Download Malawi has established weather related early warning systems for

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT PROCUREMENT NOTICE
CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING CENTRALIZED EARLY
WARNING SYSTEMS IN MALAWI
Type of contract:
Individual Consultant
Post level:
Languages required:
National Consultant
English
Duration of initial contract:
30 days (to be completed over a period of
four maximum beginning July 1st 2014)
Country: Malawi (Lilongwe)
1. BACKGROUND
Malawi experiences different types of hazards such as floods, drought, stormy rains, accidents, hailstorms, disease
epidemics, earthquakes and pest infestations. Severe floods regularly overflow the river systems, displacing
hundreds of people and impoverishing them with failed crops and livelihoods. Droughts periodically affect the
country, negatively impacting on food security for many people. The impacts of disasters are enormous and have
hindered the country’s socio-economic development of the country. Disaster Risk Management is very critical for
Malawi to safeguard the economic gains that the country has achieved this far. The Government takes issues of
disaster risk management serious as indicated under theme three, sub-theme two of the Malawi Growth and
Development Strategy (MGDS) and the long term goal of the theme is to reduce the social, economic and
environmental impact of disasters.
In order to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters on people’s livelihoods, Malawi government started developing
a disaster risk management policy in 2011. The policy has been finalized and is awaiting Cabinet approval. The
third policy priority area in the draft National Disaster Risk Management Policy is: development and strengthening
of a people-centred early warning system. One way to effectively reduce disaster risks and adapt to climate change
is by improving weather and climate information and early warning systems in Malawi. Monitoring climate, weather
forecasting and climate change, impacts and using early warning systems to disseminate information to a wide
range of stakeholders from national to local level are important components of successful long-term adaptation to
climate change and disaster risk reduction.
1
Malawi has established weather related early warning systems for floods, strong winds, and drought, among others.
An integrated and people-centred early warning system is necessary for effective disaster preparedness and
response. The Disaster Risk Reduction Framework identified a number of challenges facing early warning systems
in Malawi, including the following:
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
The equipment and process of gathering early warning data and production of warnings are generally
outdated. As a result, potential increase in lead time, which could warn people ahead of time, has not been
possible.
There are also many gaps in the existing early warning networks in terms of geographic coverage and the
hazards for which warnings are produced. In general, there is a bias towards flooding with less emphasis
placed on drought, agricultural stresses and severe weather, such as Mwera winds over Lake Malawi.
The flood early warning system only covers the major rivers leaving out many small rivers which also cause
a lot of flooding.
There is weakness in disseminating the information to the vulnerable communities.
There is inadequate understanding of early warning needs of specific groups of vulnerable people.
There is lack of practical capacity at the community level on the use of early warning information. For
example, often when communities receive early warnings, they do not know the required action to take.
In addition, although there exist a lot of indigenous early warning systems, practices and beliefs, these have not
been studied and documented in detail. Currently, there are multiple ongoing early warning projects being
implemented in Malawi in addition to ongoing national government initiatives. There is currently little horizontal
or vertical coordination between existing projects as well as national, district and community levels. At present a
range of dissemination methods are used including radio (national and local), email, television, print media, internet
websites, telephone, regional and national workshops and cell phones. There is limited understanding of the
effectiveness of these methods particularly regarding effective information, education and communication materials
needed to ensure the dissemination methods are appropriate for all vulnerable persons in a community. Furthermore,
there are no national standards for the development and implementation of EWS projects, which has led to a range
of different and discrete approaches and projects being implemented throughout Malawi.
In 2012 the Government of Malawi signed an agreement with UNDP to implement an early warning system project
entitled: Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems in Malawi for Climate Resilient
Development and Adaptation to Climate Change. The objective of the project is to strengthen the weather, climate
and hydrological monitoring capabilities, early warning systems and delivery of available information for
responding to extreme weather and planning adaptation to climate change in Malawi. The Global Environmental
Facility is providing financial support for the project. The project will run for 4 years and is being coordinated by
the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, with the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological
Services and the Department of Water Resources as the main implementing partners. As a way of providing baseline
information on the current status, DoDMA would like to conduct a comprehensive assessment of current early
warning systems in the country, in order to recommend a way forward and standardize existing and future EWS in
the country.
2. SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSABILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED
ANALYTICAL WORK.
