Call for Expressions of Interest: Final evaluation of the project ‘Design and testing of a multipurpose (transboundary) groundwater monitoring network ( & )”

(Submission deadline: 28 October 2020)

The Antenna in Sarajevo of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in , is seeking expressions of interest from qualified and experienced individuals, to carry out the final evaluation of the project entitled ‘Design and testing of a multipurpose (transboundary) groundwater monitoring network (Albania and Montenegro)”

I. Background

Brief description of the project:

1.1 Project

Setting out from the two Prespa , linked to each other by a small channel, water flows through underground karst cavities to , the largest lake in terms of water volume in South-East Europe. The only surface outflow of , the flows north through the Republic of and enters Albania. The River flows into Albania, where it meets the Black Drin and forms the Drin River. Flowing westward through Albania, the Drin River meets the Buna/ River, close after the outflow of the latter from /Shkoder, the largest lake in terms of surface in South-East Europe. The Buna/Bojana River directly discharges into the .

The overall concept for enhanced cooperation among the Riparians for the management of the Basin was initially discussed by representatives of the competent ministries and other key stakeholders during the International Roundtable on Integrated Management of Shared Lake Basins in South-Eastern Europe, organized under the Petersberg Phase II/Athens Declaration Process and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) IW:LEARN Programme, in Ohrid, on 12- 14 October 2006.

Coordinated action at the Drin River Basin level took an important step with the development of the Shared Vision for the sustainable management of the Drin Basin and the signing of a related Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Tirana (25 November 2011) by the Ministers of the water and environment management competent ministries of the Drin Riparians i.e. Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, and Montenegro. This was the outcome of the Drin Dialogue coordinated by the Global Water Partnership Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and UNECE.

A process called the “Drin CORDA”, Drin Coordinated Action for the implementation of the Drin MoU, was put in place after the signing of the latter. An Action Plan was prepared to operationalize the Drin CORDA. The Drin Core Group (DCG) is the multilateral body responsible for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding. The DCG and GWP-Med, which serves as the Secretariat of the Drin Core Group, guide the implementation of the action plan while its implementation is currently being supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The GEF supported Project “Enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the extended Drin River Basin” (GEF Drin Project) is aligned in content, aims and objectives with the Action Plan and the activities under the Drin CORDA. The objective of the project is to promote joint management of the shared water resources of the transboundary Drin River Basin, including coordination mechanisms among the various sub-basin joint commissions and committees. Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia and Montenegro are the Project beneficiaries.

The objective of the GEF Drin Project is to “promote joint management of the shared water resources of the transboundary Drin River Basin, including coordination mechanisms among the various sub-basin joint commissions and committees”.

The envisaged Outcome 5 of the GEF Drin project is to demonstrate benefits on the ground by environmentally sound approaches and technologies new to the region. The achievement of this outcome is to be pursued through the implementation of a programme of field demonstrations.

The Drin Pilot project is as such an output (number 11) of the GEF Drin project and intends to provide multiple benefits to allow the countries to: (i) accrue direct experience on approaches, technologies, practices and organizational settings novel to the region and test their cost effectiveness and feasibility in the regional context; (ii) test cooperative arrangements and (iii) feed into the joint SAP (Strategic Action Plan) formulation process.

The Drin Pilot Project “Design and testing of a multi-purpose (transboundary) groundwater monitoring network (Albania & Montenegro)“ aims at designing and testing a multi-purpose transboundary groundwater monitoring network in the Extended Drin River Basin (Albania and Montenegro). The project focuses on the Skadar/Shkoder – Bojana/Buna Delta transboundary alluvial aquifer and will provide the competent authorities of Albania and Montenegro with the tools to implement (wherever deemed necessary and decided by the National Authorities) a systematic monitoring of groundwater resources state (quantity and quality) in the project focus area. Further to the tools, the project will provide the countries with limited practical experience on approaches for monitoring their shared groundwater resources.

1.2 Project Objectives

The Drin Pilot Project - focusing on the Skadar/Shkoder – Bojana/Buna Delta transboundary alluvial aquifer - will conceptualize, design and pilot test a modern multi-purpose transboundary groundwater monitoring network, in line with relevant EU legislation, as well as protocols for data sharing.

The Drin Pilot Project will provide the competent authorities of Albania and Montenegro with the tools in the form of equipment and protocols for the operation and maintenance of the networks, consistent with requirements of the relevant European Union (EU) legislation (WFD and GWD) - to implement (wherever deemed necessary and decided by the National Authorities) a systematic monitoring of groundwater resources state (quantity and quality) in the project focus area. In addition, the pilot project will provide a proposal of a transboundary groundwater monitoring programme for the focus area (hereafter: Programme of monitoring of groundwater) in line with requirements of the provisions of the EU Water framework directive (IPA 2017 Strengthening Capacities for the Implementation of WFD). The project’s results will be an input for the development of the national waters monitoring system through IPA 2014.

