and carries an agreement by developed countries to help finance the transition of developing countries to climate-friendly technologies, a global commitment that will avoid more than 80 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 2050.

The MPU/Chemical is supporting 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific region for the HCFCs Management Plans (HPMPs) and early HFCs Phase-down actions under the Montreal Protocol, including the implementation of the Enabling Activities (EAs) as well as stand-alone investment projects for the Kigali Amendment, funded by the MLF, and in order to verify the ODS consumption targets under the HPMPs and support the completion process of the EAs, the MPU/Chemicals is looking to engage a professional consultant to support the work.

Duties and Responsibilities

The International Consultant, under the direct supervision of the Regional Advisor of the UNDP´s Montreal Protocol Unit (MPU) Regional Team for Asia-Pacific, and in close consultation with the head of the National Ozone Unit (NOU) and the UNDP´s CO Environmental Focal Point in each country, will take the lead in delivering the following activities in the context of the HPMPs:

1. Provide technical guidance to local consultants and project assistants on multi-sector data collection under the HPMPs;
2. AssistNOUs and Project Teams on Policy Advisory related HCFC control and quota issues;
3. Review implementation activities and deliver technical guidance on related Montreal Protocol Policy issues.
4. Undertake annual verification of HPMPs implementation and HCFCs consumption in accordance with the guidelines issues by the Montreal Protocol and following the UNDP Rules and Procedures on individual consultancy.

Duty Station

Home-based, remote work supported by National Ozone Units and UNDP Country Offices.

If visits/missions are to be required these will be subject to covid-19 travel restrictions and procedures. Any travel that could be required to fulfill the Deliverables will be paid at actual cost.

Duration

The contract will be effective from the date of its signature and will be valid up to twelve (12) months.

Fee

The consultant will receive payment based on deliverables specified in the Section 7 of this Terms of Reference. The candidate shall quote his/her services on a lump sum amount basis for tasks mentioned below. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in this TOR, including professional fee, travel costs of mission planned, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. Any unforeseen travel that may be required (shall only be approved by UNDP’s Montreal Protocol Unit) and shall be paid to the consultant as per IC Rules and Principles.

Payment

The contract price will be fixed output-based price, regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per percentages specified in section 7 below. Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the deliverables as mentioned in 7 below, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the Manager.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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 favoritism
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Functional competencies:

• Ability to analyze policy documents and make constructive policy suggestions
• Strong interpersonal, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in a team
• Capacity building skills and flexibility depending on the public
• Demonstration of commitment to the Project’s mission, vision and values
• Good writing and reporting skills
• Good presentation skills
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations, and to meet tight deadlines

Required Skills and Experience

Criteria for selection of individual consultant for award of contract

The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based on a Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and experienced will be weighted a maximum of 70 points and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30 points out of 100 points.

Method: Cumulative analysis method will be used to evaluate proposals.

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

• Responsive, compliant, acceptable; and
• 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%

Financial evaluation (Weight 30%)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Financial Proposal (30% weight of combined score)

Qualification: Only applicants meeting the following minimum requirements will be longlisted:

• University degree in Mechanical/Electrical/Chemical Engineering, Environmental Sciences, or other relevant disciplines.
• Working experience in the area of air-conditioning.
• Proficiency in English.
• Knowledge on Montreal Protocol guidelines and its amendments.

Technical Evaluation

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education, relevant years of experience, language requirements, and knowledge on Montreal Protocol and its amendments will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will be conducted by a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates (those that score at least 70 out of total 100 obtainable scores). The technical evaluation may also include interviews with shortlisted candidate(s). Only applicants obtaining a minimum of 70 points on technical evaluation will be short-listed and will be required to submit Financial proposal.

