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Introduction

Country: Laos

Description of the Assignment:

Period of assignment/services : 50 working days.

Following from an earlier assessment of incentives, and using available local information, the consultant will build the BIOFIN plan for Lao. while working with two national consultants:

1. Prepare an inception workshop to discuss financing and alternatives with stakeholders.

2. A biodiversity expenditure review must be conducted, assessing spending related to biodiversity across all sectors (e.g., energy, transport, infrastructure, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, environment, extractive industries). This review includes an inventory of existing financing mechanisms used for biodiversity, key subsidies that affect biodiversity, and biodiversity related revenues. The report will explore how finance and economics can be used to address the main drivers of biodiversity loss. This review process is used to further clarify relevant stakeholders and their specific mandates, institutional arrangements, policy changes required, and capacity related to the NBSAP and biodiversity finance. Existing economic valuation studies will be reviewed and integrated into the analysis.

3. The consultant will provide an expenditure review to assess financial needs, with cost projections for the new NBSAP for priority activities to determine the national financing gap.

4. A previous assessment of negative and positive incentives will be reviewed, with an aim to determine what changes could be made to each, and the possibility of repurposing negative incentives. Positive incentives may be suggested where possible.

5. A policy review will be completed for relevant policies, laws and regulations and how these may impact financing for biodiversity, with the assistance of a national consultant. The policy review will provide inputs into policy development processes as per government requests/emerging opportunities (national/sectoral development plans/NBSAPs/legislation on biodiversity finance). Policy recommendations, including possible reforms of harmful policies, subsidies, and other incentives that contribute to biodiversity loss will be incorporated into the report to aid national planning strategies.

6. A plan for domestic resource mobilization/biodiversity finance planning will be developed, along with a national action plan to fill the finance gap for the Lao GBF-based targets by 2030.

7. There should be a clear monitoring system for finance and national reporting on finance included in the final BIOFIN Plan and report.

8. The consultant will assess the possibility for innovative financing and funding mechanisms relevant to Lao PDR, such as debt swaps for nature protection, payments for ecosystem services, green bonds, etc., will be provided in the report. The report will indicate one or more priority solutions likely to show significant or relatively rapid results.

9. The consultant will provide training on BIOFIN to raise the capacity and awareness with national government staff from relevant departments, on the basic concepts of biodiversity financing.

10. An expected result of the consultancy is to assess the need for a national ‘biodiversity finance working group’ and, if so, to recommend its composition.

11. The final report should include a set of measures or activities addressing legal, institutional, entrepreneurial, financial, awareness, and capacity requirements to put the BIOFIN results into action.

12. The draft full “BIOFIN Plan” will be presented at a national consultation and validation workshop to receive comments and to validate the plan before the final version is provided to UNDP.

Workplan

The work will primarily be conducted as home-based using available reports, including the preliminary incentives report, the report on policy gaps for biodiversity conservation, and with information collected by the national consultants. In addition, the consultant is expected to travel to Lao PDR to discuss funding with government agencies in Vientiane, NGOs, and other major stakeholders, to understand current funding issues. The international consultant will work with, and direct the work of two national consultants who will assist in all local activities, during missions in Lao PDR. The national consultants will be available to conduct research as directed to assist, especially of documents written in Lao language, based on the direction and technical support from the international consultant. The international consultant will act as principal technical contact with the global BIOFIN team on all questions and issues that arise for national BIOFIN implementation in Lao.

To achieve the stated objectives, the consultant shall provide the following:

The deliverables are the following:

• Inception Phase: Inception workshop and inception report

• Biodiversity finance policy and institutional review on subsidies and financing mechanisms

• Biodiversity expenditure review and a financial needs assessment

• Biodiversity finance plan including finance solutions and implementation plan with project proposals for suggested activities.

• Project synthesis report and policy briefs including specific policy recommendations/papers for relevant national/sectoral policy processes

• Outreach with capacity-building to government on financing of biodiversity conservation

• Draft BIOFIN summary report to be presented at a validation workshop

• Final overall BIOFIN plan report to include the above individual reports, following a validation workshop

All outputs and documents where applicable to be submitted in electronic form (soft copy) with approved formats compatible with Microsoft Office and Adobe Image and other files in approved formats.

Proposal should be submitted directly in the portal no later than indicated deadline.

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