Chief Technical Advisor
Mekong River Commission
Location: Vientiane, Lao PDR
Last Date: March 2, 2011
Mekong River Commission
The role of MRC is to co-ordinate and promote co-operation in all fields of
sustainable development, utilisation, management and conservation of the water
and related resources of the Mekong Basin.
MRC
Secretariat is seeking a qualified candidate for the position of
CHIEF TECHNICAL ADVISOR
for Initiative on
Sustainable Hydropower Project
International:
Post level L-5, based in Vientiane,
Lao PDR
The
job description can be downloaded from
http://www.mrcmekong.org.
Women are encouraged to apply. Only short-listed candidates will be notified.
Application procedures:
The application
should include (i) a cover letter outlining clearly how the candidate meets
the requirements of the position, (ii) a detailed CV, and (iii) MRC Personal
History Form.
The position tittle and division must be indicated in the cover letter. The
application should be sent to:
Mekong River Commission Secretariat
P.O. Box 6101, Vientiane, 01000, Lao PDR
Email:
mrcs@mrcmekong.org
Subject: Chief Technical Advisor, ISH
Closing date for applications: 2 March 2011
============================================================================
JOB DESCRIPTION
Updated: January 2011
Title:
Functional Title:
Division:
Level of post
Duty Station
Contract type: |
Chief Technical Advisor
Chief Technical Advisor for
Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower Project
Planning Division
L-05[i]
(International Staff)
MRC Secretariat, Vientiane, Lao PDR, with missions to MRC member countries
Fixed-term appointment |
Duration:
|
One- year contract with
possibility of extension based on satisfactory performance. |
Reporting to: |
Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower (ISH) Task Leader. |
1 Background
MRC Mandate in Hydropower Development
The
MRC, established on 5 April 1995 by the Governments of Cambodia, Lao PDR,
Thailand and Viet Nam, provides the institutional framework to implement the
Agreement on
Cooperation for Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin. The
Agreement concerns water resources such as fisheries, agriculture, and
hydropower, and related issues including flood management, navigation, and
environmental protection.
The
MRC consists of three permanent bodies: The Council, the Joint Committee (JC)
and the Secretariat (MRCS). National Mekong Committees (NMCs) act as focal
points for MRC in each of the member countries and are served by respective
National Mekong Committee Secretariats. MRC maintains regular dialogue with the
two upstream countries of the Mekong River Basin, China and Myanmar, as well as
with its development partners.
The
1995 Agreement commits the four riparian countries to “sustainable
development, utilisation, conservation and management of the Mekong River Basin
… for social and economic development…” (preamble to the Agreement).
Article 1 of the Agreement expresses the intention of the four states to
cooperate in all fields of sustainable development, utilisation, management and
conservation of water and related resources of the Mekong river basin,
including: irrigation, hydropower, navigation, flood control, fisheries, timber
floating, recreation and tourism. The article also states that activities should
be carried out in a manner that optimises multiple-use and mutual benefits, and
minimises harmful effects. The latter is reinforced in Article 3 which speaks of
protection of the environment and ecological balance.
Article 2 emphasises joint and/or basin-wide development projects and basin
programmes through the formulation of a Basin Development Plan which would be
used to identify, categorise and prioritise the projects and programmes to seek
assistance for and to implement at the Basin level.
Article 5 provides for the reasonable and equitable use of the waters of the
river system with reference to rules for water utilisation to be prepared, while
Article 6 deals with the maintenance of flows on the mainstream in relation to
average monthly minimum flows and with limits on maximum daily peak flows.
Article 26 on Rules for Water Utilization and Inter-Basin Diversions provides
for implementation of Articles 5 and 6, and is the basis for the procedural
tasks to be performed by MRC in relation to the Procedures for Notification,
Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA)
on intra-basin uses and inter-basin diversions for mainstream and tributary
hydropower development and other purposes. These include:
·
Receipt and
checking for completeness of Notifications and Prior Consultations;
·
Entering the
relevant data and information into the data and information systems of the MRCS;
·
Review and analysis
of the submitted information;
·
Provision of
technical additional information, data, evaluations, support and advice for use
in meetings requested by Member Countries; and
·
Moderation of the
consultation process.
It
may be noted, however, that the receipt and review of Notifications and Prior
Consultations on a case-by-case basis involves serious limitations in regard to
understanding and assessing the cumulative impacts of water resource
developments over time. An integrated / strategic assessment framework is
required, within which the Notifications and Prior Consultations can be
considered in a multi-project context.
Hydropower Context in the Mekong Region
The
Mekong Region is enjoying consistent economic growth. As a result, the region’s
trade and investment flows and the demand for energy are rapidly increasing.
