Position:                                 Expert for training on using Biosphere Reserve as an effective tool for Climate Change response

Report to:                                Biosphere Reserve as an Approach for CC resilience in the Red River          Delta’s Project Manager

Working place:                        In Hanoi and/or other MCD’s projects sites at local upon request

Introduction about MCD

Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) is a Vietnamese non-governmental organization established in 2003, actives in marine conservation, improve coastal community livelihoods and sustainable development in Vietnam’s coastal zones.

MCD recognizes that marine and coastal environment where brings livelihoods, foods and marine eco-services that needed to protect and develop to ensure the quality of community lives and country development. The degradation of marine ecosystem will reduce opportunities of coastal community at the present as well as in the future, thus MCD’s objective is to support coastal community to harmonize environment protection and economic-social development.

With the technical support of MAB Vietnam, 08 Biosphere Reserves have been so far recognised by UNESCO in Vietnam. Despite the varied scale and active level the Biosphere Reserves in Vietnam have increasingly demonstrated their role as an effective management tool and sustainability practices for responding to climate change. Cat Ba and Red River Biosphere Reserves have entered 10 years of operation since their establishment in 2004, along with the achievements many challenges still exist, particularly in the use of Biosphere Reserve as effective tools to apply to climate change responding practices in 04 provinces engaged in Biosphere Reserves.

Vietnam’s Forests and Deltas Program (VFD) funded by USAID are planned to implement within period of 05 years in order to facilitate the transformation of Vietnam in responding to climate change to develop sustainably and reduce green house gases emission. The project will participate in the implementation of national policies and strategies about responding to climate change and developing with low emission, focus on reducing emissions from the forestry and agriculture as well as in creased improve livelihoods and adaptation settled smart with climate, especially in rural areas. The project’s main objective is to address the risk of long-term climate change, taking into account gender issues within forest and plain landscape.

MCD has involved in supporting Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve operations since 2008 and recently conducted climate change related interventions in both Red River Delta and Cat Ba BRs. In the framework of the project “Biosphere Reserve – approach to climate change adaptation in the Red River Delta” funded by USAID through Winrock International in Vietnam, a training session on using BR to facilitate climate change actions are provided to local key actors in both RRD and CB BRs, allowing them to be prepared with relevant capability to facilitate the implementation process of the BRs prioritized action plans that have been developed upon the inputs from provincial stakeholders in reference to the performance evaluation results. In such context, an international expert is mobilised to prepare the worldwide lessons and experience along with conceptual knowledge using BR to address climate change issues.

Job Description

The involvement of the international expert is described as follows

1. Objectives

In general, objective of consultancy service from the international expert is to support MCD to implement a training session on using Biosphere Reserve for addressing climate change issues.

2. Tasks

Review the international and national good practices/case studies on using Biosphere Reserve as an effective tool for Climate Change response and document into a full report

3. Timeframe and expected results

Period of assignment and terms: July 16, 2015 to July 26, 2015

• 01 full report on the international and national good practices/case studies on using Biosphere Reserve as an effective tool for Climate Change response
• 01 presentation briefing the key results from the assignment

Requirements

• At least Master degree (or equivalent experience) in the related field
• Minimum ten (05) years of professional experience in a field related research and training;
• Proven skills in capacity building of local government agencies with experience providing trainings on the above mentioned topics;
• Relevant understanding UNESCO related initiatives is an advantage
  • Fluent in written and spoken English.

How to apply:

Interested candidates are kindly requested to submit a proposal in English, which should include:

–        CVs of the expert (team)

–        Technical and financial proposals for undertaking this job

Deadline for submission: by 17.00 July 15, 2015.

Sent to: minhhoang@mcdvn.azurewebsites.net and admin@mcdvn.azurewebsites.net with a title “Biosphere Reserve international expert”.

The successful proposal will be selected on a competitive basis, with considerations on quality of the technical proposal and the cost-effectiveness of the financial proposal.

Refer to details at www.mcdvietnam.org