| Overview : National governments have demonstrated clear commitment to fulfilling their mandates for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in ways that are compatible with national development goals, and to finding a diverse range of funding sources for biodiversity management. UNDP believes that a transformation is needed in the way that biodiversity finance is planned and managed, in order to unlock resources to meet the Aichi Targets defined in the CBD’s Strategic Plan 2011-2020 in a manner that promotes sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. The global Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) is managed by UNDP, in partnership with the European Commission and the Governments of Germany and Switzerland. The $15 million initiative was launched in October 2012 and will run for three years, with further support being sought to extend it. An additional $3.1 million in finance is provided through several GEF-financed UNDP-managed projects working in pilot countries to support governments to revise National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, to ensure sustainable financing of Protected Areas, and to establish Payments for Ecosystem Services mechanisms. BIOFIN aims to develop a methodology for quantifying the biodiversity finance gap at national level, for improving cost-effectiveness through mainstreaming of biodiversity into national development and sectoral planning, and for developing comprehensive national resource mobilising strategies. BIOFIN will thus provide a framework for undertaking “bottom-up” analyses and resource mobilisation strategies, embedded in a transformative process led by national stakeholders, aimed at allowing countries to implement their NBSAPs and achieve national biodiversity targets. BIOFIN will feed into the development of NBSAPs, while the NBSAP projects in turn will provide a platform for integration into decision-making processes. The BIOFIN Project aims to recruit a Policy and Institutional National Expert who/which will be responsible to start the BIOFIN process at the national level and to complete part 1A+B (Policy and Institutional Review). Documentation required Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
- 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.
- Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
- Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II.
Relevant templates can be obtained from the UNDP Fiji website under the procurement section: www.fj.undp.org. Completed proposals should be submitted to procurement.fj@undp.org no later than 14th August 2015. | 
