Background

Rationale

UN Common Services are an important component of the Secretary-General's UN Reform Programme as a means to reduce costs and increase efficiency and coordination of UN operations at country level.

The definition of Common Services by the UN General Assembly is: “Services that are shared by an organization with one or more other organizations within the UN system, through both formal and informal mechanisms” [GA A/55/461].

In this context of current discussions on operational streamlining and innovation within the UN System, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF are analyzing different initiatives with the potential of improving common services on the ground. One of these initiatives consists of analyzing the use of vehicles, which is part of a larger effort in the context of current discussions on operation streamlining and innovation within the UN system.

The main assumption behind this effort is the fact that UN official vehicles tend to be under-utilized or sit idle in a number of field offices, particularly mid to large duty stations. UN organizations sharing common premises oftentimes manage separate fleets in an uncoordinated fashion, which ultimately increases operational costs and discourages the efficient use of resources.

Objectives

The objective of the assignment is to develop a proposal on how to improve the quality and reduce the costs of fleet management in selected UN field locations.

By establishing centralized carpooling arrangements, it is expected that country offices can:

• Reduce the number of idle vehicles in UN premises;
• Rationalize the acquisition of official vehicles and/or speed up fleet replacement;
• Ensure the efficient use of administrative staff managing or operating fleets;
• Centralize fleet monitoring, coordination and maintenance;
• Improve security and geo-location of vehicles;
• Keep better track of vehicle usage; and
• Reduce the UN carbon footprint.

Concept

In the scenario of a UN Shared Vehicle Pool, instead of each agency owning their vehicles, vehicles are grouped into one big pool and managed centrally, as one fleet. All vehicles are centrally owned by the pool and are no longer assigned to agencies individually but shared among all UN agencies. All costs are shared and agencies pay for the actual use of the vehicles.

Joint fleet management activities performed by the Shared Vehicle Pool are:

• Procurement;
• Fuel;
• Maintenance;
• Administration and Management;
• Training;
• Carpooling.

Proposed solution and expected deliverables

The proposed solution consists of the deployment of a technology used by car share services in order to centrally manage fleets in UN common houses or sizeable duty stations. This particular approach has been successfully explored and implemented by car rental companies, corporations and governmental and academic institutions around the world and has rendered considerable results over time in terms of cost reduction and effective fleet management, including tracking and maintenance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support on the selection of the pilot COs in consultation with the involved UN Agencies and regional bureaus by:

• Reviewing previous discussions and background documentation regarding the project;
• Consulting with UN agencies staff previous involved on the project;
• Developing a criteria to select the pilot COs (common premises, one UN, countries engaged on the business operation strategy (BOS) project led by DOCO, etc.).

Prepare a Business Case (project) with recommendations serving as a basis for management decisions on improving UN vehicle fleet management.

The business case will include:

• Reviewing the baseline and conduct a cost-benefit analysis needs by COs to ensure that redundancies, overlaps, and potential duplications are eliminated;
• Proposing potential cost reduction projection, target reduction by CO (10%-20%) and return on investment;
• Developing an Implementation Plan;
• Development of recommendations on possible software, different services modalities and any improvement that can be made to work practices that can be instituted to establish the fleet management.

Develop a Standard Operating Procedures – SOP for the fleet system management usage.

The assignment will be conducted through a desk review of documents, meetings with relevant stakeholders as well as possible missions to COs.

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:

Client orientation:

• Strong client orientation, knowledge-sharing and people skills;
• Establishes and maintain productive partnerships with partners by gaining their trust and respect; monitors on-going developments inside and outside partners’ environment to keep informed and anticipate problems.

Planning and Organizing:

• Identifies priority activities and assignments; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary;
• Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge;
• Develops clear functional results that are consistent with agreed strategies.

Teamwork:

• Works collaboratively with colleagues within and across teams to achieve organizational goals;
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.

Communication:

• Excellent and effective communication skills;
• Proven ability to write in a clear and concise manner under tight time pressure and to communicate effectively orally;
• Ability to prepare reports and articulate options, concisely conveying maximum necessary information;
• Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree in international development, business and administration, social sciences, economics, or related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in development-related areas, particularly multi-stakeholder engagement, international or multilateral organizations, or UN operational activities for development;
• Previous experience in the UN or UNDP, particularly in the field of procurement, preferred.

Language: 

• Fluency in English is required;
• Excellent technical writing skills in English are required;
• Working knowledge of any additional UN language is an asset.

Documents required for application:

• Personal CV;
• Letter of Interest.

Application Evaluation Process:

Candidates will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology [weighted scoring method], where the award of the contract will be made to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as - responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combine score of Technical and Financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation weight; [70%].
Financial Evaluation weight; [30%].

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the obtainable 100 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.