Senior Law Expert

Vacancy code VA/2012/B5103/334

Level ICS-11

Department/office EMO, International Waters

Duty station Home based, The Russian Federation, Mongolia. Position includes travel to both countries, Russian Federation

Contract type International ICA

Contract level IICA-3

Application period 20-Apr-2012 to 20-May-2012

Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement.

Please note that UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.

This vacancy is closed.

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Background Information - UNOPS

“UNOPS plays a critical role in providing management services for our life-saving, peacebuilding, humanitarian and development operations. I have seen many examples of how these activities help suffering people in troubled parts of the world.”
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Background Info - BU IWC

International Waters Cluster The UNOPS International Waters Cluster specializes...

Functional Responsibilities

1. General Background The project’s objective is to spearhead inte...

1. General Background

The project’s objective is to spearhead integrated natural resource management of Baikal Lake Basin and Hövsgöl Lake ensuring ecosystem resilience, reduced water quality threats in the context of sustainable economic development. The project has three primary components: elaborating a strategic policy and planning framework; strengthening institutional capacity for IWRM; and demonstrating water quality and biodiversity mainstreaming practice, including groundwater monitoring and protection.
This project builds upon a solid, decades-old baseline of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Mongolia on the transboundary waters of the Selenga River and by extension the Baikal Basin itself. To date, international support for environmental conservation and management in the Baikal Basin has not been transboundary in orientation; little support has been provided the two countries in strengthening their transboundary cooperation to manage sustainably the globally significant environmental benefits represented by the incomparable Lake Baikal and its transboundary Basin, at the top of which lies Mongolia’s aquatic jewel, Lake Hovsgol. In addition to this solid baseline of transboundary cooperation are two rapidly growing economic baselines in mining and tourism, with mining being the biggest and fastest growing economic activity in the Baikal Basin and tourism a smaller but also rapidly growing sector in both the Russian and Mongolian portions of the Baikal Basin. Both of these sectors hold much promise in becoming better stewards of the Baikal Basin’s aquatic ecosystems. In the absence of a GEF investment, these barriers are likely to continue hampering an effective transboundary response to the critical threats that are already impacting the ecosystem health and resilience of the Baikal Basin.
Successful implementation of a regional project like “Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Baikal Basin Transboundary Ecosystem”, to a large degree depends on effective implementation and ownership of project-inspired work at the national and local levels.

2. Purpose and Scope of Assignment

Lake Baikal and its transboundary basin including Lake Hovsgol represent an unparalleled global benefit in terms of international waters and biodiversity values. While past and current efforts to protect and sustainably utilize the environment and its natural resources are impressive, they are insufficient to the task of addressing the threats to the health of the Baikal Basin’s interconnected aquatic ecosystems. These threats include: climate change, pollution and sedimentation, nutrient loading, and habitat destruction. To address these threats successfully conservation work must move beyond the protected area limits and into the 87% of the Basin that is not protected where natural resource exploitation continues without regard to ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation objectives. Significant barriers hamper both countries’ ability to move ahead both within their national jurisdictions and jointly on a robust transboundary level. These barriers include: policy and regulatory gaps, institutional weaknesses, poor utilization of BAT/BEP relevant to key issues facing the Basin, and low levels of awareness of transboundary BB issues.

Overall, the basic legal and policy frameworks for the conservation and sustainable management of the Baikal Basin are in place. From a transboundary perspective, lacking are specific laws or policies enabling the transboundary monitoring of aquatic ecosystem health both in Russia and Mongolia. The regulatory basis for ecosystem conservation and water-pollution prevention in Baikal has not yet been completed. For example, the regulatory and policy mechanisms needed to implement SAP, as well as sub-basin watershed management plans are as yet uncertain. Several scientific components for SAP development and implementation remain yet to be completed, particularly with regard to the extent of groundwater / surface water interconnectivity in the region, especially along the Selenga River; and accumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the benthic sediments and biota of the Basin’s rivers, deltas and lakes. Neither Russian, nor Mongolian law adequately stipulates clear and practical environmental quality standards for ground water and surface water. The two are inextricably linked in most river systems. The picture of water quality threats from industrial and mining sites remains incomplete; and measures on how best to handle residual pollution problems from abandoned mining sites have not been defined in policies on either side of the border. The EIA procedures do not properly address biodiversity risks; and sectoral programs are operating without standards for minimization or reduction of impacts to biodiversity. Tourism laws and policies focus more upon the economic aspects of tourism development and promotion and give short shrift to detailing guidelines and training on mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem health management objectives into tourism planning and management practices, including utilizing new tools such as certification incentives for environmentally sustainable behavior by tourism operators.