2
The main purpose of this assignment is to undertake a comprehensive review of existing national, district and local
early warning systems and document their strengths and weaknesses. These include systems under government,
non-governmental organization and communities. Although the study will be a national assessment, there are 7
drought and flood prone districts which should be prioritized, namely Karonga, Salima, Nkhota-kota, Rumphi,
Nkhata-bay, Dedza and Phalombe.
To undertake this exercise, DoDMA would like to engage the services of a competent, well qualified and
experienced consultant, to carry out the assessment. The consultant is expected to undertake the following specific
duties:
1. Review key literature on early warning, disaster risk management, climate change that would be relevant
to the assessment. The review should include, as much as possible, a review of early warning systems and
practices being used in other African countries and globally, as well as other areas of similar disaster risk
as Malawi. Other studies that have already been conducted on related issues should also be reviewed;
2. Review of key policy provisions on early warning in key sectors, such as DoCCMS, MoAFS, MoWDI,
DoDMA, etc.
3. Analyse and make recommendations on weather and climate information exchange mechanisms,
communication channels and dissemination mechanisms between DoCCMS, DWR, DoDMA, NGOs and
end-users – to identify overlap, gaps and needs in existing systems, particular in information gathering and
dissemination to local levels, and recommend improvements.
4. Analyse current institutional set up, available tools and methods of flood forecasting and make
recommendations on how the country can establish a compressive flood monitoring and forecasting system
that include modelling and other aspects.
5. Compile current indigenous early warning systems that are based on traditional practices and beliefs in
different parts of the country and distil lessons learned.
6. Assess best practices in early warning systems and practices being used in Malawi, both at local and national
level;
7. Review a selection of ongoing EWS projects in Malawi by different stakeholders, focusing on their
contribution and effectiveness.
6. Make recommendations, basing on the findings to improve the current status.
7. Facilitate stakeholder’s consultative workshops to present the findings of the study.
The assignment requires consultations with different stakeholders at national and district levels, including
community members at the local level.
Deliverables
The consultant will be required to deliver the following:
1. An inception report detailing the strategy to be utilised, work plan and a list of stakeholders and literature
to be consulted. This is expected one week after signing the contract;
2. A draft assessment report. This is expected one week after completing the consultations. The consultations,
including review of key documents and literature, should be conducted and completed within 3 weeks after
the inception report is approved by the client;
3
3. Presentation of the draft report to stakeholders at a national stakeholders workshop, including an overview
of Best Practices and Lessons Learned; and
4. A final report including recommendations for improved EWS and standardization, and incorporating
comments from the national stakeholders’ workshop. This is expected one week after the workshop.
Implementation arrangements
The consultant will be reporting to the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction in the Department of Disaster
Management Affairs (DoDMA). He/she will be expected to work closely with focal points assigned for the GEF
early warning systems project in DoDMA, DoCCMS, DWR and UNDP. The overall timeframe for the exercise is
30 working days spread over a three months period.
3. REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
a. A minimum of Master’s degree in Environment, Disaster Risk Management, Meteorology,
Hydrology, Development Studies or related field. Those with qualifications/expertise in more than
one area will have added advantage.
b. A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in areas of disaster risk management and/or early
warning systems at national and local levels.
c. Experience in conducting comprehensive assessments related to early warning will be an added
advantage
d. Knowledge and understanding of local languages spoken in Malawi as well as current early
warning practices in the country
e. Excellent command of written and spoken English.
f. Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
g. Proven ability to meet deadlines and work with minimum supervision.
4. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS.
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their
qualifications by June 10th to the following email address: [email protected] or apply online
www.jobs.undp.org
1. Technical Proposal:
(i) Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
(ii) Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work
2. Financial Proposal
3. Personal CV or P11 Form including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references
Proposals must include all three documents. Proposals not meeting this requirement will be rejected.
4
5. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Contracts based on daily fee
The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and
payments are made to the Individual Contractor based on the number of days worked.
Travel;
All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station in
Lilongwe /repatriation travel.
6. EVALUATION
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:
1. Cumulative analysis
When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant
whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific
to the solicitation.
* Technical Criteria weight; [70]
* Financial Criteria weight; [30]
Criteria
Weight
Max. Point
Technical
70
100
Criteria A: Educational background
15
Criteria B: Minimum of 5 years professional experience
25
Criteria C: Proven track record of conducting similar
assignments
30
Criteria D: Demonstrated knowledge in disaster risk
management and early warning systems at national and local
levels.