This, together with significant fluctuations in oil and gas prices over the last
year, and the growing evidence of climate change have stimulated a new era of
hydropower development in the basin.
Each new year witness new hydropower projects entering
into operation in the Lower Mekong Basin, while more projects are currently
under construction. All of these projects are located on tributaries. Nearly
half of them involve some degree of seasonal regulation of stream
flow. The
potential for over 20,000 MW of additional capacity has been identified,
predominantly in projects in Lao PDR and Cambodia. A broad range of developers
are now investigating these potential projects. Many concession agreements for
tributary projects are already at advanced stages of negotiation.
Twelve hydropower schemes are being studied by private sector developers for the
mainstream of the Mekong River. The 1995 Mekong Agreement requires that such
projects are discussed extensively among all four countries prior to any
decision being taken. That discussion, facilitated by MRC, will consider the
full range of social, environmental and cross-sector development impacts within
the Lower Mekong Basin. So far, one proposed mainstream project has reached the
stage of notification and prior consultation required under the Mekong
Agreement. MRC has already carried out extensive studies on the consequences for
fisheries and peoples’ livelihoods and this information is widely available, see
for example report of an expert group meeting on dams and fisheries. MRC has
undertaken the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the proposed
mainstream dams to provide a broader understanding of the opportunities and
risks of such development. Dialogue on these planned projects with governments,
civil society and the private sector is being facilitated by MRC and all
comments received are being considered.
In
addition, the Government of the Lao PDR has commissioned a power optimisation
study of the five proposed mainstream schemes in the northern Lao reach of the
river. Hydropower generation potential and energy demand in the Mekong region
are geographically imbalanced, thus highlighting the importance of and
opportunities for an emerging regional power market. This regional dimension is
the driver behind most of the current projects with bilateral agreements being
established for the export of electricity.
The
role of the private sector in hydropower development, including on the Mekong
mainstream, and in mining, industrial development, urbanisation, commodity crop
production and tourism has rapidly gained importance. Investment from the
private sector now outweighs public sector investments in these areas and may
lead to changes in the basin over the next few years on a scale that has so far
not been seen. In comparison with conventional strategy-driven public sector
planning approaches, the private sector driven development emerging in the Lower
Mekong Basin (LMB) is more opportunity-driven and compresses planning cycles.
This brings opportunities as well as challenges to the regulatory framework.
Up
to 2.5 million tonnes of fish are caught in the Lower Mekong Basin every year,
worth an estimated US$2 to 3 billion at point of first sale. Supported by the
Mekong’s large flood pulse, many fish migrate up- and downstream to breed and
spawn. A recent Expert Group meeting convened by the MRC examined the potential
harm to the Mekong fisheries caused by dams on the mainstream and reviewed
potential measures to mitigate this damage by using technologies such as fish
passages. The most severely impacted would be the long-distance migrants, the
‘white fish’ species, which account for some 70% of the total fish catch. The
experts concluded that while fish passes have been designed in various river
systems in the world, there is currently little evidence that existing fish
passage technologies would be effective for the high biodiversity and large
biomass of fish populations in the Mekong.
2 Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower (ISH)
Implementation Arrangements
The
evolution of MRC’s support to Member States in the hydropower sector is
characterized by a gradual shift in emphasis away from the sole promotion of
hydropower as a means to underpin economic growth towards the advancement of
sustainable forms of hydropower management and development. This reflects the
central idea of cooperation between Member States to move on a pathway to
sustainable, mutually beneficial development of the Mekong basin’s water and
related resources
Since 2006, interest in the potential for hydropower development in the lower
basin has significantly accelerated. In response to the sustainability
challenge and in keeping with its role, the MRC began formulating the ISH in
2008. In part, this was to enable the MRC to effectively respond to the dynamic
situation with the 12 hydropower proposals on the Mekong mainstream, the
consideration of which is central to the MRC mandate. The mainstream proposals
are also highly visible in the public eye and have sparked debate and
controversy locally, nationally and internationally.
But
it also responds to growing recognition of the need to sustainably manage the
increasing number of existing hydropower assets as cumulative and transboundary
impacts are increasingly felt, in particular with respect to changes in river
flows, sediment-nutrient flows and fish abundance in river systems. Many
opportunities to optimize the overall development performance of the proposed
and the existing hydropower projects are presented. Moreover, wider
international experience clearly shows that measures to advance sustainable
forms of hydropower must be factored into national policy and regulatory
frameworks and in decision processes at all stages of planning and the project
cycle, from strategic planning and options assessment, through project design,
implementation, operation and refurbishment stages.
