Background

The COVID-19 pandemic is a health, economic and humanitarian crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. The pandemic has highlighted the increasing vulnerability of human populations, particularly those in the developing world with weak health systems and populations in which health and immunity is already compromised by lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In the Pacific island countries (PICs) pandemics pose threats to human health and livelihoods that are already extremely vulnerable due to the impacts of Climate Change. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) surveys, more than 50% of the Pacific population are overweight, more than one fifth of children and pregnant women are anaemic, about 40% of the PICs population has been diagnosed with NCD and micronutrient deficiencies.

Pandemics like COVID 19 with no effective treatment options have ushered a new normal that proves that survival mostly depends on who has the right immune response to get rid of the infection rapidly. In the Pacific context, although the people have adapted effectively to their sometimes challenging environment, they remain vulnerable to severe cases and deaths related to diseases, both communicable and non-communicable. As rapid economic, dietary, and cultural changes occur throughout the Pacific and as pandemics like the COVID 19 occur, there are consequent challenges to the health sectors in the respective countries in the Pacific. Addressing food and nutrition security is intended at boosting people’s immune systems, enabling them to fight against these outbreaks, in the absence of vaccines or medicine.

In 2019, at a Capacity-Building Workshop on Institutionalization of South-South Cooperation in Fiji co-organized by the Pacific Islands Forum (PIDF) and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), participants identified food security as an issue that would require a regional approach. Proposed action from the participants was the need to identify areas of capacity strengthening on food security needed by the Pacific and the need to have an effective and regular coordinating platform to address this issue.

Addressing food insecurities contributes to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2 which focuses on food by aiming to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. SDG 1 focuses on poverty reduction, where agriculture and food production have a key role to play. Sustainable agriculture plays a central role in achieving SDGs, including: SDG 6 on water, SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production; SDG 13 on climate change adaptation and mitigation and; SDG 15 on land use and ecosystems. Sustainable management of fisheries also features prominently in SDG 14 on marine resource and oceans.

In order to address the issues of food security and nutrition in the Pacific, it is vital to understand the needs and priorities of the countries. UNOSSC and PIDF intend to conduct a research assessment on the food and nutrition security needs and priorities in the 12 PIDF member countries.

This research will provide an assessment of the food and nutrition security needs of the PIDF member countries and will assess the demand for further work in this area. This will be the initial steps towards contributing to the improvement of food security and nutrition in the Pacific.

In 2017, UNOSSC and PIDF signed an MOU to cooperate in areas of common interest and in enhancing the capacity of developing countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda and other internationally agreed development goals through the bolstering of South-South and triangular cooperation.

PIDF is a multilateral and multi-stakeholder organisation set up as an action-oriented platform bringing together leaders from the public, private sector and civil society to address regional development challenges. Its mission is to enable green-blue Pacific economies through inclusive strategies, multi-stakeholder governance and genuine partnership and serve as a South-South cooperation platform for the Pacific region.

The UN Office for South-South Cooperation aims to be a robust knowledge hub providing advisory and consulting services to Member States, UN entities, IGOs, NGOs and other stakeholders on South-South and triangular cooperation (SS & TrC). It advocates for Southern perspectives within the multilateral system and enables developing countries to effectively face their development challenges and harness opportunities to address them, while monitoring progress on the implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, New Directions Strategy and the Nairobi Outcome. In order to respond to the requests of Member States and the United Nations system, UNOSSC focuses its work along three pillars: (1) advocacy, (2) knowledge building, and (3) innovative programming.

In March 2019, the United Nations Second High-level Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA +40) took place in Argentina. The Conference Outcome document identifies agriculture, food security, nutrition and food safety as areas of mutual learning and coordination for South-South and triangular cooperation and emphasizes the value of leveraging these forms of international cooperation to promote sustainable agriculture and food systems. In addition, it highlights the importance of promoting national and collective self-reliance in developing countries. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment

The Consultant will support the PIDF with the initial assessment of the food security and nutrition in the 12 PIDF member countries including the development of the action plan for the project. The 3.5 months consultancy is scheduled to take place from November 2021.