30
Financial
30
5
100
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the
Financial Evaluation
The financial score for the financial proposal will be calculated in the following manner:
Sf = 100 x Fm/F, in which Sf is the financial score, Fm is the lowest price and F the price of the proposal under
consideration.
(Total Financial Maximum points = 100 points)
Total Score
The technical score attained at by each proposal will be used in determining the Total score as follows:
The weights given to the technical and financial proposals are: T= 0.7, F=0.3
The Total score will be calculated by formula: TS = St x 0.7 + Sf x 0.3
TS - Is the total score of the proposal under consideration?
St - is technical score of the proposal under consideration.
Sf - is financial score of the proposal under consideration.
6
ANNEX
ANNEX 1- TERMS OF REFERENCES (TOR)
Government of Malawi
Department of Disaster Management Affairs
Assessment of existing centralized and decentralized early warning systems
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Title
: Assessment of existing centralized and decentralized early warning systems in Malawi.
(Individual Consultant)
Client
: Department of Disaster Management Affairs
Duty Station
: Lilongwe, Malawi
Duration
: 30 Working Days be completed over a period of four three maximum
BACKGROUND
Malawi experiences different types of hazards such as floods, drought, stormy rains, accidents, hailstorms, disease
epidemics, earthquakes and pest infestations. Severe floods regularly overflow the river systems, displacing
hundreds of people and impoverishing them with failed crops and livelihoods. Droughts periodically affect the
country, negatively impacting on food security for many people. The impacts of disasters are enormous and have
hindered the country’s socio-economic development of the country. Disaster Risk Management is very critical for
Malawi to safeguard the economic gains that the country has achieved this far. The Government takes issues of
disaster risk management serious as indicated under theme three, sub-theme two of the Malawi Growth and
Development Strategy (MGDS) and the long term goal of the theme is to reduce the social, economic and
environmental impact of disasters.
7
In order to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters on people’s livelihoods, Malawi government started developing
a disaster risk management policy in 2011. The policy has been finalized and is awaiting Cabinet approval. The
third policy priority area in the draft National Disaster Risk Management Policy is: development and strengthening
of a people-centred early warning system. One way to effectively reduce disaster risks and adapt to climate change
is by improving weather and climate information and early warning systems in Malawi. Monitoring climate, weather
forecasting and climate change, impacts and using early warning systems to disseminate information to a wide
range of stakeholders from national to local level are important components of successful long-term adaptation to
climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Malawi has established weather related early warning systems for floods, strong winds, and drought, among others.
An integrated and people-centred early warning system is necessary for effective disaster preparedness and
response. The Disaster Risk Reduction Framework identified a number of challenges facing early warning systems
in Malawi, including the following:
vii) The equipment and process of gathering early warning data and production of warnings are generally
outdated. As a result, potential increase in lead time, which could warn people ahead of time, has not been
possible.
viii) There are also many gaps in the existing early warning networks in terms of geographic coverage and the
hazards for which warnings are produced. In general, there is a bias towards flooding with less emphasis
placed on drought, agricultural stresses and severe weather, such as Mwera winds over Lake Malawi.
ix) The flood early warning system only covers the major rivers leaving out many small rivers which also cause
a lot of flooding.
x) There is weakness in disseminating the information to the vulnerable communities.
xi) There is inadequate understanding of early warning needs of specific groups of vulnerable people.
xii) There is lack of practical capacity at the community level on the use of early warning information. For
example, often when communities receive early warnings, they do not know the required action to take.
In addition, although there exist a lot of indigenous early warning systems, practices and beliefs, these have not
been studied and documented in detail. Currently, there are multiple ongoing early warning projects being
implemented in Malawi in addition to ongoing national government initiatives. There is currently little horizontal
or vertical coordination between existing projects as well as national, district and community levels. At present a
range of dissemination methods are used including radio (national and local), email, television, print media, internet
websites, telephone, regional and national workshops and cell phones. There is limited understanding of the
effectiveness of these methods particularly regarding effective information, education and communication materials
needed to ensure the dissemination methods are appropriate for all vulnerable persons in a community. Furthermore,
there are no national standards for the development and implementation of EWS projects, which has led to a range
of different and discrete approaches and projects being implemented throughout Malawi.
