UNDP Jobs - 75083- International Consultant in Local Governance and L

International Consultant in Local Governance and Local Development

Location :

Istanbul, TURKEY

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

30-Oct-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

estimated 1 November 2017 – 31 September 2018

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Approximately 200 working days

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 Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) is UNDP’s main knowledge and advisory hub for the countries serviced by UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS (RBEC). The Regional Centre is in charge for regional programme implementation. Through its regional programme, the IRH provides advisory support and knowledge management and innovation services to UNDP Country Offices in 22 countries and territories in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including those in Central Asia.
Building responsive and accountable institutions at all levels of government is central to ensuring that development is both effective and sustainable. An overarching theme to UNDP’s work to create responsive and accountable institutions throughout the Europe and Central Asia region is encouraging strong citizen engagement. This increased engagement not only further improves responsiveness, but also ensures citizens feel a sense of ownership of, and commitment to, development decisions affecting their lives.

For the majority of people in the region, local government remains the most accessible level of government. It is the most direct way for people to access basic services and opportunities to improve their lives, to participate in public processes where decisions affecting their lives are made, and to exercise their rights and obligations. As such, effective local governance is key to inclusive and sustainable development. It is also essential for improving the quality of life of people both in urban and rural settings, reducing inequality across society, and enhancing relations between people and public institutions. For a region like the Europe and Central Asia with its many ethnically and religiously diverse societies, increased power for local government is also a way to provide a stronger voice for minorities.

In light of the above, UNDP works throughout the Europe and Central Asia region to improve local governance and economic development, strengthen local democracy and, where the capacity is in place at the local level, support decentralization. A key aspect of UNDP’s local governance programming is support for the effective participation and engagement of civil society and the public in local decision-making processes and accountability mechanisms. Primarily, this involves strengthening the ability of the public to monitor LGUs, as well as to engage with local government to work more closely together. At the policy level, UNDP works with central governments to develop strategies, action plans and laws for devolving power to LGUs.

With the above in mind, UNDP IRH is looking for a consultant to join the Governance and Peacebuilding Team to support the programme implementation and the team’s production of knowledge products in the area of local governance and local development. to the local level and encouraging public engagement in local

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will work in the Istanbul Regional Hub, under the overall supervision of the Team Leader, and in close cooperation with the Cluster’s Data Specialist and Anti-Corruption Specialist. The role will require extensive integration and collaboration within the Governance and Peacebuilding Cluster of IRH, as well as the rest of the Hub. The consultant’s overall task will be to provide programme implementation support through substantive policy and programme advisory services to the Country Offices and applying the products and tools relevant to the thematic area of local governance and local development, decentralization and localizing the SDGs, including support to the implementation of the UNDP Global Urbanisation Strategy. The consultant will also contribute to communication and advocacy with partners and UNDP country offices in the region regarding the activities carried out thus supporting the regional programme staff in increasing the visibility of UNDP views and initiatives. The consultant will also play a key role in the production of a number of key knowledge products.

S/he is responsible for performing and contributing to the following:

Support Policy Development: under the guidance of the regional Team Leader, mobilize, foster and strengthen strategic partnerships with UN entities and other relevant bodies at the regional level, and provide inputs to those partnerships in support of UNDP initiatives;
Partnerships and Resource Mobilization: support the regional Team Leader in fostering strategic partnerships with UN and external regional partner institutions, governments, private sector, academia, NGOs, and CSOs at regional and local level;
Knowledge Management: provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice, and coordinate and perform knowledge extraction, analysis, documentation, codification of results/lessons learned in the specific thematic area;
Other related work as required to better implement the above-mentioned tasks, and as assigned by the Team Leader.

