National Consultant: Study Leader

Background

1. PROJECT TITLE: BIODIVERSITY FINANCE INTIATIVE – PHILIPPINES

B.    Project Description

Since 2014, the United Nations Development Program through its Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) Project, has been supporting the Philippine Government in articulating the financial resources it needs to maintain a healthy biodiversity portfolio in-country. In particular, BIOFIN in collaboration with Department of Natural Resources Biodiversity Management Bureau has conducted the following assessments:  1) Policy and Institutional Review (PIR); 2) Public and Private Biodiversity Expenditure Review (PPBER); 3) Assessment of financial needs (cost and gap analysis of implementing Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP)).  These assessments significantly contributed to the development of a Biodiversity Finance Plan.

Based on insights gained from the results of the three BIOFIN assessments, this Plan acknowledges the importance of tapping additional financing to support the biodiversity agenda of the Philippines, mainly through its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP), referred to henceforth in this Plan as the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP). This Plan is cognizant of the parallel challenges that could not be addressed by generating financing alone: thus, the Plan transcends the focus on generating additional resources and also identifies a range of “finance solutions” that leverage finance, fiscal and economic tools and strategies to improve the outcome of biodiversity objectives in the country. Financing solutions include a range of transformative actions: generating more financing to fund the PBSAP or associated planning documents; appropriate attribution of biodiversity expenditures in the budget; attaining cost effective budget execution by eradicating overlaps in biodiversity functions; eradicating expenditures that continue to or aggravate dissipation of biodiversity resources; and paving the groundwork for a responsive policy environment through greater awareness on biodiversity and biodiversity financing and enhancing institutional support towards monitoring of PBSAP.

The Global BIOFIN Team has selected 6 countries namely Botswana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Philippines and South Africa to conduct the following study, “Nature Financial Disclosure Readiness Policy and Institutional Review” which with in-depth policy, regulatory and institutional analysis with a view to establish enabling environment and incentives/disincentives to increase uptake of the nature-related financial disclosure framework.  This will include an analysis of existing disclosure frameworks and the related policies and regulations as well as a country action plan to reduce the capacity gap and the implementation of nature-financial disclosure frameworks in 2023. The consultant’s output will contribute to efforts in engaging the finance sector and the concerned government agencies in assessing financial disclosure readiness. It will also contribute to mobilizing resources for the PBSAP. 

Note: 

Offerors must upload in one (1) file the documents mentioned above.

Templates for a) P11 Personal History Form and b)  Offeror's Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal (Annex 2) are available through the link below. UNDP General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contractors  are also available:

http://gofile.me/292aN/FJEcICt8l

Incomplete submission of required documents may result in disqualification.

Please see the deadline of submissions above.

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

Duties and Responsibilities

A.    Scope of Work

The Study Leader under the supervision of the Project Manager and BIOFIN Global Senior Technical Advisor will undertake said study which will be composed of three (3) sections as follows:

Section 1. Assessment of institutional, policy and regulatory readiness for disclosure of nature-related finance and risks:

