Background

Through its long presence in Myanmar, UNDP has collected valuable experiences and learning in promoting sustainable livelihoods and promoting socio-economic development of poor communities. Through its Human Development Initiative (HDI), and specifically, it’s ICPD- (Integrated Community Development Project) and CDRT (Community Development for Remote Townships) projects, UNDP has provided livelihood assistance to the poor and most vulnerable communities in over 5,000 villages, spread over 1,200 Village Tracts in 51 Townships in the country. ‘Improved Livelihoods and Social Cohesion’ Project (Output 5 of Pillar 1 of the UNDP Myanmar Country Programme Document 2013-2015) is programmed to address social cohesion issues in Myanmar, and is targeted across 300 villages across 07 ceasefire and high-poverty states.

The ‘Improved Livelihoods and Social Cohesion’ Output has used the Simple Poverty Score Card (SPS) as part of its assessment and village-planning exercises for identifying poor households at the village level for social-protection assistance. The tool has been administered by UNDP through its Implementing Partners (IPs – Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in over 300 villages in 24 townships in 07 states. This SPS was devised in 2012 for use by UNDP.

The SPS is an easy-to-use tool that can be used to estimate whether a household has per-capita consumption below a given poverty line, the poverty rate of a group of households at a point in time, and which also may be used to target services and assistance to the poor. The SPS was developed using base-data from the Integrated Household Living Conditions Assessment (IHLCA) (2009-2010).

UNDP’s partners in government and in the development community have expressed their interest in learning more about the use and relevance of the tool and in strengthening their capacity for using it as part of their poverty assessments and for poverty targeting. UNDP’s partners and staff have had mixed experiences with the SPS. It is important to assess the use of the SPS in UNDP’s own programming and to share these findings with its partners, before initiating capacity-strengthening or training activities on the tool. This kind of assessment can potentially be a valuable contribution to ongoing discussions on poverty alleviation and social protection and feed into the broader policy discussions on tools for poverty targeting.

Duties and Responsibilities

Against this background, UNDP wishes to identify a consultant to conduct a review of the SPS for poverty targeting, both by UNDP (under the ‘Improved Livelihoods and Social Cohesion’ Output) and other development organizations. The review should a) examine the SPS tool for usefulness and relevance to context; b) assess the administration of the SPS tool for effectiveness in determining beneficiary eligibility; and c) make recommendations for revising the SPS to fit in current context/changes. The review should also examine other poverty targeting tools being used in Myanmar by other development organizations.

The consultant will engage with UNDP at Yangon and area level to understand the current scope of community recovery and livelihood activities. The Consultant will also meet with UNDP’s Senior Economic Advisor and personnel attached to the IHLCA exercise, to also assess the need to validate the base-data, given the significant changes to socio-economic context. The Consultant will need to visit the selected target locations and hold discussions with UNDP staff and Implementing Partners (IPs) to learn about their experiences in administering the SPS; conduct focus-groups discussions (FGDs) in target locations with CBOs and beneficiaries to test SPS targeting against local knowledge; validate the relevance of indicators already specified in the SPS and suggest required changes; meet with selected number of other development actors (government and non-governmental) to study other tools in use; prepare a report with findings and conclusions; and present the report to government officials and development partners.

The process of the assignment should be consultative. In the field, the consultant should facilitate discussions with local stakeholders and community members. The field locations to be visited will be identified in consultation with UNDP. UNDP will organize all meetings and related logistics.

For detail deliverable, please see ToR attached.

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=17153.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Developing people/coaching and mentoring & fostering innovation and empowerment;
• Self-management/Emotional Intelligence;
• Effective communication skills;
• Appropriate and transparent decision making;
• Analytical and strategic thinking and results orientation/commitment to excellence;
• Knowledge sharing /continuous learning.

Functional competencies

• Ability to consolidate information from multiple source;
• Able to prepare strategic information for decision makers;
• Ability to advance and provide timely advise;
• Ability to identify issue and to use sound judgement in applying technical expertise to resolve a wide range of problems;
• Ability to work under extreme pressure in highly stressful environment;
• Excellent facilitation skills.
  

Required Skills and Experience

•  Master’s Degree in Economics, Development or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum of 6 years’ experience of relevant work, e.g. in development sector, poverty alleviation, recovery etc.
• International comparative knowledge of Myanmar or Asia-Pacific region an advantage
• Knowledge and experience of poverty analysis and poverty targeting  and development and use of poverty score card tool;
• Computer literacy.

Language:

• Excellent English oral and written skills.