Background

The UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) seeks to recruit a senior advisor on foresight to support the establishment, management and expansion of its new Empowered Futures Initiative (EFI). In its endeavour to promote the use of strategic foresight, the GCPSE collaborates with a wide range of partners, such as the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH), UNDP Regional Hubs and Headquarters, Governments as well as partners from the non-profit and private sectors.

The aim of the assignment is to support the Centre in consolidating, widening and diversifying its work of the previous years on introducing and institutionalizing foresight in public sector institutions in developing countries.

Globally, governments are looking for new strategic planning and policy tools to identify and realize strategic opportunities and mitigate risks in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. ‘Foresight’ is rapidly emerging as an essential addition to conventional strategic thinking. Foresight takes uncertainty, unpredictability and interdependency as given and explores alternative futures, identifying emerging strategic opportunities and risks in different scenarios, testing the resilience of existing strategies, and prototyping innovative policy responses.

Foresight cultivates crucial skills such as cross impact analysis, synthesis, systems thinking, wind tunneling, and planning for long term uncertainties. It is based upon a range of skills: situational awareness to possible, probable and preferable futures; a pro-active scanning of the horizon; an ability to sort, sift through and combine open, real-time data and the creation of tight feedback loops. It entails the exploration of possible scenarios and pathways, the identification of future risks and opportunities and the systematic rehearsal of potential responses.

EFI aims to assist governments and societies in development countries adopt foresight methods to strategize and plan better today for an uncertain future. The ‘Empowered Futures’ version of foresight addresses the needs and capacities of developing countries. The approach is developed in response to a growing demand by governments and regional bodies in developing countries for additional strategy, planning and policy tools that are more appropriate to the environment in which national development strategies and SDGs have to be realized. 95 countries to date have asked UNDP for help in addressing the realization of the SDGs, requiring a strategic engagement with Governments and other stakeholders at the most senior level, including strong linkages to participatory processes of visioning and strategy development.

EFI will focus on the application of foresight on the following key areas:

1. SDG prioritization and implementation (at various levels of National and Subnational Development strategy, policy and planning;
2. Urbanization;
3. Technological innovation in developing contexts;
4. Citizen-state relations and its impact on development; and
5. The planning and decision-making processes of UN agencies.

The facilitation tools used for foresight processes are constantly evolving to leverage social and technological innovations. Gamification, internet-based information gathering and big data analysis are just some of the recent additions to the foresight “toolbox” that have facilitated better insights into weak signals, emerging trends and change processes. EFI will integrate innovative approaches into its portfolio and prototype context-aware tools, adapted to the institutional and cultural context.

Duties and Responsibilities

The advisor will support the activities of the Empowered Futures Initiative (EFI), provide advisory and facilitation services to in-country foresight events and foresight capacity development and contribute to the production of EFI resources (including research and development).

The incumbent will report to the director of the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence and the senior advisor, leading on the foresight thematic area.

He/She will support the Empowered Futures Initiative (EFI), holding the following responsibilities:

Advisory and Programme Development

• Advise on and conceptualise strategy, pipeline development, partnerships, resource mobilisation, work plans, reporting, etc.
• Contribute to the establishment of EFI as an important partner in the global foresight for development ecosystem, especially in the global South.
• Produce knowledge products that will promote the vision, approach and practices of EFI.
• Develop innovative facilitation tools for foresight processes, leveraging social and technological innovations.
• Draft proposals for EFI resource mobilisation.
• Design, manage and facilitate foresight capacity development trajectories with partner governments and organisations in developing countries.
• Liaise closely with the relevant departments and offices of UNDP with the aim of making the organisation effective thought-leader in foresight, thinking and working politically and related themes.

Partnership Building, Communication and Outreach.

• Outreach and link, on behalf of EFI, to the global ecosystem of practitioners on foresight and related themes relevant for the performance of public services. 
• Support the deepening of a professional network among EFI stakeholders.
• Support, on behalf of EFI, the emerging community of practice among UNDP practitioners with relevant contributions to the network by providing technical inputs into the network discussions.
• Build, on behalf of EFI, partnerships with conventional and emerging partners, think tanks, NGOs, Universities, other government or semi-government institutions.
• Produce content for external and internal communications (digital) and regularly provide updates on activities under EFI through the GCPSE communication channels (including social media).

Key Deliverables and Expected Time Lines (ETL)

• Presentations on EFI, foresight in public service, foresight for development and the use of innovative approaches to foresight given at relevant fora (ETL: on demand);
• Events, capacity development interventions and peer-to-peer learning engagements conceptualised, designed and facilitated (ETL: on demand);
• A set of innovative facilitation tools developed for the use in public sector institutions (and if requested, for UN agencies) with built-in provisions for adaptation to context (ETL: March 2017);
• Relevant knowledge product developed for the first issue of the EFI knowledge series (ETL: March 2017);
• Content for external and internal communications (digital) produced and regular updates provided on activities under EFI through the GCPSE communication channels (including social media) (ETL: continuous);
• Resources mobilised to contribute to EFI’s country-level engagements and overhead costs (ETL: April 2017).

