Background

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Liberia was created by an act of the Legislature on November 26, 2002, and published as a handbill on April 30, 2003, to ensure sound environmental management and sustainable use of natural resources. The EPA functions to ensure long-term economic prosperity through sustainable development and establish a legal framework for environmental management.

The EPA received funding from the Green Climate Fund to implement a five-year project called “Enhancing Climate Information Systems for Resilient Development in Liberia” (the Liberia CIS Project).

The Liberia CIS Project is a US$11,431,969 GCF, AFDB, and GOL-funded project that aims to increase the resilience of Liberia’s population and infrastructure to climate change. In particular, the project will strengthen the country’s adaptive capacities to integrate better long-term climate risk reduction and adaptation measures in national planning and development through the development of a well-functioning Multi-Hazard Impact-Based Forecasting and Early Warning System (MH-IBF-EWS).

The implementation of the project will entail training and equipping the existing Liberia Meteorological Service (LMS), Liberia Hydrological Service (LHS), Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to collect weather and climate data; introduce and maintain modelling, forecast weather events and provide early warnings systems; and scale-up evidence-based climate-informed decision- making, planning, and response actions Countrywide. The objective of the project is to strengthen Liberia’s climate-related observation and monitoring capabilities, early warning and early action systems, and other environment-related information systems. The objective seeks to drive a paradigm shift towards evidence-based climate-informed decision-making, planning, and response by integrating green growth, environmental resilience, and adaptation into national development planning through effective climate information systems in Liberia.

Purpose of the Consultancy

The main objective of the consultants is to develop a comprehensive and practical guidelines that will standardize, harmonize, and streamline the generation, collection, processing, dissemination, and utilization of meteorological and hydrological data in Liberia. By accomplishing the objectives, the study will seeks to enhance the operational efficiency and interoperability of Liberia’s key agencies responsible for weather and climate data particularly the Liberia Meteorological Service (LMS) and Liberia Hydrological Service (LHS) as well as establishing a clear institutional roles, data-sharing protocols, quality control procedures, and communication mechanisms to ensure that climate and weather information is timely, reliable, and actionable. Also, the study will support the Liberia Climate Information System (CIS) project’s goal of developing a functional Multi-Hazard Impact-Based Forecasting and Early Warning System (MH-IBF- EWS).

The Scope of the Services to be performed

The consultant will work closely with EPA through the PIU and also have the opportunity to consult with the relevant agencies and ministries (e.g., LMS, LHS, NDMA, sector ministries etc.) to gather the relevant information needed to perform the assessment as stated below.