Consultant - Climate Change Scenario Development and Risk Assessment at the Federal Ministry of Environment

The Federal Republic of Nigeria, through the Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment, invites applications from suitable candidates for the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Climate Change Scenario Development and Risk Assessment

Location: Nigeria
Duration: 180 working days
Type of the contract: Consultancy (Request for Proposals (RFP) From A Firm)

Background
The Federal Republic of Nigeria, through the Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment, has received a grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for a project to build capacity to advance National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process in Nigeria. The grant Agreement have the UN Environment as the Delivery Partner for the project, with the role of supporting and overseeing the project implementation. The project entitled "Strengthening Nigeria’s Capacity to Advance the NAP Process" which was officially launched on the 2nd December 2021, will support Multi-Sectoral, medium to long term Adaptation planning and budgeting in Nigeria and promote the integration of climate change adaptation aspects into development planning processes and policies. Systems for developing and sharing climate risk and vulnerability information will be reinforced, and sustainable financing mechanism for Climate Change Adaptation initiatives are set to be developed.

Project Objectives

• The project entitled “Strengthening Nigeria’s Capacity to Advance the NAP Process” which was officially launched on the 2nd December 2021, will support multi-sectoral, medium to long term, adaptation planning and budgeting in Nigeria and promote the integration of climate change adaptation aspects into national and sub-national development planning processes and policies. 
• Systems for developing and sharing climate scenarios, risk and vulnerability information will be reinforced, and sustainable financing mechanisms for implementing climate change adaptation priority initiatives contained in the NAP will be developed.
• The project will formulate the Nigeria’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) with a focus on long term adaptation investment and enhancing national capacity for integration of climate change adaptation in planning, budgeting and financial tracking processes.

Objective of the Assignment
Objectives:

• The consultant’s main objectives are; Support the firm of International experts to develop downscaled climate projections (RCMs using national/regional temperatures and precipitation datasets) and scenarios assessments for the periods (2040–2060) at a planning scale resolution in seven States namely Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and FCT Abuja.
• Support in data collection for the development of an ecosystem-based risk and vulnerability assessments and identification of adaptation options for the six agro-ecological regions in Nigeria.

Tasks
Working closely with the firm of international consultant team the national consultants will undertake tasks related to; data collecting, mobilizing stakeholders and organizing and facilitating workshops and technical work sessions with the International Consultants, contributing to the methodologies and frameworks elaborated by the ICs, contribute to the analysis and report writing and presenting of results and findings including recommendations. Specific tasks are detailed below:

Task 1:

• Contribute to the development of a methodology for producing national climate change scenarios agreed with Government
• Collate available historical national and State level climate records (e.g. temperatures, precipitation) and share with international consultant team to enable their digitization and use for downscaling of GCMs. 
• Support data collection and stakeholder consultation process to develop an institutional engagement plan (timeline, activities and budget) for developing a set of nationally owned climate change projections for the country and at State level for temperature, precipitation and extreme events, building on existing coordination mechanisms for climate change and finding ways to shore up the engagement by different ministries on climate change to date and consensus on the findings. The institutional plan should be aligned to the NAP institutional engagement plan for the country.
• Support in the development of an approach paper that identifies the most cost-effective method of producing climate change projections relevant to the sub-national planning unit. The approach should be selected according to the best way to persuade policy makers and planners to mainstream climate change risks.

Task 2:

• Support the firm of international consultant team to develop downscaled/area-based climate risk projections

Task 3: 

• Support the development of climate risk assessments at National and State level.
• Gather information of climate impacts experienced in the country considering how ecosystem function and other socio-economic stressors affected the impact; Extreme event impacts should be assessed according to the level of return period for that climatic event.
• Establish impacts evidence trend data and or expert opinion on impacts from climatic events in the country and in particular in the seven States.
• In close collaboration with the international consultant team, develop analysis on climate change risks by evaluating changes in return periods and risks arising from climate change scenario analysis, based on expert knowledge and analogues of historic impacts and/or using future climate change scenario results in impact assessment models to assess risk at the local area level (e.g. at State level and lower) for risk indicators that are particularly important e.g soil erosion, heavy rainfall events and impacts on landslides. All causes – environmental, social and economic- of the impact should be considered as the basis for consideration of adaptation strategies that could be followed to mitigate the risk.
• These climate risk assessments should add value to the existing stock of country information and build the capacity of national stakeholders to replicate the modelling and assessment in future planning exercises. 
• A vulnerability assessment should be included in the determination of climate risks. The task should consider the expected development pathways that can contribute to vulnerability, to be developed under the wider NAP project (not under this contract). 
• The consultants should extrapolate the validity of results to the rest of the country, with recommendations for future work.
• Organize, facilitate and, present at stakeholder consultation workshops the draft national and seven State to validate assessment findings and recommendations.
• Contribute to the analysis and report writing led by the international consultant team, and presenting of results

Deliverable
Task 1 Deliverables:

• Collation of available historical national and State level climate records.
• Reports of stakeholder consultations and meetings
• Written contributions to the development of a methodology for producing national climate change scenarios relevant to the subnational planning unit.

Task 2 Deliverables:

• Written contributions to the report on downscaled risk projection and scenarios for five ecological zones and 7 States (Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger & FCT Abuja)
• Workshop report on half-day day capacity building virtual workshop for Department for Climate Change-invited stakeholders on climate change projections.
• Written contributions to the report on downscaled/area-based climate risk projections led by the international consultant team.

Task 3 Deliverables:

• Written contributions to climate risk assessment reports at national and seven States (8 reports)
• Reports on stakeholder consultation workshops and technical meetings.

Qualifications
The successful National Consultant Team will have the following profile:

• A professional team, with Post-Graduate level training and at least 5-years demonstrated work experience, that collectively cover the following disciplines:
• Climate change modelling and climate risk assessments:
  • Hydrology
  • Socioeconomics
  • Adaptation planning and policy
  • Soil and water resource management, coastal zone management; agriculture; forestry Institutional capacity development in the natural resource management sectors.

Application Closing Date
28th July, 2022.