Background
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the global development network of the United Nations and a key player in the new sustainable development agenda. UNDP has programmatic initiatives in more than 170 countries, working with them to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capacities, and to build resilience to crisis in order to sustain development results. Inclusive growth, better services, environmental sustainability and democratic governance are fundamental to achieving development.
The International Geneva has the largest concentration of UN and international organizations in the world as the host to global hubs for human rights, humanitarianism, migration and displacement, employment and trade and is a key location for private sector engagement in global issues. The Geneva Office seeks to support the active and strategic engagement of UNDP with Geneva-based organizations leveraging human rights, humanitarian, migration and displacement and employment and trade partnerships to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure the implementation of the 2014-2017 UNDP Strategic Plan.
UNDP has a long history of supporting interventions to harness the benefits of migration for development and prevent and address displacement building resilience – coping, recovering and transforming – before, during and after crisis in support of displaced persons and affected communities. UNDP co-chairs the Solutions Alliance – Ending Displacement Together launched in Copenhagen in April 2014 (www.solutionsalliance.org) together with Denmark, Turkey, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The Solutions Alliance brings together an inclusive range of humanitarian and development actors, affected states, donor countries, academics and the private sector. UNDP brings a development perspective to unlocking protracted displacement situations and adopts a resilience-based development approach to preventing new displacement situations from becoming protracted.
The Solutions Alliance works through national and thematic groups, and UNDP co-chairs the Thematic Group on Engaging the Private Sector in Finding Solutions for Displacement (“Private Sector Group”) with SPARK through its Geneva Office. The Private Sector Group is tasked to explore ways of better engaging with the private sector – local small- and medium sized-enterprises as well as international companies – and harness their contributions to turning displacement challenges into development opportunities. The Private Sector Group will organize the first ever Solutions Alliance Business Consultation in December to create space for dialogue with the private sector and explore ways of engaging companies in working towards solutions for displacement, while also seizing opportunities for business growth, accessing new consumer markets and making profit.
UNDP also participates in the Joint Programme with UNEP, UN Women and PBSO “Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peacebuilding”, which will be implemented during 2016-2019. The JP includes pilot projects at the country level, development of tools to support programming and advocacy and outreach to challenge the prevailing narrative on gender issues in conflict affected contexts, collection of positive examples of economic empowerment through natural resource management and upscaling of interventions in this area. The JP will target inter alia displaced women among those affected by conflict.
It is expected that the Solutions Alliance Private Sector Group work and the UN Joint Programme “Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peacebuilding” will benefit from each other’s expertise and partnerships through the work of UNDP. UNDP will work towards i) bringing private companies closer to the work of the UN Joint Programme; and ii) mainstreaming gender and natural resources better in the work of the Private Sector Group.
Duties and Responsibilities
Building on the common programmatic objectives of strengthening the economic self-reliance of displaced populations and host community members and promoting gender-responsive approaches to natural resource management, this consultancy will generate concrete entry points for joined up action to increase the economic self-reliance of displaced women by linking their small and medium enterprises into the value chains of larger companies in the specific countries, programmes and industry/natural resource sectors identified during the Solutions Alliance Business Consultation held in December 2015.
This Consultancy is based on the following assumptions:
- SMEs will become more established, will expand their business, become more competitive and create more jobs if they gain access to value chains of larger companies. Gaining access to value chains of larger companies also bring host of business opportunities – access to new niche markets, possibility to exploit economies of scale, increased volume of transactions and technological advances;
- Women-owned SMEs in fragile and developing countries are often in the informal sector and may not be able to reach growth potential if not incentivized. Legal and institutional barriers that affect men and women differently. There is an untapped potential of women entrepreneurs;
- Working with more established, larger companies is considered nowadays as the most promising way to upgrade SMEs in fragile and development contexts. It is now understood that the initial idea of building value chains bottom up is difficult if not impossible to realize in face of the many established global value chains and their coordination by lead firms. In fact linking local producers to existing value chains in coordination with lead companies may be the only realistic option.
Under the overall supervision of the Geneva-based BBPS Policy Specialist – Partnerships, Reintegration and Livelihoods, and working in close collaboration with the Private Sector Analyst Consultant, the Gender & Knowledge Management Consultant will carry out research and assist with the gender analysis and knowledge management related to:
- Supply chains of larger enterprises where women-owned SMEs are concentrated or have potential to access and increase direct and indirect involvement in national and international markets;
- Business matchmaking services and mentoring programmes geared for women-owned SMEs;
- Financial products targeted at entrepreneurs where risk capital is lacking, including those designed specifically to support women- owned SMEs (cash flow loans, loan guarantees, loans based on customer contracts);
- Foreign direct investment and remittances /diaspora investment initiatives operating as a vehicle for SMEs to access international markets;
- Public private partnerships established to help SMEs operate internationally;
- Any other tools and resources on economic empowerment that could benefit women-owned enterprises.