None of the existing bodies set up at bilateral and national levels (the Joint Task Force, and the Baikal Commission in Russia) have the authority, budget and cooperative framework necessary to reduce threats / barriers to water quality and biodiversity objectives.

The EIA process does not adequately address biodiversity conservation considerations. Even though Russia has established national procedures for assessing environmental impacts of economic projects, or any other activity that may have direct or indirect impacts on the environment, and biodiversity is an obligatory part of EIA content, there are still some barriers to fully integrating biodiversity conservation considerations into all phases of mining and tourism sector investment projects.

Obstacles to capacity building among involved stakeholders relate in part to peculiarities of public “environmental” awareness in the region.

Capacity building will occur at the transboundary, national and local levels in support of Russian and Mongolian efforts to establish effective structures and mechanisms for protecting water resources and biodiversity through integrated basin management. The Joint Commission for the Baikal Basin will be established and capacitated. One inter-ministerial committee will be set up each in Russia and in Mongolia, tasked with managing the decision-making processes for approval and implementation of integrated sub-basin watershed management plans.

Currently, cooperation between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Mongolia on the Selenga River and Lake Baikal is governed by the “Agreement on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Waters” (Ulan-Bator, 11.02.1995).The agreement established a Joint Task Force, chaired at the Minister-level, to facilitate co-operation to protect the Selenga river.

Under the supervision of the Project Manager, the Law Expert will assist in Output 2.1. Joint Commission for the Baikal / Selenga Basin to be developed on the basis of the current joint Russian - Mongolian Task Force on Transboundary Water Use and Protection.

The Project will assist the two countries to enhance the activities and responsibilities of the Joint Task Force through the formation of a new Joint Commission, with expanded participation by other relevant sectors and by civil society. The Join Commission is envisioned as a policy-setting organization, with nationally-appointed natural resource officials from the Russian Federation and Mongolia. In support of this body, a Science Advisory Group (SAG) will be created to assist the Joint Commission by providing recommendations in support of the ongoing implementation of the SAP. The Joint Commission will meet on a regular basis and among its duties will oversee negotiations on the TDA & SAP. The PMU will back up the Joint Commission with technical and financial support for regular meetings, to facilitate the contributions of the Science Advisory Group; to aid the Joint Commission review process for TDA and SAP approvals and to provide technical advice to the Joint Commission’s efforts in drafting a new transboundary treaty. Project resources will assist more frequent working meetings of Joint Commission members related to TDA and SAP review and approval.

The consultants are expected to deliver the following results:

Assess the current status of bilateral water cooperation between Mongolia and the Russian Federation; ascertain existing gaps and inadequacies in the legal and institutional framework of transboundary cooperation and its implementation.
Identify possible options in enhancing the extant legal and institutional framework and mechanisms of transboundary cooperation including, if necessary, new institutional arrangements (such as a Joint bilateral Commission)
Conduct consultations with key stakeholders in both countries on possible options in developing and enhancement of the existing legal framework and institutional mechanisms
Assist the countries’ Plenipotentiaries and Science Advisory Group (SAG) in transboundary law issues.
Participate in Meeting of Plenipotentiaries and present results achieved.

3. Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Detailed calendar plan for activities to be carried out within the framework of the consultancy.
• Concept paper on the development and further enhancement of the legal and institutional framework (including, if appropriate, elements of a revised transboundary water agreement between Mongolia and the Russian Federation)
• Road map for the process of developing and enhancing the legal and institutional framework of bilateral transboundary water cooperation.

The Consultant shall undertake one visit to the Moscow, one visit to Ulan-Bator with one day stop in Ulan-Ude within the scope this assignment.
Please note that the shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide price offers. Price offers will include only consultancy fees.

Payment will be made in 3 installments based on the acceptance of the required deliverables by the Project Manager as specified below:

20% payment as a first installment upon the submission of a Detailed calendar plan for activities to be carried out within the framework of the consultancy
40% remaining payment upon submission of a Concept paper on the development and further enhancement of the legal and institutional framework; – no later than by 31 September 2012.
40% remaining payment upon submission of Road map for the process of developing and enhancing the legal and institutional framework of bilateral transboundary water cooperation – no later than by 31 October 2012.

In the case that the conditions of the TOR are not met, the contract may be terminated and the consultancy fee reduced.
The consultant shall work under the direct guidance of the Project Manager, and report to the Project Manager.
The expert will be supported by the Project management unit (PMU), as required.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Post-graduate degree (or similar knowledge obtained in another manner) in enviro...

Competencies

Knowledge and experience on the environment and development of transitional and ...

Contract type, level and duration

Contract type: IICA Contract level: 3 Contract duration: 30 working days (possib...

Additional Considerations

Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time (CET) Applica...

This vacancy is closed.

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