Result of Service

The ultimate result of this assignment is to provide substantive support to national competent authorities to deliver the new NAPs (2025-2035), as per Article 5 of the LBS Protocol.

Work Location

home-based

Expected duration

12 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system’s designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional levels. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. United Nation’s Environment Ecosystems Division works with international and national partners, providing technical assistance and advisory services for the implementation of environmental policy, and strengthening the environmental management capacity of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. This consultancy assignment is for the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) – Programme for the Assessment and Control of Marine Pollution in the Mediterranean (MED POL), Athens, Greece. The Land Based Sources (LBS) Protocol to the Barcelona Convention Protocols was adopted in 1980 and amended in 1996. The amended Protocol entered into force in 2006. As stipulated in Article 5, the LBS Protocol requires the Contracting Parties to elaborate and implement, individually or jointly, as appropriate, national and regional action plans and programmes, containing measures and timetables for their implementation. The principal objective of the NAP development is to identify and prioritize a national programme of measures to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) concerning pollution-related ecological objectives under the ecosystem approach (EcAP) in the framework of the LBS Protocol and the Regional Plans adopted in line with Article 15 of the LBS Protocol. To assist the countries in developing NAPs, MED POL developed in 2015 the “Guidelines for updating National Action Plans for the implementation of the LBS Protocol and its Regional Plans in the framework of SAP MED to achieve Good Environmental Status for pollution-related ECAP ecological objectives”; The “Programme of Work and Budget for 2024-2025,”1 adopted by COP 23 (Portorož, Slovenia, 5-8 December 2023), mandated the MED POL to take national and regional actions including enabling investments, to implement the adopted Regional Plans (Activity 1.2.2). Given the above, there is a need to recruit a regional consultant to support Contracting Parties in the development of the new NAPs (2025-2035) under Article 5 of the LBS Protocol. He/she will work under the direct supervision of the MED POL Programme Officer (Pollution), under the overall guidance of the MED POL Programme Management Officer. The consultant is expected to perform the following tasks: 1. Prepare a detailed work plan for the execution of the following tasks accompanied by a timetable for completion. 2. Provide MEDPOL with an annotated outline of the NAP Report template, including the following main chapters: A. Introduction B. Midterm Benchmarking Assessment C. Assessment of Current status D. Prioritization of the GAPs E. Development of the Implementation Plan F. Development of the Monitoring Plan. 3. Prepare a Mapping Table to record national measures towards Ecological Objectives and adopted regional measures, by considering, inter alia, the following regional elements: • The new 6 Regional Plans; • Recommendations deriving from the 2023 MED QSR; • Other relevant assessments related to H2020 Joint Report, SoED, TDA, (MSFD, WFD where applicable). 4. Support the national authorities in populating the Mapping Table (Task 4) with measures identified at the national level, by considering the following, inter alia, • Measures implemented in previous NAPs (2015-2025); • Measures not implemented in previous NAPs (2015-2025); • New national measures promulgated between 2015 -2025; • National Reports of relevance to the scope of application of the LBS protocol, in addition to other emerging pollutants as per countries’ specificities. 5. Prepare, by using the Mapping Table, a comparative analysis to identify the gaps between the national and the regional measures and provide recommendations to address these gaps, per country. 6. Support national authorities in: • Assessing hot spots and sensitive areas; • Streamlining ECAP objectives and targets into the updated NAPs leading to the achievement EOs/GES targets; • Identifying the list of the contaminants of concern, at the country level, in line with the available list/s at the regional level; • Setting the national operational objectives and targets to achieve EOs/GES; 7. In line with NAP Guidelines (UNEP (DEPI)/MED WG.404/7, Annex G), provide training to national stakeholders and officials to understand and use Cost Effective Analysis and Cost Benefit Analysis (CEA/CBA) on the priority measures; • Identify the requirements for conducting CEA and CBA analysis on measures; • Prepare template for data collection for conducing the CEA and CBA and share it with MEDPOL; 8. Support the national authorities to: • Collect comprehensive data (on the expected environmental, social, and economic benefits of each measure) on the associated costs for prioritization of the selected measures, as well as considering the “business as usual scenario” where necessary; • Assign monetary values to both the costs and benefits, considering market values, replacement costs, or valuation techniques for environmental goods and services. • Calculate the benefit-cost ratio for each measure. • Conduct sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of uncertainties and identify key variables influencing the results. • Rank the measures based on cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost ratios. • Prioritize measures that offer the most significant value for the resources; • Prepare project fiche for the prioritized measures. 9. Support national authorities to develop detailed National Implementation Plans which are sector-based or EO-based (where applicable) including the following elements: • (i) “Operational Targets” and (ii) “Quantifiable Objectives”. • Monitoring Programme and reporting modality. The monitoring of the programme should be based on NAP Indicators, IMAP Indicators and other relevant national indicators. • Capacity Building Activities underpinning the implementation of the proposed plans (i.e., the need for capacity building to achieve the targets/objective set). 10. Support national authorities in the selection of NAP/IMAP Indicators and Key Performance Indicators for the NAP Monitoring Plans. 11. Develop a Project Fiche Template for the priority investment measures and support national authorities to fill the template (up to 10 project fiches per Contracting Party). 12. Provide substantive inputs (meeting documents and presentations) for the two meetings related to the development of NAPs; 13. Review the draft NAP reports (2025-2035) and provide comments and suggestions for inclusion in the final NAP reports, in close collaboration with MED POL. 14. Prepare a compendium on the priority investment measures identified (i.e., project fiches) by all countries and submit it to MEDPOL 15. Prepare the final consultancy report.

Qualifications/special skills

Advanced university degree in environmental engineering, environmental sciences, natural sciences, or related discipline is required A minimum of 5 years’ experience in developing environmental policies, action plans, and budgets is required. Specific experience in pollution control and management is required. Previous experience in the application of UNEP/MAP Guidelines (NAP/NBB) is desirable

Languages

Fluency in oral and written English is required; Knowledge of another UN language is desirable

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.