UNDP Jobs - 65961- Knowledge Management Consultant

Knowledge Management Consultant

Location :

Brussels, BELGIUM

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-May-2016

Application Deadline :

11-May-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

11 Months

Languages Required :

English French

Expected Duration of Assignment :

11 Months

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 European Commission and the United Nations launched in 2009 a Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI) that reflected the strong nexus between migration and development. The programme, fully funded by the European Commission and run out of UNDP Brussels represented a major innovation as a first joint UN project of its kind not only with the European Commission, but also in its approach to inter-Agency working. Based on the JMDI successful results and lessons learnt, a new phase of the programme focused on the local dimension of migration and development is funded by the European Commission (EC) and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).

The good practices identified by the JMDI showed the importance of efficiently linking civil society initiatives with local development agendas in order to reach sustainability and development impact. Successful local authorities’ interventions were the results of strong partnerships with a range of stakeholders from the civil society, including the social partners and the private sector. When local authorities share a common vision with partners, they can develop a sense of ownership over projects that will lead them to commit time, energy and resources. This process enhances their own role as decision makers in migration related affairs. The experimentation of (often) small scale initiatives have had positive consequences and contributed to change the degree of activism of local administrations. Unfortunately, their involvement remains for the time being largely underdeveloped and many obstacles exist as evidenced by the findings of the JMDI, such as a lack of efficient and effective coordination within local authorities’ administration and with other stakeholders. To a large extent, migration and development remains a new field of action for local administrations and targeted support is necessary to fully harness the potential local authorities can bring in this field.

The programme addresses three areas of intervention:

To move from isolated and individual approaches towards more structured forms of interventions through the identification of promising initiatives from local authorities in partnership with civil society organizations in selected countries that will be scaled up to maximize impact on local development. Policy options and definition of road maps for action will be drawn from the experience of the supported initiatives;
To reinforce the capacities of selected local administrations to effectively link migration and development, with a specific focus on facilitating increased coordination within local authorities’ administration in order to maximize their ability to grasp the potential of migration for development;
To connect local authorities globally with each other and with other stakeholders and facilitate partnerships (between local authorities in countries of origin and destination of migration, migrant and refugee associations, the private sector, the social partners etc.) to reinforce local authorities’ potential to become active players in the field of migration and development.

The programme is scaling-up local authorities’ initiatives that have emerged as particularly promising in terms of linking local authorities and the civil society in the field of migration and development. This will be made with a view to reach a larger scale impact, linking with other elements such as local governance and sustainable development with a view to deepen the development impact of funded initiatives, to replicate good practices and to bring them up to scale in order to strengthen the programme’s impact at policy level.

The programme is organizing targeted training for interested local authorities, which are already involved or would like to engage in migration and development activities. The objective is to reinforce their skills and equip them with tailor-made tools to deepen and strengthen their on-going initiatives.

The programme is using the dedicated M4D Community of Practice developed under the first phase of the JMDI (migration4development.org) modeled on UNDP’s approach to knowledge management and social networking. The network is an open forum for all relevant stakeholders in the field of Migration and Development and comprises diaspora organizations, migrant associations, social partners, development NGOs and civil society groups, Academia, local authorities, UN Agencies, bilateral aid agencies, private sector and governments.

Five agencies – IOM, ITC-ILO, UNHCR, UN Women, UNFPA and UNITAR– are directly engaged in the strategic direction of the programme and will contribute with their institutional knowledge, expertise and extensive networks to ensure its success.