Competencies

The incumbent will have experience in and capacity to institutionalise foresight in public service organisations to strengthen strategic state capacity. He/she is expected to have expertise in providing advice in the formulation of more adaptive and responsive public policy.

The incumbent must have the technical capacity and diplomatic skills to interact effectively with the typical stakeholders in governance processes (e.g. officials, elected representatives, and citizens), foresight thinker-practitioners, as well as experts on complexity and international development. He/she needs to be experienced and comfortable with interactions at the high political and administrative levels (e.g. Ministers and Permanent Secretaries) as well as grassroots stakeholders of governance processes.

He/she needs to have in-depth understanding of development, especially with regards to SDGs implementation related issues, to be able, in consultation with UNDP country offices, to design and develop programmes that support the institutionalisation of futures thinking and foresight in public service.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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.

Leadership:

• Strong decision-making skills with proven track record of mature judgments;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic visions.

Functional:

• Strong analytical and communication skills, including ability to produce high level knowledge products;
• Proven professional and/or academic experience in applying foresight-related technical skills to issues relating to development and SDGs implementation;
• Capacity to interact with senior officials and credibly influence senior decision makers.   

Management:

• Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating evolving client needs;
• Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service.

Partnership building and team work:

• Excellent negotiating and networking skills;
• Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment;
• Constructive approach to feedback and conflict resolution.

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 capacity to communicate clearly and quickly. 

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Public Administration, Political Science, International Development Studies, Future Studies, Organisational Development, or related field;

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience inclusive of extensive national and international working experience in future studies, foresight and related topics, especially in relation to international development;
• Demonstrated experience in working with the public service in developing countries on issues of foresight, public sector innovation and development;
• Demonstrated experience in developing innovative facilitation tools for foresight processes;
• Experience in working with UNDP or other UN development agencies;
• Relevant experience in leadership positions in recognized development or other relevant organizations;
• Proven international thought leadership in foresight issues;
• Experience in knowledge product development and dissemination;
• Excellent written and oral English communications skills are mandatory; knowledge of other languages desirable;
• Willingness to travel, especially to developing countries.

How to Apply:

• Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template, P11 form and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
• Completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
• Personal CV or a P11 Personal History Form, 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;
• Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions;
• Click the ‘apply’ icon and complete what is required;
• Technical Proposal - provide brief information on the experience gained with concrete experience from developing countries - a maximum 500 words-long.  Evidence of key deliverables and results could be attached to the document;
• Financial Proposal (Annex II)
  • Indicate the all-inclusive daily fee. 
  • The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. professional fee, and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). The fee should be quoted in US dollar only. 
  • Payment Modality: Monthly upon satisfactory submission of monthly progress reports / time sheets.
  • Travel: Successful consultants must be able to travel to facilitate consultations in countries based on demand if required. When such a request comes, the organization shall bear the cost of travel including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses based on extant policies and rules. Should the Individual Consultant (IC) wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, 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 reimbursed. 
• If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
• Scan all documents into 1 pdf folder and then upload;
• For clarification question, please email to procurement.my@undp.org. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put "MyIC/2017/001" as the subject matter.
• Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

Forms and General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

• The UN Personal History Form (P11) is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/P11%20for%20SC%20&%20IC.doc?download
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Letter%20of%20Interest%20_Annex%201.docx?download
• The Financial Proposal Template at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Financial%20Proposal%20Template.doc?download
• The General Terms & Conditions for Individual contract is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/General%20Conditions%20of%20Contract%20for%20IC.pdf?download
• The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement%20_%20Terms%20&%20Conditions.pdf?download 

Important Note:

• This Consultancy position is only accepted online. Email submission is not valid;
• Applicant must READ and ACCEPT the General Terms and Conditions;
• The system DOES NOT accept multiple document upload. Please scan all the documents and save into one (1) PDF file and upload.

The final evaluation method will be based on a cumulative analysis of both the technical and financial proposals. An interview will be conducted as part of the selection process. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultants 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 percent
• Financial Criteria weight:  30 percent

Candidates will be assessed based on the following technical criteria:

• Technical Evaluation (70%): evaluation of the P11 and technical proposal, including:
  • Experience in similar and relevant field, skill or expertise; relevant projects for similar international organisations and previous relevant UNDP/UN projects  (20 points);
  • Qualifications in terms of education, consultancy, specialisations and other relevant requirement; key technical skills related to project scope; availability (30 points);
  • Interview (20 points).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 per cent of the total technical scores will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

• Financial Evaluation (30%):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: p = y (µ/z):

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

Others:

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. Payments will be made only upon confirmation by UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

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.

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.