Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life, as envisaged by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are on the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners that can bring about results.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and help countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.  BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

BPPS supports UNDP’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, focusing on 7 outcomes including strengthening institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (outcome 3). The HIV, Health and Development Group (HHD), within BPPS, is helping to contribute towards this outcome.

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development, as described in the HIV, Health and Development Strategy 2016-2021: Connecting the Dots, leverages UNDP’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Sustainable Development Goals.  For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector. UNDP also promotes specific action on the needs and rights of women and girls as they relate to HIV.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of the law and legal environments in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics. UNDP also works to empower and include marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV, such as sex workers, men who have sex with men and people living with HIV. Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to municipal action on SDGs, sustainable responses for Health and HIV such as improving sustainability of AIDS financing, sustainable health procurement, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for key populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on SDG 3 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding.  UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as temporary Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

Increasing access to affordable treatment for HIV and related co-infections in low and middle income countries remains a key aspect of UNDP’s work under the UNAIDS Unified Budget and Accountability Framework (UBRAF). The cost of treatment is often affected by various laws and policies. They are part of the complex set of factors that influence access at national, regional and international levels. As a founding co-sponsor of UNAIDS , guided by the health-related  SDGs particularly SDG 3, UNDP is mandated to provide support to governments in their implementation of policies and programs that protect the human rights of people affected by HIV.

Human rights, law and rights based responses to HIV

Legal, policy and regulatory environments continue to undermine the response to the HIV epidemic and other health challenges such as tuberculosis (TB) in many countries. Public health laws and regulations can play an important role in improving health. For example, legislation and regulation is an important tobacco control strategy. In the case of HIV, overly broad criminalization of HIV transmission, laws that criminalize sex work, drug use and sex between men and laws and policies that limit access to affordable medicines or that fail to ensure equality for women and protect children can all increase HIV vulnerability and act as barriers to civic engagement in health governance and access to health and social services. Such laws and policies also reinforce stigma and discrimination that increase inequalities and exclusion and impede effective HIV responses. All UN Member States have committed to reviewing and strengthening laws to eliminate discrimination against people living with and at highest risk for HIV and to ensure their full enjoyment of human rights and access to health care and legal protection.

In July 2012, the UNDP-led Global Commission on HIV and the Law released its landmark report ‘HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health,’ presenting a compelling evidence-base on HIV, human rights and legal issues. UNDP and UN partners are supporting governments and civil society to follow up on the work of the Global Commission in 88 countries in all regions. This work includes supporting countries to create enabling legal and policy environments for effective HIV responses through law review, national dialogues on law reform, judicial and parliamentary sensitization and access to justice programming. UNDP has also developed tools to support Commission follow up, such as compendia of judgments for judicial sensitization and guidance on conducting legal environment assessments and national dialogues for law reform

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will ideally be office based and report to the Manager: Human Rights, Law and Treatment Access.  The consultant will also support the establishment of partnerships with development partners, government, UN agencies and the civil society organizations on health technology innovation and access.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for undertaking the following deliverables in collaboration with colleagues within the HIV, Health and Development Group:

  • Support the convening of a high-level policy dialogue on the follow up to the Commission’s report over the last 5 years, including:
    • Up-to-date data/results on Commission follow up
    •  the launch of an impact assessment of the Commission’s report
  • Review and update tools to support Commission follow up, such as compendia of judgments for judicial sensitization, integration of the HIV and TB legal environment assessment tools;
  • Produce at least 2 knowledge products on Commission follow up
  • Prepare a strategy paper on expanding the Commission follow up work to include TB
  • In conjunction with UNDP staff, support the organization of human rights activities of the Human Rights, Law, Key Populations and Treatment Access Team’s work-plan;
  • Any other activities as required by the HIV, Health and Development Team.

Expected Outputs: 

  • The completion of  the High-Level Policy Dialogue: Commission@5;

Expected deadline: 31 July 2017

  • The launch of the Commission@5 impact assessment;

Expected deadline: 15 August 2017

  • Strategy paper on TB and human rights for UNDP

       Expected deadline: 15 August 2017

  • Updated Commission follow up tools completed – judicial compendium and integrated HIV and TB LEAs;

Expected deadline: by 30 October 2017

  • The completion  and dissemination of two (2) knowledge products ( journal article/policy paper/brief) on Commission follow up and human rights programmes;

Expected deadline: December 2017

  • The production of relevant advice and research on human rights programmes and rights based approaches to HIV and TB as required.

Expected deadline: Ongoing

Reporting: 

The consultant will regularly evaluate progress in meeting the set targets with the Manager: Rights, Law, and Treatment Access.

Travel:

No travel is anticipated under this consultancy. 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.

Timeframe

The consultant’s assignment will ideally be office-based (UNDP HQ NY) and is expected to last 120 days, completed over the period from 1 June 2017 – 31 December 2017.

Evaluation

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review or an interview process. Applicants will be evaluated based on: Cumulative analysis method that combines the results of technical and financial evaluation results.

  • 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 points
  • Financial Criteria weight: 30 points

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

Criteria for technical evaluation (70 points maximum):

  • An advanced degree in human rights, public health, international law, international affairs or a related degree (maximum points: 20)
  • Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in the area of HIV, public health, human rights, international affairs or a related field (maximum points:30)
  • A demonstrated knowledge of HIV and TB, public health, international law as evidenced by a publications record (maximum points:10)
  • Strong writing and editorial skills (maximum points:10)

The hiring unit reserves the right to conduct an interview in case of equally qualified shortlisted candidates.

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

Payment

Payment will be certified through the Certificate of Payment (COP) and timesheet, certified by the direct supervisor. The rate will be based on the all-inclusive daily rate or rate mentioned in the Offeror’s letter to UNDP

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.

Functional:

  • Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products,
  • Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the access to treatment,
  • Relevant experience strengthening the capacity of civil society or government officials on access to treatment would be highly advantageous.

 Project and Resource Management:

  • Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
  • Strong organizational skills.
  • Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.

Communications and Advocacy:

  • Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

An advanced degree in international trade law, intellectual property law, international affairs, public health law and a knowledge of at least one of the other substantive areas

Experience:

  • A minimum of 5 years relevant work experience in the area of HIV, TB, human rights, public health  or a related field
  • Fluency in English is essential. Fluency in Spanish and/or French would be an added advantage
  • Work experience from a developing country highly desirable.
  • Knowledge of UN and/or UNDP procedures, grant applications and program implementation is highly desirable.
  • Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills

Language Requirement:

Excellent written and spoken English

Guidelines for Applications:

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

Please note that our system only takes one attachment. Therefore, kindly scan all your documents into a single PDF file to upload.

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. rent of dwelling, fee, health insurance, vaccination, visa costs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged costs (except of the unforeseen travel costs for missions, if any) must be included in the financial proposal. Unforeseen travel costs for missions, if any, will be paid separately according to UNDP rules and regulations. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. Per diems cannot exceed UN DSA rates (http://icsc.un.org/rootindex.asp).

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

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

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.

ANNEX 1- INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS is provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf