UNDP Jobs

UNDP is a significant contributor to various knowledge tools and resources, including the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network. ACE was established in 1998 and is a collaborative effort between eight organisations: International IDEA, EISA, Elections Canada, the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico (IFE), IFES, UNDESA, UNDP and the UNEAD.

The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network promotes credible and transparent electoral processes with an emphasis on sustainability, professionalism and trust in the electoral process. ACE offers a wide range of services related to electoral knowledge and networking. The network comprises a thematic component (the ACE Practitioners' Network) and a regional component (the ACE Regional Electoral Resource Centres).

The ACE website is an online knowledge repository that provides comprehensive information and customized advice on electoral processes. The website contains in-depth articles; global statistics and data; an encyclopaedia of elections; information on electoral assistance, observation and professional development; region- and country-specific resources; daily electoral news; an election calendar; quizzes; expert networks and more. The ACE website is freely accessible and the number of visitors has grown to more than 1.3 million visitors per year.

As part of UNDP’s role as a partner in ACE, it must maintain the following qualifications: 

• In-house capacity to, inter alia, lead a participatory process to update and maintain a topic area of the ACE Encyclopaedia and contribute to the mission of the Practitioners’ Network
• Well-recognized technical expertise and reputation in election, democracy and governance related field(s)
• Strong links with institutions working on election, democracy and governance-related areas at global, regional, sub-regional and/or national levels.

Additionally, UNDP has agreed to fulfill the following (not exhaustive) roles and responsibilities:

• Designate an in-house focal point for ACE-related matters.
• Take leadership responsibility for updating knowledge services or networking products on the website.
• Set up a network of experts and practitioners charged with providing quality control and advice on the substantive content in the respective topic areas and regions and sub-regions
• Promote the use of the website and knowledge networks among its key constituencies.
• Undertake from time-to-time quality control exercises of the respective knowledge services and networking products on the website.

Of particular importance to this TOR is the ACE Encyclopaedia, an online repository of election information that includes more than 10,000 pages and covers a wide range of topics in election management with an emphasis on sustainability, professionalism and trust in the electoral process. The ACE Encyclopaedia includes 12 in-depth topic areas that cover key steps of the electoral cycle. Cross-cutting themes that have not been fully covered in the 12 topic areas are further explored in the ACE "Focus On…" series.

The ACE Encyclopaedia was last updated in 2005-6 before the official launch of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network. Given the centrality of this content to ACE’s usability, the ACE partners agreed at their fall 2011 meeting to update all topic areas in the encyclopaedia, and UNDP took responsibility for updating two modules: ‘Media and Elections’, and ‘Political Parties and Candidates’.  This TOR seeks proposals from qualified candidates to complete the updates to ‘Media and Elections’.

As with other areas of ACE, the ‘Media and Elections’ topic area has not been updated since approximately 2006, with many case studies dating back even further. This update will build on the extant encyclopaedia by removing antiquated terminology and discourse, introducing relevant new subtopics such as the role of citizen journalism and social and digital media, and identifying changes to norms that help to direct the role, utility, and regulation of media in elections including any new international conventions or principles.  A review of the encyclopaedia reveals that many of the pages entered under the topic of ‘Media and Elections’ do not possess citations of relevant literature, or links to helpful resources – an omission that should be remedied in the 2012 update. The discussion of media in elections covers a broad range of topics as it must consider the various parties that create and utilize media including the election management bodies, political parties, journalists and media companies, civil society organizations, election observers, voters, and the general public.

The primary target audience of ACE is the international election administration community as well as other national stakeholders involved in the management of electoral processes. Secondary target groups include: media groups, donors, academia, civil society organizations, political parties, parliamentarians, media representatives, as well as other international organizations and institutions involved in the provision of media and communications in the context of electoral assistance.

Scope of Work and Expected Deliverables

Under the overall supervision of UNDP’s Senior Electoral Policy Advisor of DGG/BDP who is also the UNDP representative to the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network Programme Advisory Board, with input from electoral experts and the ACE Secretariat and partners, the consultant will produce an encyclopaedia entry that represents the most comprehensive, current, and forward-looking resource on the topic of media and elections. Final publication of the updates such as layout of individual pages, additions and deletions will be completed in consultation with the ACE Secretariat and partners.

Create a comprehensive, hierarchical table of contents for all relevant subtopics falling under the main topic. They should be ordered in a way that flows logically, and situates each subtopic into the appropriate context.

• The current encyclopaedia covers a broad range of subtopics and provides an excellent starting point for completion of the update. It deconstructs topics for a variety of users and offers guidance for electoral administration professionals in crafting media strategies. It also provides guidance on some of the available instruments, tools and methodologies to facilitate the implementation of democratic international standards, norms and values on elections media and communications.   However, some related topics are either not clearly depicted, or are repeated in multiple places. For example, in several places throughout the encyclopaedia, the subtopic of legal principles and the regulatory environment is discussed. Upon closer review, the text offers different details, but the clarity of the page titles do not reflect this. For example, “International Law on Media and Elections”, “Legal Framework for Media”, “Existing Media Regulatory Frameworks”, and “Law or Regulations for Media During Elections”, are all separate topics under the hierarchy diagram. The update should determine whether these distinctions are appropriate, and whether they can be named to more clearly reflect their content. As the field of electoral administration has moved decisively towards an Electoral Cycle Approach, the update should reflect the various ways media is engaged throughout the cycle.

