Background

 The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response.  BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

UNDP works closely with government, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector in hazard-prone developing countries to strengthen their capacity in risk governance and mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) into development. Within UNDP’s disaster reduction practice area, mainstreaming risk reduction is already an underlying principle for all activities associated with disaster response, recovery, preparedness and mitigation. Furthermore, UNDP is working at various levels to mainstream DRR into its country programming and geographical planning, depending upon the country and region. UNDP believes it is important to consider the underlying risk factors and integrate risk reduction standards and measures into the planning and delivery of core development services and processes, including education, environment, health, poverty reduction, livelihoods and governance.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of the assignment is to support the BPPS portfolio in disaster and climate risk governance with a particular focus on the following tasks and deliverables:

  • Assist the Project Coordinator (Thematic In-Depth Review of Progress in Disaster Risk Governance and Analysis of UNDP’s contribution) with the preparation of the UNDP portfolio analysis on disaster risk governance and DRR mainstreaming programmes since its finalization is highly time sensitive;
  • Support the global analysis of UNDP’s contribution to Disaster Risk Governance in close coordination with the project coordinator (Thematic In-Depth Review of Progress in Disaster Risk Governance and Analysis of UNDP’s contribution), including liaising with consultants, UNDP Country Offices; organizing meetings; as well as editing, design and printing of the report;
  • Strengthen the existing stock-take of UNDP Country Office published lessons learned reports, tools and guidelines on disaster risk governance and mainstreaming of disaster/climate risk management into development, covering the period 2000 – 2014; compile these publications and analyze their potential for knowledge sharing and adaptation against a set of predefined criteria. This stock-take will be a major contribution to the UNDP Disaster Risk Governance Review, i.e. the follow-up report of the 2007 report “UNDP Global Review: Support to Institutional and Legislative Systems for Disaster Risk Management”;
  • Maintain and strengthen the existing Disaster Risk Governance E-Library;
  • Support the finalization, editing, design and printing of the UNDP DRR/CCA Maintreaming Framework, including the organization of a practitioner’s discussion on CPR-Net and developing and implementing a dissemination strategy for the guideline;
  • Support the preparations for the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDR) in 2015, with focus on the organization of sessions/side events related to the launch of GAR 2015, disaster risk governance and DRR/CCA mainstreaming;
  • Support the work of BPPS in the area of laws and regulations for disaster and climate risk management;
  • Carry out other duties related to the project implementation as assigned by the Disaster & Governance Advisor.

Deliverables/Outputs:

  • Finalization of the UNDP portfolio analysis on disaster risk governance and DRR mainstreaming programmes.
  • Stock-take of UNDP Country Office published lessons learned reports, tools and guidelines on disaster risk governance and mainstreaming;
  • Support to global analysis of UNDP’s contribution to Disaster Risk Governance;
  • Finalization, editing, design and printing of the UNDP DRR/CCA Mainstreaming Framework;
  • Finalization of the Disaster Risk Governance E-Library;
  • Synthesis of the outcomes of a series of meetings on the above mentioned component of GAR'15 to inform UNDP community of practice;
  • Support to WCDR.

Management arrangements

The assignment will be implemented under a short term consultancy arrangement with clearly identified number of work days, work plan and deliverables. The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Disaster & Climate Risk Governance Advisor and the overall leadership of the Chief of Profession, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction. The consultant will also work in close collaboration with UNDP’s Regional Bureaus and Country Offices and the GAR Team/United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). The duration of the consultancy will be over 6 months tentatively scheduled to commence in October 2014. No travel is foreseen during this assignment.

 Payment schedule

Applicant to this consultancy should submit a financial proposal to indicate “All inclusive daily fee”. Payments will be made against satisfactory completion of deliverables as per the above time line. The payment will be based upon the certification and acceptance of the outputs of the relevant approval officer as stated in section D.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

 Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status;
  • Ensures that programs and projects are consistent with UN/UNDP values;
  • Identifies conflicts of interest between stakeholder groups and works to keep UN/UNDP from inappropriate involvement in such situations.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

  • Keeps abreast of new developments in disaster risk reduction and recovery and seeks to develop him/herself personally;
  • Actively seeks to develop him/herself professionally and personally.

 Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

  • Demonstrates a genuine passion for the work, and leverages political forces and tacit knowledge to support the achievement of organizational goals and priorities;
  • Foresees how others will interpret and react to events, using that awareness to smooth the way;
  • Provides a sense of direction and purpose, and maintains operational effectiveness of the organization, even during times of organizational crisis or change.

 Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

  • Accepts responsibility and accountability for the quality of the outcome of his/her decisions.

 Functional Competencies:

 Building Strategic Partnerships:

  • Creates networks and promotes initiatives with partner organizations;
  • Identifies common interests and goals and carries out joint initiatives with partners;
  • Makes effective use of UNDP's resources and comparative advantage to strengthen partnerships.

 Client Orientation:

  • Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives;
  • Proactively identifies, develops and discusses solutions for internal and external clients, and persuades management to undertake new projects or services;
  • Advises and develops strategic and operational solutions with clients that add value to UNDP programmes and operations.

Job Knowledge and Technical Expertise:

  • Applies knowledge to support the project objectives and to further the mandate of the organization;
  • Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
  • Knowledge of development issues, particularly disaster risk management, governance and climate risk management;
  • Knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures.

Results-based Program Development and Management:

  • Identifies needs and strategies using a fact-based approach;
  • Sets performance standards, monitors progress and intervenes at an early stage to ensure results are in accordance with agreed-upon quality and timeframes and reports on it;
  • Sound independent judgment and strong analytical abilities;
  • Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honors commitments.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Minimum of a Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, public infrastructure management, development / environmental studies or a discipline relevant to governance and institutional and policy analysis and development in disaster and climate risk management.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 3 - 5 years of professional experience in planning, implementing and managing programs and projects related to governance and/or disaster and climate risk management;
  • Sound understanding and experience of working on development issues and understanding of the relationship of development, governance and DRR;
  • Knowledge and experience of UNDP and UN system policies and programming;
  • Broad knowledge of recent institutional and policy developments in the global DRR community, both within and outside of the UN.

Language:

  • Fluency in English, both oral and written is required;
  • Working knowledge of other official UN languages (preferably French or Spanish) is an asset.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Applicants to this consultancy are required to submit a financial proposal, Personal CV or P11 together with their expression of interest. The financial proposal will consist of an “all inclusive fee” that indicates the daily rate in USD for this assignment. It must be all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses expected to be incurred by the Individual Contractor during the contract period, including professional fee; local transportation, living allowances needed while on the duty station; communications, utilities, consumables; Life, Health and any insurance, as maybe desired by the individual contractor; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions, when applicable; any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the IC.

The following minimum documents will be required when submitting an offer:

  • Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
  • Brief description of why the Candidate considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  • “All inclusive” consultancy fee.