UNDP Jobs - 46357- Transitional Support to the Resident Coordinator O

Transitional Support to the Resident Coordinator Office and the Steering Committee Support Office

Location :

Baghdad, IRAQ

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2014

Application Deadline :

19-May-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

130.5 Working Days over a period of Six Months.

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

June – November 2014

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The Resident Coordinator Office (RCO) is the coordinating body of the resident coordinator system (RCS) that encompasses all organizations of the UN System (UNS) supporting strategic and operational activities for development, regardless of their formal presence in the country. As the designated Representative of the UN Secretary-General and team leader of the UN Country Team (UNCT), the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRC), in consultation with the UNCT, assumes overall responsibility for and coordination of the developmental activities of the UNS carried out at country level. This is done in conformity with the objectives and priorities of the Government and in accordance with the mandates and objectives of the various UNS organizations. The UNCT is composed of representatives of the UN funds and programmes, specialized agencies and other UN entities accredited to Iraq.

The Iraq UN Country Team is composed of 20 UN agencies among 17 are resident and non-resident. The UNCT in Iraq is supporting the Government of Iraq through the UNDAF 2011 -2014 that in fact is aligned to the national priorities as expressed inn the National Development Plan (NDP) 2013-2017. The current UNDAF was developed in accordance to the previous NDP 2010-2014 revisited to have a new NDP 2013-2017. UNCT in Iraq is also undertaking an exercise of developing a new UNDAF 2015-2019.

The Resident Coordinator Office ensures the daily coordination of common and joint activities for the UN Country Team in particular those related to the implementation of the UNDAF. During the past period, this support was provided by a team located respectively in Baghdad-Iraq and Amman-Jordan. The full relocation of UNDP in Iraq leaves the RCO with only one staff based in Baghdad for a work that was usually performed by a team of 4 staff, one international and three local staff.
The support includes ensuring the implementation of the UN Country Team annual workplan, the management of the RCO budget, the support the UNDAF implementation through the Priority Working Groups and the technical and operational support for the Iraq UNDAF Steering Committee and the relationship with the Multi-partners trust Fund on UNDAF projects development, approval and monitoring.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

The requested consultancy intends to provide technical and operational support for the management of the RCO activities including the Iraq UNDAF Fund and its Steering Committee during the recruitment process of new staff (national and international) who will be in charge of the duties. The consultancy is planned for a period of 5 months but may be shortened if the recruitment is finalized before the end of this period.

The consultancy work will focus on providing technical support related to the management of UNDAF related activities including the Iraq UNDAF Fund projects proposals development, review, submission, monitoring and report. The consultant will also manage operationally the Steering Committee Support Office and the Resident Coordinator Office budget.

The consultant is also expected to spend an amount of his/her time to the monitoring of the UNCT activities and provide technical / operational support for the priority working groups and other thematic working groups such OMT, GTF and other cross cutting issues.

Scope of Work and Expected Outputs:

The consultant work will focus on supporting the SCSO – RCO daily management as an internal work but will also liaise with other UN agencies to ensure that projects are properly managed and reported on.

The expected outputs are the following:

Support the UNDAF Steering Committee Chairs in ensuring the strategic direction of Iraq UNDAF Fund Programmes as per UNDAF 2011-2014 priorities;
Ensure effective programme operational management of the Iraq UNDAF financed activities focusing on the full cycle of programming from formulation to implementation and reporting;
Ensure effective and accurate financial approval for programme management, budget approvals and extensions;
Ensure effective SCSO and RCO budgets management and tracking;
Ensures efficient administrative support;
Ensure provision of quality advisory services and facilitation of knowledge building and management;
Ensure programme performance and reporting in line with legal arrangements.

Deliverables and outputs:

The Consultant will be responsible for producing the below deliverables. These deliverables are changeable subject to UNDP’s approval, in case unexpected incidents take place in the project, such as delay of the project or change of project scope, due to reasons uncontrollable by the Consultant.

