Consultant (#VN036) (WHO)

Background

In Viet Nam, climate change is expected to pose greater health risks to the Vietnamese community from increases in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events (e.g., more heat events of longer duration, floods, droughts and salt intrusion, wildfires and storm surges), poor air quality, impacts on drinking and recreational water quality, foodborne diseases and vector-borne and zoonotic diseases.

Climate-driven events are impacting communities in many ways. To cope with climate change impacts to communities, it is necessary that communities have a strong capacity, starting from good awareness on health impacts from climate change, capacity to assess their vulnerability and risks to climate change to capacity of making plan for adaptation and mitigation of climate change impacts and for recovery after climate change events.

In 2022, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, with the support of UNDP, has developed a set of indicators to assess vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change in the health sector. In order to be used for conducting V&A assessment for communities, the existing set of indicators in the Annex 1 needs to be tailored.

In addition, VIHEMA with support from WHO is going to build 3 models for climate change resilient communities in 3 selected provinces including Nghe An, Thai Binh and Ca Mau that are considered typical with the most vulnerable communities. Nghe An is typical for drought (water scarcity), heat waves and storm/flood. Thai Binh is vulnerable to typhoon, flood while Ca Mau is vulnerable to sea level rise and salt intrusion. Lessons learnt and experience from these models will be collected and shared nationwide to help communities cope with climate change. To prepare for it, therefore, VIHEMA proposes WHO to support another activity entitled “Capacity building for climate change resilient communities”.

As part of its technical assistance to VIHEMA, WHO is recruiting 01 national expert to provide technical support to VIHEMA in conducting the above activity.

Job Details

Job title: A national Short-term Consultant to provide consulting service in conducting capacity building for climate change resilient communities.
Start date: 15 August 2023 (subject to confirmation)
End date: 31 December 2023
Number of working days as a consultant: 27 non-consecutive working days
Place of assignment: Mainly in Hanoi and travel to conduct field trips in the three provinces
Medical clearance: A medical certificate of fitness for work required
Travel: Expected to travel according to the itinerary and estimated schedule below:
- From 15 Aug. 2023 to 15 Dec. 2023: travel to Nghe An, Thai Binh and Ca Mau
- Purpose: To conduct training and monitoring V&A assessment at the 3 selected communities
Budget: Please take note of the following when submitting application: The contractor will be responsible for paying taxes, if any.

Work to be performed

Purpose of the consultancy: To provide consulting service in conducting capacity building for vulnerability assessment, climate risk assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and climate change adaptation planning in community.

Method(s) to carry out the activity:

In general, a selected national consultant in climate change and health issues will carry out his or her work based on this ToR.
The selected national consultant will work closely with WHO Technical Officer in Environmental Health and VIHEMA focal points to conduct his or her work such to support the government on the development of a set of indicators for V&A assessment in community and development of adaptation plan for the community and deliver trainings at community level.
In addition, the consultant will work with WHO communications team to prepare for stories on models of climate change resilient communities.

Outputs

Output 1: The existing set of indicators for V&A assessment and instruction for V&A assessment process (tools, procedure etc.) and planning for adaptation to be reviewed and revised.

Deliverable: Recommendations for revised set of indicators for V&A assessment/instruction on adaptation plan, tool (forms) and procedure of assessment to be developed, ready for training to build capacity at provincial level.

Output 2: Trainings on V&A assessment and adaptation planning to be conducted at 3 provinces

Deliverable 1: 3 trainings to be conducted (training reports and minutes of meeting, training materials to be submitted)
Deliverable 2: Recommendations for the adaptation plans for V&A developed by each province

Output 3: Implementation of V&A assessment and developing adaptation plan at the 3 selected provinces to be monitored

Deliverable 1: Lessons learnt from conducting V&A assessment at 3 provinces to improve the set of indicators and V&A assessment process.
Deliverable 2: Recommendations for finalized set of indicators and V&A process and tool ready for nationwide use
Deliverable 3: Recommendations for the plan for adaptation of each selected province

Specific requirements

Educational Qualifications required: At least Master degree in public health, environmental health, environmental science or other relevant areas from a recognized university.

Experience required:

The consultant shall (a) have at least 7 years of experience in dealing with climate change, and public health, environmental health, climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment (V&A) or WASH, energy etc.
Experience in conducting V&A assessment for health sector is advantage.

Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

Knowledge on climate change aspects in the countries
Experience and skills in conducting V&A assessment, developing training materials for capacity building and plan for adaptation and mitigation in climate change
Working experience at community level
Training and communication skills.
Team work spirit, co-ordinating skills are needed for this post.

Language requirements: