UNDP Jobs - 61820- Consultant to Develop a Discussion Paper for Impro

Consultant to Develop a Discussion Paper for Improving Integrated Poverty-environment Measurement for Advancing the SDGs

Location :

Home Based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

16-Dec-2015

Application Deadline :

02-Dec-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

4 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

20 days

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

The joint UNEP-UNDP Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI) has been supporting target countries to integrate pro-poor environmental sustainability in the national, sectoral and sub-national development planning, budgeting, M&E and investment management processes. PEI’s approach has been to monitor poverty-environment issues within the framework of existing national monitoring systems through the development of poverty-environment indicators, often as part of the elaboration of national development plans and their monitoring and reporting systems.

PEI would typically support national institutions to undertake the following steps to integrate poverty-environment indicators into national monitoring systems:

Analyze national development priorities and identify strategic entry points in the development-planning cycle;
Identify key institutions (e.g. national statistics offices, sector ministries) and establish cross-sectoral working groups;
Analyze existing monitoring and reporting systems; and
identify and formulate possible poverty-environment indicators and selecting a core set of indicators through a consultative process ensuring that the national statistics office and key institutions are able to collect the data regularly and use them for reporting and policies.

The adoption and application of poverty-environment indicators can take 5-10 years, depending on the national development-planning cycle, existing national monitoring systems and institutional capacity. PEI experience in Asia and Africa, including in Bangladesh, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR), Rwanda and Tanzania, shows that even when the indicators are developed, it proved challenging to ensure that proposed P-E indicators are formally adopted by national institutions, in particular national statistics offices as part of the national monitoring systems and even after their adoption, no data may be collected over time to inform a change against the indicator, often due to a lack of institutional ownership or capacity (see http://www.unpei.org/poverty-environment-indicators).

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 calls for a “data revolution” to enable integrated information on the inter-linkages between the economy, the environment and society. It provides an excellent opportunity to reinforce the poverty-environment nexus and integrated development approach. The Inter-agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG – SDGs) was established to develop a global indicator framework and a list of indicators for the monitoring of the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While the indicator framework and the list of indicators are being developed at the global level, there still exists the challenge for countries to integrate the SDGs into their existing development planning, budgeting and monitoring & evaluation processes. This localization of the SDGs provides a new impetus to improve the current national monitoring systems as countries will have to enhance their existing national systems of planning and monitoring to report and measure their progress towards achieving the SDGs and targets of the 2030 Agenda.

The System of Environment-Economic Accounting (SEEA) adopted as a statistical standard by the UN Statistical Commission 2012 is recognized as an important framework to guide the collation and reporting of environmental data for SDG targets and indicator. From the PEI perspective, the SEEA provides a very important extension to current national accounting by accounting for environmental assets, their condition and how they contribute to pro-poor environmental policy objectives. By taking into account the extent and condition of environmental assets and collecting data that are consistent with current national accounting approaches, it provides an opportunity to develop environmental indicators linking to poverty, culture, sustainability and climate change.

SEEA addresses the need for an integrated statistical system to support an integrated policy agenda which is at the core of the SDGs. There are a number of global initiatives supporting the adoption of the SEEA including a project led by the UN Statistical Division (UNSTAT) which has been supporting PEI countries including Bhutan and Indonesia.

Given the urgent need to step up international support for countries to integrate the SDGs into national development planning and monitoring systems and the new SEEA framework, it is very timely to review the past and on-going work of PEI Asia and Africa in enhancing national monitoring systems and develop a way forward.

SEEA and Transforming Global and National Statistical Systems for Monitoring SDG Indicators, ESA/STAT/AC.301/UNCEEA/10/3a , June 2015

Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, with technical input provided by the United Nations Environment Programme through its The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Office, and Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will work closely with the UNDP and the UNEP-UNDP PEI regional team to lead on the writing of the discussion paper, including collating and undertaking background research, collating input from team members, consulting with UNDP and PEI country teams on case studies, liaising with communications expert to develop infographics and visuals, coordinate peer review and edit and finalize the content ready for print.

Approach and outline of paper developed and agreed;
First draft developed and sent to UNDP and UNEP team for input;
Second draft completed;
Final draft completed;
Presentation at the Poverty Environment Partnership meeting and the regional PEI Asia Pacific meeting.

Direct supervision is under the Regional Advisers of the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, with overall supervision under the Regional Team Leader of Inclusive Growth in UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub. The consultant shall be paid by deliverables over the course of the contract upon timely submission of the output as indicated in the ToR, and as approval of satisfactory work by the supervisor.

The PEI regional team will:

Provide access to or links to documents that need to be included in the review of PEI Asia and Africa’s work;
Provide a list of stakeholders for the consultant to coordinate a peer review;
Be responsible for all UN design, layout and print standards required for final publication;
Provide contact details for all team members the consultant needs to liaise with;
Schedule and coordinate teleconferences and meetings between countries and team members as required.

Competencies

Excellent communicator, writer and editor;
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
Strong team player with belief in UNDP and UNEP’s mission and mandate;
Excellent coordination and organizational skills;
Ability to multi-task to meet simultaneous deadlines and be able to deliver high-quality products while able to work independently with medium to minimal supervision from supervisors;
Ability to work under pressure;
Creative communication ideas and strategies;
Excellent attention to detail; and
Excellent fact-checking skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University degree or equivalent qualification in environmental economics, statistics, environmental science, and other related field.

Experience:

At least 10 years of professional experience in environmental-economic accounting and sustainable development information management systems;
At least five years of experience in communicating complex development results to a broad audience, including experience in writing and editing to a high standard for a public audience;
Experience in reporting writing and development of publications;
Experience with the United Nations an asset;
Experience in developing countries an asset.

Language:

Fluency and excellent written English skills required.

The expected total duration of the assignment is approximately 20 working days within a period starting from December 2015 to March 2016. This assignment is home based with frequent Skype calls with UNDP/UNEP PEI team in Bangkok and with possible travels to consult partners and present at meetings to be determined later.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology Cumulative Analysis.

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/complaint/acceptable and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weight technical (70%) and financial criteria (30%) specific to the solicitation.

Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Interested individuals must submit the following documents /information to demonstrate their qualification, experience and suitability to undertake the assignment. All supporting documents (a-d) must be part of the detailed CV and uploaded as one document

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive daily rate/fee of the candidate in US dollar.

The method of payment shall be made in installments based on deliverables. Each deliverable must be approved and based on satisfactory by, UNDP Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI) UNDP BRH. The proposed daily fee must be all-inclusive.All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket, quoted by UNDP authorized travel agent. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

Unforeseeable travel;

In the case of unforeseeable travel for official mission as required, 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 covered and paid by UNDP.

Annexes:

Annex 1 – Terms of References (TOR)

Annex 2 – Individual Consultant General Terms and Conditions

Annex 3 - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability Template

Annex 4 - Financial Proposal Template

All document can be downloaded at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=26840