The Consultant will support the Private Sector Analyst Consultant to consolidate the data and resulting analysis in the following deliverables with particular focus on opportunities for women local producers/women-owned SMEs:
- Mapping/assessment of at least 8 value chains in promising industry/natural resource sectors in 4-5 countries, including ‘vertical linkages’ (sourcing, production, marketing aspects; from informal networks, domestic producers, processors, finishing/packaging, export, importers/buying agents, international retailers /larger companies, consumers) and to the extent possible also horizontal linkages (job creation potential, financial services, environmental and social impacts);
- Consolidated list/description of potential projects/initiatives by UNDP and/or partners that could benefit from sustainable value chain development/linkages with larger companies in identified/selected countries;
- Catalog of different global and/or country-based initiatives and types of collaboration between governments, international agencies and the private sector useful for supporting linkages between local producers/SMEs and larger companies (PPPs, diaspora investment initiatives, etc.) with special focus on those set in place to support women entrepreneurship;
- Good practices examples on how women displaced by conflict have established viable enterprises, well-connected to value chains of larger companies despite gender barriers as well as gender-sensitive approaches to promoting women’s roles in value chains, access to finance, training and markets. This will be crucial to make the case on the important role of women-owned enterprises in development solutions for displacement and the specificities involved in making them better connected to value chains of larger companies.
Provision of monitoring and progress controls:
- The Policy Specialist, Partnerships, Reintegration and Livelihoods will conduct weekly discussions with the Consultant to provide all necessary guidance for the completion of the tasks;
- Approval of deliverables and accompanying products will be done by the Policy Specialist.
Competencies
Corporate Competencies:
- Excellent communications and networking skills;
- Ability to work effectively as part of a team;
- Strong interpersonal and negotiating skills;
- Ability to work in a multicultural environment; and
- Sound judgment and discretion.
Functional Competencies:
- Communicates effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner;
- Understands basic climate and disaster risk concepts;
- Demonstrable knowledge in the fundamental concepts of effective communication and visibility campaigns.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Advanced university degree in economics, political science, sociology, international relations, public administration, development studies or other relevant fields.
Experience:
- A minimum of two of experience in the area of development with voluntary organizations, civil society institutions, academic institutions and/or international organizations;
- Demonstrated capacity to develop data collection tools, conduct mapping exercises, analyse data, identify trends and prepare reports;
- Applicable experience developing visibility products that communication complex dynamics in a compelling and digestible format.
Skills:
- Strong analytical skills, knowledge of research methodology tools and organizational skills.
Languages:
- Fluency in oral and written English is required.
Information technology:
- Familiarity with the use of spreadsheets, word processing, presentation software and other information management tools.
Travel:
- Limited international travel might be required to partner countries, international workshops;
- Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries;
- Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/;
- All mission-related travel expenses will be supported by the project’s travel fund and will be arranged for by UNDP in accordance with UNDP entitlements and travel policy. Costs for mission travel should not be included in financial proposal.
Required Presentation of Offer
The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process will result in disqualifying the applications.
Step 1
Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded; therefore please include all documents in one file. Interested applicants must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP Job Shop:
CV or Personal History Form (P11), indicating all relevant experience, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references (the P11 template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc). A completed P11 Form will be required at the time a selected applicant signs an Individual Contract (IC) or his/her employer, if employed, signs a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) for work associated with this assignment.
Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, including links to similar type communications/visibility products or strategies.
Step 2
The financial proposal template is available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780. Applicants must submit their financial proposals in US Dollars for this consultancy to mahmood.zahir@undp.org, with the following subject heading: “Job-ID 62175: Financial Proposal for the GENDER & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT “by the deadline for this vacancy. Proposals received after the deadline will be rejected.
The price offer should indicate an ‘all-inclusive’ lump-sum amount for the deliverables. The term ‘all-inclusive’ implies that all costs (professional fees, non-mission travel related expenses, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal.
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:
- Candidates will be compared using a combined scoring method with the qualifications weighted at 70% and the price offer weighted at 30%. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 (70%) points on the technical qualifications part will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
- Criteria for evaluation of qualifications (70 points maximum):
- Relevance of education to the position (Max: 10 points);
- Number of years of relevant experience (Max: 30 points);
- Proven expertise in demonstrating capacity to develop data collection tools, conduct mapping exercises, analyze data, identify trends and prepare reports (Max: 20 points);
- Knowledge of French is a strong asset (Max: 10 points).
Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: p = y (µ/z)
- Where p=points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
- y=maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
- µ=price of the lowest priced proposal;
- z = price of the proposal being evaluated.
Annexes and References
UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here: