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.

Objective of the assignment:

The consultant will provide general administrative and operational support to the global HIV, Health and Development team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Operations Specialist, the Consultant will be responsible to:

• Provide general administration and logistical support, screen general telephone calls and liaise with the unit’s staff on appointments, meetings, scheduling of agenda to ensure that all demands are met as appropriately and efficiently as possible.
• Manage daily correspondence/e-mail. Prioritize incoming mail for appropriate action, draft correspondence and ensure that response deadlines are met. Maintain tracking system for incoming/outgoing correspondence.
• Manage the travel of the staff, undertake all related travel arrangements. Liaise with the visa desk, bureau, country offices, and other agencies on logistics and documentation for the Cluster Leaders. Including initiating the Travel Authorization in ATLAS Travel and Expense Module and post travel process – collecting F10, expense checklist and Expense Report if needed. Prepare the following in the Atlas travel and expense module: travel requests, expense checklists and expense reports.
• Prepare HHD’s quarterly travel and leave plans.
• Monitor and maintain unit’s Back to Office Reports.
• Assist in the organization of meetings and workshops, booking of conference rooms. Provide logistic support, photocopying, filing and collection of background documentation.
• Prepares and circulates meeting minutes of selected meetings.
• Assist and coordinate with the team on hiring individual contractors including gathering necessary documents and creating obligations in ATLAS.
• Creating requisitions, raising receipts, implementing budget and project award revisions, generates reports and information on routine implementation of projects quarterly review.
• Manage the groups inventory of publications: managing new publications, monitoring publication stocks, updating list of HIV publications and support to dissemination of publications
• Support to collect invoices, timesheets and assists in preparing the payments for consultants, credit card and vendors.
• Proactively support others and take on additional responsibilities as needed by the unit.

Reporting: The consultant will report regularly to the Operations Specialist.

Travel:

There is no anticipated travel for this assignment.

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.

The award of the contract should 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.

Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (maximum 70 points): 

Financial Evaluation Criteria (maximum 30 points):

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 Method: Payment will be based on timesheet and certificate of payments, based on the all-inclusive daily fee and upon certification by the direct supervisor.

Competencies

Organizational 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 competencies:

• Systematic, organizational, analytical skills, thorough and attention to details.
• Demonstrated ability to think fast in a logical and organized manner.
• Highly proficient in the use of IT.
• Excellent negotiation, communication and networking skills.
• Excellent multi-tasking abilities and ability to remain calm and work under pressure.

Partnership building and team work:

• Client oriented and assists in identifying solutions to problems.
• Demonstrated well developed people management skills.
• Strong ability to work with teams; creating an enabling environment and supporting colleagues.
• Demonstrated flexibility in a multi-cultural environment.

Communications and Advocacy:

• Demonstrated ability to write clearly and convincingly.
• Good research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically.
• Excellent capacity to communicate clearly and concisely.
• Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

Secondary Education with specialized administrative training. University degree in Business, Social Sciences or Public Administration desirable.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in programme or administrative coordination and support work with U.N. experience.
• Knowledge of the UN and UNDP Rules and Regulations.
• Knowledge of Atlas Finance, Travel and Expense module would be a great asset.
• Knowledge of the Contract Management process and Procurement modality.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc).
• Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills.

Language:

Fluency in English is required.

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATION:

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:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• Signed and Updated Personal History Form (P11). The template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc). Applications without P11 will not be considered.
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability indicating (either all-inclusive daily rate or Lump Sum amount in USD).

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.