Watershed/Catchment Planning Expert Advisor to the National Project Coordinator of Federal Project Management Unit of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) at Federal Ministry of Environment

Job Type: Consultancy
Project: NEWMAP

Background/Project Objectives

• As part of Governments commitment to transformation of the Nigerian socio-economy landscape, the Federal Government has applied and received a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) towards the cost of a multi-sector Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) to mitigate the vulnerability to erosion and support the people as they relate to their environment. NEWMAP includes a dedicated component aimed at assisting th country to address the broader climate change agenda.
• The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) is an 8-year multi-sectoral and multi-scale program that on the one hand targets seven southeastern states with acute gully erosion (Abia, Anambra, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu and lmo States), while laying the foundation for scaling out to south west and the northern parts of Nigeria.
• The project is involving many Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Local Governments, communities and civil Societies. The various MDAs include those responsible for Planning, economy, finance, works, agriculture, water resources, forests, transport, power, emergency response as well as those focused on climate and hydrological information or watershed/basin regulation. Effective implementation will therefore require inter-ministerial and interstate coordination, collaboration and information sharing.
• The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) project became effective on September 16, 2013. The World Bank agreed to finance the Project with a credit of $500 million. This credit was approved, in addition to, fully blended grants of $3.96 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and $4.63 million from the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) bythe World Bank Board on May 8, 2012.
• The central aim of the project is to reduce vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-watersheds. The project is mainly State-led interventions to prevent and reverse land degradation, focusing on major gully erosion sites that threaten infrastructure, livelihoods, and environmental assets.
• The Federal Project Management Unit (FPMU) of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project intends to apply a portion of the credit for eligible payments for the Consulting Services.

Objectives of Consultant's Assignment

• The purpose of this proposal is to engage the services of an Expert Advisor on Hydrology, Watershed and Flood Risk Management with experience in watershed planning and management related diagnostic such as hydrology or ecosystem monitoring catchment planning and management (CMP) to the National Project Coordinator (NPC) to assist the NPC in achieving the overall objective of NEWMAP.
• The Expert advisor will at any time be deployed to the Project (Federal, State and Local levels) to perform quality reviews and enhance supervision of projects and to work closely with the Water Resources Specialist to the project.
• The aim is to provide expertise and showcase good practices experiences in key areas, provide quality enhancement and implementation support throughout the project processing cycle nd play a mentoring rok to the entire technical personnel in NEWMAP

Qualifications
Required skills and experiences will include:

• Advanced degree (PhD) in Hydrology and/or Water Resources Management, Watershed Management, and Flood Risk Management, and Civil Engineering;
• A minimum of ten (10) years of professional experience in hydrology and civil engineering;
• Demonstrated professional knowledge of hydrology and flood risk management related to watershed management and erosion issues;
• Extensive and demonstrated field experience in (i) preparing hydrology design for hydraulic structures, (ii) assessing slopes and embankment stability of fragile soils, (iii) construction and contract management for large civil works, and (iv) watershed management and flood risk management in the West African Sub-Region and preferably in the Nigerian context
• Excellent communication skills in professional written and oral English;
• Willingness to travel to all NEWMAP States; and
• Experience in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.)

Desired skills and experiences would include:

• Knowledge of, and experience working in the fragile and unconsolidated soils of southeast/south Nigeria;
• Knowledge of, and experience with Computer Aided Design (CAD) software for land rehabilitation civil works;
• Experience with World Bank supported projects; and
• Knowledge of applying remote sensing to land rehabilitation and watershed management, through satellite imaging or drones, etc.

Working Condition
The Consultancy shall be on time base contracts for the initial period of one year subject to renewal based on performance of the consultant.