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Ref.
2024/IAOHERIFCIP/12391

Job offer type
Experts

Type of contract
Service contract

Activity sectors
Sustainable development

Deadline date
2025/01/20 23:59

Duration of the assignment
Beaded expertise

Contract
Freelancer

Duration
from the contract award date to 5 July 2027

Mission description

As part of the national component of the EU-FCCB Programme, Expertise France is seeking to recruit an international expert able to provide advice and assistance on the operationalisation of a scheme to support higher education, research, TVET and public service education in terms of Forestry-Climate Change-Biodiversity (FCCB) in Papua New Guinea.

The international expert on higher education and research will play a key role to help Expertise France in ensuring that this scheme is a success, responsive to the needs and goals of the project, and suited to the PNG context., 

The international expert will be responsible more specifically with tasks such as:

  • providing advice to the Expertise France project team on matters relating to the planning, roll-out and implementation of this scheme to support higher education and research
  • taking part in the preparation, of call for scholarship and research grant applications
  • supervising an independent panel of international and PNG academics in regard to the award of the scholarships and research grants
  • assisting Expertise France in providing guidance, support and monitoring of grants, capacity-building operations, or in-kind donations for higher education institutions, research institutions, TVET institutions or public service education institutions
  • assisting in ensuring knowledge products are elaborated and shared to capture the lessons learned from the implementation of this scheme

In particular, the expert will be expected to:

  • coordinate closely with Expertise France’s project management team and in particular with the grants coordinator who will be responsible for the overall management of grants activities
  • coordinate (with the approval of the Deputy Project Manager and Technical Coordinator) with the other national and international subject matter experts hired by Expertise France as part of the project, and who can provide technical or cross-cutting guidance, or assist in liaising with different government organisations. 

The international expert on higher education and research would work remotely and will be expected to make regular visits to PNG (for example, visits approximately every 3 months for a 3-week period). These visits to PNG could involve visits to Port Moresby as well as visits to field sites where Expertise France’s grant applicants or recipients are located.

Project or context description

The European Union-funded Forestry-Climate Change-Biodiversity (EU-FCCB) Programme for Papua New Guinea aims “to support a development model that reconciles forestry, climate change and biodiversity with sustainable, inclusive and gender-responsive green growth and jobs at national and pilot subnational/community levels”. Its three specific objectives (SOs) are:

  • SO1: “Effective implementation of evidence-based FCCB policies, governance and institutional frameworks”
  • SO2: “Improved FCCB awareness, knowledge, capacities and mobilisation”
  • SO3: “Increased inclusive and gender-responsive green growth"

With approved funding in the amount of 54.7 million euros, it is one of the EU’s most ambitious forest-related programmes anywhere in the world. More information about the EU-FCCB Programme is available at the Programme website at https://fccbpng.eu/. 

The EU-FCCB Programme consists of several components, including the national component (33.5 million euros), hereafter “the project”, implemented by Expertise France. This project will entail support for a number of PNG-based public sector institutions operating in the FCCB intervention area, support for PNG-based research, education and awareness institutions as well as support for PNG-based communities engaged in conservation and sustainable livelihoods. 

This project started in July 2023 and went through an inception phase (July 2023 to February 2024), to help calibrate the project’s intervention strategy and to undertake the detailed design of the project’s results and activities, in partnership with the project’s stakeholders.

In particular, when it comes to higher education and research, as part of the inception phase, the following outputs and activities were included under the project’s Outcome 2 (“FCCB awareness, knowledge, capacities and mobilisation improved”).  

  • Output 2.4: FCCB-related learning opportunities in High Education Institutions (HEIs), Public Service Education Institutions (PSEI) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) diversified and increased
    Activities under Output 2.4:
    -    Support the development and enactment of new and/or updated courses (e.g. vocational training for conservation rangers/para-ecologists, degree course on physical planning, increase experimental and practical learning versus theoretical, etc.) 
    -    Support training, including training of trainers, in the newly developed/updated courses
    -    Develop and support scholarship schemes on FCCB-related subjects at Master's level
    -    Support FCCB training of Public Servants at national, provincial and district levels
    -    Provide HEI, PSEI and TVET with necessary equipment
  • Output 2.5.: FCCB-related research and generation of knowledge boosted
    Activities under Output 2.5:
    -    Support FCCB related research projects (including on best agriculture practices (BAPs) and land use planning)
    -    Support PNG researchers to take part in international study visits
    -    Support the digitalisation of PNG’s national biological collections
    -    Capacitate research staff on FCCB related science and research
    -    Provide PNG public research institutions with necessary equipment

These activities, which are crucial for the success of the project, need to be rolled out and implemented. As such, Expertise France is seeking to recruit an international expert able to provide advice and assistance on the roll-out and implementation of these activities.

Required profile

  • Doctorate degree in a relevant field, such as international development, conservation or equivalent
  • At least 15 years of relevant work experience
  • Significant experience in terms of managing or supervising postgraduates
  • Significant experience in terms of managing or supervising research grants
  • Several international experiences required.
  • The following constitute indispensable assets
    • Familiarity with the project theme (forestry, climate change, biodiversity, protected areas, sustainable livelihoods, conservation, green business development, sustainable value chains…)
    • Familiarty with High Education Institutions (HEIs), Public Service Education Institutions (PSEI) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions
    • Familiarity with Papua New Guinea
  • Excellent analytical and research skills.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage and collaborate with diverse stakeholders, including local communities, government agencies, NGOs, and donor organizations.
  • Self-driven, ability to work independently, manage multiple tasks simultaneously, and meet deadlines.
  • Experience in designing, facilitating and evaluating trainings for adults an advantage.

Additional information

Expressions of interest

Interested candidates must provide the following documents:

  • CV including references
  • A cover letter, with a focus on motivations and availability, and specifying the Daily Rate of the expert.

Selection criteria

The evaluation of the candidates will be carried out based on the following criteria:

  • Overall qualifications and experience of the candidate
  • Higher education and research qualifications and experience of the candidate
  • Familiarity of the candidate with regards to the project theme and with regards to Papua New Guinea
  • Daily Rate

Other

Expertise France would conclude an individual expertise service contract with the selected candidate. This contract would be a purchase order-based framework contract. As such, Expertise France would issue POs to the individual expertise service provider to activate days of work of expertise according to the emergence of its needs and based on the daily rate of the expert.

Selection criteria for applications

The selection process for candidates will be based on the following criteria :

  • Candidate’s training/skills/experience
  • Candidate’s skills linked with the expert mission
  • Assessment of the candidate's skills in the sought-after domain
  • Candidate's knowledges related to local context (country or region intervention)

Deadline for application : 2025/01/20 23:59

Expertise France is the public agency for designing and implementing international technical cooperation projects. The agency operates around four key priorities :

  • democratic, economic, and financial governance ;
  • peace, stability, and security ;
  • climate, agriculture, and sustainable development ;
  • health and human development ;

In these areas, Expertise France conducts capacity-building initiatives and manages project implementation, leveraging technical expertise and acting as a project coordinator. This involves combining public sector expertise with private sector skills to drive impactful results. 

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