Background

The Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) based at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, has been established by UNDP Asia-Pacific to leverage innovation to generate new development responses and robust development solutions, by developing new products, services and offers, new ways of solving development issues across the Governments and Country Offices within the UNDP Asia Pacific Region. The Centre provides a safe space to test development solutions through portfolios of policy experiments, new and innovative products and through scaling best practise solutions that exist within the region. The RIC work to foster an innovative culture that helps the UNDP, governments and other partners be on the front foot of spotting, understanding, and integrating new development approaches into their work. The Centre has a key role in helping deliver on the UNDP Strategic Plan 2022 – 2025 which has systems transformation, strategic innovation and digital transformation at its core.

Over the past four years the RIC team have developed a specialist Sensemaking process which we use with Country Offices to support the development of their strategic plans or Country Programme Documents (CPD). This process involves pre workshop preparation, leading a workshop and then post workshop reporting which feeds into the strategic plan. The point of Sensemaking is to “make sense” of what is underway in Country Offices, connecting the programming to the overall strategic intent of the office and connecting programmes together where currently they exist in silos. The process also unearths new areas where the office could direct its work.   The Sensemaking process is complimentary to the foresight work undertaken in offices and it is desirable for Sensemaking to happen yearly.  The RIC have developed a DIY version on the Sensemaking process through the development of a preparation guide and step by step facilitation guide.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) based in Bangkok, Thailand, established by UNDP Asia-Pacific, has been working to continuously evolve Sensemaking to meet the needs of Country Offices and other stakeholders to augment their process to accommodate a post-pandemic digital imperative as well as to complement their capabilities with foresight disciplines. The Sensemaking process involves getting the CO to reflect on their portfolio of projects as a whole and helping project teams to surface common patterns, identify connections and gaps, and facilitating collective decision-making on how those gaps can be addressed. This process enables stakeholders to get a better grasp of the strategic direction they are heading in as a team and understand the changing external environment to ensure they can adapt and pivot their programmes.

The scope of work includes:

1. Sensemaking sustainability and scaling

• Collaborate with the Head of Regional Innovation Centre (Asia-Pacific) to scale the Sensemaking process to become scalable and sustainable and ideally income generating either with clients inside or outside the RIC

2. Leading Sensemaking workshops and processes

• Work with the Global Policy Network (GPN) Nature, Climate and Energy (NCE) team in the Bangkok Regional Hub to run Sensemaking Sessions with their cohort of innovators, develop reports and insights from those sessions with the team.
• Lead on Sensemaking workshops in Country Offices (up to 8) who have their CPD processes in 2022 and while doing so train Country Office staff and build their capacity in Sensemaking
• Work with Head of Regional Innovation Centre to build a group of Sensemaking experts who are able to support Country Offices in Sensemaking, this will involve training and capacity building
• Provide guidance and support to RIC stakeholders in applying Sensemaking and other approaches to assess internal coherence of their programs, strengthening strategic decision-making on logic and new directions/pivots for the increased relevance of programmes;

3. Capacity Building and training

• Provide training/support to mainstream sense-making skills in RIC and COs;
• Lead on operationalization and continuous improvement of Sensemaking approaches;
• Provide technical consultation and training for COs in Sensemaking
• Build a network of Sensemaking specialists from employees within the UNDP to support Sensemaking across the region and globally
• Develop support materials (guidelines, templates, etc.) that can guide RIC and COs through the Sensemaking process;
• Facilitate trainings, webinars and capacity building sessions on all aspects of Sensemaking.

4. Insights from scaling and connecting to broader RIC work

• Help embed a portfolio logic in COs’ work, encourage reflection and capturing of insights from individual projects, so as to identify logic against which to assess fit and coherence of the individual portfolios with the frontier challenges;
• Connect the UNDP Foresight work explicitly to the UNDP Sensemaking work
• Generate an insight report from the Sensemaking work that has been completed over the last four years for internal management use at GPN/BRH and RBAP.
• Work with COs to map the context and nature of development challenges, with a particular focus on understanding systemic issues beyond traditional silos and classifications and identifying drivers of change, and levers for intervention.