The monitoring system and program will be designed to provide data on quantity and quality in line with recommended standards of the Water Framework Directive and Groundwater Directive. The networks and protocols will be designed based on:

(i) Updated studies of hydrogeology in the focus area and assessment of the vulnerability of the shallow aquifers;

(ii) The identification, based on existing information, of groundwater dependent ecosystems and of major submarine groundwater discharge areas;

(iii) The mapping of water uses for domestic, agricultural, industrial) purposes, and inventory of groundwater wells, discharge points of wastewater and pollution hot spots. Focus will be placed on the following issues: Over-abstraction, and interactions between karst and alluvial aquifers; Salinization and interactions of coastal aquifers with sea/lake water, including estimation location and volumes of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD); Wastewater discharges (untreated waste waters, septic tanks) and industrial pollution; Impact on groundwater dependent ecosystems sustainability.

The overall network will ensure a homogeneous, albeit sparse, coverage of the focus area. It will include both quantity and quality (e.g. salinity) detection systems.

1.3 Demonstration sites

Two wells will be drilled (if necessary) and equipped with newly acquired instrumentation and used for testing targeted parameters of the previously defined proposal of the program of monitoring of groundwater. The equipment will remain property of the countries. Rain gauges will be installed in the two stations that will be used for the testing of the monitoring system. The two new stations will provide precise measurements of at least groundwater levels, temperature, conductivity and rainfall with reliable data loggers, using wireless data transmission. Stations will include data loggers, and real time transmission of data, unless requested otherwise by the Member States.

The proposal consists of a number of activities to be carried out, identification of parameters to be measured for data collection with defined methodologies and relevant quality standards for monitoring the groundwater, in line with requirements of the mentioned EU legislation.

This will allow the country authorities, local administrators and stakeholders to:

- Define and adopt general strategies and guidelines for the protection and sustainable use of the resource based on real time information;

- Develop River Basin Management Plans fully according to WFD and Groundwater Directives, including Programme of Measures;

- Identify and control contamination and/or over abstraction; - Develop short-term forecasting capability in emergencies;

- Build and validate models of surface - groundwater interactions, seawater intrusion along coastal areas, contamination trends, etc.;

- Recognize and evaluate the existence and impacts on coastal ecosystems of submarine groundwater discharge along Mediterranean coastal areas;

- Utilize the project’s results as an input in developing the national monitoring programme of groundwater, in line with WFD and GWD.

1.4 Human and Financial Resources

The pilot project covers the period from 26 February 2018 to 30 October 2020. This project is executed by UNESCO. The overall , implemented by UNDP and executed by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) through GWP‐ Mediterranean (GWP‐ Med) in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); GWP‐ Med is responsible for the realization of the Project. The Drin Core Group is the Steering Committee (SC) of the Project. The overall budget of the project is 200,000.00 USD.

1.5 Rationale for the evaluation

This project financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) began in 2019 and concludes in October 2020. As the project comes to an end, part of the budget been allocated to the final evaluation of the project.

The contribution agreement between UNESCO and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), stipulated that an external evaluation should be undertaken at the end of the project, based on the project progress and final reports used during the monitoring process. It will be investigated whether the actions have contributed to the realization of the project’s initially set out objectives. UNESCO will communicate the evaluation’s outcome to the donor.

II. Purpose

The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the key achievements and results of the project “Design and testing of a multipurpose (transboundary) groundwater monitoring network (Albania and Montenegro)”, and the outcome of the evaluation will be communicated to the donor for accountability purposes.

III. Scope

The evaluation will examine the project performance following the standard evaluation criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability taking into account a rights- based perspective. The evaluation of the results of activities for the whole duration of the project (26 February 2018 – 30 October 2020). The primary criteria of the evaluation will be the stated expected results of the project and their specific relevance, as well as optimum efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of the results of activities related to achieving these objectives.

The evaluation will primarily use qualitative research methods, but should nonetheless seek to make evidence-based recommendations focused on the aspects below: - the project’s complementarity with and contribution to UNESCO’s water science division programmes. - the efficiency of the project funding modality and its fit for purpose; - the effectiveness of the project’s activities in terms of outcomes achieved; - the quality of the project’s delivery, including project planning and formulation, implementation follow-up, monitoring and evaluation; - the direct and indirect impact resulting from the project on the target groups;

The main questions of the evaluation will be further refined in the evaluation’s inception report. Indicative questions are provided below.

Relevance: 1. In what manner has the project been valuable and relevant to the beneficiary, as specified by the project document, to the implementing partners, and the donor? 2. To what extent has the project achieved its goals regarding its expected results? 3. How have the project activities contributed to the promote joint management of the shared water resources of the transboundary Drin River Basin? 4. To what extent are the main activities related to achieving project objectives?

Effectiveness: 5. How have the project initiatives been effective in attracting national and international attention and interest in the integration of science as a sector to be prioritized within transboundary groundwater cooperation?

