Sustainable Energy/GEF Project Development Expert at UNDP

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights, capacity development and the empowerment of women.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Sustainable Energy/GEF Project Development Expert

Location: Home based with travel to Nigeria, NIGERIA

Background
Nigeria has the third highest rate of deforestation in the world: 3.7% or 410,000 hectares of forests annually; with some areas in the South losing over 1,000 hectares/year. The country has lost almost 50% of its forest resources between 1990 and 2010 when its forest area shrank from 17 mln hectares down to 9 mln hectares. With continuation of current trends unaltered it is a matter of just a few decades when all Nigeria’s forests might be gone. Unsustainable and constantly growing consumption of fuelwood by Nigerian households is one of the main causes of deforestation. More than half of the 9.6 million hectares of rain forest belt in the south of Nigeria has been used to meet the demand for fuelwood in rural and urban areas. Fuelwood use has grown from 50 mln m3/year in 1990 up to 70 mln m3/year and accounts for significantly higher share of forest product use than, for example, commercial logging; the latter makes only 11 mln3/year in 2010 and didn’t register any major changes in the last decades. This increase is largely due to population growth, but also due to the absence of affordable alternatives, especially for the poorest consumers. On the contrary, due to rising prices for fossils fuels, a massive shift from “modern” fuels like kerosene and LPG back to fuel wood has been taking place (“reverse substitution with wood fuel”, according to the FAO). Deforestation is the largest source of GHG emissions in Nigeria: it is responsible for 40% of national CO2 emissions. According to National Communication to UNFCCC, under baseline scenario emissions from deforestation will increase from 9.5 MtC/year in 1990 up to 26.5 MtC/year in 2030 (based on a conservative deforestation rate of only 2.6%).

To address acute deforestation crisis in Nigeria, UNDP has initiated a GEF-funded project aimed at promoting sustainable fuel wood management in Nigeria, with a specific geographic focus on the Cross River State. Its objective is to promote sustainable fuel wood production and consumption to secure the flow of multiple environmental benefits, including carbon storage and sequestration, and ensure that basic human development needs are met without compromising eco-system ability to provide global environmental services.

The project consists of several components, namely:

Component 1:

• Sustainable Fuelwood Supply. This component is aimed at building capacity for and demonstrating a model for sustainable fuelwood production and forest management in three pilot project sites.
• It will entail implementation of a sustainable community-run forest management system over an area of at least 50,000 ha during a total period of five years, from which fuelwood would be sustainably sources.

Component 2:

• Fuelwood Demand Management. This component will help rural communities to assess and manage in a sustainable manner their energy demand.
• The work will start with understanding local energy needs, current energy use practices and technologies (with a special focus on women) and explore potential for their improvement, including by looking at the availability, affordability and feasibility of alternative resources and technologies for a given community (such as improved cook stoves, solar, biogas and other RE applications).

Component 3:

• Domestic Industry for Clean Cook Stoves and Other Clean Energy Alternatives. Project will work with current cook stove producers to help improve quality and scale-up production of efficient biomass cook stove products.
• This will include assistance to manufacturers to design a very low cost solution for BOP market, including investigating sourcing and production models such as using recycled materials to lower the cost of potential solutions.
• The project will also provide support to local entrepreneurs and youths across key value chain activities, such as business management, manufacturing, distribution and marketing.
• Finally, it will support scaling-up of existing programs to other geographical locations, e.g. by helping reduce distribution costs via engagement of local NGOs, community and women organizations.

Component 4:

• Financial models for sustainable fuelwood management. The purpose of the component is to identify and implement appropriate financial models in order to make clean cooking stoves and other alternative energy solutions affordable to consumers.

Component 5:

• National and state-level policies and enabling environment for sustainable fuelwood management.
• This component will improve enabling policy framework for integrated forest and energy management in the Cross River State and nation-wide.

Duties and Responsibilities
The end result of assignment will be completed Request for CEO Endorsement and Project Document for the UNDP-GEF FSP “Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project in Nigeria”.

The task of the Consultant will be to ensure that essential steps in the process of scoping the UNDP-GEF FSP “Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project in Nigeria” and development of the relevant Project Document to be submitted for CEO Endorsement are undertaken in line with respective GEF guidance.

To this end, the Consultant will be responsible for mobilizing and leading the team of national experts for planning and effectively undertaking the required surveys and preparatory field work, establishing dialogue and a working relationship with stakeholders (funding partners, national counterparts and local communities), and the timely delivery of the agreed documents.

Under the overall guidance of UNDP Head of Environment & Energy, UNDP CO and in coordination with the national consultants and as informed by guidance from the UNDP/GEF Regional Technical Advisor, the Consultant/Sustainable Energy/GEF Expert (acting in his/her individual capacity) will be tasked with the following duties and responsibilities:

Activity 1 –Baseline data collection and information gap analysis on fuel-wood consumption in Nigeria and Cross River State:

• Review and finalize TORs for a team of local consultants to be hired under the PP;
• Review baseline information and data collected and delivered by the local experts;
• Assess and summarize fuelwood consumption patterns based on the information collected by local experts;
• Assess GHG emissions from fuewood consumption under baseline scenario. Local experts’s inputs will be required on assessing current GHG emission levels in co-ordination with relevant national partners;
• Identify primary root causes of unsustainable fuelwood use and barriers sustainable fuelwood management;
• Identify and summarize relevant project and programs of the Government and development partners which seeks to address root causes of deforestation and barriers to unsustainable fuelwood management under BAU;
• Draft the situation/baseline analysis.

