Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s development network, an organisation advocating for change and connecting over 132 countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP’s work in Local Governance and Local Development (LGLD) is guided by the principle that local governance is a key mechanism for inclusive representation and participation, shaping effective and legitimate state–society relationships, poverty reduction, and economic development, reducing inequality, strengthening social cohesion and achieving the MDGs/future SDGs. In support of robust, representative, inclusive and responsive local governance arrangements, UNDP focuses inter alia on strengthening local governance systems for addressing key challenges such as environmental sustainability and Local Economic Development (LED). The overall umbrella for UNDP’s work on LED is provided by its Integrated Strategy and programme on LGLD.

At the local level, the ART Initiative puts in place a comprehensive and integrated framework for sustainable human local development and enhanced local governance. Launched in 2005 and currently active in over 20 countries, the UNDP ART Global Initiative (Articulation of Territorial and Thematic Networks for Human Development) is an entry point for all international cooperation actors interested in harmonising their respective actions in support of national policies for sustainable and local human development. Through the ART Initiative, UNDP promotes LED in territories where considered a priority by the territorial stakeholders. The integrated approach to human development ART flagships through Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) integrates the economic, social and environmental components of sustainable development inter alia. LEDAs are also part of a multi-tier governance system for the promotion of LED under the leadership of local governments and in cooperation with the private sector and the civil society.

While LED is rooted in a decades-long history of theory and practice in both developed and developing countries, never has there been a more pressing demand to fully explore and understand different models of LED and scale up best practices. This is reflected in growing international interest in LED. The 6th Commonwealth Local Governance Conference (CLGF) resulted in the 2011 Cardiff Consensus for LED, identifying LED as a key concern for local governments.  In the same year, the 1st World Forum of Local Development Agencies in Seville raised attention to the need to better link local, sub-national, and national governments and advance territorial development strategies.  In 2013, the 7th CLGF Conference took aim at influencing the post 2015-agenda in producing the Kampala Declaration on Developmental Local Government and the Munyonyo Statement on local government’s role in the post-2015 development agenda. The 2nd World Forum of LED followed in the same year in Foz de Iguaçu, generating unprecedented exposure and global dialogue around LED and proposals for a more permanent global coordinating mechanism on LED.  In October 2015, the third World Forum on LED will organized in Turin, gathering once more the main partners of the process.

Diverse country experiences with LED offer extensive guidance on implementation of the post-2015 global development agenda. While definitions of LED vary broadly, reflecting an evolution of the concept over decades of practice, today it is commonly understood as a strategically planned, locally driven partnership approach aimed at generating sustainable local economic opportunities and quality of life gains through improved economic governance. Within the overall framework of the post 2015 negotiations, the debate on the means of implementation for the SDGs take specific importance. LED stands out as a proven economic governance toolkit with a large corpus of practical experiences from diverse country contexts geared toward tackling many of the development concerns addressed by the MDG’s and the pending post-2015 agenda. The dialogue on localising the post 2015 agenda in 2014 identified LED as a suitable approach to further the implementation of the SDGs at local level.

The incumbent will work under the overall supervision and guidance of the ART Global Initiative Coordinator and the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist. For this purpose, he/she will be assigned a set of responsibilities and tasks that will include:

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives:

The main objective of the consultancy is to provide advice on LED to the UNDP ART Initiative. This includes advice and technical support to UNDP LGLD programmes/ART FPs, programmatic support for the III WF of LED, and conceptual and advisory services with regards to positioning LED within the context of localising the future SDGs. More specifically:

  • LED related support to LGLD/ART Framework Programmes.

Main activities/responsibilities:  the incumbent will provide LED related advice and services, based on the specific context and request from the CO. Such services can range from conducting initial LED assessments to providing capacity building or designing entire LED strategies and plans. Such missions will be often conducted in team comprised also by decentralised Cooperation partners and experts. Mission countries will be determined but will mainly include French francophone Africa as well as Asia.

Deliverables:

  • Report: detailed mission reports;
  • Different products in line with the specific ToRs of the respective mission; products can range from simple reports to comprehensive LED strategies and plans or supporting the elaboration of a project document.

Operational arrangements: Missions related workdays (actual missions and preparation) will be limited to maximum of one third of the overall work days under this assignment. A mission schedule will be provided in advance but will have to be adjusted in light of country based developments. Countries will include ART FPs as well as UNDP LGLD programmes looking to introduce and/or reinforce the LED potential in a programme.