Application Procedures (Instructions to Applicants

The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:

Step 1: Interested individual consultants submit the following documents:

• Personal History Form (P11) or CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (e-mail and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references (the template can be downloaded from this link: UNDP P-11 Form.
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment. Indicate available start date.
• A brief methodology, on how you will approach and complete the assignment, including a tentative table of contents for the final report; and
• a list of similar assignment with topic/name of the assignment, duration, role of consultant and organization/project.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal:

Only applicants who attain a score of 70% and above on the technical evaluation will be contacted and requested to submit a financial proposal.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

• Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed in USD for this consultancy, using the financial proposal template available here Financial proposal template. The proposals should be sent via email ([email protected]) with the following subject heading: “ODS Verification and HPMP support” by the deadline informed. Proposals to be received after the deadline may be rejected.? In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown.

• Payment will be made upon submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.

The term ‘all inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses will be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP will not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment. The incumbent will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Annexes

(click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 – Financial Proposal Template

Annex 2 – IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Purpose

1. The purpose of the guidelines is to provide guidance for conducting verification of the national consumption targets of the MYAs, bearing in mind the specific reporting requirements in each of these agreements.

Applicability

2. These guidelines are intended for the verification of national consumption targets of multi-year agreements for CFCs, halons, CTC, TCA, and methyl bromide. They do not apply to ODS production sector phase out agreements which are governed by guidelines approved by the Executive Committee in the year 2000; sectorial plans may require additional verification procedures at the sectorial level.

Basis for verification of the national consumption targets of the MYAs

3. Since the MYAs define their achievement targets in annual national maximum allowable consumption of an ODS, the verification of the national consumption targets of the MYAs should use the Montreal Protocol definition of consumption as the basis for the verification of the achievement of the targets (i.e. consumption = production+imports-exports). For those Article 5 countries which do not produce the ODS, the formula can be simplified to be consumption equals imports (minus exports where appropriate). For those countries where ODS is produced, the verification of consumption should include the verification of production which was conducted following the guidelines approved at the Executive Committee’s thirty second meeting. Imports and exports should be verified using the criteria defined herein.

Procedure for the verification

4. The verification should review national legislation, policies and procedures on ODS imports/exports, such as,

 (a) channel of communication between Government (the licensing authority) and customs;

 (b) authorized list of importers/exporters and, where available, distributors;

 (c) conditions of issuing licenses;

 (d) administrative procedures and documentation;

 (e) system of monitoring and reporting on exports of ODS;

 (f) sanctions or penalties to be imposed on violation of legal regulation;

 (g) mechanisms and capacity for prosecution and enforcement

 (f) national system of harmonized custom codes in order to identify ODSs and ODS mixtures;

 (g) procedures to be applied in case of suspicious shipments;

 (h) sampling or other identification methods used.

5. The verification should review official statistics on imports/exports: compare quotas issued versus actual quotas used.

6. The verification should review a representative sample of reports from importers/exporters, and where available of distributors.

7. The verification should review the follow up on the recommendations from previous verifications.

8. The verification should conclude the exercise by discussing conclusions and recommendations.

Data needed for the verification

9. The following information should be available for the purpose of the verification:

  (a) list of authorized importers/exporters, and where available, distributors;

  (b) ODS imports quotas and exports license issued;

  (c) actual ODS imports and exports;

  (d) national policies and procedures on ODS imports and exports;

  (e) government enforcement structure for ODS imports and exports;

  (f) documents such as licenses, trade names, code numbers, labelling, etc, to be presented to customs by importers and exporters of ODS.

Verification document

10. The final verification document should:

  (a) describe the detailed steps and procedures taken to conduct the verification.

  (b) summarize all aspects of national legislation, policies and procedures designed to ensure achievement of the consumption targets in the multi-year agreement.

 (c) provide detailed data demonstrating and confirming that the consumption target in the multi-year agreement was achieved.

Institution/consultant to conduct the verification

11. The choice of the institution/consultant to conduct the verification should generate a reasonable level of confidence that there is no conflict of interest in the process and that the results of the verification are independent and objective.

12. The selection of the candidates for the verification should be made by the responsible implementing agency in consultation with the country concerned. The final selection of the institution/consultant should follow the rules and procedures of the contractor.

(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/46/47, Decision 46/38,?para. 167).

(Supporting document: UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/46/47 Annex XIII).