Efficiency: 6. To what extent did the project ensure the best value for money through its interventions? 7. To what extent have the project activities been efficient in terms of a) the use of financial and human resources, b) the number and range of objectives supported, and c) the quality of monitoring?

Impact: 8. What is direct or indirect impact of the project on its target groups on a short- and long- term?

Sustainability: 9. How likely is it that the benefits of the project continue after its support and funding have been withdrawn and to what extent are the project outcomes supported by the local and national institutions and adapted to its specific conditions?

10. A rights-perspective to development (right holders and duty bearers), based on this perspective the project should be evaluated against the following: • How did the project tackle discrimination (by sex, age, ethnicity, religion, disability and gender identity)? • To what extent has the project and its activities been designed and implemented in a gender sensitive manner?

IV. Methodology

The evaluator(s) will elaborate a detailed evaluation approach and methodology in the inception report. The methodology may include the following elements:

 Desk study of all key relevant documentation;  Questionnaires and / or surveys to various stakeholders, including UNESCO water science division staff, field office staff, and key partners and beneficiaries (scale to be scoped based on budget raised for the evaluation);  Structured and semi-structured interviews (face-to-face and/or via Skype);  Case studies;

A detailed methodological approach will be developed and agreed upon in the inception report to be submitted by the evaluation team at the initial stage of the evaluation assignment.

V. Roles and responsibilities

An independent, external evaluation team will conduct the evaluation. The evaluator(s) will contribute specific subject matter expertise and knowledge.

The evaluator(s) will prepare three main deliverables, an inception report, draft and final report. The evaluator(s) will comply with United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation and UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation.

The evaluator(s) are responsible for logistics, including but not limited to office space, administrative and secretarial support, telecommunications, printing of documentation, travel arrangements (if needed) and logistics for potential fieldwork.

While the evaluator(s) are also responsible for the dissemination of all methodological tools such as surveys, the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe and its Antenna in Sarajevo, will facilitate this process to the extent possible by providing contact information of relevant stakeholders to be consulted during the evaluation.

The IOS Evaluation Office is responsible for the overall management of the evaluation and quality assurance of the deliverables. The Evaluation Office will also act as the primary liaison between the external evaluation team and UNESCO stakeholders.

The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe and its Antenna in Sarajevo will provide the evaluator(s) with all relevant documentation including project documents, progress reports and financial reports, and all other documentation relevant to the project.

VI. Qualifications of the evaluation team

The external evaluator(s) should possess the following mandatory qualifications and experience:

 At least 10 years of professional experience in an evaluation, research and/or policy- related position in the field of the identification and sustainable management of natural resources;  At least 10 years of professional experience designing and leading programme and policy evaluations;  Excellent language skills in English (oral communication and report writing);  Knowledge of the UN system and other international organizations; The following qualifications and experience are desirable:

 Knowledge of linguistic, social, cultural and political contexts in Albania and Montenegro.

Verification of these qualifications will be based on the provided curriculum vitae. Moreover, references, web links or electronic copies of two recently completed evaluation reports should be provided (preferably evaluations of tangible projects).

The recommended composition of the evaluation team is one senior evaluator, although other proposals will be considered. The evaluation assignment is expected to require a maximum 20 working days.

VII. Deliverables and Schedule

Deliverables

The evaluation will take place between November and December 2020 (two months). The evaluation will consist of three main deliverables: an inception report, a draft report and a final report.

Schedule

Activity / Deliverable Timeline Formal launch of the evaluation 26 October 2019 Inception report 15 November 2020 Data collection and analysis phase 1 November – 25 November 2020 Draft Evaluation Report 30 November 2020 Final Evaluation report 15 December 2020

The Draft and Final Evaluation reports should not exceed 100 pages, excluding the annexes. Furthermore, they should be written in English and structured as follows:

 Executive Summary  Project description  Evaluation purpose  Evaluation methodology  Findings and conclusions  Lessons learned  Recommendations  Annexes including the Terms of Reference, list of interviewees, data collection instruments, key documents consulted

VIII. Expression of Interest and selection criteria  Expressions of interest, containing the curriculum vitae(s) of consultant(s), and a written description, maximum 3 pages, indicating the technical and financial proposal. Deadline: 28 October 2020.  Expressions of interest will be evaluated and selected based on the quality of the technical proposal, the qualifications of the experts concerned, and the competitiveness of the financial proposal.  Those short-listed will be notified no later than one week after the closing date.  The maximum compensation for this assignment would be equivalent to the fees for 25 working days. The final contractual amount payment will depend on the technical and financial proposal and the applicable UNESCO rules and regulations.  For additional information, if required, please contact Mr. Sinisa Sesum (E-mail: [email protected], telephone: +387 33 222 796)

Expressions of interest should be submitted in person to UNESCO Office , Zmja aod Bosne bb, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (UN House) or by e-mail, clearly indicating the following: “Final evaluation of the project entitled Design and testing of a multipurpose (transboundary) groundwater monitoring network (Albania and Montenegro)”, to Ms. Maja Nikolic, [email protected]