Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response.  BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BBPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

BPPS supports UNDP’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, focusing on 7 outcomes including strengthening institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (outcome 3). The HIV Health and Sustainable development team, within BPPS, is helping to contribute towards this outcome.

HIV, Health and Development Approach

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development leverages the organization’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Millennium Development Goals.  For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector. UNDP also promotes specific action on the needs and rights of women and girls as they relate to HIV.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of legal environments (law and access to justice) in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property and human rights law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics and to increase access to HIV-related treatment.  UNDP also works to empower and include people living with HIV and marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV - also known as key populations - such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people.  Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to district and municipal action on MDGs, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for marginalized populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on MDG 6 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding. UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity for governments or local entities to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

In the 25 countries where it currently holds the role of interim Principal Recipient (PR), UNDP is responsible for the financial and programme management of Global Fund grants as well as procurement of pharmaceutical, non-health items and required services. 

Given the importance of the partnership with the Global Fund, UNDP continues to strive towards providing high value-added services to governments and the Global Fund, both in its role as the PR, and, increasingly, as a significant technical partner to governments implementing Global Fund grants. In all areas of implementation, UNDP provides capacity development services to relevant institutions, sub-recipients and implementing partners.

The UNDP / Global Fund Partnership:

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) is an innovative public-private partnership that has played a crucial role in the world's efforts to respond successfully to the three diseases. The Global Fund achieves its goals through a broad range of partnerships, including with the United Nations family. The Global Fund's relationship with UNDP is a crucial component of that partnership, with a focus on three interlinked objectives:

• Supporting implementation by serving as temporary Principal Recipient (PR) of the Global Fund in countries facing exceptional development challenges and/or complex emergencies;
• Developing the capacity of national entities by strengthening or creating national systems to take over the management of Global Fund programmes as soon as circumstances permit, or to improve their performance while they are already serving as Principal Recipients;
• Strengthening policy and programme quality of Global Fund related work, both at country and global levels, in line with UNDP's role as a cosponsor of UNAIDS and UNDP's core mandates in governance and capacity development.

Results:

As of 5 March 2015, UNDP is managing 49 Global Fund grants in 25 countries, as well as one Regional Grant in Asia Pacific covering another 7 countries. The total value of the active/signed agreements with the Global Fund (1–4 year duration) has reached US$ 1.96 billion.

The results of the partnership continue to be remarkable. Over 2.2 million people are currently receiving HIV treatment through UNDP programmes financed by the Global Fund, which enables them to live healthier lives, stay in work to support their families, and reduce the spread of HIV to others. This is one in eight people on HIV treatment in low-and middle-income countries. Six countries (Bolivia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Sao Tome and Principe, Tajikistan, and Zambia) have decreased the incidence of malaria by 75 percent with support from UNDP and 13 countries (Angola, Belize, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Sao Tome & Principe, Syria, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) have exceeded the global target of 70 percent of TB case detection rate set for 2015. 590 million condoms have been distributed and 28 million people have received HIV testing and counselling (for more on results and impact, see next section).

As for programme performance, UNDP continues to outperform other implementers of Global Fund grants combined. Over 63 percent of UNDP grants are currently rated A1 or A2 by the Global Fund, compared to 36 percent of grants implemented by other partners, and this despite the fact that UNDP is operating in the most difficult country contexts. This is also a remarkable improvement for UNDP in the last 5 years. In 2010 only 25 percent of UNDP grants were rated A1 or A2.

UNDP Country Impact Pages:

UNDP Country Impact Pages showcase the results, overall impact, capacity development highlights and specific grant information for the countries where UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient (PR) for Global Fund grants. They are currently hosted on The Capacity Development Toolkit http://www.undp-globalfund-capacitydevelopment.org/home/country-impact.aspx. UNDP is developing a new web site for the UNDP - Global Fund Programme and updating the Country Impact Pages. A part-time Research Consultant is needed to compile health, capacity development, policy strengthening and other grant data for the Country Impact Pages.

New Site Design Brief:

The new website will emphasize, full screen width display that is fully responsive that is easy to access from different devices (including desk tops, lap tops, tablets to smart phones). This will take full advantage of the features available in the open source, Microsoft based, Web Content Management System Umbraco 7.2 software including; the template engine; easy to add / edit content; symbols using font icons that do not pixelate; and sliders with automatic cropping for picture handling.

Objective of the assignment:

The overall objectives of the assignment is to;

• To update the Country Impact Pages by compiling health, capacity development, policy strengthening and other grant data using published reports, gray literature and UNDP and partner data sets;
• Support uploading of the updated Country Impact Pages onto the new web site;
• Consider the wider use of country specific data within the UNDP-GF program.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Senior Capacity Development Adviser, the Research Consultant will be responsible for:

• Conducts desk research, mainly through web and document searches and networking, to update the UNDP Country Impact Pages; follows up with country offices to obtain material/data;
• Compiles quantitative and qualitative data for each country in the portfolio;
• Present the information in a way that maximizes its impact;
• Drafts material and provides editorial support for updating of Country Impact Pages;
• Uploads and publishes the content on the new website, updates documents and links; indexes content under the appropriate keywords and categories.

Specific Deliverables and Activities:

• Review available indicators for project activity, key outcomes and domestic financing, focusing on the quality of the data, availability and country context;
• Compile chosen measures for each country for use on the country impact pages in a format that is re-usable by the organization on an ongoing basis i.e. is presentable and includes relevant metadata;
• Country Impact Pages for 25 countries in the portfolio updated, quality assured uploaded to the new UNDP-GF website;
• Produce a data set for World Aids Day (1 December 2015) of HIV results from the UNDP Global Fund Portfolio.

Reporting:

• Based on a short work plan produced and agreed with the Senior Capacity Development Advisor in the first 2 weeks of the contract.
• A short completion report will be submitted within 5 days of the end of the contract.

Travel: 

• No travel is envisioned.

Payment Method: 

• All-inclusive daily-fee.

Evaluation:

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review or an interview process. Those selected for the next stage of the selection process will be reviewed based on: Cumulative analysis based on a combination of the Technical (70%) and Financial Scores (30%).

Competencies

Organizational Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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.

Functional:

• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
• Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Development or knowledge management field.

Project and Resource Management

• Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs;
• Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service;
• Strong organizational skills:
• Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs;
• Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Partnership building and team work

• Excellent negotiating and networking skills;
• Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.

Communications and Advocacy

• Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly;
• Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences;
• Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;
• Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.
• Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum Bachelor degree or post-graduate degree in a specialization relevant to health and development (public health, environment, international development).

Required Skills and Experience:

• 1-2 years of experience carrying out desk and internet research and drafting/editing;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages;
• Knowledge of Microsoft Access highly desirable;
• Experience in website management desirable.

Language:

• Excellent written and spoken English.

Application procedure:

Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of references (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc); please upload this P11 instead of your CV.

Financial Proposal* - specifying an all-inclusive daily rate in USD. Submission of a Financial Proposal is mandatory and should be attached to the P11. Please note, you can only upload one document in the system

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.  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.

ANNEX 1- INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS is provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.