UNDP Jobs - 49841- Knowledge Brokers – Multiple Consultancies Positio

Knowledge Brokers – Multiple Consultancies Positions

Location :

UNDP GCPSE, SINGAPORE

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

29-Sep-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months, extendable

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 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 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.

In order to support the effective and innovative implementation of its mandate, the GCPSE is looking to recruit Knowledge Brokers with strong interests in public service, public policy and international development. “Knowledge Brokering is a strategy to close the “know-do gap” and to foster greater use of research findings and evidence” (see WHO 2006: http://bit.ly/16ET2WH) which the GCPSE seeks to employ to respond to needs of public service thinker-practitioners.

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).

All Knowledge Brokers will carry out the following tasks, but their focus will vary depending on the assigned role (i.e. research or events focus):

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 public service innovations/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 and event management tasks as needed.

Applicants must be Singaporean citizens or permanent residents to apply. Residents of Singapore whose spouses of Employment Pass holders may apply, however, in case of selection, the contract will be conditional on the issuance of a Letter of Consent by the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore. Please confirm your status in the application.

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to procurement.my@undp.org. Please write the project reference "MyIC/2014/052" in your e-mail heading. The deadline for submitting requests for clarification/questions is 20 September 2014.

Application:

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, permanent resident or dependent pass);
Personal CV, indicating your citizenship/residency/visa status in Singapore. Thee CV shall demonstrate past experience in similar projects and provide at least 3 references;
Financial proposal – based on the deliverables and terms of payment: please provide a lump sum daily rate;
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.

Evaluation Method:

Combined Scoring;
Total Points: (Technical Grand Total x 70%) + (Financial Grand Total 30%).

Notes:

General Terms and Conditions for Service for Individual Contract can be downloaded from http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.

The total working days per month are estimated to be 21.75 days. The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. professional fee, and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). The fee should be quoted in Singapore Dollars (SGD) only.

Payment Modality:

Monthly upon satisfactory submission of monthly progress reports / time sheets.

Travel:

Successful consultants must be able to travel to facilitate consultations in countries based on demand if required. When such a request comes, the organization shall bear the cost of travel including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses based on extant policies and rules. Should the Individual Consultant (IC) wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case 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.

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.

Personal Skills:

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

Academic Qualifications:

Graduate degree in public administration, public policy, public management, political science, development studies, human resource management, organisational development, knowledge management, communications, journalism or a related field.

Professional Experience:

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.

Languages:

Excellent written and spoken English;
Proficiency in other languages would be an asset.