UNDP Jobs - 51128- International Consultancy for Developing Material

International Consultancy for Developing Material for University Courses in Human Development

Location :

Home-based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Dec-2014

Application Deadline :

10-Nov-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months

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 first Human Development Report in 1990 opened with the simply stated premise that has guided all subsequent Reports: “People are the real wealth of a nation.” By backing up this assertion with an abundance of empirical data and a new way of thinking about and measuring development, the Human Development Report has had a profound impact on policies around the world. Human Development Reports (HDR) at the regional, national and local levels take the human development approach to the regional or country level and are prepared and owned by regional and national teams. [more information is available at the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) website]

HDRO has a mission to promote human development thinking and understanding around the world. A number of academic institutions already teach, or have expressed interest in teaching, courses that touch on human development. Such courses are powerful agents in furthering understanding and application of human development thinking around the world. And so they can help HDRO achieve its mission and we have an interest in supporting them: both to help facilitate the introduction of new courses, and to ensure that both new and existing courses teach human development in appropriate ways. However, it is also important that human development theory is taught well and that it is taught in a way that aligns with and complements human development thinking in UNDP. HDRO therefore has an interest in helping to promote HD teaching in universities around the world, and to help ensure it is taught properly.

This assignment will result in a set of material that will be useful for academics who want to teach human development. A range of material will be easily adaptable to different types of courses and different teaching approaches. That said, a good deal of material already exists for teaching human development and this project does not intend to reinvent existing material. Rather it will take current best practices from around the world and organise material in a way that is most useful to an academic seeking to develop a new course, or refine an existing one.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

Prepare 3 sets of material that would support human development teaching.

A. A core set of all material necessary for a 3 hour “introduction to human development” lecture

Material would include powerpoint slides and speaking notes, key pre-reading, essential references and suggested exercises for students.

B. A more in-depth set of material that could support 10 hours of human development teaching

Material would build on the core set to include lecture/lesson plans for all 10 hours and supporting material including case studies from around the world, links to videos and other material, some additional powerpoint slides (though we do not envisage producing slides for a full 10 hours of lectures, we can suggest topics that slides might touch on etc.), more references and so on.

C. Additional material that could suggest how to teach a full semester (30 hours) course in human development teaching

Material would build on that in A & B and would include full lecture/lesson plans for all 30 hours and more supporting material.

Responsibilities:

Investigate different academic approaches to teaching HD around the world and identify the sorts of material most useful to helping people to teach HD. Gather best practice examples and material from different sources.

Deliverables: Produce outlines of the sort of packages of material that HDRO could provide to academics for the 3/10/30 hour teaching options above. Discuss with HDRO.

Expected Duration: 3 weeks

Produce core set of material (Set A above) and seek peer review from academics (names to be advised by HDRO) and incorporate comments.

Deliverables: A set of peer reviewed core material necessary for a 3 hour “introduction to human development” lecture that can be put on line. Material would include PowerPoint slides and speaking notes, brief pre-reading, essential references and suggested exercises for students.

Expected Duration: 3 weeks

Produce remaining material to support 10 & 30 hours of HD teaching (Sets B & C above) and seek peer review from academics (names to be advised by HDRO) and incorporate comments.

Deliverables: Two sets of peer reviewed material to go on line.The first could support 10 hours of human development teaching, the second would suggest how to teach a full semester (30 hours) course in human development teaching. Material would build on the core set to include lecture/lesson plans for all 30 hours and supporting material including case studies from around the world, links to videos and other material, some additional PowerPoint slides (though we do not envisage producing slides for a full 10 hours of lectures, we can suggest topics that slides might touch on etc.), more references etc.

Expected Duration: 6 weeks.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated authority of human development theory and its application in a variety of contexts;
Experience of teaching human development in an academic institution;
Strong experience in designing educational material for students in a various formats;
Well-developed writing skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in Economics, Development Economics, Statistics or Public Policy (with focus on economic policy analysis);
PhD is desirable.

Experience:

Minimum 7 years’ experience in teaching human development at the post graduate level;
Demonstrated excellence in preparing educational material using a variety of approaches;
Familiarity with different approaches to teaching/thinking about human development around the world.

Language:

Fluency in English written and verbal;
Knowledge of French and Spanish is an advantage.