TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy for Resilience Mapping, Action Plan, and Awareness Raising for Public Officials in The Commonwealth of Dominica

Location: Dominica

Type of Contract: Fixed-term consultancy (9 months)  

Languages Required: English   

Starting date – End date:  November 2021 – July 2022

Supervisor:  Dr. Gerard Jean-Jacques, Chief Development Planner (Ag.)

BACKGROUND

The GoCD has launched an agenda to make Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world. Inherent in this goal is the pursuit of a number of objectives, which have been elaborated in three national documents: The National Resilient Development Strategy (NRDS), the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan (CRRP) and the Manifesto of the Dominica Labour Party (called “Dynamic Dominica”). Inter alia, these promise a campaign of activities and investments that will pursue resilience, innovation, and prosperity. The CRRP has a set of 20 targets to be achieved by 2030, and related outcomes, however identifying where progress has been made and targets achieved will be difficult because baseline information against which to measure progress is scant. This data will in some cases be readily available – it is information held by different ministries. Collecting together the data and making public officials aware of the CRRP goals and how they can contribute to them, is therefore critical to institutionalizing the resilience agenda within the public service in Dominica.

The CRRP 2020-2030 has been adopted by the GoCD and is ambitious in its goal and targets, but for implementation to be achieved and progress to be demonstrated much greater ownership of the plan is needed across the public service in Dominica. At present, many government officials do not see how their agency can contribute, and continue to plan and implement activities that are unrelated to the CRRP and may or may not be contributing to a robust economy, strong communities, enhanced collective consciousness, strengthened institutional systems, protection and leveraging of natural and other assets and well-planned, durable infrastructure. This is in part due to their lack of familiarity with the CRRP and the concepts, results areas and targets therein. It is also due to the fact that baseline data is partial and fragmented. Few government officials have an overview of the current situation with respect to Dominica’s resilience (if situation is better/worse than before and after Maria). Without this information it is difficult to know what level of effort is needed and where attention should be focused. It may be that for some targets Dominica is already well on track to achieving them through continued implementation of existing initiatives. For others, a concerted cross-government effort will be required.

A baseline assessment of relevant resilience initiatives is therefore critical – to identify where data already exists, gaps and further data collection needs, progress already achieved and CRRP priority areas. By engaging with the consultant in this assessment, staff will better understand what data they have available – and can collect through project implementation– that will help to demonstrate achievement.  Even where GoCD staff are familiar with the CRRP they may find the range of challenges presented, targets that need to be met and initiatives that need to be taken forward overwhelming. This can produce inertia. An Action Plan can help overcome this inertia, focusing on priorities areas and setting out a timeline, so actions are sequenced and the Strategic Plans of ministries can be tailored accordingly over the next 9 years. 

Accordingly, the Government of Dominica has launched this consultancy which will provide support to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Planning, Resilience, Sustainable Development, Telecommunications (‘Ministry of Planning’) in four (4) related areas:

1. Review ministry strategic plans and conduct a mapping of resilience initiatives across Dominica
2. Develop a new Strategic Plan template to be adopted by all ministries including a results framework for monitoring the implementation and results of the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan (CRRP).
3. Conduct awareness-raising sessions for public officials on Dominica’s resilience agenda.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

The objectives of the consultancy are:

1. Develop capacities to integrate Dominica’s resilience agenda into planning processes across the GoCD.
2. Review strategic plans and support Ministries in aligning objectives with the CRRP
3. Develop a matrix of actions and performance indicators for all strategic objectives contributing to resilience in Ministry Strategic Plans.
4. Enhance the knowledge of CRRP goals and targets within the Public Service.

Intended outputs are:

1. A spreadsheet of baseline data on resilience initiatives since September 19, 2017.
2. A new strategic planning template and resilience results framework to be inserted in all Strategic Plans.
3. An assessment of the status of implementation of the resilience agenda to date and Action Plan for implementation to 2030.
4. A report highlighting priority outcome areas across Ministry Strategic Plans and recommendations for reporting.
5. Create ownership and awareness amongst public officials of CRRP obligations and actions needed to achieve resilience goal.

METHODOLOGY

The project entails three parallel work streams:

1. Mapping.
2. The consultant will work with the Ministry of Planning to collect baseline data and develop indicators that can be used to map the implementation of all resilience initiatives across the island – structural (infrastructure, legislation etc.) and agential (capacity building), state and non-state since September 19, 2017 (the day succeeding the passage of Hurricane Maria). The consultant will work closely with Officers within the GoCD trained in Geographic Information Systems, who will be responsible for creating a GIS map to spatially represent the data that have been collected.
3. The Knowledge and Results Lead for CREAD will provide advice to the consultant on data needs for each of the CRRP targets.
4. The consultant will work closely with Ministries to support them in developing results frameworks to their strategic plans that align with the CRRP.