Expected Outputs And Deliverables

The expected outputs and deliverables will be agreed between the Consultant and the Head of Regional Innovation Centre, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, while working with the team members in the RIC and NCE team. Deliverables will be reviewed and approved upon the delivered quality by the Head of Regional Innovation Centre, UNDP BRH. The contractor is expected to deliver:

Institutional Arrangements

• The consultant will work closely with the RIC and BRH NCE teams, and under the direct supervision of the Head of Regional Innovation Centre, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and working closely with the project leads for each project.
• The Head of Regional Innovation Centre, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub will review and approve the consultant’s deliverables 1-4 and 7-9, while the Technical Specialist – Climate Finance and Investment will do so for deliverables 5 and 6.
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment, and will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, specific software, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection.

Duration: 12th January 2022 – 30th September 2022 (maximum 160 working days)

Duty Station: The consultant will be home-based. No travel is required for this assignment.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Innovation: Ability to make new and useful ideas work
• Leadership: Ability to persuade others to follow
• People Management: Ability to improve performance and satisfaction
• Communication: Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform
• Delivery: Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement
• Entrepreneurial attitude: willing to get stuck in to get things done.

Technical/Functional competencies:

• Design Thinking: Knowledge of design thinking models and facilitation approaches and ability to apply in diverse settings
• Knowledge Management: Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge
• Project management skills:  Ability to plan, manage and execute on time and professionally
• Strategic thinking: Able to “connect the dots” and see patterns and opportunities from work
• Strong client focus:  Listen and adapt to client needs
• Communication: A strong communicator both within teams but also with clients.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Design, International Development, Environmental Science, Transition or Complexity Science, Engineering, Design (e.g., industrial or service design, architecture, urban planning), Psychology or a related area.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of relevant progressively responsible work experience at the national and international levels in development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; engagement (public and private sector).
• Minimum 1 year of demonstrated experience in applying experimental and portfolio logics to a specific policy area (or social issue);
• Demonstrated ability in running co-design sessions and facilitating collaborative workshops with at least three workshops facilitated;
• Existing networks with systems thinking and sensemaking teams globally is an asset;
• Knowledge of various sensemaking and system mapping methodologies is an asset;
• Demonstrated ability to work with clients to help surface unarticulated needs is an added value
• Demonstrated ability to work with systems and sensemaking approaches and methodologies is an asset;

Language: Fluency in English, both written and oral.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The candidates must submit a financial proposal based on a lump sum amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive of all costs components required to perform the work and complete deliverables identified in the Terms of Reference (ToR). This includes professional fee, communications, consumables, and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the consultant in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed based on UNDP rules and regulations. In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

Schedule of Payments:

Payment will be made after satisfactory acceptance and certification of the deliverables and in accordance with UNDP procedures as per below percentages:

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Cumulative Analysis: The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of set of weighted combine technical evaluation of desk review and interview (70%), and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment. 

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Technical Criteria weight: 70%
Financial Criteria weight: 30%

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Technical evaluation (70%)

***Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points or above in the Desk review would be considered for the interview

Financial Evaluation (30%)

Financial proposals from all technically qualified candidates will be scored out 30 marks based on the formula provided below. The maximum marks (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal.

All other proposals will receive points according to the following formula:

                                      p = y (µ/z).

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Contract award: Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP's General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.  

Documentation required:

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the "Apply now" button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page then the uploading option for the required document will be available.

Interested candidates must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group all your document into one (1) single PDF document as the application system only allows to upload maximum one document.

1, Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability with Financial Proposal (in USD) using the template provided as Annex III Financial proposal: Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided for the entire assignment. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the proposed fee submitted in the proposal.

If an Offeror is employed by an organization/ company/ institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

2. P11 / Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references with contact details.

3. Brief technical proposal (methodology, approach and implementation plan) that meets or exceeds the requirements of the TOR. 

**Failure to submit the above-mentioned documents or Incomplete proposals shall result in disqualification

**Please group all your document into one (1) single PDF document as the application system only allows to upload maximum one document.

The short-listed candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR IC Sensemaking and Foresight Consultant
Annex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_Consultants
Annex III - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal
Annex IV - P11 Form_for_ICs_optional
Annex_V_Procurement notice

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=85392

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.th@undp.org under Subject: JobAds 103102 - Sensemaking and Foresight Specialist.