The individual contractor will be working independently under the direct supervision of the Head of the Programme Management Unit. He/she will be responsible for developing and delivering a number of products that will help the PMU to adjust the existing knowledge management platform to the needs of local authorities and other local actors active in the field of migration and development. Furthermore, the consultant will be requested to produce a number of inputs to contribute to the setting up of the networking strategy of the programme targeting local authorities as well as facilitating the launch of its capacity development component.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Based on the existing JMDI M4D, expand the global community of practice with a view to improving the awareness and understanding of Local and Regional Authorities on migration and development issues;
Maintain a mechanism for involving staff from UN agencies working in areas related to local development, local governance and decentralized cooperation in the knowledge management component of the programme;
Map, reach out and mobilize existing networks of local authorities, social partners, private sector organizations to actively take part in the JMDI M4D Net;
Identify dedicated meetings/events targeting local authorities at national, regional and international levels to facilitate partnership building to ensure JMDI’s active participation;
Set up the foreseen e-learning tool for local authorities on the JMDI M4D Net;
Contribute to the development of an e-learning tool and support capacity development efforts of the JMDI globally and in target countries;
Maintain a system for the collection of best practices in order to consolidate the results coming from the monitoring of the funded initiatives of local authorities in the target countries.
Undertake ad-hoc missions to the target countries (as required) to support monitoring of implementation of the projects as well as the extraction of good practices and lessons learnt to feed into the consolidation of knowledge products
In close liaison with the JMDI Focal Points, consolidate the results, good practices and lessons learnt coming out of the funded initiatives in the target countries;
Generate knowledge products tailor-made to the needs of local authorities that display good practices, thereby further stimulating both the use of existing knowledge and further interaction between the suppliers and demanders of knowledge on Migration and Development;
Support the PMU and the JMDI Focal Points in disseminating lessons learnt and good practices.

Expected Deliverables

Report showing the JMDI M4D Net content and functionalities which have been updated to the needs of local authorities and other local actors active in the field of migration and development;
Compendium of key programme’s stakeholders (local authorities, social partners, private sector organizations, UN organizations) contacted;
System for the collection of best practices maintained;
Knowledge products tailor-made to the needs of local authorities designed and promoted;
Compendium of events/meetings targeting local authorities at national, regional and international levels produced;
Support is provided on the development of the training materials, e-learning and capacity development efforts in accordance with the overall programme’s strategy;
Support to the PMU in the monitoring and closure of extended projects is provided;
Support to the JMDI Focal Points is provided in consolidating results of the funded initiatives, dissemination of good practices and lessons learnt.

Competencies

Corporate 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;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies

Builds strong relationships with stakeholders, focuses on impact and result for the stakeholders and responds positively to feedback;
Proven capacity to design and produce quality knowledge products;
Demonstrates excellent oral and written communication skills;
Experience in working with knowledge networks and/or communities of practice.
Proven practical experience in monitoring development projects;
Experience in working with virtual teams based in different locations is an asset;
Computer proficiency, including working knowledge of MS Office products;
Prior experience in working with the UN system a strong asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, International Relations, Political Science, Finance, Economics or related field.

Experience:

Three years of experience at international level in knowledge management, migration and development, local development, networking and coordination or a related field.

Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English and French, knowledge of Spanish a strong asset

APPLICATION SUBMISSION PROCESS

The application submission is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:

Step 1: Interested individual consultants must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP job website (Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded therefore please include all documents in one file)):

Personal CV;
Personal History Form (P11), indicating all past experience from similar assignments, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references (the P11 template form can be downloaded from this link: http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms;/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc;
A Technical Proposal prepared by the candidate explaining the proposed approach to the assignment also containing a workplan.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal

Applicants are instructed to submit their financial proposals in Euro currency for this consultancy to procurement.be@undp.org using the financial proposal template available here: http://www.migration4development.org/sites/default/files/letter_of_confirmation_of_interest_and_submission_of_financial_proposal_jmdi_1_2.docx. The proposals should be sent via email with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal for Knowledge Management Consultant, JMDI/2016/1 latest by May 11th, 2016. Proposals to be received after the deadline will be rejected. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown. The term ‘all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal.

Application Evaluation Process

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
Technical Criteria weight: [70%];
Financial Criteria weight: [30%].

Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 70% on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 100 points:

Candidate holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, International Relations, Political Science, Finance, Economics or related field - 5 points;
Candidate has a minimum 3 (three) years of relevant experience at international level in knowledge management, migration and development, local development, networking and coordination or a related field – 15 points;
Adequacy of candidate's competencies for the assignment – 15 points;
English and French languages proficiency – 10 points;
Candidate's Technical Proposal (Approach to the Assignment including Workplan) – 55 points.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation

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.

UNDP is applying fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores. Please go the following link for the General Conditions of Individual Contracts:http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf

UNDP retains the right to contact references directly.

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.