Okavango River Basin consultancy

A call for expressions of interest for a consultancy for the Environmental Protection and Sustainable Management of the Okavango River Basin (EPSMO) Project has been issued by the Okavango River Basin Water Commission, United Nations Development Program, and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The long-term objective of the Environment Protection and Sustainable Management of the Okavango River Basin Project is to achieve global environmental benefits through concerted management of the naturally integrated land and water resources of the Okavango River Basin.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

a. Enhance the depth, accuracy, and accessibility of the existing knowledge base of basin characteristics and conditions and identify the principal threats to the trans-boundary water resources of the Okavango River Basin through a Trans- boundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA);

b. Develop and implement, through a structured process, a sustainable and cost-effective program of policy, legal and institutional reforms and investments to mitigate the identified threats to the basin’s linked land and water systems through the Strategic Action Program (SAP); and,

c. Assist the three riparian nations (Angola, Botswana and Namibia) in their efforts to improve their capacity to collectively manage the basin.

The objective of the consultancy is to recruit a team of experts to collect and compile information in Angola and participate in a regional Technical Taskforce to formulate the Transboundary Diagnostic Assessment. This assignment will update the existing knowledge base in Angola by bridging critical information gaps. It will also recommend and implement systems to access and use the information for the adaptive management of the basin.

The work will include assessments in the following areas: • General catchment information (Geology, Soils, Topography, Geomorphology, Vegetation and Climate) • Analysis of key hydrologic and hydrogeological , variables • Assessment key water quality variables • Environmental system limits and parameters • Economic valuation of environmental assets • Socio-economic analysis to establish current and future patterns of water resource use and levels of demand.

Eligible bidders are institutions or firms or consortia of institutions or firms with demonstrated ability to complete the work. The primary institution or firm that submits the expression of interest should be registered as a company in Angola with a substantial (minimum of five years) and positive record of relevant work in Angola.

Expressions of Interest must be received by 31st of January 2007 in English and Portuguese. Interested potential suppliers of the services should send their expressions of interest to the following e-mail address only as adobe acrobat PDF files: Chaminda.rajapakse@fao.org, including the subject line in the email message: Expression of Interest TDA Okavango (Company name).