Background
The Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) is a joint initiative of the Government of Singapore and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to improve the capacities of public services to deliver development goals.More specifically, the Centre’s mission is to:
- Strengthen UNDP’s capacity to influence international development thinking;
- Promote South-South Learning to improve public service; and
- Support the efforts by UNDP and its partners to foster open governance.
GCPSE does this by:
- Promoting evidence on ‘what really works’ in creating and sustaining excellence in public service;
- Supporting innovation and reform; and
- Convening events that encourage new ways of tackling reform.
GCPSE’s knowledge brokers conduct research and produce knowledge products that cover a wide range of topics related to the abovementioned themes. These serve an expandable knowledge base for the GCPSE that responds to key needs within UNDP and among its development partners in Government and Civil Society.
In addition, the knowledge brokers are actively involved in the knowledge sharing activities of the Centre that happen both face-to-face (e.g. conferences, consultations, workshops, public talks, etc.) and via online knowledge networks (see http://bit.ly/GCPSE-TW).
Duties and Responsibilities
Two types of consultancies are currently advertised:- Knowledge Broker (Research);
- Knowledge Broker (Events).
- Gather material (i.e. studies, articles, films, training material, etc.) from internal and external sources and identify relevant resources (i.e. institutions, websites, networks and experts) on an agreed public service theme or challenge;
- Draft proposals for activities of the Centre;
- Produce meeting minutes and event documentation;
- Review and quality check material and resources;
- Identify, extract and synthesise the most relevant findings/experiences/lessons;
- Produce resource overviews in the form of link and reference lists in a shareable format;
- Compose knowledge products that provide useful evidence and insights in a reader-friendly format;
- Carry out desk research for documents, papers, reports and other communication materials;
- Support GCPSE communications by suggesting news updates and knowledge pieces for the GCPSE website (www.undp.org/publicservice) and social media windows (www.fb.com/gcpse & https://twitter.com/UNDPpublicserv);
- Keep the GCPSE knowledge sharing platform (http://bit.ly/GCPSE-TW) up to date with relevant information and liaise with partners that are engaged in e-Discussions;
- Support the conceptualisation of knowledge sharing events with content development, identification of speakers and resource persons, correspondence and content management;
- Support the management of events through invitation management, logistics, manpower planning, coordination with vendors, oversight of registration and accommodation arrangements, etc.
- Any other knowledge management tasks as needed.
Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to procurement.my@undp.org. Please write the Project reference "MyIC/2014/027" in your e-mail heading.
The deadline for submitting requests for clarification/questions is 13 June 2014.
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
- Cover letter: describing your motivation to apply and indicating the position you are interested in: Knowledge Broker (a) Research or (b) Events. Please also indicated your status in Singapore (citizen or permanent resident);
- Personal CV, demonstrating past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references;
- Financial proposal – based on the deliverables and terms of payment: please provide a lump sum daily rate;
- Duty travel expenses (if any) would be covered as per UNDP rules and regulations.
Best value for money (combination of technical and financial proposals, ie 70%-30%).
Important note:
All the documents above must be attached and uploaded as one combined PDF document when you are asked to upload your CV/resume on the application website. UNDP reserves the right to disqualify any incomplete submission.
Competencies
Technical Knowledge & Skills:- Sound intellectual grasp of and enthusiasm for public sector governance (ideally in developing country contexts);
- Mastery of desktop and online research tools;
- Mastery of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as well as user-level skills in Microsoft Excel;
- Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite products and/or web-design software is an added advantage.
- Capacity to write clearly;
- Strong research and fact-checking skills;
- Able to think and communicate concisely and analytically;
- Comfortable working with a variety of people within a multicultural environment;
- Capacity to work effectively with minimum supervision;
- Able to ‘multi-task’ in a deadline-driven environment and work under pressure;
- Strong work ethic and commitment;
- Organized, resourceful and with team player qualities.
Required Skills and Experience
- Graduate degree in public administration, public policy, public management, political science, development studies, human resource management, organisational development, knowledge management, journalism or a related field.
- Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in a research, knowledge management or event management role;
- Demonstrated capacity to strongly promote knowledge sharing and knowledge products and systems;
- Demonstrated experience in writing and editing publishable text;
- Demonstrated experience in producing knowledge products and/or managing events;
- Work experience with the public sector, in international organisations or the NGO sector is an added advantage.
- Excellent written and spoken English;
- Proficiency in other languages would be an asset.