Background

Human development in Moldova: snapshot

According to 2014 GHDR, Moldova’s HDI value for 2013 was 0.663 - - positioning the country in the medium human development category at 114 out of 187 countries and territories. Between 1990 and 2013, Moldova’s HDI value increased from 0.645 to 0.663, an increase of 2.8 percent or an average annual increase of about 0.12 percent. The country may have achieved higher HDI, but mainly due to the income component of the HDI, the progress made is insufficient, particularly compared to other CIS countries. When discounting Moldova HDI for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.582, a loss of 12.2 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices. Poverty, decent jobs, rural vs. urban divide in terms of development, uneven access to some social services, social exclusion of certain groups of population and their structural vulnerability, all negatively affect some positive MDG-related achievements. Although poverty decreased steadily in the recent years, around 84% of all poor reside in rural areas and the situation has in fact been worsening. Rural households are still much dependent on remittances and incomes from traditional agriculture, thus extremely vulnerable to external factors and climate shocks. The recent economic growth was largely jobless, as shown by the rather stagnating number of new jobs available on the local labour market in Chisinau and almost inexistent new jobs in the regions. The development of the labour market is to a large extent slow, vast majority of available jobs being concentrated in Chisinau, while the offer in the regions is poor or inexistent.

Strategic setting and links to UNPF, Moldova 2020 and other sector strategies

People’s resilience in face of multiple vulnerabilities can be improved through pro-active public policies as well as by investing in capabilities of the people and enlarging their choices. In Moldova, as the post-2015 national consultations showed, many people see high energy and food prices, climate-related threats, emigration and ageing of populations, as major challenges in the future. Taken into account all of the above, the current UNPF rightly points three pillars for joint UN interventions to support the democratic governance and justice, human development and social inclusion and environment, climate change and disaster risk management. Under Pillar 2, sustained interventions should aim at more access to people to sustainable regional development, economic opportunities, including through innovation and in agriculture, and decent work. Such interventions shall tackle in a comprehensive way the reasons for such high concentration of poverty in rural areas, while at same time take into consideration the existing urban poverty and key constraints for sustainable job creation and innovation in broader sense in both areas. As identified in UNPF, key reasons for rural poverty are low employment opportunities, high job insecurity, limited access and opportunities for inclusive economic development at local level, poor management of migration flows, savings and remittances, low-productivity agriculture sector with outdated technologies and knowledge, but also very limited capacities of the LPAs to promote entrepreneurship, deliver high-quality services to citizens, including some basis public services, among others. Urban poverty represents an under-researched domain and UNDP will conduct a thorough analysis to identify key drivers and solutions to overcome the current negative trend. The current Project will be connected to such analytical endeavors, so that to maximize positive effects of the activities to be implemented.

The Moldova 2020 Strategy clearly defines seven complex areas of intervention that would permit for a more sustainable development of the country up until 2020 and beyond and better lives for the Moldovans. These include: education, roads system, finance, business, energy sector, pensions system and justice sector reform. The Strategy underlines that an improved business environment will have a positive impact on trade, investment and motivation of companies to implement innovations and create new decent jobs. The National Strategy on Innovations (2013-2020) perfectly connects the realities and desired results of the innovation processes to the selective overarching national strategic areas of intervention. Improvements in education, road infrastructure, business environment, energy sector, etc., cannot be achieved without some degree on innovations and knowledge transfer. In this sense, the current Project is aligned to both Moldova 2020 and respective sector strategy.

Innovations’ state of play in Moldova

SMEs in Moldova have rather limited access to innovations, including finance to innovate, knowledge-sharing networks, among others. This stems from underdeveloped legislative framework, inefficient usage of available resources, lack of coordination among various actors, wide spread of responsibilities between different entities, lack of comprehensive M&E framework to monitor and evaluate progress in promotion of innovations. Above all, the concept of “innovations” is yet not fully understood and interpreted in a very narrow sense, merely only in terms of patented technological improvements or scientific discoveries. The new Strategy on innovations, elaborated by the Government and supported by UNDP, brings important changes to the current set-up and the proposed policy measures are fully aligned and will support the implementation of the Moldova 2020 Strategy.

Goal and objectives of the project

Goal: To spur innovations in business start-ups and business development for sustainable job creation at local level

Objectives:

Build expertise/knowledge for mainstreaming innovations into business development processes and selective cases of start-ups.

Facilitate innovative business development for existing businesses through matching/competitive small grants scheme, with particular focus on selected residents of business incubators in post-incumbent phase.

Enhance capacities of LPAs, in line with the decentralization process, to sustain innovative entrepreneurship at local level.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/MDA

http://www.md.undp.org/content/dam/moldova/docs/Publications/UNDP_MD_Post2015Report_Eng.pdf

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of the assignment is to organize and conduct three thematic workshops for innovative Moldovan SMEs on the LOT(s) specified below:

  • Lot 1 -  Practical steps for innovation in SME (the ABC on how to innovate);
  • Lot 2 – Innovative marketing for SME(s);
  • Lot 3 – Funding innovation for/in SME(s).

Interested international candidates shall apply with a detailed technical proposal and description of the specific topics to be covered during the workshop by taking into consideration and underligning the regional and international best-practices to justify the training agenda.

Potential candidates shall, to the possible extent, conduct practical workshops, offerring to the participant SMEs all available and relevant toolkit and knowledge to implement such toolkit in their business conduct.

All materials of such workshops will be made publicly available on the www.inobiz.md platform of the Project to ensure wide access for all other interested SMEs.

Key deliverables:

  • 1. Training materials (draft agenda, thematic presentation(s) and practical exercise(s)/case studies) developed and submitted to Project (up to 2 w/d);
  • 2. Conduct the workshop for a group of up to 30 Moldovan SMEs from various sectors (up to 2 w/d);
  • 3. Finalize training materials and submit evaluation report to Project (up to 1 w/d).

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the organization's values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the organization;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong analytical, drafting and training skills;
  • Ability to analyse, plan, communicate effectively with stakeholders and present ideas clearly and effectively;
  • Excellent communication and teamwork skills;
  • Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills;
  • Ability to enter new environments, adapt quickly and produce immediate results;
  • Computer literacy - competent user of the main Microsoft Office programs.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • University degree in Economics, Social Science or other relevant fields.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years of proven experience in delivering trainings and organizing/leading workshops on broad aspects of innovation for SMEs development;
  • At least 3 years of proven experience in training SMEs on the specific topic of interest, as per the provided list;
  • Familiarity with the situation in the national innovations systems in the CEE region and Moldova is a strong asset;
  • Knowledge of the EU regulations, including institutional, legal and policy frameworks, in the area of innovation and technological transfer is a strong advantage.

Language:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English;
  • Knowledge of Romanian or Russian would be an asset.

Application Procedure:

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

  • Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for this position;
  • Financial proposal: in (USD, specifying a total lump sum amount and the number of anticipated working days);
  • Personal CV including past experience in similar projects;
  • Contact details of at least three professional references.

Financial Proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fee, taxes, travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Recommended Structure of the Financial Offer:

  • Consultancy fee for the development, delivery and revision of the training;
  • Consultancy fee for the participation at the event;
  • Travel costs: roundtrip to Chisinau (economy class);
  • Lodging expenses;     
  • Visa costs (if required);
  • Other (please specify if relevant).

For complete information about this vacancy, including detailed tasks and responsibilities, full and detailed description of the evaluation procedure which will be applied, as well as the UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract, please refer to the Terms of Reference and the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice published at the UNDP Moldova website, Jobs Section: http://www.undp.md/jobs/current_jobs