Deliverables

Deliverable 1 - An ‘industry-leading’ knowledge product on localizing the SDGs (November 30, 2017);
Deliverable 2 - Support the development of a new project document on strengthening and networking municipalities in the ECIS region (December 31, 2017);
Deliverable 3 - Desk-review of national and regional best practices on approaches to decentralization and devolution of power in the ECIS region, compiled in a 5-page document (January 31, 2017);
Deliverable 4 - Based on the desk review, develop a ‘Development Approach to local governance and decentralization in ECIS’ methodology, extensively peer reviewed and endorsed the RC level (February 28, 2018);
Deliverable 5 - Design of a regional/ sub-regional local governance focused workshop/event, including substantive input to the concept and agenda and identifying relevant participants (March 31, 2018);
Deliverable 6 - Draft a review of good practices in smart cities, including from the ground up, in the ECIS region and other countries (up to 7 pages) (April 30, 2018);
Deliverable 7 - Review of integrity in municipally owned enterprises, identifying and assessing key corruption risks and draft recommendations on how to address, including with the development of case studies (up to 15 pages) (May 31, 2018);
Deliverable 8 - Design and conduct a training on local governance and local development envisioned for national and international staff (June 30, 2018);
Deliverable 9 - Support the regional Team Leader to engage with regional partners and develop a resource mobilization plan under corporate guidelines, including to fulfill corporate and donor reporting, advocacy and information-sharing requirements (July 31, 2018);
Deliverable 10 - Servicing of at least five programmatic requests from Country Offices to ensure UNDP is providing host governments with excellence in local governance and local development programming (November 2017 through August 2018);
Deliverable 11 - At least two shorter blogs, policy briefs or opinion pieces produced and widely disseminated (November 2017 through September 2018).
Deliverable 12 - The Consultant will report about the progress of activities to the Team Leader in a brief written progress report.
Deliverable 13 - Given the nature of the tasks requiring strict cooperation with the members of the Governance and Peacebuilding team, full-time presence at the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub is required.

Payment schedule

Payment will be performed in 11 equal installments upon satisfactory completion of the deliverables, as follows:
Installment 1: 12% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 1 (by November 30, 2017);
Installment 2: 12% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 2 (by December 31, 2017);
Installment 3: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 3 (by January 31, 2017);
Installment 4: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 4 (by February 28, 2018);
Installment 5: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 5 (by March 31, 2018);
Installment 6: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 6 (by April 30, 2018);
Installment 7: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 7 (by May 31, 2018);
Installment 8: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 8 (by June 30, 2018);
Installment 9: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 9 (by July 31, 2018);
Installment 10: 8% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 10 (by August 31, 2018);
Installment 11: 12% of total amount to be paid upon completion of Deliverable 11 (by September 30, 2018).

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

Demonstrates commitment to human development principles and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Shares knowledge and experience;
Provides helpful feedback and advice;
Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.

Functional competencies

Ability to organize tasks independently and assume responsibility;
Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge;
Strong oral and written communication skills;
Excellent drafting, reporting and presentation skills;
Results driven, ability to work under pressure and to meet required deadlines;
Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
Proven ability to work in a team, develop synergies and establish effective working relations within the practice teams, with persons of different Country Offices, and other counterparts (as required, e.g. donors and CSOs).

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in development economics, political science, urban planning, social sciences or related disciplines.

Experience:

At least 5 years’ professional work experience relating to the area of local governance systems and institutions and local development;
At least 5 years’ professional work experience in decentralization and basic service delivery;
Experience in drafting and writing policy, programmes, or substantive knowledge products in the areas of local governance, local development and decentralization;
At least one year’s work or research experience on urban governance, planning, and development an asset;
Experience working in the ECIS region an asset;
Experience working with UNDP an asset.

Language skills:

Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in English;
Other language of the ECIS region considered an asset.

Evaluation of Applicants:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
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 (P11 desk reviews and interview) 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 Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points:

Criteria A – Experience relating to the area of local governance systems and institutions and local development (max. 10 points);
Criteria B – Experience in decentralization and basic service delivery (max. 10 points);
Criteria C – Experience in drafting and writing policy, programmes or substantive knowledge products in the areas of local governance, local development and decentralization (max. 8 points);
Criteria D – Experience in urban governance, planning, and development (max. 4 points);
Criteria E – Experience working with UNDP (max. 4 points);
Criteria F – Interviews – Experience in local governance systems and institutions and local development; decentralization and basic service delivery (max. 15 points);
Criteria G – Interviews – Experience in writing policy, programmes or knowledge products in the areas of local governance, local development and decentralization (max. 13 points);
Criteria H – Interviews – Knowledge of English language (max. 4 points);
Criteria I – Interviews – Knowledge of other language in the ECIS region (max. 2 points).

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Only candidates who score above 70% in criteria A-I will be considered technically qualified.
Only maximum five highest ranked candidates who score above 70% based on the P11 desk review (criteria A-E) will be invited for an interview. After the interviews, the financial proposal will be added to the evaluation.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points

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

Cover letter in English explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position (maximum 1000 characters). Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from http://www.eurasia.undp.org/content/dam/rbec/docs/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.docplease upload the P11 instead of your CV.
Financial Proposal* - specifying a) total lump sum amount in USD for the tasks specified in this announcement and b) travel to and from the duty station.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials

*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. fee, health insurance, vaccination, personal security needs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.

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

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 dss.un.org.

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs. 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.