UNDP Jobs - 50119- Consultant to Support UNDP’s Work on Knowledge Man

Consultant to Support UNDP’s Work on Knowledge Management and Communication

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

12-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

120 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

10 November 2014 to 30 June 2015

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 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

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.

BPPS supports UNDP’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, focusing on 7 outcomes including strengthening institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (outcome 3). The HIV Health and Development team, within BPPS, is helping to contribute towards this outcome.

HIV, Health and Development Approach

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development leverages the organization’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Millennium Development Goals. For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector. UNDP also promotes specific action on the needs and rights of women and girls as they relate to HIV and health.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of legal environments (law and access to justice) in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property and human rights law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics and to increase access to HIV-related treatment. UNDP also works to empower and include people living with HIV and marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV - also known as key populations - such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people. Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to district and municipal action on MDGs, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for marginalized populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on MDG 6 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding. UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity for governments or local entities to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

Objective:

UNDP’s global network generates not only direct development outputs, but also a rich base of collective knowledge. The key objective of knowledge management in UNDP is to drive UNDP’s global leadership in achieving the seven outcomes of the Strategic Plan. To this end, UNDP focuses its knowledge management work on understanding what does and does not work, collecting, analyzing and using evidence from a global and country perspective, and from external and internal experience.

Consequently, UNDP’s HIV, Health & Development Group is recruiting a knowledge management and communications consultant to support UNDP’s work in this area. The objective of this consultancy is to position UNDP’s work on HHD using knowledge management tools such as Teamworks, social media and the UNDP website.

The knowledge management and communications consultant will be based in the HHD team in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, New York. S/he will be Reporting to the Policy Specialist and will be responsible for drafting and editing communication materials, implementing global campaigns and press launches in coordination with relevant HQ and regional HHD teams. S/he will also manage HHD’s knowledge network, develop monthly news updates and provide other knowledge management related support and services to the team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the HIV, Health and Development (HHD) Policy Specialist, the Consultant will be responsible for:

Knowledge Management support to the team to:

Manage HHD knowledge network including preparing and sharing monthly news updates, facilitating knowledge sharing among network members, and coordinating with the HHD Director on strategic information sharing through the knowledge network;
Maintain the quarterly publication schedule for the team and develop a dissemination plan for key publications and its execution, including compilation of data to measure the success of dissemination campaigns;
Maintain and organize all HHD publications and other knowledge resources on internal and external platforms (Teamworks, Sharepoint, HIV page on UNDP public website) including the HHD section of the UNDP website;
Regular maintenance of the HHD Teamworks spaces;
Develop and maintain a database of HHD photos and other visual resources for use in publications and web content. Developing infographics for the team as needed;
Support the HHD focal point for the Development Impact Group regarding implementation of the UNDP Knowledge Management Strategy Framework 2014-2017 and other KM initiatives and their implication for the HHD team; and
Support the Policy Specialist – UNAIDS Partnership in managing the UNDP and UNAIDS reporting processes to ensure timely and high-quality reports on HHD work and results.

Communication support to the team to:

Develop and maintain close working relations with the office of communication in BERA for communication related matters;
Coordinate with the HHD team in HQ and in the regional centers to support communication related matters such as press releases, news stories, blogs and visual communication needs (photography and video); and
Develop social media content and coordinate social media activities with the office of communication including weekly #EndHIVThursday campaigns and regular social media updates on HHD topics.

Specific Deliverables:

Support as required to the HHD team in HQ and in the regional centers on communication related matters such as press releases, news stories and blogs. Ongoing basis;
Develop a user-friendly version of the new HHD Corporate Strategy. Envisaged Deadline: December 2014.
Develop and implement a social media strategy, including developing content for social media campaigns. Envisaged Deadline: January 2015;
Support the UNAIDS and UNDP reporting processes by analyzing the UNAIDS Joint Programme Monitoring System (JPMS) and UNDP ROAR database and preparing draft reports. Envisaged Deadline: April 2015;
Support the HHD team in HQ and the regional centers in producing visual communication products. Envisaged Deadline: June 2015.

Expected Outputs:

Six monthly news updates finalized and disseminated;
Internal and external knowledge sharing and communication platforms regularly maintained; new knowledge resources are shared, well organized and easily accessible to internal and external audiences;
HHD social media strategy developed and implemented;
The successful implementation of various global and regional communication activities;
UNDP HHD’s work strongly reflected in UNAIDS and UNDP reports; and
A set of multi-media products reflecting HHD work from each region.

Reporting:

The consultant will regularly evaluate progress in meeting the specific deliverables with the HHD Policy Specialist.

Travel:

No travel is expected for this consultancy. In the case of additional and unforeseeable travel, payments of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP HHD Team and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be covered and paid by UNDP. The fare will always be most economical and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the expert.

UNDP will not cover any costs associated with moving to the duty station. If applicant is requesting for such coverage the cost to be calculated and included in the financial proposal.

Timeframe:

The consultant’s assignment is office based and is expected to last a maximum of 120 days starting from 10 November 2014 to 30 June 2015.

Evaluation:

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a written test and an interview process. Applicants will be evaluated based on: Cumulative analysis method that combines the results of technical and financial evaluation results.

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.
Technical Criteria weight: 70 points
Financial Criteria weight: 30 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 (70%) points on technical part will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria for technical evaluation (70 points maximum):

An advanced degree (Master’s) or equivalent in communications, media, journalism and social sciences or related disciplines (maximum points: 15);
A minimum of 7 years of professional work experience in communication and knowledge management, with at least 2 years work experience on media, journalism and innovative solutions for development (maximum points: 15);
Excellent writing and editorial skills as evidenced by the writing sample (maximum points:15); and
Competency based Interview (maximum points: 25).

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

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

Payment:

Payment will be certified through the Certificate of Payment (COP) and timesheet, verified and certified by the direct supervisor based on the all-inclusive daily rate.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products.
Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of human rights, public health public policy or international affairs.

Project and Resource Management:

Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service.
Strong organizational skills.
Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.
Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Partnership building and team work:

Demonstrated well developed people management skills.
Strong negotiating and networking skills.
Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.
Provides and receives constructive feedback.

Communications and Advocacy:

Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.
Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences.
Excellent analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically.
Capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

An advanced degree (Master’s) or equivalent in communications, media, journalism and social sciences or related disciplines.

Experience:

A minimum of 7 years of professional work experience in communication and knowledge management, with at least 2 years work experience on media, journalism and innovative solutions for development;
Excellent writing, research and analytical.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English, both written and oral;
Working knowledge of another UN language is an asset.