UNDP Jobs - 69698- International Consultant

International Consultant – Political Economy and Conflict Expert (Afghanistan National Human Development Report) background paper writer

Location :

UNDP/NHDR, Home based and Kabul, AFGHANISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

15-Dec-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months (with maximum 20 working days)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

UNDP Global Mission Statement

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with national counterparts on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement

UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels.

UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Human Development in Afghanistan

Human development is about people, about expanding their choices to live full, creative lives with freedom and dignity. Economic growth is very important, but it is means, not ends. Fundamental to expanding human choices is building human capabilities: the range of things that people can do and what they can be. The most basic capabilities for human development are living a long and healthy life, being educated, having a decent standard of living and enjoying political and civil freedoms to participate in the community.

For more than two decades, national human development reports have been helping to advance the human development conceptual framework and apply it to the most pressing development challenges of the countries. Now published in over 135 countries, these reports, grounded in thorough analytic research, have become dynamic advocacy tools. They are helping to generate lively debates around the policies and actions needed to accelerate human development and achieve international development goals such as MDGs and the SDGs.

UNDP Afghanistan has prepared three NHDRs, and two of them have been published. It seeks to undertake the next Human Development Report on harnessing the extractives for human development. The Report will examine the potential of the extractive sector and look into how it could contribute to the human development in the country. The main purpose of this report is to provide evidence-based policy options so that economic growth could help reduce vulnerabilities and poverty, strengthen the resilience of the licit economy, reduce the illicit economy in its multiple dimensions, and thus promote human development. The production of the report could also contribute to developing national capacities to gather and analyses data relevant to human development, and widen and deepen the concept and approaches of human development.

The NHDR preparation follows an inclusive and consultative process to create ownership of the report among various stakeholders including government and civil society, and to ensure quality of the report drawing on data and analysis from credible sources. The project includes separate activities especially for local communication and advocacy. These activities highlight the community-based approach by including awareness raising activities to increase open discussions concerning extractive industry and human development in targeted communities. The majority of the communication and advocacy materials and events will be produced in local languages and the implementation of the communication and advocacy plan will be proceeded in a manner that ensures the participation for both men and women, young and old, and the marginalized groups.

Besides the communication and advocacy activities targeting local communities, effective engagement of the governmental representatives will be promoted throughout the report preparation and follow-up.

Overall objective of the consultancy:

The main objective of the consultancy is to write a background paper for the chapters of National Human Development Report (The potential of extractive industries and its governance in Afghanistan) covering issues related to conflict and the political economy.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work and Deliverables:

The consultant will produce a background paper that will serve as the material for Chapters 2, 3 and 5 of Afghanistan’s National Human Development Report (NHDR). Chapter 2 will cover international review of the extractive industry and human development. Chapter 3 will provide information on the extractive industry and development issues in Afghanistan. Chapter 5 will provide recommendations. (See the Afghanistan NHDR Concept Note and chapter outlines).

The consultant will cover political economy and conflict issues related to extractive industries and human development, working in conjunction with other national and international consultants working on NHDR background papers and analyses, as well as the lead author of NHDR.

Specific tasks and responsibilities include:

On the basis of secondary data and interviews with stakeholders, prepare a background paper to feed into Afghanistan NHDR. The background paper will cover, as a minimum, the following areas:
- The political and governance dimension of the ‘Resource curse’
- Mechanisms and international practices to address conflict and rent-seeking related to the extractive industry
- The legal and institutional mechanisms governing the extractive industry in Afghanistan, including central-local relations
- Illegal mining and rent-seeking in Afghanistan
- Conflict and its relationship with the extractive industry in Afghanistan
On the basis of findings from the above background research, and findings from the value chain analysis in specific sub-sectors in mining (to be conducted by a separate group of consultants), make recommendations that would feed into the overall NHDR recommendations. The recommendations will form part of the background paper.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The Consultant is expected to submit the background paper with about 12,000 to 15000 words, and will contain the sections broadly mentioned above. All the activities leading to prepare the chapter will be performed by the end of 13 weeks from the signing date of the contract.

Deliverables and Deadlines:

Annotated outline of the chapter; By the end of 2nd week.
First draft of the background paper including:
- Background on international aspects of extractive industry and human development;
- Background, analysis of the situation in Afghanistan and findings; By the end of 8th week.
Second draft of the background paper including:
- Recommendations drawing from the above background and from the value chain analysis (the latter to be conducted by a separate group of consultants);
- Documentation of interviews, focus group discussions, data and references; By the end of 10th week.
Submission and acceptance of final draft of the background paper; By the end of 13th week.

The timelines and the exact contents of each deliverable will based on the consultant work plan to be agreed with NHDR Team leader. Reference will be made to the background paper.

Payment Modality

Payments under the contract shall be based on achieving deliverable and be made on receipt of the specific milestone reports indicated above. Payments shall be as indicated in the table below, and shall be made upon approval by NHDR Lead Author/Livelihoods and Resilience Unit. Upon receipt of final comments, the consultant shall finalize the report for formal acceptance by UNDP and relevant government stakeholders at which point the final payment shall be released.

Deliverables and Payment Percentage:

Deliverable 1:

Annotated outline of the chapter; 30%

Deliverable 2:

First draft of the background paper;
Second draft of the background paper; 40%

Deliverable 3:

Submission and acceptance of final draft of the background paper; 30%

Competencies

Competencies:

Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills with proven ability in report writing;
Ability to work both independently and in a team and ability to deliver high quality work on time;
Ability to liaise with stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations;
Ability to work post-conflict countries;
Ability and willingness to travel.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Postgraduate degree in political science, political economy, IR, peace and security or other related fields.

Experience:

At least 7 years of relevant experience with research experience in the field of political economy, conflict and natural resources;
Proven track record of leading and writing research papers related to extractive industries and development, preferably with a history of published results;
Prior research experience in Afghanistan will be considered an asset;
Experience of working in and knowledge of Afghanistan.

Language:

Excellent written and spoken English is required;
Knowledge of Dari or Pashtu will be considered an asset.

Institutional and Management arrangements:

The consultant with work in close collaboration with the Livelihood and Resilience Unit of UNDP Afghanistan and the NHDR Team. The Consultant will work under the supervision of the Livelihoods and Resilience unit head and NHDR Lead Author.

Duration of the Work:

The duration of the assignment is 3 months from 1st January till 31st March 2017 (with maximum 20 working days).

Duty Station:

The consultant will be home based and will undertake one mission to Kabul, Afghanistan for approximately 7 days.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

Professional Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance and evacuation). The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 20 working days.

Living Allowance (LA) – The contractor shall propose a LA at the Kabul applicable rate of USD 162 per night for his/her stay at the duty station. The number of nights for which the LA shall be payable under the contract is 7 nights. The contractor is NOT allowed to stay in a place of his/her choice other than the UNDSS approved places. UNDP will provide MORSS compliant accommodation in Green Village (GV) to the contractor. The payment of GV accommodation shall be made directly to GV by the contractor;
Travel & Visa – The contractor shall propose an estimated lump sum for Home-Kabul-home travel and Afghanistan visa expenses.

The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the abovementioned schedule of payment.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall 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 weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight 70%;

Financial Criteria weight 30%.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria 70 points

Technical Proposal (30 marks)

Technical Approach & Methodology (20 marks) – Explain the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach;
Work Plan (10 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (40 marks) [evaluation of CV]:

General Qualification (20 marks);
Experience relevant to the assignment (20 marks).

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
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.

Technical proposal:

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.