Review all 155 pages of this topic area in the extant encyclopaedia to determine revision needs and update all topics to reflect most current knowledge and applicability. Cite relevant literature and case studies.

• A review of ‘Media and Elections’ in the encyclopaedia reveals very few citations to current literature or resources, and an outdated discussion of “new media” attempted to capture the growing place of social and digital media throughout the election cycle.  Much has changed since the 2005/6 update to the encyclopaedia, therefore a thorough evaluation of each subtopic and its entry will be required. The consultant’s recommendations for additions and revisions to the table of contents should be delineated in a brief inception report that will be reviewed and approved prior to execution of the update.

Select and compose three to five current and relevant case studies to illustrate the principles discussed in the encyclopaedia.  Edit extant case studies where appropriate.

• A selection of country case studies will be used to illustrate the main principles set forth in the encyclopedia. These case studies should reflect efforts to incorporate media in elections by a variety of constituencies, and should draw on the work of ACE Electoral Knowledge Network partners whenever possible.
• The case studies should include good practice examples, as well as challenges to implementation, and show how different media tools and methods for implementation can be critical to achieving legitimate elections.
• Currently, there are nine case studies of varying quality and detail. In addition to contributing three to five new case studies that are more recent, the consultant should review the topic area’s extant case studies, make changes to improve their consistency and utility, or recommend removal if appropriate. 

Provide a proposal that identifies the scope of future updates of the topic area:

• In addition to updating the content of the encyclopaedia for this topic area, the ACE Secretariat would like an assessment of the effort required to maintain the relevance and timeliness of this portion of the encyclopaedia. The proposal should identify which content is relatively timeless, which content requires more frequent updates, any potential emerging subtopics, and how often the topic area needs to be reviewed.

40 days, between 23 May and end July 2012.

The consultant is expected to work from home or own business location. No travel is required.

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Excellent leadership skills including dealing with people of multi-disciplinary backgrounds to deliver quality products in high stress or short deadline situations.
• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to work on own initiative and work as part of the team.
• Excellent written and English communication skills with demonstrated ability to assess complex situations and to succinctly and clearly distil critical issues.
• Ability to communicate in person and writing with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior government officials, UNDP, other UN actors, donors and civil society, and ability to work collaboratively on-line and via e-mail.

• Post-graduate degree (preferably Ph.D.) in Journalism, Political Science, International Development, or other related field.

• Minimum 10 years of experience working in the area of Democratic Governance, majority of which must be in the field of electoral support and media.
• Strong technical knowledge in the field of electoral support especially in media, communications and elections.
• Experience in electoral media training, media monitoring, media programming or other media and elections specialties with UNDP or any other international organization will be considered a strong asset.
• Knowledge of cross-cutting democratic governance issues, such as gender mainstreaming, capacity development and aid effectiveness will be considered an asset.

Language:

• Excellent  command of English. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English as demonstrated by prior publication of similar products. 
• Working level knowledge of other UN languages will be considered an asset. 

• Proposal - (i) Provide a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (2 pages or less).
• Price proposal (All inclusive fee) - Interested individuals are kindly requested to submit an all-inclusive consultancy fee based on your daily fee and any other costs.  [Please note that at the moment, no travel is envisaged for this assignment. However, if travel is needed, UNDP covers the most economical and direct flight and standard DSA.]
• Personal CV and/or UNDP Personal History Form (Php) - Interested individuals must submit their applications online through UNDP Online Recruitment System. Correspondence (either in hard or soft format) will not be considered until the advance stage of the selection process. Applicants are encouraged to fill and sign a P11 Form and submit it on the online application, although regular CVs are also acceptable.
• The P11 Form can be obtained at  http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.

Online Application Procedure:

• Download and complete the UNDP Personal History Form (P11) in Word Format.
• Merge your P11 and/or Personal CV, Proposals and other relevant documents into a single file. 
• Click on the Job Title.
• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and click “Submit Application”. 
• Upload your application. 
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology [weighted scoring method], where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
•  Technical Criteria weight; [70%]
• Financial Criteria weight; [30%]

• Knowledge of and experience working in democratic governance or electoral assistance; [25%]
• Knowledge of and experience working on media and elections; [25%]
• Demonstrated experience conducting research and drafting governance documents; [25%]
• Quality of analytical, writing and communication skills; [25%]
• Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 70% of the obtainable points of 100 points in technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Important Note:

• UNDP practices fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.
• UNDP retains the right to contact references directly.
• Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.