In 2012 the Government of Malawi signed an agreement with UNDP to implement an early warning system project
entitled: Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems in Malawi for Climate Resilient
Development and Adaptation to Climate Change. The objective of the project is to strengthen the weather, climate
and hydrological monitoring capabilities, early warning systems and delivery of available information for
responding to extreme weather and planning adaptation to climate change in Malawi. The Global Environmental
Facility is providing financial support for the project. The project will run for 4 years and is being coordinated by
the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, with the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological
8
Services and the Department of Water Resources as the main implementing partners. As a way of providing baseline
information on the current status, DoDMA would like to conduct a comprehensive assessment of current early
warning systems in the country, in order to recommend a way forward and standardize existing and future EWS in
the country.
SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The main purpose of this assignment is to undertake a comprehensive review of existing national, district and local
early warning systems and document their strengths and weaknesses. These include systems under government,
non-governmental organization and communities. Although the study will be a national assessment, there are 7
drought and flood prone districts which should be prioritized, namely Karonga, Salima, Nkhota-kota, Rumphi,
Nkhata-bay, Dedza and Phalombe.
To undertake this exercise, DoDMA would like to engage the services of a competent, well qualified and
experienced consultant, to carry out the assessment. The consultant, or team of consultants, is expected to undertake
the following specific duties:
8. Review key literature on early warning, disaster risk management, climate change that would be relevant
to the assessment. The review should include, as much as possible, a review of early warning systems and
practices being used in other African countries and globally, as well as other areas of similar disaster risk
as Malawi. Other studies that have already been conducted on related issues should also be reviewed;
9. Review of key policy provisions on early warning in key sectors, such as DoCCMS, MoAFS, MoWDI,
DoDMA, etc.
10. Analyse and make recommendations on weather and climate information exchange mechanisms,
communication channels and dissemination mechanisms between DoCCMS, DWR, DoDMA, NGOs and
end-users – to identify overlap, gaps and needs in existing systems, particular in information gathering and
dissemination to local levels, and recommend improvements.
11. Analyse current institutional set up, available tools and methods of flood forecasting and make
recommendations on how the country can establish a compressive flood monitoring and forecasting system
that include modelling and other aspects.
12. Compile current indigenous early warning systems that are based on traditional practices and beliefs in
different parts of the country and distil lessons learned.
13. Assess best practices in early warning systems and practices being used in Malawi, both at local and national
level;
14. Review a selection of ongoing EWS projects in Malawi by different stakeholders, focusing on their
contribution and effectiveness.
6. Make recommendations, basing on the findings to improve the current status.
7. Facilitate stakeholder’s consultative workshops to present the findings of the study.
9
The assignment requires consultations with different stakeholders at national and district levels, including
community members at the local level.
REPORTING LINE AND TIMEFRAME
The consultant will be reporting to the Director of Disaster Risk Reduction in the Department of Disaster
Management Affairs. He/she will work closely with Focal Points assigned for the GEF early warning systems
project in DoDMA, DoCCMS, DWR and UNDP. The overall timeframe for the exercise is 30 working days spread
over 10 weeks.
DELIVERABLES
Expected key deliverables:
5. An inception report detailing the strategy to be utilised, work plan and a list of stakeholders and literature
to be consulted. This is expected one week after signing the contract;
6. A draft assessment report. This is expected one week after completing the consultations. The consultations,
including review of key documents and literature, should be conducted and completed within 3 weeks after
the inception report is approved by the client;
7. Presentation of the draft report to stakeholders at a national stakeholders workshop, including an overview
of Best Practices and Lessons Learned; and
8. A final report including recommendations for improved EWS and standardization, and incorporating
comments from the national stakeholders’ workshop. This is expected one week after the workshop.
QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE







A minimum of Masters degree in Environment, Disaster Risk Management, Meteorology, Hydrology,
Development Studies or related field. Those with qualifications/expertise in more than one area will have
added advantage.
A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in areas of disaster risk management and/or early warning
systems at national and local levels.
Experience in conducting comprehensive assessments related to early warning will be an added advantage
Knowledge and understanding of local languages spoken in Malawi as well as current early warning
practices in the country
Excellent command of written and spoken English.
Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
Proven ability to meet deadlines and work with minimum supervision.
10