1. List the different financial authorities existing in your country, their overall mandate and their role within the existing climate or nature disclosure. Provide an organigramme showing the linkage between them.
2. Do country’s financial authorities (Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Statistics) currently use legally adopted protocols for assessing, at the national level (or for priority regions) the condition and trends of its national natural capital and ecosystem services (e.g. by SEEA, WAVES, or stress-testing, or tipping point assessments or similar), including analysis of how the condition and trends in natural capital and ecosystem services affect or might affect key economic indicators (such as gross industrial production; domestic materials supply shocks; impacts on agricultural productivity; sovereign debt rating)?
3. What natural capital and services indicators/metrics are used (or should be used) by national financial authorities at the macro-level when monitoring the state of natural capital and services and its impacts on economy?
4. Which Government units are in charge of collecting and collating company disclosure of nature related finance? If there is none, which Government units would be the most appropriate to receive this mandate?
5. Are registrants of the country (real economy companies and financial institutions registered as taxpayers in the country) currently required by law to disclose their nature-related risks? (Includes Environmental Impact Assessment, mandatory ESG report, CSR, etc.).
6. In case there is no mandatory disclosure requirement, do registrants disclose nature-related finance and risks on a voluntary basis? If so, briefly describe: (1) key economic sectors in which companies disclose, (2) how many of the companies report and whether these are leading companies in terms of enterprise value/capitalization, (3) where is the disclosure placed (public space, confidential reporting to Government or financial institutions, sustainable certificates, Insurance policies).
7. If there is no nature related financial disclosure in the country, are there any climate or environmental disclosures framework (TNFD, ESG reporting, etc.) that could provide an entry point to the development of a nature related finance and risk disclosure criteria?
8. Does the central bank provide a sustainable roadmap or green loan guidelines to commercial banks? Do they include biodiversity criteria?
9. Do any banks / credit institutions registered in the country assess nature-related risks as part of investment proposal evaluation? If so: (1) how many banks (% of total number of banks registered in the country), and (2) what are the project-level nature-related risks being currently assessed by banks, (3) discuss whether there are nature-related risks outside the scope of current banks’ investment assessment protocols that need to be factored in given their potential impact in the longer term.
10. Has the national government been reviewing its public budget constitution and tagging principles, aiming to specify within its budget positive, neutral or negative nature expenditure? If so, is classifying its expenditure as nature-negative, neutral or positive based on science? If yes, please describe (or provide reference to) the methodology/criteria being applied. If a Biodiversity Expenditure Review was conducted, please provide the main results, lessons learnt and impact on government decision making.
11. Does the Government apply fiscal instruments (taxes) to discourage its registrants from transferring nature degradation costs on the society and third parties? E.g. Is there a nature tax in place (national or border), charged on polluters and non-sustainable production practices?
12. Are cases of illegal resource use published and prosecuted under national law?
13. Does the Government apply fiscal incentives to encourage nature-related financial and risk disclosure and ultimate wider uptake of zero-impact or positive-impact production activities by its registrants? E.g. are subsidies for third-party certification available from the state (sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, sustainable fishery, etc.)? Or other forms of incentive such as environmental performance-based subsides? How is the certification regulated?

Section 2. Assessment of institutional arrangements readiness and Capacities of National and Local Associations of Economic Agents:

1. In case no Government institution is currently mandated to collect disclosure on nature-related finance and risks from companies, which Government agency would be best fit to assume this function and what capacities gaps would need to be addressed? In case, Government units in charge of collecting and collating this data exist, what are the existing capacity gaps?
2. For the 5 sectors, identify which associations/unions/chambers/cooperatives exist in the country (at national or subregional or local levels), which have mandate and experience and potential to serve as national/subregional/local hubs of providing capacity building for companies in the area of nature related disclosures.

The five sectors are:

• Financial sector
• Food production on land and water
• Forest products
• Extractives and mining
• Infrastructure

As guidance in responding to this question, analyze if – to the best of your knowledge, there is application by any of the associations of currently existing guidance and content on ESG disclosures, such as :

1. CDSB/TCFD Good Practice Handbook
2. WBCSD Practitioner’s Guide for businesses – What does Nature Positive Mean.
3. Nature-positive capacity building of CISL
4. Business for Nature
5. Biological Diversity Protocol
6. Natural Capital Protocol

Section 3: Recommendation and Action Plan

1. How would the institutional arrangement for operations such as sourcing, processing, collating, maintaining, and publishing disclosure be best arranged? What would be the institutional linkages (role of each institution) behind each of the operations named, and how would they interact for maximum efficiency?
2. What digital technologies could facilitate the whole disclosure process, and what costs would need to be incurred by the country (or donors) to facilitate digitalization of the disclosure in the given country?
3. What actions would need to be taken (by Government or donors) to build up the country’s capacity to be fully functional?
4. Provide any additional recommendation you would have, and the next steps needed to be taken to ensure nature financial disclosure in the country.

