Consultancy for Mainstreaming Nationally Determined Contributions Targets & Activities in Provincial Planning through a Gender-sensitive Framework

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A QUALIFIED NATIONAL FIRM/ORGANISATION:

MAINSTREAMING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS (NDC) TARGETS AND ACTIVITIES
IN PROVINCIAL PLANNING THROUGH A GENDER-SENSITIVE FRAMEWORK

BACKGROUND

The NDC Partnership (NDCP) is a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development. Through the Partnership, members leverage their resources and expertise to provide countries with the tools they need to implement their NDCs and combat climate change to build a better future. The Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) is a new offering of the NDCP designed to deliver targeted, fast-track support to countries to enhance the quality, increase the ambition, and implement NDCs.

Viet Nam, through the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has requested technical and financial support under the CAEP specifically to support the mainstreaming of NDC targets and measures into provincial planning in 2020-2021. NDCP members: SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Bank (WB) are providing co-finance and attempting to provide the support requested by MPI.

Viet Nam is currently revising its NDC as well as its National Adaptation Plan (NAP). At the same time the country is embarking on planning processes for the next ten- and five-year periods at national, sectoral and provincial levels. In addition, Viet Nam has also recently revised its Planning Law with new integrated approaches being promoted to streamline and improve planning processes across and between sectors.

SNV is already supporting Lam Dong province transition to a climate smart, low emission land use pathway in Lac Duong District in partnership with the provincial/district authorities and various development partners. With additional funding from the NDC Partnership, SNV will provide further support at the provincial level to ensure that provincial planning integrates and contributes towards national level climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, targets and activities, whilst developing scenarios that consider a wide range of co-benefits. Gender issues will be considered in the planning process and a gender-sensitive framework developed to guide NDC mainstreaming.

A qualified firm/organisation is required to guide and support the mainstreaming of NDC targets and activities in the Lam Dong provincial planning process. The firm/organisation will provide specific technical experts and overall backstopping to the assignment and processes under the guidance of SNV managers and senior technical coordinators. The contracted firm/organisation shall support the development of best-practice approaches and work with Lam Dong provincial authorities to apply them in the field and document and share lessons learned as inputs to improve the consideration of climate change in integrated planning processes in Viet Nam.

OBJECTIVES

The overall objectives of the assignment are to:

1. In collaboration with relevant partners at national and provincial levels, develop a best-practice, gender-sensitive approach towards the mainstreaming of NDC priorities, targets and actions in provincial planning.
2. Support the elaboration of an integrated provincial planning for Lam Dong province that mainstreams NDC priorities, targets and actions.
3. Document and share lessons learned from the planning process as inputs to guide and improve future integrated planning, especially the mainstreaming of climate objectives therein.

TASKS

Technical experts with expertise in climate smart/low emission planning in the agriculture, forestry and tourism sectors, as well as gender, environmental and social impact specialists will work under the guidance of the SNV project manager, provincial planning team leader and international climate smart planning adviser. The experts provided by the firm will also collaborate with staff and consultants from WRI (who are developing overall methodological guidance) as well as national and provincial partners from MPI and other relevant provincial line agencies. Each expert will perform the following tasks with respect to their area of sector expertise:

• Support and participate in an inception workshop to discuss and confirm integrated planning approaches and the mainstreaming of climate objectives therein.
• Conduct a desk-based review of NDC objectives, priorities, targets and actions. Identify those which are particularly relevant for Lam Dong provincial planning procedures.
• Conduct a national level desk-based gender assessment of potential impacts of climate policies and plans/NDC actions, supported by local level assessments at selected sites.
• Conduct a desk-based review of relevant provincial level sectoral plans, including the Socio-economic development plan, Green Growth Action Plan, Provincial REDD+ Action Plan, Climate Change Action Plan and sectoral plans and analyse their contents in relation to NDC targets and actions.
• Assess the impact of previous provincial action plans (e.g. as above) in terms of emission reductions, as well as economic, social (including gender) and environmental impacts (qualitative and quantitative).
• In collaboration with WRI as well as local partners, develop a best-practice yet practical approach and then develop scenarios and potential options for mainstreaming NDC in the provincial planning.
• Conduct orientation workshops to build the capacity of provincial planners and key sectors on climate change projections and impacts on the Central Highlands and Lam Dong; integrated modelling and planning approaches; gender-sensitive planning and consideration of gender in climate actions.
• Conduct consultation workshops on scenarios and the integration of NDC targets and actions within sectoral plans.
• Conduct environmental and social (including gender) assessment and public consultation on preferred scenarios.
• Prepare strategic environmental assessment for Lam Dong provincial planning and recommendations for its integration.
• Produce an integrated technical report summarising the above works (identification of NDC targets and actions relevant to Lam Dong, methodological approach, impacts of previous plans, identification of key policies, actions/measures to support NDC mainstreaming in Lam Dong, development of scenarios, results of public consultation)
• Development of a gender sensitive framework for mainstreaming NDCs in provincial planning (including national and sub-national consultations on the framework).
• Finalisation of provincial planning with NDC mitigation actions mainstreamed (submitted to Lam Dong PPC).
• Prepare presentations and other simple/brief communications materials of key lessons learned and present at lessons learned workshop.

TEAM COMPOSITION/QUALIFICATIONS

In order to perform the above tasks, a multi-disciplinary team is anticipated covering the following key areas of expertise:

• Socio-economic Development Planning (with extensive experience and knowledge of provincial planning processes, especially for Central Highlands provinces) (35 days)
• Climate Smart Agriculture (with specific knowledge of agricultural systems and appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures for the sector planning in the Central Highlands) (35 days)
• Sustainable Tourism Specialist (with specific knowledge on sustainable tourism strategies for the Central Highlands) (35 days)
• Social Development (with experience of SEA/EIA and consideration of social impacts of policies/plans/programmes and knowledge/understanding of livelihoods in the Central Highlands being desirable) (32 days)
• Environmental Specialist (with experience of SEA/EIA processes and consideration of environmental impacts of policies/plans/programmes and experience of environmental assessments in the Central Highlands being desirable). (32 days)
• Gender Specialist (with sound knowledge and understanding of the linkages between climate change and gender in Viet Nam and ability to assess gender-related policy/plan/programme impacts) (45 days)
• Resource Persons and Planning Support: SNV project staff in Hanoi and Lam Dong will largely organise events and activities on the ground, however there is some limited provision for additional resource persons to support data gathering and workshops in the province. (lump)

A team with experiences working with provincial planning and close collaboration with MPI is preferable.

TIMEFRAME

The work specified in this term of reference is expected to be completed within a period of 06 months (June-December 2020).

DELIVERABLES

• Inception report including integrated work plan for the assignment
• Detailed approaches/methodologies for the impact assessments and scenario development
• Training materials
• NDC mainstreaming provincial planning document to be submitted Lam Dong PPC
• Final integrated report
• Summary presentations and brief lessons learned communications products

APPLICATION

The national firm/ organization should submit the following documents/ information:

• Profile of the firm (2 pages) and project references (in simple table 1-2 pages)
• Short technical proposal: 5 pages maximum
• CVs of team members;
• Fee rates of the consultants.

following the link https://smrtr.io/45ggx  by 17.00h, June 12, 2020.