Background

The Strategic Plan Alignment initiative will be primarily led and implemented by a team of the dedicated internal resource persons from the Bureau. However, the expectation is that the demand from the Country Offices may exceed the internal capacity available to support the initiative and that is one the Bureau is hiring an external resource person and facilitator to provide support to the priority Country Offices. The external resource person and facilitator will be offered a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) individual contract of up to 70 days and will be supporting Country Offices on the case by case basis, with the exact timing and countries of support to be progressively agreed with the Bureau upon submission of Country Office respective action plans.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide methodological guidance to the Country Offices on the various parameters of the program alignment (thematic, design and operational), using the corporate methodological guidance developed for this purpose as the key framework;
• Contribute to the tailoring of the practical package of the SP alignment support to the Country Offices in the region, including minor adjustments of the methodological guidance to the specific Country Offices backgrounds and contexts;
• Facilitate alignment initiatives in the Country Offices with the active engagement of the program, project and operations staff;
• Facilitate other types of the trainings required by the Country Offices in relation to the Strategic Plan alignment, primarily related to results based management, program and project management, monitoring and evaluation;
• Provide remote support and support to the Country Offices on the completion of alignment exercise as required (this might include but not be limited to the reviews of the various documents such as Standard Operating Procedures for programming, revised management arrangements for projects, revised M&E frameworks, risk management strategies, etc.).

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Good managerial and leadership kills;
• Demonstrate strong coordination skills;
• Excellent facilitation skills;
• Proven interpersonal skills and strong organizational and time management skills.
• Consistently approaches the work with energy and a positive and constructive attitude.

• Excellent communication skill both in writing and oral, including networking and interpersonal skills;
• Proven ability to persuade and influence others to cooperate;

• Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and understandable manner;
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines;

• Display culture, gender, religious, race, nationality and age sensitivities and adaptability;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master degree in development studies, social sciences or any other related field.

Professional Experience:

• Good understanding of the UNDP’s mandate and substantive areas of work;
• Minimum 10 years proven experience in practical application of the Results Based Management and program/project monitoring and evaluation;
• Prior experience with conducting at least 10 trainings either in the capacity of a trainer, resource person or as a facilitator;
• Good understanding of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) preparation and programming principles, including its links and relation with the UNDP country programs;
• Prior working experience with UNDP and understanding of the its program and project guidelines and principles is an advantage;
• Experience working in a multi-cultural environment.

Language:

• Fluency in English.
  

Contract Duration:

The contract will be issued to successful candidate under Long-Term Agreement (LTA) during 20 August 2014 - 30 December 2015 for a maximum of 70 days worked.

Duty Station:

Home-based with possibility of travel to Asia-Pacific countries. 

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls:

The consultant will report to the Head of Management Support Unit, and will work in close collaboration with the Strategic Plan Advisor in RBAP, and senior management in the supported Country Offices.

Documents to be included when submitting proposal:

Interested individual consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate your qualifications:

• Tehnical Proposal: Brief motivation letter explaining why the applicant thinks is an outstanding candidate for the job.
• Financial proposal: indicating all-inclusive daily professional fee in USD;
• Personal CV and/or signed P.11: including past experience in similar projects and the name and contact details of 3 references.

Financial Proposal:

The contract will be based on daily professional fee.  The financial proposal will specify the all-inclusive daily professional fee in USD and payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based upon completion of the deliverables. 

In the event of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation:

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 weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight; 70%

• Experience related to services: 35 points;
• Written proposal and/or interview result: 35 points;

Expertise & Availability: 30 points.

Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.