With assistance from the BIOFIN PMU, the Study Leader shall organize consultations and/or meeting with relevant stakeholders to present the study. S/he shall submit reports as required by the BMB and UNDP.

B.    Expected Outputs and Deliverables

C.    Institutional Arrangement

The BIOFIN Project Manager shall directly supervise the consultant and approve his/her output.

The consultant is expected to liaise/interact/collaborate/meet with the national and global (as necessary) BIOFIN project team, DENR and its units, and UNDP.  As needed, the project staff shall provide administrative assistance to her/him in order for her/him to accomplish all requirements.

The project staff including other project consultants, as well as, relevant technical staff shall provide comment on the outputs of the consultant within 2 weeks of the consultant’s submission of his/her outputs. Should there be further comments, the revised output shall be submitted within a week.  Should there be no comments, the Project Manager shall endorse the consultant’s output/s for approval.

Based on the table above, outputs will be submitted to UNDP and BMB through the Project Manager in the dates indicated. 

UNDP Philippines will not provide a workstation, transportation, or ICT equipment for the consultant.

UNDP Philippines shall be entitled to intellectual property and other proprietary rights over all materials that have direct relation to the project.

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines, all work of the Individual consultant shall be done within the guidelines and protocols set by the local and national government. During the entire duration of the Community Quarantine, this consultancy shall be performed remotely and will be a home-based assignment. The Consultant is expected to have his/her own equipment, office space, and internet connectivity. The Consultant shall not engage in any meetings or activities outside their homes. Coordination/meetings shall be done through phone or online communication until such time that the quarantine is lifted.

The project and the Consultant shall assess once the Community Quarantine is lifted if it is safe and necessary to have in-person meetings and collaboration.

1. Duration of the Work, Duty Station, and Travel

The Contractor will be engaged from June to October 2022 unless revised in a mutually agreed-upon timetable by UNDP and the Contractor. Changes in the duration of the contract will be implemented through the issuance of a contract amendment. The consultant is expected to render a total of 55 person-days spread for 5 months.

Duty station: This is a work-from-home arrangement. The Consultant is not required to report daily at the duty station but shall have an agreed reporting schedule with the project management unit and other relevant UNDP and BMB personnel.

Travel: As may be deemed relevant to the assignment, the Consultant is not required to travel within the Philippines.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

1. Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer and Qualifications of Successful Candidate

The Offers received will be evaluated using a combined scoring method - where technical proposal will be weighted 70 points and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30 points.  

The CV will be reviewed using the criteria in the table below. Only offerors who will obtain a minimum of 70% or 49 out of 70 obtainable points will be shortlisted and considered for evaluation of financial proposal. 

1. Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

1. The Contractor should send the financial proposal based on a daily-fee amount for the delivery of the outputs identified below. The total amount quoted shall be “all inclusive” (professional daily fees X number of days, communications, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor should be factored into the final amount submitted in the proposal. Travel, as deemed relevant by UNDP and compliant with government guidelines on community quarantine, will be arranged and paid for by UNDP and should not be included in the financial proposal.
2. Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense, and upon award of contract, the Contractor must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration
3. Payments will be done upon satisfactory completion of the delivery and submission of daily time sheets. Outputs will be certified by the Project Manager prior to release of payments.

The Payment terms are as follows:

1. Recommended Presentation of Offer

The following documents are 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; and
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.

Offerors must upload in one (1) file the documents mentioned above.

Templates for a) P11 Personal History Form and b)  Offeror's Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal (Annex 2) are available through the link below. UNDP General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contractors  are also available:

http://gofile.me/292aN/FJEcICt8l

Incomplete submission of required documents may result in disqualification.

Please see the deadline of submissions above.

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