• Planning.
• In consultation with all Ministries, the consultant will draft a new Strategic Plan template and a resilience results framework to be inserted within the strategic plans to be used by all ministries in highlighting how their objectives contribute to the CRRP targets.
• Develop a resilience action plan for the Ministry of Planning, highlighting areas that are lagging and in need of attention from across Government. The Action Plan will prioritise actions and set out a schedule for implementation in order to achieve the CRRP 2030 targets.

• Awareness.

(a) The consultant will develop and implement a short set of training sessions to raise awareness of public officials on the CRRP, resilience concepts relevant for Dominica, results areas, targets, and special initiatives that are already underway.

KEY PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND DELIVERABLES

A consultant will undertake the activities below.

Mapping

1. Mapping of key initiatives across Dominica. Categories should include demographic groups, gender, geographical locations, and sectors.
2. Run consultations with senior staff across Ministries and consultants working on Technical Assistance projects to understand the types of data available and currently being collected and gaps (in particular, that which is related to a stronger socio-economic trajectory, reduced vulnerability and exposure to hazards, and capacity to recover).
3. Prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation with results of the baseline assessment and recommendations.
4. Document a review of studies, reports, survey results etc
5. Mapping of data availability and gaps across CRRP targets and results areas, to be summarized in an excel spreadsheet with documents referenced and/or uploaded to a shared drive.

Planning

1. Consultations with the Ministry of Planning and CREAD to lead to the drafting of a Resilience Action Plan, based on the baseline assessment and feedback from the workshops.
2. Review and enhance ministry strategic plans and propose a resilience results framework for monitoring the implementation and results of the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan (CRRP) through the plan;
3. Propose a template for Ministry strategic plans to be adopted by all Ministries, which would allow for the alignment of Ministry plans to the CRRP targets
4. Design a resilience results framework to be completed by ministries and incorporated in their strategic plans.

Awareness

1. Awareness-raising sessions for public officials on Dominica’s resilience agenda.
2. Delivery through 4 workshop sessions with public officials. All participants will be asked to complete a survey on their knowledge of the CRRP before and after the workshop, highlighting targets and initiatives of most interest to them.

Project Duration

The project is expected to last 9 months.

Consultancy Budget

The sum of USD20,000 has been budgeted for this consultancy.[1]

Deliverables

1. An inception report with detailed work plan.  
2. A map of resilience initiatives depicting demographic groups, gender, geographical locations, and sectors.
3. A matrix of the implementation status of the resilience initiatives.
4. Baseline assessment report detailing key resilience initiatives of all ministries, targets, baseline data and methodology used (review of studies, reports, survey results, consultations etc), results and recommendations.
5. A new template for Ministry strategic plans and a resilience results framework.
6. Completion of the National Resilience Results Framework aligning key Ministry objectives and reporting with the CRRP targets, the Dynamic Dominica policy agenda, the CARICOM resilience goals.
7. Four (4) CRRP Awareness-raising workshops with public officials
8. A comprehensive Project Report at the close of the consultancy.

QUALIFICATION AND COMPETENCIES

Applicants are required to possess:

1. Graduate qualification in in an appropriate field of development management,

finance, environmental management or similar;

• Expertise in resilience, climate change adaptation and natural resource management
• Strong project design and management skills, including five years plus experience in the design and/or the implementation of structures for monitoring and reporting on resilience targets;
• Familiarity and experience working with Small-island Developing States; and
• Experience working with governments in the Caribbean.

Applicants should be based on Dominica or be willing to relocate during the period of the consultancy.

PRESENTATION OF OFFER

The following must be submitted:

1. Technical Proposal including:
2. company portfolio of similar relevant assignments,
3. demonstrating expertise of the Firm;
4. Methodology for meeting objectives;
5. an implementation plan; and
6. Management structure and qualification of key personnel.
7. Financial Proposal: Consultants should submit a financial proposal for the training programme not exceeding USD 20,000.

Expression of Interest must be emailed with the Subject : “Expression of Interest for Consultancy Services for Resilience Mapping, Action Plan, and Awareness Raising for Public Officials in The Commonwealth of Dominica” to bcharles@creadominica.org no later than November 5^th, 2021

[1] This sum includes 15% Withholding Tax to be paid by the consultant if a foreign national.