Miscellaneous services (Норвегия - Тендер #43164724)

Senior Specialist - Wastewater Monitoring

Through the commitment titled “Wastewater 2030: Striving for a circular economy in a climate-resilient world” made at the UN 2023 Water Conference, UN-Habitat and partners pledged to improve wastewater management and reducing the negative impacts by addressing five key areas: (1) Tackling wastewater pollution from all sources, (2) Promoting Climate resilient wastewater infrastructure, (3) Adopting a new inclusive policy for wastewater, (4) Promoting good practices & stimulating investment and (5) Aligning international efforts on wastewater. Through a programme of activities with GRID-Arendal, collaboration and support to these focus areas will be provided. The ultimate objective of the commitment is to help countries achieve SDG Target 6.3 by promoting wastewater treatment and reuse among sanitation and water utilities, through stimulated investment.

Through the commitment titled “Wastewater 2030: Striving for a circular economy in a climate-resilient world” made at the UN 2023 Water Conference, UN-Habitat and partners pledged to improve wastewater management and reducing the negative impacts by addressing five key areas: (1) Tackling wastewater pollution from all sources, (2) Promoting Climate resilient wastewater infrastructure, (3) Adopting a new inclusive policy for wastewater, (4) Promoting good practices & stimulating investment and (5) Aligning international efforts on wastewater. Through a programme of activities with GRID-Arendal, collaboration and support to these focus areas will be provided. The ultimate objective of the commitment is to help countries achieve SDG Target 6.3 by promoting wastewater treatment and reuse among sanitation and water utilities, through stimulated investment.

To respond to the needs for better data management, analysis and reporting, GRID-Arendal will collaborate with UN-Habitat in implementing the commitment, amongst others, through strengthened wastewater monitoring within the framework of the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG6, in support of UN-Habitat’s role as co-custodian agency.

GRID-Arendal will also conduct activities focused on communications and awareness-raising as well as efforts to reach out to national and local authorities to support data collection and reporting and identify examples of good policies and practices for wastewater monitoring and data management.

Principal Responsibilities/tasks

Policy Brief on wastewater monitoring: The consultant will produce a draft policy brief building on regional webinar meetings, containing recommendations and key messages to raise political awareness on the need to better monitor and manage wastewater systems. Specifically, the consultant will:

1. Summarize the outcomes of the regional consultative webinar meetings in a concise document with key messages and recommendations for policymakers. The preparation of this policy brief includes the drafting, facilitation of reviews and inputs to preparation of infographics.

2. Follow-up with the regional contacts who have organized the series of webinars for the SDG 6.3.1 regional data collection, and for the review of the policy brief.

SDG6.3.1 Data Drive: The UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) supports countries in monitoring water- and sanitation-related issues and in compiling country data to report on global progress towards SDG 6. The consultant will support in launching the third round of global data compilation on indicator 6.3.1.

1. Develop a specific questionnaire for the indicator 6.3.1, taking into account the existing international frameworks and methodologies: The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)/United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Questionnaire on Environment Statistics, and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire on Inland Waters.

2. Identify and contact the relevant country ‘focal points’ with requests for wastewater data. The consultant will also offer support to the focal points such as providing methodologies, helpdesk, and support to fill the SDG 6.3.1 questionnaire.

3. Support and participate in SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) activities on the SDG6 2023 Data Drive, such as kick-off webinar and other events that aim to give monitoring focal points an overview of SDG6 and the 2023 Data Drive and encourage them to participate.

All interested parties must submit their offer by e-mail to procurements@grida.no and mark in the subject: Senior Specialist - Wastewater Monitoring

Application deadline: 6 July 2023

GRID-Arendal intends to enter into a consultancy agreement with Florian Thevenon as Senior Specialist -Wastewater Monitoring, in projects responding to needs for better data management, analysis and reporting on wastewater related information, including support to initiatives to track global progress on SDG related indicators such as 6.3.1 on “wastewater collection and treatment” within the framework of the Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG6. As part of the programme of activities, GRID-Arendal will also provide communications and awareness-raising support and reach out to national and local authorities to support data collection and reporting and identify examples of good policies and practices for wastewater monitoring and data management.

The tender is published as a letter of intent as GRID-Arendal considers Florian Thevenon to be uniquely suited for the hire, given his specific experience with data collection, analysis and reporting on SDG indicator 6.3.1 from UN-Habitat (co-custodian agency) and his extensive publishing on wastewater and water quality related topics.