CONSULTANTS TO ASSESS CAPACITY NEEDS OF NATIONAL AND REGIONAL WATER INSTITUTIONS

Duty Station : Home based with regional travel
Application Deadline : 30 October 2012
Type of Contract : Individual (One from each IGAD Member State)
Contract Post Level : Short-term Consultant
Starting Date : November 2012
Contract Duration: Two months, renewable

Background

The Inland Water Resources Management Programme (INWRMP) forms part of a major donor-supported effort to strengthen and reinforce the mandate of IGAD on behalf of its member states. The key issues that the region has faced in the past decade are related to instability arising from poor governance and scarcity of water resources, coupled with the vagaries of the climate. Shortage of water undermines the people’s well-being and is at the source of conflicts.

There are a number of international rivers and lake basins, and transboundary groundwater bodies in the region. Six out of eight of the IGAD countries are riparian to the Nile. While several international agreements have been concluded over time to deal with water management issues within the Nile basin, there are not many agreements relating to the other shared water resources. The existing ones are dated and deal mainly with boundary demarcation and in few instances, with traditional water rights in border areas.

In each country we expect the existence of a number of water and IWRM related institutions active in training of technicians and professionals and in research which have needs for capacity building and reinforcements. We expect that the national training institutions will implement basic courses in water management and technologies and develop skills of their students following international accepted curricula and text books. The weak point we expect is the research component to orient the training toward practical problems in the field and for which special effort and resources are necessary. We also expect that certain countries have progressed much more in the level of training and research then others. It is important to identify these differences and to make use of certain strengths and manpower resources which certain training institutions have over others. This could create opportunities for regional cooperation and exchanges.

The IGAD countries would greatly benefit from an overall regional policy in capacity building and training of staff who could be attached to implementation of water resource activities especially  within the context of multilateral agreements for specific river basins (other than the Nile) and groundwater bodies. Once legal agreements do exist, there is a framework  for application of water improvement plans and water basin plans requiring technicians and professionals from IWRM institutions. There are certain selected transboundary priority areas for which agreements on water resource management are desirable and where water resource initiatives like water harvesting are very important.

With this in mind, IGAD has started the implementation of the INWRMP. One of the four result area is the strengthening of regional and national institutions for water resource management ( Result Area 3)

The activities for this result area are: 

•    Compile an inventory and make assessment of key relevant training and research and water resource management institutions
•    Conduct a national  validation workshops about capacity building needs
•    Conduct a regional workshop to identify common areas of capacity building that could be  organized at regional level for cost effectiveness.
•    Design & Implement Support Programme - Conduct another regional workshop to share information on regional capacity building needs with potential training institutions in water resources management in the region. Identified institutions will be asked for competitive bidding for the provision of regional sustainable water management training programmes / modules.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the IGAD-INWRMP TA Team, the incumbent shall:

Collect, review and analyze information about all the water resource related training and research institutions in the country at national level and at local level .  The information to be collected will be a check list of items as basis for structured dialogue with the institutions as well as basis for collection of key documents

Collect, review and analyze existing studies and consultant reports of these institutions related to IWRM.

Review and analyze water resources management  training and capacity building needs in the country, and discuss these issues with officials of the national water-related institutions, with a view to identifying the issues of national and regional relevance

Collect, review and analyze information of the land management and planning, institutions  and stakeholders active  within river basins especially in border areas .

Collect, review and analyze information NGO’s and private sector agencies active   in the IWRM in border areas.

Assessment of the institutions on 5 dimensions of capacity such as: 
•    Act and commit
•    Deliver on development objective
•    Adapt and self-renew
•    Relate to external stakeholders
•    Achieve coherence, which will be given to the consultant on an agreed format.

Prepare a draft national report which shall highlight the gaps and strengths of the existing training and research programmes, as well as the issues arising in connection with water resources management in the country, indicating those which are of regional relevance and those which are national

Participate in a national workshop to present the draft report and discuss the findings and recommendations;

Finalize the national report by incorporating the comments and recommendations of the workshop participants

The incumbent shall initially travel to Djibouti to discuss the national report outline with the IGAD-INWRMP TA Team, the national consultants from the other IGAD member countries and the regional consultant.

Competencies

The selected candidate should be fluent in English, and have:

•    Good knowledge of water resources management-related issues;
•    Knowledge of the training and research issues arising in connection with water resources management;
•    Knowledge of the main features, functions and powers of water-related institutions, whether at the national level or at decentralized levels of administration, or at the river basin level;
•    Writing and analytical skills;
•    Ability to work under pressure and deliver high quality results on time.

Qualifications and Experience

•    University degree in economics, environmental engineering, business administration, social sciences , land use planning or in a water resources management-related discipline (but in the latter case the knowledge and understanding  in organizational and institutional changes are required).
•    Minimum  5 years of experience working as trainer or researcher on  water management or technology issues.
•    Experience working with water-related institutions, international organizations, research institutes or NGOs dealing with water resources.
•    Computer literacy.

How to apply

Applications shall include: 

•    Curriculum Vitae;
•    Cover letter including a clear identification of the vacancy reference number and a brief explanation of what you believe makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.

The above should be sent to the following address: nimo.hassan@igad.int  with copy to hr@igad.int