Equally important, it recognizes that hydropower considerations influence and
often drive decisions that Member States take on the development and management
of water infrastructure. Also that cooperation among all the key stakeholder
interests from government, private and civil society sectors is essential to
deliver sustainable forms of hydropower development and management.
Objectives and Scope
The
ISH responds directly to the goal hierarchy of the MRC Strategic Plan 2011-2015
by combining the use of awareness raising and multi-stakeholder dialogue (ISH
outcome 1) knowledge management and capacity building (outcome 2) imbedding
sustainable hydropower considerations in regional planning and regulatory
systems (outcome 3) and, sustainability assessment and adoption of good practice
(outcome 4). At the same time, the ISH must provide the MRC with enhanced
capacity to measure and respond to all stakeholder views about hydropower.
A
central objective of the ISH in 2011-2015, in this respect, is to enable MRC to
help Member Countries better integrate decisions about hydropower management and
development with basin-wide integrated water resource management (IWRM)
perspectives, through the established MRC mechanisms and national planning
systems, consistent with the 1995 Mekong Agreement.
It
is clear that many new opportunities to do this rest with the ongoing
institutional and regulatory changes in the power and water resource management
sectors of MRC Member Countries. For instance, the river basin committees (RBCs)
and organizations (RBOs) now provided in the national legislation of most
countries can play a central role in these tasks, when they become functional
overtime, with the MRC offering overarching support as the regional-level RBO
entity.
A
second wider objective is to help Member Country efforts to bring two major
decision “spheres” (or “worlds”) concerned with hydropower decision-making
closer together; namely (i) the energy and power sector / regulatory bodies, and
(ii) the IWRM water resource and other natural resource management sectors /
regulatory bodies. Why is this important? Because energy and power
considerations often drive major decisions on Mekong water infrastructure.
Moreover, sector fragmentation has always been a major challenge in IWRM
implementation world-wide and in practice
ISH Implementation strategy
The
strategy for 2011-2015 builds on MRC’s achievements in ISH implementation from
its formulation in 2008 to its first full year (mid-2009 to mid-2010). The
strategy has several aspects.
Overall, emphasis is placed on value added outputs that enable the MRC to help
Member Countries (i) close gaps between current policy and practice relevant to
sustainable hydropower outcomes (ii) develop capacity to pro-actively draw
lessons from the growing pool of regional and international good practice, and
(iii) more effectively respond to MRC stakeholder expectations, including
contemporary issues that stakeholders feel are most important to their interests.
Elements of the strategy seek to catalyze, encourage and support efforts of MRC
countries to:
·
Adopt partnership
approaches for dialogue to raise awareness, promote and genuinely advance
sustainable considerations in hydropower decision-making;
·
Draw effectively on
regional and international experience, build confidence and share good practices
relevant to all stages of planning and the infrastructure project cycle;
·
Introduce
/reinforce enabling provisions for sustainable hydropower in national policy and
regulatory frameworks, planning systems and related procedures;
·
Monitor progress
over time introducing sustainable considerations from policy to practice through
hydropower sustainability assessments at the project and basin/sub-basin levels;
·
Improve 2-way
strategic communication between MRC and its stakeholders on hydropower
sustainability issues in a way that adds value for all stakeholders; and
·
Build appropriate
capacity in NMCs / and national line agencies for all these aspects, including
the capacity of private sector and civil society stakeholder interests
concerned.
·
It is recognized
that hydropower is a controversial and often polarized topic in the Mekong and
among MRC stakeholders. No single organization on its own can bring about
sustainable outcomes. To do this requires thinking about water infrastructure as
a wider development intervention, with greater attention to the overall
development effectiveness of projects; and not just seeing infrastructure
narrowly as a way to meet growing needs for water and energy services. .
Structure and Expected Outputs
As
with other MRC programmes the activities of ISH have been structured around a
set of thematic five Outcomes. These include the following:
Outcome 1: A demonstrated increase in awareness of sustainable hydropower and
its rationale, increased dialogue among the key stakeholder interests and
partnerships being formed to introduce sustainable considerations into LMB
hydropower practices.
Outcome 2: Demonstrated improvement in technical capacities
of MRC and prioritized national agency staff in hydropower data systems and use
of information needed to advance sustainable hydropower considerations.
Outcome 3: Sustainable hydropower considerations are more
systematically and demonstrably incorporated into sector, sub-basin and Mekong
regional planning systems and regulatory frameworks.
Outcome 4: Hydropower sustainability assessment tools are in
place at project and sub-basin levels to measure and assess progress with
sustainable hydropower IO-4b.) Innovative financing mechanisms, especially
benefit sharing on LMB hydropower increasingly evaluated and introduced for LMB
hydropower projects
Outcome 5: ISH is effectively managed and staffed and
functions as a cross-cutting initiative with other MRC Programmes.
