UNDP Jobs - 53159- International Consultant

International Consultant - Senior Social Cohesion Adviser

Location :

Dhaka and Home-based, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Feb-2015

Application Deadline :

04-Feb-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

60 working days over a period 10 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

Bangladesh has made significant progress on reaching development, growth and other key human development targets including those outlined in the millennium development goals. With a record of sustaining a GDP rate of 6 percent inclusive growth has seen accelerated poverty reduction in the past decade down to 31.5 percent in 2010. Significant achievements are being observed in education enrolment and health and a steady decline in the poverty headcount ratio has been recorded. Progress is also evident in the country’s per-capita income, which increased by more than 130 percent, while the poverty rate declined by 60 percent according to the Government Economics Division in 2011.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh is committed to assist representation and participation of the people through democratic process by strengthening key institutions and enhancing their capacity to respond effectively to people’s needs. It will complement this with efforts to deepen democracy through strengthened partnership with civil society and the media to create democratic space for larger civic engagement. Main interventions of the UNDP will fall primarily within the category of institutional capacity building, legal and policy reforms and advocacy and awareness campaigns to build adequate mechanisms and national capacity to implement reforms and create a demand of the people for such reforms.

The ARENA (areas for research, engagement and national agendas) project responds to these aims by evidence based research and studies on relevant issues and by enabling the environment for inclusive public policy dialogue on these topics. Project will strengthen the capacity of national stakeholders, including civil society to set evidence based research to set agendas around key public policy issues. By creating an environment of policy dialogue around key issues of national importance the project seeks to utilize existing platforms for actors to build an overlapping consensus on common issues.

The project consists of three inter-related outputs that include:

Output 1: Increased evidence and research base to set agendas for engagement between actors identifying key governance challenges;
Output 2: Strengthened coalitions of national actors able to create effective spaces to build consensus around contested issues;
Output 3: Enhanced campaigning and advocacy ability for stakeholders to influence policy networks.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives:

The overall objective of the assignment is to help support and provide advice to the ARENA team and Governance Cluster about (i) the overall project implementation and stakeholder engagement strategy (ii) provide inputs, ideas and proposals and formulate specific programme strategies, activities, processes of stakeholder engagement (iii) identify risks and devise possible mitigation strategies.

Scope of work and expected outputs / deliverables:

The Advisor will help to support the implementation of the project by the project team which will be a natural follow on to the earlier work undertaken since 2013 and specifically the work undertaken in November 2014 to form the ARENA advisory group and to manage Government expectations.

Review of initial formulation phase issues:

Fill in the gaps of the previous assignment and support the work to reach consensus among the potential advisory group members about their role:

In this phase the Advisor will fill in the gaps arising from the previous assignment completed in November 2014 which culminated in the clarification of the issues arising from the various stakeholder engagements which will be reflected in the ARENA engagement strategy:
Formulation of the stakeholder engagement strategy with clear indication of criteria, timing, subtle nuances and methodologies for the engagement to reflect the needs and expectations of a diverse group of stakeholders;
The engagement strategy will need to include the selection criteria and potential members of the ARENA Advisory Group together with formulation of the outline ToR for the Advisory Group as well as consideration about the value of developing a code of conduct for the Group as well as setting out the role of the Secretariat;
In addition the Advisor will help support the ARENA team to obtain concurrence and consensus of the Advisory Group members about the proposed engagement strategy, TOR and Code of Conduct.

Implementation Phase support:

The Advisor will support the project by monitoring the implementation of the project and provide inputs, ideas and proposals about the engagement strategy including offering suggestions about alternate pathways to ensure that ARENA project gains momentum through the process approaches that will be set out in the engagement strategy. This will include but not be limited to the following:

Identification of the initial agendas for research and dialogue to be placed before the Advisory Group for their consideration;
Development of draft strategies for the subnational and local level engagements formal partnership with various institutions;
Support and continuous assessment of risk as well as the risk mitigation strategy for the on-going and intended activities of the ARENA project;
Supporting the project team to ensure successful coordination with multiple and multi-level stakeholders for facilitating broader network and strategic alliances;
Assist the project team to build upon and maintain the strategic partnerships already established through prior work associated with the social cohesion/ARENA development across a broad range of key national stakeholders from civil society and the media as well as other actors in the area of democratic governance;

This assignment will include two in-country travels with 7 working days each in each of the phases to help support the ARENA team and to offer inputs, advice about the implementation of the project. In total the in-country travel will be of maximum 14 working days.

The Adviser will produce the following reports/deliverables:

Final engagement strategy, TOR and Code of Conduct which will be tabled with the Advisory group and if possible agreed by the Advisory Group members;
Production of half yearly reports about the overall implementation of the project and using the insights gained through the support provided off site and in country, report on progress being made and offer suggestions about any need for modified approaches and focus.
Production of x2 end of assignment reports at the completion of the in country missions.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The Advisor will directly report to the ARENA Project Manager and will work closely with the ACD Governance Cluster, the ARENA project team members and provide advice and support as required by the Team.

Timeframe and deadlines:

60 working days over a period 10 months as per below timeline:

Submission of related documents of final engagement strategy, TOR and Code of Conduct which will be tabled with the Advisory group and agreed by the Advisory Group members (20 days including 5 days home based in March/April 2015)
Submission of Progress reports about the overall implementation of the project (15 days in May 2015)
Review of overall implementation of the project, continuous assessment of risk as well as risk mitigation strategy with a set of concrete recommendations (25 days including 5 days home based in November 2015)

Payment Installment:

30% of the contract value will be paid on submission of related documents of final engagement strategy, TOR and Code of Conduct which will be tabled with the Advisory group and agreed by the Advisory Group members and upon certification by the UNDP Contract Administrator.
30% of the contract value will be paid on submission of related documents of Submission of Progress reports about the overall implementation of the project and upon certification by the UNDP Contract Administrator.
40% of the contract value will be paid on submission of related documents of Reviewing of overall implementation of the project, continuous assessment of risk as well as risk mitigation strategy with a set of concrete recommendations and upon certification by the UNDP Contract Administrator.

Inputs:

The Advisor will be provided with the following professional support and physical facilities:

The Advisor can use space at the office whenever necessary. However, the He/She will enjoy the liberty of work from home whenever feasible.
The Advisor will use her/his own computer.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Functional competencies:

Good knowledge and proven track record of assessing political parties’ role and policy trend in socially and politically volatile situation;
Excellent writing and speaking capacity in English.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Minimum Master's degree in social sciences with a focus on international relations, political science, development studies or equivalent field.

Experience:

Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in confidence building and conflict management, including relevant field experience, especially in crisis or post-conflict settings, and in conflict sensitive programming;
Experience working in other post-crisis countries in Asia is desired;
Demonstrated gender mainstreaming experience;
Prior experience in Bangladesh is greatly desirable;
Specific experience involving the facilitation politically sensitive, national and local level multi-stakeholder processes, preferably in crisis situations; and
Experience in designing and delivering training in conflict sensitive development;
Knowledge and understanding of the political context of Bangladesh is highly desirable;
Working experience with UN or any other international organization will be an asset.

Language requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is mandatory.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis:

The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

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.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation out of 70 would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

10 years of experience in conflict management in post crisis or post conflict setting(25 Points);
Proved track record of working with political parties in confidence building and negotiation (25 Points);
Knowledge of political context of Bangladesh and political parties (10 Points);
Prior UN/UNDP experience (10 Points).

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

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.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposal:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Personal P-11 form including detailing past experiences in similar projects and at least 3 references.
Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.