Procurement Notices

Project Title: UNDP Early Recovery Programme

Project Description

On 2 December 2019, Typhoon Kammuri (locally named Tisoy) made landfall as a Category 3 typhoon near the city of Gubat in Sorsogon province, with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour. On 3 December, the eye of the typhoon carried sustained winds of up to 175 kph hour and gustiness of up to 240 kph as the system moved westward, picking up speed and making three subsequent landfalls across central Philippines, in Masbate, Marinduque and Oriental Mindoro, before exiting the Philippine Area of Responsibility in the morning of 5 December 2019.

Typhoon Kammuri hit particularly hard in Bicol region (Region 5), with over 1,200,000 of people affected and more than 256,000 houses partially or completely damaged. Based on the 2018 statistics, 27 per cent of people in Bicol live below the poverty line and their main economic activity is shing and farming. Prior to Tisoy, there were already pre-existing vulnerabilities of the affected population, particularly among low income families residing in high-risk areas and in houses made of light materials. The geographical location makes the region vulnerable to natural emergencies and many areas of the region have been impacted by Typhoon Niña in 2017 and Typhoon Usman in 2018, which has geared the communities to adopt emergency preparedness and response strategies that rely primarily on their internal resources.

The Rapid Assessment of Impact and Needs undertaken by the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) last 6-7 December 2019 in close coordination with the OCD and the PDRRMOs identified the importance of addressing increased needs of shelter, food security and agriculture, WASH, health, education, livelihoods and early recovery.

In 11 out of 19 assessed municipalities, food security of households is a top priority. The top 3 most affected commodities are rice (estimated damage amounts to PhP827 million; 23,422 ha and 4,255 rice farmers are affected; mostly in Camarines Sur and Albay).

Nine months after Kammuri, rice farmers in Albay province have slowly returned to their day-to-day farming activities and are slowly recovering from the immediate impact of the disaster. The coronavirus pandemic however, are once again threatening the livelihoods of these small-owner farmers.

Part of UNDP’s early recovery work is the piloting of weather index-based insurance for rice crop as a risk transfer mechanism to mitigate effects of disasters, e.g., drought [low rainfall] and flooding [excess rainfall].

Towards this end, UNDP seeks to support the establishment of digital financial platform for cash transfers, financial literacy and enrolment of rice farmers in weather index-based insurance (WIBI) to protect farm investments against future catastrophic events. To facilitate the introduction of the WIBI scheme to the farmerns a WIBI Specialist shall be hired.

Institutional Arrangement

For the duration of the contract, the WIBI Specialist will be supervised by Early Recovery Project Coordinator under the overall guidance and supervision of the Climate Action Team Leader and/or her designate. S/he shall closely coordinate with national government agency partners, local government unit agencies, and pilot farming communities, as needed.

Duration of the Work

The IC is expected to work for 50 working days spread over 5 months (5) months from November 11, 2020 until March 31, 2021.

Duty Station

The duty station is in Manila. However, in compliance to the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines. All work and travel of the Individual consultant shall be done within the guidelines and protocols set by the local and national government. The WIBI Specialist is not expected to report on a daily basis to the UNDP Country Office in Mandaluyong City but shall work remotely and on on-call.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The financial proposal should be expressed in lump sum amount inclusive of all financial costs related to this engagement (i.e., such as communications and other miscellaneous expenses) to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense, and upon award of contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration.

Payments will be made when specific outputs have been submitted, as outlined below:

Duties and Responsibilities

The WIBI Specialist who will work closely with the UNDP CO, PCIC Central Office and PCIC Region 5, the Municipal Agricultural Offices of Camalig, Daraga and Legazpi City in Albay Province, and rice farmer-beneficiaries for the implementation of this project and is tasked but not limited to:

Develop the indices for WIBI Low Rainfall and Excess Rainfall for the target pilot sites (municipalities) in Albay applicable for the upcoming wet cropping period of 2020.

• Work with UNDP and PCIC on the criteria for selection/assessment of farmer-beneficiaries for WIBI inclusion.
• Assist in the coordination of the project with PCIC Region 5 as well as preparatory activities such as trainings, workshops and meetings as provided in the workplan.
• Assist in the information sharing of WIBI (WIBI Literacy) to project partners and farmer-beneficiaries.
• Validate the applicability of the indices developed for Low Rainfall through matching of index breaches and actual yields of farmer beneficiaries including the data set from the recent WIBI 2-in-1 pilot.
• Validate the applicability of the indices developed for Excess Rainfall through matching of index breaches and actual yields of farmer beneficiaries.
• Initiate the introduction of the alternative indices, breach assessments and payout computations to PCIC management for consideration as a new WIBI product for Low Rainfall.
• Capacitate PCIC Region 5 in terms of WIBI’s procedure on weather data monitoring and breach assessments.
• Conduct a comparative analysis of breach assessments and payouts between the existing WIBI procedure and proposed alternative methods including the data set from the recent WIBI 2-in-1 pilot.
• Attend and participate in all activities, meetings and workshops held for the WIBI Technical Working Group.

With the mobility restrictions imposed by the authorities due to the pandemic, the WIBI Specialist shall work remotely; however, he/she can conduct site visits/monitoring if situation improves and travel to the site is permitted.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

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

Functional and technical competencies

• Ability to work in a diverse and multi-cultural environment
• Self-motivated and ability to work under pressure and to meet strict and competing deadlines
• Displays analytical judgment and demonstrated ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture or higher and other related sciences

Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture or higher and other related sciences
• With at least 2 years training background and knowledgeable in Weather Index-Based Insurance, rainfall data assessment and index development, climate change and disaster risk reduction
• With at least 1 published and unpublished studies on rainfall indices and WIBI
• Has more than 3 years work experience with governments, both national agencies and local government units?on agriculture related activities

Language:

• Proficient in English and Filipino

Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%

The WIBI Specialist should meet the following minimum requirements:

Recommended Presentation of Offer

For purposes of generating Offers whose contents are uniformly presented and to facilitate their comparative analysis, it is best to recommend the preferred contents and presentation of the Offer to be submitted, as well as the format/sequencing of their presentation. The following documents may be requested:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. 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;
3. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.?

Interested applicants to note that personal Medical/health insurance (to be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense) is mandatory for the issuance of contracts. Upon award of the contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during the contract duration.

They must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications at the given link https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=95018. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document. 

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.