3 Scope of the Work
The
scope of work of the Chief Technical Advisor is determined by the range of
activities defined in the ISH Work plan
Document summarised in the above figure of the current draft and shall include,
but not necessarily be limited to, the following:
·
Policy, strategy
and technical support to implementation of ISH Work
plan Document activities of the ISH ;
·
Review of, and
support to, procedures for introducing best practice in the areas covered by the
ISH ;
·
Support to
implementing and coordinating the ISH within MRCS, with line agencies and NMCs;
·
Engage with private
sector developers, NGOs, civil society and researchers and maintain an active
network among these groups. Assist with applying MRC’s principles of stakeholder
engagement and consultation as a fundamental part of ISH ;
·
Maintain active
contacts with related initiatives, for example those of the World Bank, Asian
Development Bank, IHA, WWF, IUCN, etc.;
·
In conjunction with
ICBP and other programmes, devise capacity building programmes to line agency,
NMC and MRCS staff and assist in its delivery;
·
Prepare TOR for
specific activities to be commissioned by ISH and assistance with the
supervision of such contracts, particularly from a technical perspective;
·
Provide overall
guidance and assistance to the Multi-year follow-up to Recommendations of SEA to
be carried out for the Mekong mainstream dams and for the 3S basin;
·
Provide overall
guidance and assistance to the establishment of hydropower sustainability
assessment tools and its implementations at project and sub-basin levels to
measure and assess progress with sustainable hydropower ( IO-4b.) Innovative
financing mechanisms, especially benefit sharing on LMB hydropower increasingly
evaluated and introduced for LMB hydropower projects;
·
Provide analytical
reviews on specific hydropower project proposals as requested, in particular in
connection with the implementation of PNPCA incorporating as required inputs
from relevant specialist areas;
·
Reporting to the
requirements of the funding agreements;
·
Assist in the
introduction of a results-based monitoring system for ISH ; and
·
Prepare reports,
presentations, publicity material and briefings for the media and guiding the
delivery of key messages on ISH and its outputs to the wide range of interested
stakeholders. In this regard, assist the development and management of the ISH
webpages and information to be featured on the MRC home page.
4 Qualifications of Consultant
·
Master’s degree or
higher relevant to sustainable hydropower development. At least fifteen years
experience at a policy, strategy or strategic planning role in water resources
development. Experience from regional or international organisations and from
the Lower Mekong Basin countries would be an asset. Demonstrated application of
the interconnectivity between technical, economic, environmental and social
aspects of hydropower development.
·
Experience with
multi-stakeholder consultation processes, a demonstrated effectiveness in
networking amongst a diverse stakeholder group, team building and experience
with capacity building programmes. Evidence of involvement in development of
good practice in relation to policy and strategy development.
·
Familiarity with
private sector planning cycle involving concession agreements and power purchase
agreements and their relationship with national policy frameworks and safeguard
processes.
·
Knowledge and
experience in programme management, budgetary and financial planning of
projects;
·
Experience in
working in an international environment
·
Knowledge about MRC
and its activities, and working experience in the MRC member countries is an
advantage;
·
Excellent command
of verbal and written English is required.
5 Reporting Line
The
Chief Technical Advisor will report to the ISH Task Leader and to the Director
of the MRC Planning Division, who currently guides the MRC’s ISH. Given the
cross cutting nature of the tasks in the ISH , the Chief Technical Advisor will
cooperate closely with the ISH Task Leader, and will need to liaise frequently
with staff from other MRC programmes as well as the NMCs and line agencies.
6 Duty Station, Duration and Schedule
Duty station from the assignment will be the MRC Secretariat in Vientiane, Lao
PDR, with missions to MRC Member Countries. The assignment will be one-
year contract with possibility of extension based on satisfactory performance
delivered. The assignment is expected to start by end of March 2011.
[i]
Brief information on remuneration
The remuneration package, subject
to change, includes (i) annual net base salary exempt from tax by
Lao authorities, starting at US$ 86,791 (L-05, step 1, dependency rate);
(ii) a variable Post Adjustment which currently amounts to US$
31,418; (iii) 6 weeks’ annual vacation; (iv) Contribution of
MRC to Health and Accident insurances (on shared basis with employee);
(V) other entitlements and benefits such as Hardship Allowance,
Dependency benefits, Rental Subsidy, Education Grant, Relocation Grant,
Travel cost and Shipment expenses on assignment and upon separation,
Repatriation Grant, Home Leave Travel, etc.
THE MRCS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO APPOINT A CANDIDATE AT A LEVEL
LOWER THAN
THE ADVERTIZED LEVEL OF THE
POST.
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