South East Asia Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO)
The UNOPS East Asia and Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops, and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across Northeast Asia, South East Asia, and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered four countries in South East Asia - 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam) and the Philippines. As a result, EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries across Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises nine business units: SEMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Lao PDR, EAPMCO Philippines, and EAPMCO Cambodia.
Southeast Asia Regional Programme for Combating Marine Plastic (SEA-MaP)
The Southeast Asia Regional Program on Combating Marine Plastics Regional Project (the SEA-MaP Regional Project) is funded by the World Bank. It supports the implementation of the ASEAN Regional Action Plan (RAP) for Combating Marine Debris. It focuses on reducing plastics consumption, increasing recycling, and minimizing leakages to prevent land and sea-based marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. In addition, it strengthens plastics policies and regulatory frameworks and promotes innovative solutions to help reduce plastic pollution in Southeast Asia.
ASEAN implements the SEA-MaP Regional Project through the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) within the ASEAN structure and mechanisms for collaboration and consultation across the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and with development partners. A Project Steering Committee (PSC) includes the ASEAN Working Group on Coastal Marine Environment (AWGCME) and senior officials at ASEAN – Chaired by the Chair of the AWGCME. In addition, a Project Management Unit (PMU) is established within the ASEC with project oversight, monitoring, and reporting responsibilities.
ASEAN entered an Outputs Agreement with UNOPS, under which the parties agreed on the functions UNOPS executes to assist ASEAN in project activities. Accordingly, UNOPS extends its operational support to ASEAN on project implementation, procurement, financial management, environmental and social framework, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. To this end, a Regional Implementation Support Unit (RISU) has been established by UNOPS in Jakarta and acts as the back-end technical support unit to the PMU.
UNOPS assigns the development of the deliverables through procurement to separate contractors/entities. Standard procurement processes identify implementing partners (requests for Expression of Interest, Bids, Proposals documents, etc.). The list of deliverables under UNOPS’s purview is the following:
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Regional Baseline Report (including on policies)
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Guidebook for Common Methodologies for Assessment and Monitoring of Plastic Pollution
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Extended Producer Responsibility Handbook and Customized Toolkit
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Annual Technology/Innovation Expos
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Regional Platform for Innovation and Investment
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Web Platform/Marketplace for Innovation and Investment
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Regional Guidebook on Standards for Responsible Plastic Waste Trade and Standards for Sorted Plastics and Recycled Plastics
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Regional Guidebook on Phasing Out Single-Use Plastics
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Best Practice Manual on Standards for Plastic Packaging
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Regional Training Program on Plastics and Plastic Waste Management
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Regional Guidebook on Financing Mechanisms for Investments in Plastic Waste Management
Scope of the assignment
Against this backdrop, UNOPS seeks to develop a roster of Technical Advisors, Individual Contractors (retainers) to assist the RISU in providing backstopping support for the SEA-MaP Regional Project to provide quality assurance and technical advice to program activities. Three (3) experts with different specialization will be recruited for the roster. Retainer experts will play a critical technical advisory role and provide punctual input and support in preparing the bids and TOR of the assignments and evaluating the proposals submitted by bidders. In addition, the experts will also ensure the high-level technical quality of the products of the activities and provide technical advice to the SEA-MaP Regional Project on marine plastics-related aspects.
The spectrum of expertise required is driven by the deliverables of the SEA-MaP Regional Project, as mentioned above, and includes areas such as Plastic Waste Management and Marine Litter; Financial Model/ Financial Analysis; Capacity Building; etc.
Cumulatively, the pool of retainers will provide a set of expertise but not limited to:
Advocacy, strategic linkage and policy actions:
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Plastic life-cycle policies (circular economy); policy analysis, policy recommendations development of policy documents.
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Experience in applying circular economy approaches to plastics and environmental policy-related projects in Southeast Asia.
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Familiar with local regulations and benchmarks in the ASEAN region with applicable best practices to identify opportunities and gaps that could be limiting broader adoption of plastics circularity.
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Policy and private interventions needed to enable plastics recycling in ASEAN and material value that can be unlocked through interventions.
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Experienced in arranging high-level discussions with government, academia, development entities, activists, bilateral agencies, private sector and development banks.
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Etc.
Circular economy technologies and innovation
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Circular economy, solid waste management, plastic-related initiatives, plastics issues, plastic pollution prevention, and related topics.
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Plastic waste recycling system, new and advanced technologies. Familiar with the current state-of-play for the local waste plastics recycling industry, including demand and supply volumes, market opportunity, growth drivers, and constraints.
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Private sector players and ecosystem in the ASEAN plastics value chain and market drivers and challenges in scaling up circular economy approaches, specifically focused on recycling.
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Factors and barriers affecting plastics reuse, recovery, or recycling across the value chains for different resins and the size of the addressable opportunities.
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Existing plastics value chain across production, collection, recycling, wastage, imports, and exports in ASEAN.
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Innovation in packaging/labelling/plastic alternatives, solutions for substituting single-use plastic, etc.
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Develop networks of promising innovators, arrange grooming and capacity enhancement to prepare them for highly effective international innovation models.
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Community engagement in reducing plastic waste, etc.
Financial instruments, investment, funding opportunities:
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Financing opportunities offered by government, private and global actors like private equity; debt financing/loans; corporate loans and strategic investments; development bank financing; venture capital; accelerator/incubator funding; public investment/initial public offerings.
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Government opportunities, including sustainability-focused and other financial instruments as made available by national institutions; private incentives, including the commitments that numerous companies have initiated voluntarily and mandatorily leveraging the emerging EPR policies to address the problems arising from the plastic supply chain or that are considering investing in plastic recycling due to the growing demand for recycled resins. Global opportunities offered include schemes of the ADB; DEG; IFC; JAICA; Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility (Blue Bond); Circulate Capital Ocean Fund; etc.
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Fiscal instruments (taxation, fees, bonds, funds, etc.) for environmental conservation
Monitoring process, research, data, and analysis:
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Experience in policy-relevant indicators and indicator systems.
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Relevant quantitative work on environmental data and statistics.
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Familiarity with various assessment methods related to plastics and plastic pollution.
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Data analysis, estimation, calculation, and monitoring tools/ methods on Plastic waste management etc.