Support the development and implementation monitoring of UNCT and UNDAF annual work plan;
Provide operational and logistic support to the Iraq UNDAF Steering Committee, the High level Committee for UNDAF in ensuring the effective oversight over the UNDAF activities;
Support the coordination efforts to mainstream the UN’s key programming principles (HRBA, Gender, Environment, RBM, and Capacity Development) into projects;
Provide operational support the PWGs and UNCT in the identification, development, implementation, M&E and joint resource mobilization for Joint Programmes;
Collect and disseminate global practices in the field of Joint Programmes while supporting implementation of these practices locally;
Support the Programme Coordination Officer in the approval process of Iraq UNDAF Fund programmes.
Overall tracking of individual projects progress;
Coordination support for the PWGs and agencies on Iraq UNDAF Fund related matters including policies for extensions and budget revisions;
Prepare aggregate and monthly reports on Iraq UNDAF Fund activities;
Prepare briefs for the UNDF SC, donors on Iraq UNDAF Fund activities;
Provide support in the review of budgets prepared by the PWGs/Agencies for all new programmes ensuring inter-agency cross checking on unit costs, past expenditures analyses and operational management cost and miscellaneous budget approval requests;
Maintenance of hard and electronic files on all projects and PWGs/agencies;
Management of project timeline extensions and ‘change of scope’ requests (related budget revisions);
Schedule attendance and follow-up on results of the regular Agency/SCSO meetings;
Management of SCSO database and compilation of reports;
Tracking of RCO-SCSO allocated financial resources through planning, guiding, monitoring and controlling of the resources in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
Assist the programme coordination Officer in regular analysis and reporting on the budget approvals and the delivery situation against RCO-SCSO work plan;
Provide and ensure proper control of the supporting documents for payments;
Ensuring that advance payments, direct payments, travel claims and other entitlements are properly reviewed, made on a timely basis and duly processed as well as ensuring that payment information is properly recorded into the Atlas system on a timely basis;
Assist in the preparation of financial reports to be submitted to MPTF Office and DOCO;
Elaboration of the internal expenditures’ control system, which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions, are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas;
Planning and coordination of travel arrangements with UNDP/Iraq for SCSO-RCO staff and visiting missions;
Organization of workshops, conferences, retreats and meetings (UNCT, Steering Committee, etc.);
Maintain regular contact with the Participating UN Organizations and provide support and guidance on the preparation and timely receipt of progress reports;
Serve as focal point for information sharing related to the MPTF Office and Iraq UNDAF Fund Projects’ Databases (on MPTF Gateway), ensuring they reflect information on newly approved projects, status reports, budget revisions, etc.;
Prepare, as requested and in consultation with the MPTF Office, periodic briefs and position papers on overall UNDG ITF/ Iraq UNDAF Fund level progress, emerging results and outcomes through write ups in periodic Newsletters and web postings.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the mission, vision and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly and with impartiality.

Functional Competencies:

Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines;
Demonstrates excellent oral and written communication skills;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Self-reliant and able to work as a part of a multi-cultural team in a stressful.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced degree (Masters’ or PhD) in economics or social science.

Work Experience:

Minimum 2 years of national and international experience in Economics and information management.
Previous work experience in Economic Analysis and reporting is required;
Experience in working in post-conflict or transitional countries required; and
Experience in the region an asset.
Experience working with the UN, a UN agency or an international organization is an asset;
Competent in usage of MS Office programmes (MS Word, Excel, Power Point);
Experience in Budget Management;
Knowledge of UNDP results-based management.

Language:

Fluency in English language is required.

Documents to be included when submitting the Proposal:

Technical Proposal:
(Which will include the following):

Signed Template Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal. (Please use Annex 1);
A letter explaining why he/she considers himself/herself the most suitable candidate for the work;
Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references. Please Use the attached (P11 Form Only) CV Form – Annex 2 attached. UNDP-Iraq reserves the right to disqualify any of CVs who are not compliant with the requested form;
A language assessment will be conducted [if needed] for the purpose of verifying influence in English;
A brief Methodology on how the candidate will approach and conduct the work.
(The expert is asked in his/her offer submission in the methodologies section to bring the description of the above mentioned points in Scope of Work and Expected Outputs).

Financial proposal:

The financial proposal will specify a total lump sum amount and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. A breakdown of this lump sum amount is to be provided by the IC candidate. Total Fees: Please use Annex 3 – Financial proposal form.

All necessary information including: Complete Terms of Reference, The Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement Notice Number IC-019/14:

http://www.iq.undp.org/content/iraq/en/home/operations/procurement.html

Proposals should be submitted to the following e-mail address no later than COB 19th of May 2014: IC1.undp.iq@undp.org

Important Notes:

Applicants should download the application documents (presented in compressed file) from the previously mentioned link for UNDP Iraq – Procurement notice web site, complete and sign them, and send the scanned copies to the email account above by or before the deadline of this post;
Applications with no financial offer or missing P11 form or the required documents for the technical evaluation will not be considered for evaluation;
Applications without Annex 3 for submitting a financial offer instead of other format will not be considered due to the need of Annex 3 for the ease of comparison of the received offers. All the necessary information for this post (TOR, Deliverables, Target dates, etc. are presented in the procurement notice documents) therefore, applicant must download it to apply for this post;
Do not send only CV to the Email account mentioned above without Annex 1, 2, 3, 4, Cover Letter and Methodology (If Requested) as it will considered as incomplete application;
The documents are available in PDF (the Procurement Notice, Annex 3, 4 and 5) and Word 2010 (Annex 1 and 2) format; this is the only format available and it will not be provided in other formats;
Applicants need to use Adobe reader, Word 2010, zipping software (WinRAR) to be able to use and view the documents for this procurement notice;
Each email should be less than 8 MB; emails over this size will not be received to the above mentioned account.

Key Performance Indicators during implementation of Services:

Overall, the Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on the following key criteria:

Timely submission of various update on the UNCT workplan, SCSO – RCO budget commitments and disbursements, monitoring of the projects reporting
Monthly uploading of Iraq UNDAF Fund available data on MPTF Gateway
Support provided for the preparation and drafting of meeting reports, reviews, and briefing notes
Follow up and coordination engaged with relevant UN agencies on the projects implementation
Review provided on projects and reports received for their finalization.