Background

Since the turn of the 21st century, much of Africa has witnessed significant economic growth’. With natural resources – especially oil, gas and minerals – serving as the frontiers, every indices and barometer points to a rapid economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa in coming years. Growth has averaged 5 per cent a year or more, driven by domestic demand, foreign investment, strong commodity prices and improved economic governance. With the outburst of the global financial crisis of 2009, Africa’s economic growth for the most part, anchored the recovery of the global economy, and has lifted tens of millions of people out of absolute poverty over the past few decades. However, this economic growth has not translated to sustainable human development due to a wide range of challenges such as rapid population growth, poverty, inequality and lack of good governance. The main factors which limit the ability of Africa to further advance human development and reach its full potential could be summed as: (a) lack of real economic transformation that lifts all of Africa’s citizens, (b) opening of space for inclusive participation, and (c) fragile social contract.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of the consultancy is to produce framing and policy papers that will guide the collaboration between UNDP and UN-Habitat to support the thinking and practice on urbanization and development in Africa.

Framing Paper

In broad terms, the Framing Paper is expected to provide an overview of the rationale and focus for a joint initiative on urbanization for development in Africa. More specifically the paper is expected to provide:

  • An overview of the need for such an initiative, while identifying the levers and entry points for supporting urbanization policies for development in Africa to enable both agencies, within their respective mandates, relate to the space in question for the planned collaboration;
  • Highlighting the opportunities and / or accelerators of development resulting from sustainable urbanization;
  • Outline current and envisaged urban development challenges and opportunities including and but not limited to urban   planning, financing of urban development,   integration of approaches, urban development and management, causes and consequences of youth and women migration, backlog of basic urban services (including water, sanitation, hygiene etc.), proliferation of informal settlements, youth and women unemployment, lack of participation, land and housing availability, accessibility and ownership by both men and women, Urban safety and security, etc.
  • Outline other exacerbating factors in the urban space such as rapid urban sprawl which leads to vulnerabilities and inefficiencies that governments and city authorities can hardly afford; and
  • Identify the comparative advantages of the two agencies and recommend ways and means of maximizing these advantages to the benefit of countries confronted with urban development challenges.

Policy Paper

The consultant will develop the Policy Paper under the guidance of the Expert Review Group (ERG).

The paper will highlight the following:

  • Priority areas for engagement;
  • Levers and opportunities for harnessing the benefit of urbanization for Africa development;
  • Good practices and lessons learned from other cities in other regions that can lead into a potential SSC exchange and twin countries’ partnership;
  • Improved understanding of how urbanization has contributed towards the climate change in Africa
  • Provide useful information for policy makers and planners as to how they can achieve a balance between socio-economic development in terms of urbanization and changes in the climate;
  • A proper analysis on exposure to risk and natural hazards in the most vulnerable selected urban settings in Africa;
  • Key partners and actors for designing a sustainable partnership on urbanization in Africa;
  • Suggested project ideas and funding sources for transformative engagement in Africa urban.

Methodology

In undertaking the assignment the consultant will conduct:

  • A comprehensive desk review of available literature on UNDP’s Strategic Plan and other relevant documents to be proposed by UNDP RSC as well as UN-Habitat’s flagship reports and other related publications such as the State of the African Cities Reports as well as tools relevant to the development of the framing and policy papers;
  •  Interviews with key urban actors in the continent as well as selected professionals in UNDP and UN-Habitat;
  • Liaise with the Asian UNDP team working on similar work. He/she will apply systematically gender lens while drafting the two papers which will integrate the gender dimension.

In carrying out this assignment, the consultant will be expected to produce an inception report of not more than three pages and may add or suggest any other aspects considered relevant to the papers.

Both papers will be subject to technical review by an Expert Review Group (ERG) that will provide regular guidance to the consultant.

Competencies

Funcational Competencies:

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills (oral, written and presentation) in English.
  • Demonstrated ability to produce high quality reports for publication in English.

Compliance of the UN Core Values:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism; and
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

  • At least a master’s degree in Urban Policy and Governance, Urban Development, Governance, Development Economics, Public Policy, International Development, Public Administration, and Management or any other related university degree.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years of experience in working with regional bodies and international organizations and donors; Strong research and advocacy skills (collating, analysis and reporting;
  • Proven research experience in the field of urbanization, as evidenced by publications of international reputation; Prior experience in developing policy papers will be required..

Langiuage:

  • Fluent in English;
  • Knowledge of French and other UN languages is desirable.Fluency in spoken French will be an added advantage.

Application instruction:

  • Download both TOR and IC Proposal Submission Form: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=23104;   
  • Strictly follow the instructions indicated in the IC Proposal Submission Form uploaded hereto;
  • Group of Individuals and/or Firms are not eligible for this consultancy assignment (open only at an individual level).

Documents required:

The following proposals must be prepared as per the prescribed standard format accompanied in the Procurement Notice. The Proposals shall be submitted before application deadline July 2, 2015 via UNDP Ethiopia Secured mail address: procurement.et@undp.org

  • Technical Proposal in pdf;
  • Financial Proposal in pdf;

Please note that these proposals shall be submitted to the designated secured email into two files but in one email unless both Files are Greater than 9MB file size.

Important note:

  • A candidate applying only by uploading CV to this job site will not be considered. Instead, both Technical and Financial Proposals shall be submitted to designated UNDP Secured email before submission deadline.
  • Failing to submit anyone of the documents stated above will automatically disqualify the candidate from further technical evaluation;
  • Those prospect consultants who fail to submit both Technical and Financial proposals as per the standard format and to the designated secured email will not be further considered for evaluation.

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

Email subject line while submitting the proposal: