UNDP Jobs - 48962- International Consultant

International Consultant - Innovation and Data Analysis Specialist

Location :

Dhaka, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

27-Aug-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

06 months

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 Political Governance Sub-cluster is the core section of the Democratic Governance Cluster mandate to work in the areas of Parliamentary Development, Electoral Reform including Political Analysis. The nature of the 10th Parliamentary Election and the subsequent local elections has a remarkable impact on the Political Governance portfolio and ended up scaling down its scope.

Before the 10th Parliamentary Elections a lot effort was made nationally and internationally to bring parties to talk amongst themselves to address issues that lead the country to a violent disruption of regular life. This situation had lead a non-participatory elections on the 5 January 2014. The sub-cluster through extensive political analysis found that the lack of dialogue is not the only problem that leads country to violence in each five years, during parliamentary elections. In the context of Bangladesh there has been no peaceful transition of power till the country formed the parliamentary democracy in 1990.

Considering the context and dynamics of the political changing factors in the country, the sub-cluster has taken a multi-dimensional approach by employing data analysis and methodologies to understand and address these social challenges related to social cohesion as well as the root causes of the existing lack of cohesive political environment in the country.

Against this backdrop the Political Governance Sub-cluster has decided to recruit one International Consultant with background on policy based research, political data analysis and assessments, social cohesion, various use of crowd sourcing platforms and social media and outreach.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives:

The International Consultant will assist the Political Governance Sub-cluster to continue various data collection and lead a series of analyses on political governance to understand the trend of politics in Bangladesh. The Consultant will also be providing technical inputs to design innovation tools i. e. crowd sourcing, social media based tools to engage people in social cohesion activities.

Scope of work and expected outputs / deliverables:

Design innovative tools to engage citizens and regularly monitor to collect relevant data and information in the area of political governance;
Design program activities related to innovation, focusing on inclusion, for the DG cluster projects and provide technical assistance to implementation and data analysis;
Provide regular reports on social trend and public opinion and make recommendations based on analyses;
Provide a comprehensive report on innovation in democratic governance programming by analyzing results of innovative activities taken by the projects of the cluster;
Contribute to policy analysis and formulation and knowledge sharing networks within the portfolio;
Conduct a series of workshops and trainings on innovation and data analysis with relevant stakeholders of the projects under the DG cluster.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The International Consultant will work under supervision of the Assistant Country Director of Democratic Governance Cluster, UNDP Bangladesh.

Timeframe and deadlines:

The duration of the contract will be for 6 (six) months starting from 1 October 2014.

Reports:

The consultant will report to the programme officer of Political Governance Sub-cluster on day-to-day issues and all reports produced by the consultant will be reviewed by the sub-cluster and the ACD before wider circulation. The International Consultant will produce a mission end report and submit to the sub-cluster.

Inputs:

The International Consultant will be provided an office space and relevant knowledge materials and information. However, he/she is strongly recommended to bring his/her own laptops.

Tentative Payment Schedule:

The payment will be made in monthly basis based on completion of deliverable(s).

Competencies

Corporate

Serves and promotes the vision, mission, values, and strategic goals of the UN;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time;

Job Knowledge & Expertise

Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities and post requirements with excellence
Demonstrated sound judgment in resolving issues/problems; ability to proactively seek and recommend sound policy initiatives and high-level advice.

Creativity

Ability to actively seek to improve or offer new and different options to solve problems/meet client needs, and promote and persuade others to consider new ideas.

Communications

Excellent and effective analytical and communication (verbal and written) skills, including ability to make recommendations;
Diplomacy and tact;
Present information in a concise and accurate manner;
Ability to convey difficult issues and positions to senior officials.

Teamwork

Excellent inter-personal skills with an ability to foster teamwork, work in a multi-cultural, mixed gender environment with sensitivity.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Masters in International Affairs, Economic and Political Development, Public Policy or any other relevant field.

Years of experience:

At least 5 years of experience working with multi-stakeholder projects including government agencies, private sector, civil society or international organizations in conducting research and analysis in governance-related issues;
Proven knowledge and skills on qualitative and quantitative research analysis applicable to the context of development interventions;
Hands on experience and prior knowledge in developing and implementing innovative social media, crowd sourcing, and crowd management projects;
Prior experience with designing innovative tools and data methodologies for results-oriented monitoring and trend analysis in complex environments;
Prior experience working with UN/UNDP would be considered as an asset;
Experience working in the South Asia and knowledge about the political culture of the region is highly desirable;
Demonstrated experience and knowledge of any of the UNDP thematic areas (poverty reduction and the MDGs, governance, crisis prevention and recovery and environmental sustainability) and crosscutting issues (capacity development, gender equality and knowledge management).

Language requirement:

Fluency in speaking and writing in English.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Cumulative analysis:

The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks)

Years of experience in multi-stakeholder projects including government agencies, private sector, civil society or international organizations in conducting research and analysis in governance-related issues. (10 marks);
Hands on experience and prior knowledge in developing and implementing innovative social media, crowd sourcing, and crowd management projects. (25marks);
Prior experience with designing innovative tools and data methodologies for results-oriented monitoring and trend analysis in complex environments. (25 marks);
Prior experience working with UN/UNDP would be considered as an asset. (10 marks).

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Explain why you are the most suitable for the work;
Updated P11 with list of three referees;
CV.