Scope of Work:

The Food and Nutrition Security Consultant will work closely and report to the PIDF Director, Blue Economy who will be supported by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. In detail, the Consultant, with the support of the PIDF Director, Blue Economy will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Conduct relevant surveys and review existing national reports in order to analyze the food security, poverty and nutrition problems, feasibility assessments and the responses to the national food and nutrition security strategies and policies.
• Evaluate the ongoing projects or initiatives and build on the good and bad experiences and identify gaps which can be incorporated into a PIDF Food and Nutrition Security project.
• Identify key partners, including educational institutes, national/international NGOs and relevant government ministries in each of the PIDF member countries.
• Develop joint operational strategies for engagement with the stakeholders identified, including the levels of engagement, geographical areas of intervention, roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder, especially through South-South and triangular cooperation.
• Develop the joint programme framework and an action plan for implementing the PIDF Food and Nutrition Security project, in consultation with the identified key stakeholders and donors.
• Propose a coordination and monitoring mechanism for interventions.
• Incorporate the analysis done into the existing Food and Nutrition Security project for donor consideration.
• Identify further opportunities for South-South and triangular cooperation to advance work initiated under this consultancy.

The methodology for the assessment is envisaged to be as follows:

• Desk study review of all relevant project documentation
• Virtual Interviews with stakeholders: National Governments and local government.

The final methodological approach including interview schedule, and data to be used in the assessment should be clearly outlined in the inception report and be fully discussed and agreed between UNOSSC and PIDF.

Expected Outputs And Deliverables

• Deliverable 1 should be prepared by the Consultant before going into the data collection exercise. It should highlight the Consultant’s understanding of what is to be assessed and why, showing how each task will be accomplished: proposed methods, proposed sources of data and data collection procedures. It should also include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables.
• All deliverables will be submitted to the UNOSSC Regional Coordinator per schedule under “target due dates” section, and will be immediately reviewed by PIDF and approved by UNOSSC.
• The Final Evaluation Report incorporating comments from the draft document will then be compiled will be immediately reviewed and consultant will have the 1st opportunity to provide final touches.

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station And Expected Places of Travel

Duration:

• The assessment is expected to take place from 15 November 2021 to 28 February 2022 within a maximum of 45 working days.
• Due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions, consultant will not be able to travel.

Duty Station: Home-Based.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNOSSC;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesize complex, technical information;
• Ability to summarize complex information; 
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

 Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

 Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high-pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

 Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience:

Education:

• Masters’ Degree in Food and Nutrition, Agriculture, International Relations, Economics, Social Science or related;

 Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in development issues and projects in the Pacific;
• Minimum 5 years of experience in evaluation, research, writing, communication, and developing 
• communication products especially project proposal;
• Minimum 5 years of experience in working with United Nations system, International organizations and national governments in the Pacific countries;
• Strong evaluation, research, communications and writing skills;
• Knowledge and experience of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation issues/practices/projects.
• Experience in communication and developing communication products is essential;
• Experience in evaluation research and report and partnership with international organizations and national governments.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration.

Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

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 a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

The following criteria will serve as basis for evaluating offers:

• Technical Qualification and interview (100 points) weight; [70%] 
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%] 

The technical criteria (education, experience and skills, language) will be worth a maximum 100 points. Only top five candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

• Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points; 70%)
  • Criteria 1:    Relevance of Education – Max 15 points
  • Criteria 2:    Experience in development issues and projects in the Pacific –   Max 25 points
  • Criteria 3:    Experience in evaluation, research, writing, communication, and developing  communication products – Max 25 points
  • Criteria 4:    Experience in working with United Nations system, International organizations and national governments in the Pacific countries – Max 20 points
  • Criteria 5:    Fluency in English language with excellent written skills required – Max 15 points

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

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal using the template provided by UNDP (in USD, specifying the total lump sum amount as well as the requested amount of the fee per day);
• Curriculum Vitae/P11 form, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Proposal: Brief proposal explaining why you are the most suitable for this consultancy;
• Two writing samples from previous experience, preferably including evaluation work.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR Food Security Assessment
Annex II - General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Individual_Consultant
Annex III Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal
Annex IV - P11 Form_for_ICs_optional
Annex V - Procurement Notice

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=84596

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.th@undp.org under Subject: JobAds 102670 - International Consultant for Assessing the Food Security and Nutrition Needs and Priorities of the PIDF Member States