Activity 2 – Institutional capacity assessment, regulatory and legal context for sustainable fuelwood management (SFM) in Nigeria:

• Analyze information on existing policies, legal and regulatory and institutional framework for fuelwood management collected by local experts;
• Prepare a gap analysis of the policy and legal framework and institutional capacities of involved stakeholders at national and state level;
• Provide expertise on the international best practices and lessons learnt in the design and implementation of SFM policies and programmes;
• Provide (international) expertise regarding adequate policy frameworks, legislation and standards

Activity 3 – Stakeholder Engagement and Ownership/Endorsement:

• Oversee and guide stakeholder analysis among national and state-level government agencies, industrial and private sector, civil society and academic institutions to be made by local experts;
• Identify stakeholders’ interests and current and potential roles in energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy management activities;
• Assess opportunities for public-private partnerships;
• Propose capacity building and awareness raising measures;
• Facilitate stakeholder consultations to ensure local and national ownership of the proposed project;
• Develop stakeholders’ involvement strategy;
• Discuss and agree all recommendations and implementation plan with project partners and stakeholders;
• The international expert will be supported by the national expert to facilitate stakeholder consultations and communication throughout the FSP development, in addition to co-ordination and support provided by UNDP CO.

Activity 4 – Design of pilot models for sustainable fuelwood production and forest management:

• Propose criteria for selection and prioritization of pilot sites and SFM measures;
• In consultation with relevant stakeholders and partners, identify pilot sites, measures and modalities of their implementations;
• Conduct preliminary GHG emission reduction assessment for pilot projects and propose adequate Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) system;
• Define, together with the support of the national expert(s), investment components of pilot projects, including cost-benefit analysis and potential sources of co-financing

Activity 5 – Project Scoping and Definition:

• Define the full-sized project scope and logical framework based on the results of baseline analysis, stakeholder consultation and approved PIF:
• List of priority barriers to SFM;
• A set of viable outcomes, outputs and activities that constitute the most effective response to the identified barriers to promoting SFM;
• Justified and confirmed choice of GEF-supported demonstration projects;
• Scope of activities for promoting SFM and of domestic markets for energy efficient cookstoves;
• Social, economic and financial sustainability of proposed project activities;
• Cost-effectiveness analysis to identify the most effective project alternative;
• Detailed incremental cost analysis to justify GEF intervention for FSP;
• Financing plan for the FSP project;
• Costing of expected project outcomes and outputs, co-financing sources and co-financing commitments in compliance with the GEF incrementality principle;
• Description of local, national and global environmental benefits (climate change mitigation, land degradation, and sustainable forest management);
• Project M&E plan, including a set of indicators (as prescribed by relevant GEF FA tracking tool) to track the project’s progress and effectiveness, baseline and target values on indicators;
• A logical framework with indicators for the FSP implementation plan;
• Learning and replication strategy;
• Prepare “Tracking Tools” constituting the necessary component of the full-size project document submittal;
• Revise the elaborated FSP scoping to address the comments/suggestions made by GEFSec, STAP and other reviewers;
• Finalize and submit to UNDP the Request for CEO Endorsement document and Project Document for the UNDP-GEF FSP “Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project in Nigeria”.

Deliverables and time-lines
Deliverable 1: Analysis of the baseline and draft project logframe- Sept. 2014
Deliverable 2: Draft Request for CEO Approval and UNDP/GEF FSP Project Document-Dec. 2014
Deliverable 3: Final Request for CEO Approval and UNDP/GEF FSP Project Document-May 2015

Reporting:
The Consultant must ensure timely preparation and submission of the Request for CEO Endorsement/Approval and comprehensive Project Document for UNDP-GEF FSP “Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project in Nigeria”. All reports must be submitted in English to the UNDP CO in Nigeria and made in accordance with GEF-UNDP’s templates and requirements to reporting (available at www.thegef.org).

In the course of the assignment, the consultant will be expected to undertake 3 missions to Nigeria. Cumulatively missions will tentatively last for up to 15 days (each mission-one week). The dates for this mission will be agreed upon between the consultant and UNDP-Nigeria.

Competencies
Functional Competencies:

• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
• Proven communication and leadership skills;
• Excellent team player with good interpersonal skills;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment;
• Strong strategic planning, results-based management and reporting capabilities;
• Basic knowledge of carbon finance tools and markets. Display cultural, gender, religion, nationality and age related sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to conduct research and analysis with strong synthesis skills;
• Ability to build strong relationships with national consultants; focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to critical feedback; consensus-oriented.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

• Advanced university degree in energy/environment or related field.

Experience:

• At least ten (10) years of working experience in the field of sustainable energy;
• Experience with preparation and supporting implementation of GEF-funded climate change mitigation projects;
• Practical experience in financial and economic analysis and incremental cost analysis in accordance with requirements and based on criteria applied by the GEF;
• Previous experience of working in African countries, specifically in Nigeria, for climate change mitigation and/or sustainable energy projects will be an asset.

Language:
Fluent in English.

Application Closing Date:
31st July, 2014

How to Apply
Interested candidates should
Click here to apply