For field visits, preparatory work and desk research will be carried out at the consultant’s home-base, and in regular communication with the ART team and local parties in selected countries via skype, email or telephone. For country/field visits an estimated duration between one week and two weeks is foreseen. The ART framework programmes and/or UNDP LGLD programmes will provide all logistical and organisational support to the consultant such as transport, organisations of meetings and translation if required. Flight costs and a reasonable subsistence allowance will be paid during missions.

  • Support to the Organisation of the Third WF of LED, Turin.

Main activities/responsibilities:  the incumbent will provide programmatic and partnership related support towards the secretariat of the WF. Such services will be provided based on specific requirements in the organisational process and might range from elaboration of conceptual documents to supporting the organisers in assuring overall programmatic coherence and relevance of the event.  Different products in line with the specific requirements of the organisers will contain but not be limited to:

Deliverables:

  • Formulating of conceptual notes for individual panels and events during the forum;
  • Supporting organising partners in the preparation of specific forum related events such as capacity building sessions, etc.;
  • Liaising with organising partners to ensure coherency between the different programmatic sections of the event.

Operational arrangements: Workdays related to supporting the organisation of the forum will be limited to maximum of one third of the overall work days under this assignment. The incumbent will have to be present in Turin (the city of Turin is the co-organiser and host of the forum) for a limited number of days each month. Such missions to Turin are estimated be no more than twice a month for a working day each (but might be necessary to be adjusted in the later part of the year). The remaining days in support of the organisation of the forum will be carried out at the consultant’s home-base, and in regular communication with the ART Initiative team and the other members of the Secretariat of the forum, specifically the city of Turin via skype, email or telephone.

  • Advise the ART initiative on LED related policies and strategies.

Main activities/responsibilities:  the incumbent will provide top notch LED advisory services to the ART Initiative team as well as the broader UNDP LGLD team in NY and the respective field offices. Such advice will be mainly related to the articulation of LED within the overall Integrated LGLD programme as well as with regards to the positioning of LED as a means of implementation for the SDGs at the local level during the current post 2015 negotiations. Different products will contain but not be limited to:

Deliverables:

  • Formulating conceptual notes and documents for relevant international events;
  • Formulating LED conceptual notes and documents for the mobilisation of partners and donors;
  • Participation in strategic planning workshops if and when required;
  • Systematisation of existing LED instruments to better inform respective UNDP programmes.

Operational arrangements: Workdays related to this component will be in its majority home based and limited to maximum of one third of the overall work days under this assignment. The incumbent will have to undertake occasional missions to Brussels (ART initiative) or meetings in other occasions. Communication with the team members will be mainly assured via skype, email or telephone.

At the end of the first month of the assignment the incumbent will prepare and submit an inception report that shall include an overall work plan in line with the discussions held with the ART initiative and based on the specific information available. Such work plan shall be updated regularly to reflect necessary changes related to all or one of the three components of the assignment.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional competencies:

  • Ability to structure a task in terms of the analytic/investigative process and to produce a well-structured output;
  • Ability to work in a team;
  • In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues including gender equality and empowerment issues, as well as a good knowledge of the inter linkages between the social, economic, environmental and cultural dimensions of sustainable development.
  • Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills;
  • Openness to change and ability to receive / integrate feedback;
  • Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
  • Excellent writing skills;
  • Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNDP;
  • Good understanding of UNDP programming modalities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Masters in a relevant discipline, such as Economics, Local Development, Local Economic Development, Development Studies, etc.

Experience:

  • At least 12 years of proving relevant work experience in local economic development, with sound experience in local Governance and Local Development;
  • Significant experience in local economic development processes in Africa, Asia and LA;
  • Knowledge of and working experience with specific UNDP ART LED instruments such as LEDAs
  • Experience with European LED initiatives and concepts;
  • Preferably proven record of reports/publications on the subject;
  • Knowledge of and work experience with UNDP an asset;
  • Proven experience with decentralised Cooperation and other partnership cooperation modalities;
  • In depth knowledge of international development related processes, e.g. post 2015, Global Partnership for development cooperation effectiveness, etc.

 Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in spoken and written English, French, Spanish. Italian.

Important notice:

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

Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:    

The award of the contract should 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;
  • Technical Criteria weight; (70%); Financial Criteria wights (30%).