River Basin Management – Water Resources Expert Consultancy (Laos national)

Company Description

SNV (www.snv.org) is a not-for-profit international development organization. Founded in the Netherlands 50 years ago, we have built a long-term, local presence in 38 of the poorest countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors work with local partners to equip communities, businesses and organizations with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services – empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development.

SNV has been working in Laos since 2004. Using market-based approaches, SNV is committed to reducing poverty by catalysing environmentally sustainable solutions for the poor in agriculture, energy, water & sanitation.

For many years in water sector, the emphasis has been on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), but integration is not an end in itself. SNV sees integration as a means and emphasises the need for equitable water resource management (EWRM) between people, generations, and nature. Nowadays, EWRM becomes one of key water sector strategies. To move forward more EWRM, SNV aims to strengthens multi-level water governance, improves the availability and use of global and local data, calls for greater accountability for water use, extraction, and pollution, and introduces improved financing and investment models for water resource management and the maintenance of grey and green investment.

Within and across the sector, we integrate three core themes including Gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), Climate adaptation and mitigation, Strong institutions and effective governance. The transformation of water systems requires increased transparency and accountability when it comes to governance. We are working hard to ensure that process and outcomes become more inclusive and equitable; and we remain firm believers that water is at the heart of climate action. We also aim to intensify our collaboration across sectors where relevant, in order to increase our impact.

Rationale of the assignment

Laos is located in the Mekong region, shares borders and water resources with other countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. There is crucial need to establish river basin collaboration schemes to manage the transboundary water resource and promote its beneficial development for the socio-economic wellbeing and safeguarding of the basin environment. The vision and objectives of any collaboration will be pursued through the implementation of an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan and Strategic Action Programme (SAP). To develop a practical and feasible SAP, a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) is an essential step that will provide the factual basis for the negotiation and formulation of the SAP to be structured around the key priority (root causes) areas of concern identified in the TDA.

TDA/SAP is a collaborative process and the SAP is a negotiated policy document that should be endorsed at the highest level. It establishes clear priorities for action to resolve the priority transboundary problems identified in the TDA. Two key elements of the SAP are: (1) a well-defined baseline provided by the TDA; (2) monitoring and evaluation procedures to measure effectiveness of the outcomes of the process for the implementation of the managerial actions agreed by the countries and included in the SAP.

This ToR seeks a consultant with applied experience of TDA processes to support the development of this TDA.

Job Description

Scope of Work

The consultant will support the development of a targeted TDA. The process will be highly consultative with strong engagement of related parties and cooperation with expert groups on different thematic/technical themes as needed to support the process.

The comprehensive assessment will focus on the targeted basins and the consultant will carry out the following tasks, but not limited to, in consultation with SNV and targeted parities:

• Identify the transboundary issues, making use of the project studies and reports.
• Support stakeholders to gather and interpret information on environmental impacts and socio-economic consequences of each problem/impact.
• Analyse the immediate, underlying, new/emerging, and root causes of each challenge; and in particular identify specific practices, sources, locations, and human activities of relevant sectors that are causing, or threatening to cause environmental degradation.
• Facilitate TDA workshops and meetings with different stakeholders at national, basin and community levels.
• Validate findings and areas of analysis prior to finalisation of the reports, to ensure ownership and close coordination with relevant state Party representatives and within the framework of transboundary water cooperation including promotion of joint actions to address basin environmental sustainability and management challenges.

The current consultancy is expected to start around Q2 2024.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• At least a Master’s degree in a field of hydrology, political, biology, agronomy, environmental, social sciences and/or in a field related to water resources management, disaster risks and climate change adaptation.
• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in the field of water resource management in Lao PDR
• Experience in conducting Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis processes.
• Experience in water accounting analyses.
• Competence in adaptive management, as applied to International Waters transboundary fresh water systems;
• Fluent in Laos with a high proficiency in English

Additional Information

• Duration of the contract
• The total estimated days for this assignment is 40 days. The consultant is required to propose consultant rate, which will be negotiated with SNV.
• Place of Performance
• This assignment will be based in Vientiane, with frequent travel to project locations
• Submission and evaluation criteria
• To apply for this consultancy, please submit your CV and a resume (1 page max). The resume should include a brief of your background and experience on TDA processes, attached or link of those examples, and the daily rate (in euros) expected by the consultant.
• Contract type
• Consultancy
• Key Steps in the Selection Process 3
• If you believe that your credentials meet the outlined profile, we invite you to apply by uploading your CV (not more than three pages with three referees) and motivation letter (not more than 1 page) by clicking on the “I’m interested” button on, SmartRecruiter before 15th February 2024
• We will require you to provide us with the details of three people willing to act as referees. We will not contact these referees without your explicit permission. Please note that reference checks may be conducted before the selection decision.
• Should SNV wish to proceed with your application, two interviews with the Selection Committee will occur.

ONLY SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONTACTED.

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