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CONSULTANT - ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Location : New York,, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Application Deadline :02-Aug-12
Type of Contract :Individual Contract
Post Level :International Consultant
Languages Required :
 English  
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)		04-Sep-2012
Expected Duration of Assignment :4 months ( 120 working days)

Background
Promoting the rule of law is critical to the United Nations mission; it lies at the heart of UNDP’s mandate to ensure sustainable human development that promotes resilient nations and empowered lives. The rule of law is a key building block of UNDP’s Democratic Governance portfolio. UNDP supports rule of law initiatives in countries facing a range of development challenges, including fragility, conflict and crisis. It is an important part of the UN family’s commitment to justice and the rule of law at the national and international levels.
 
Active in over 90 countries world-wide, UNDP supports rule of law initiatives that promote access to justice, justice and security institutional development, security sector governance and legal empowerment of the poor. UNDP provides strategic technical support to states, which are engaged in reform and development of a constitutional and legal framework, justice and security service providers, and accountability and oversight mechanisms, including transitional justice processes. This may take the form of legal empowerment and legal assistance to address key legal areas such as land and property rights, employment and economic empowerment. It also includes a focus on community or partnership policing to mitigate the fear of crime and increase education and economic options for young people. UNDP takes a balanced and sustainable approach that marries bottom-up demand with strategic national capacity building and reform planning at the institutional level. The aim is to increase people’s legal protection, opportunities and choices so that they are empowered to defend themselves and improve their lives. The focus is often on the poor and marginalized groups, with an emphasis on women’s empowerment.
 
UNDP undertakes rule of law initiatives at the global, regional and countries levels, drawing on a strong practice architecture including specialist advisors and country programme coordinators. The remit in the rule of law area is broad and comprehensive, and varies depending on country and regional challenges. Regionally and globally, UNDP is developing a rule of law community of practice, in order to build an evidence base of good practices and ensure that what works at country level is used to influence policy and dialogue regionally and globally. Themes vary from region to region, but in all cases UNDP is encouraging exchanges between practitioners, governments and civil society in the global south on all aspects of rule of law, access to justice, security and legal empowerment of the poor. In addition, as part of the UN family, UNDP actively supports a coherent, UN-wide approach to rule of law working jointly and collaboratively with other UN entities in the field. 
 
In order to enhance UNDP’s capacity to be a strong and effective partner in the promotion of the rule of law and justice at the global, regional and country levels, UNDP recently organized a Strategic Retreat in 2012 which will help to form the basis for a UNDP wide position on Rule of Law, Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment, and upcoming UNGA High Level Meeting and the Board Meeting for the Global Programme. UNDP is also publishing a tool on legal aid for Africa, overseeing a major study on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, and developing and launching key knowledge products as part of the Global Programme.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the direction of the DGG Policy Advisor/Team Leader, the objective of this consultancy includes undertaking and finalizing the below tasks:
  • Support the Global Programme on Rule of Law and Access to Justice Board Meeting (drafting and publishing report and meeting coordination);
  • Provide support for renegotiation of the UNDP - ABA/ILRC Partnership and arrange a meeting in September in the margins of the UNGA High Level Segment on Rule of Law;
  • Coordinate as requested any side events and provide support for management requests to the UNGA High Level Meeting on Rule of Law and launch of UNDP, UN Women and UNICEF the Informal Justice Study;
  • Support drafting the proposal of the Joint Programme with UN Women and OHCHR, following the MDTF guidelines;
  • Finalize Production of the Legal Aid in Africa Programming How-to Guide/Tool (finalization of draft and peer review, oversight of design, layout and translation and publication);
  • Follow and coordinate the UNDP/DANIDA LEP research team and implementation of the study in the assigned five countries;
  • Support with the process of engaging a consultant for the Access to Justice in Housing, Land and Property toolkit and coordinate the development of this knowledge product;
Deliverables:
  • Global Programme Report published and Programme Board meeting organized;
  • ABA-UNDP IRLC Partnership meeting organized and new partnership arrangement outlined;
  • Side events organized and Informal Justice Systems Study launched, including with follow-up plan for evaluating Study dissemination and impact; 
  • Input provided to the development of the Joint Programme on Women’s Access to Justice;
  • Legal Aid in Aid Programming Guide finalized, published and disseminated;
  • First phase of the UNDP/DANIDA;
  • Consultant for A2J and Property toolkit recruited and first draft of product submitted.

Competencies
  • Demonstrated strategic and analytical capabilities and strong drafting skills;
  • Experience in programme development and production of knowledge products;
  • Prior work with UNDP including engagement with Regional Bureaus, Regional Service Centers and COs;
  • Demonstrated experience in the organization of similar and participatory processes and coordination of on-site events, particularly UNGA events required;
  • Strong organizational and planning skills;
  • Strong knowledge management and computer skills;
  • Strong inter-personal and teamwork skills whole at the same time being capable of working independently.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:
  • Masters Degree (or equivalent degree/experience) in (International Human Rights) Law, Development or International Relations, or a related field.
Experience:
  • Minimum five years of experience in the area of rule of law (access to justice, security, legal empowerment of the poor) / development;
  • Proven experience in event and knowledge management, preferably in a UNDP context;
  • Solid understanding and working with the UN system an advantage.
Language:
  • Strong oral, written and editing skills in English are a prerequisite;
  • Editing and professional proficiency in French desirable;
  • Knowledge of an additional UN language preferably Spanish is a strong asset.
Application Submission Process:

Please submit the following to demonstrate your interest and qualifications:

Proposal explaining why you are the most suitable for the work
Price Proposal - Please submit an all inclusive consultancy fee which may be made up as follows:
  • Daily fees
  • All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes  travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. UNDP will not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket.
  • Any other financial claims to accomplish this task, e.g living expenses if outside of home country, visa, travel insurance.
Personal CV and UNDP Personal History Form

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 . The P11 Form is a requisite for the succesful candidate ; if this was not provided with the application process it  will be requested after selection process.

How to Submit Application - To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

  • Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11).
  • 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.

Application Evaluation Process -  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:
  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable.
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%]
The following criteria will be used in Technical Evaluation:
  • Experience in the area of rule of law ( access to justice, security, legal empowerment of the poor) (20 points)
  • Experience in programme development and production of knowledge products (15 points)
  • Strategic and analytical capabilities and drafting skills; (10 points)
  • Event management (10 points)
  • Knowledge management (10 points)
  • Familiarity with UN/UNDP (5 points)
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.
 
UNDP  applies a 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.

Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.


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