[EXTENDED from 9/11 to 17/11/21]

The Markets for Change (M4C) is a UN Women project in partnership with the UNDP and the governments of Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Funded by the Governments of New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, it is a 5-year initiative aimed at ensuring that marketplaces in rural and urban areas in the four countries are safe, inclusive, and nondiscriminatory environments, promoting gender equality and women’s socio-economic empowerment.

The Markets for Change Project focuses on four main project objectives of: Outcome 1: Inclusive, effective and representative marketplace groups are created and grow, further enabled and recognized; Outcome 2: The socioeconomic security of women market vendors is improved; Outcome 3: Local governments, market management and other decision-makers are gender-responsive, effective and accountable to women market vendors; and Outcome 4: Physical infrastructure and operating systems are improved to make markets more gender-responsive, safer, more accessible and resilient to disaster risks and climate change. Results and lessons from the implementation of Phase I in Fiji, Solomons and Vanuatu helped to shape Phase II in those countries and Phase I in Samoa.

The UNDP Samoa MCO is the responsible partner for the implementation and delivery of Project Outcome 2 of the Markets for Change, which focuses on the socio-economic security and rights of women market vendors. The proposed needs assessment consultancy is to systematically identify and assess the needs of the women vendors in Samoa, to inform the development and delivery of relevant and responsive support, tailor-made for their capacity development and access to sustainable marketing and trading opportunities. The assessment will also ascertain the number of to be vendors to be trained and the type of training required. The assessment and baseline collection will be implemented in a coordinated way.

Part of this undertaking a coordinated response is to identify areas of need and support the development of these training needs for the market vendors.  By pooling resources and expertise in organizing this needs assessment, the consultant will be able to reduce transaction costs and support a coordinated programmatic response that will draw on the resources, expertise, and partnership of stakeholders for the M4C Project.

The survey will be designed to provide useful inputs to coordinated programming decisions by as many as possible, and therefore will cover a broad range of issues, including what are the needs of the vendors, what are the types of trainings to be provided, how can the market vendors access the trainings, with particular focus on marginalized group.   

This assessment aims to:

1. Provide an overview analysis of the capacity strengths and weaknesses, capacity gaps and needs of the market vendors, particularly the women market vendors trading from the Samoa markets.
2. Identify dynamics that explains present capacities, the driving forces for change to ensure effectiveness of the future capacity development efforts and provide building elements for developing a demand driven approach.
3. Inform the programmatic design and planning for UNDP’s support for training/capacity building of market vendors in Samoa; and to provide evidence for government policymaking.
4. Summarize the lessons learnt and good practices in response to the needs of the women market vendors trading from the Samoa market

The selected National Consultant (IC) will work closely with the UNDP Governance and Poverty Reduction Unit, collaborate closely with UNWomen and the relevant Stakeholders in both Private and Civil Society Sector, and is required to complete

1. Facilitate initial discussions with the responsible Programme PUNOs, and relevant Counterparts to acquire information to inform scope and parameters of survey, and the expected results of the assignment.
2. Design a Needs Assessment Survey inclusive of the proposed methodology, questions, and tool to be utilized, workplan, and target groups for the survey.
3. Undertake the Capacity Needs Assessment Survey of Women Market Vendors in Samoa, targeting a sample size of no less than 60% of women vendors, identified and surveyed during the Situational Analysis designing of Phase II of the Programme, utilizing the paper-based questionnaire administered through the face-to-face approach.  
4. Analyze the collected data and survey results providing information on capacity strengths and weaknesses, capacity gaps and needs of the women market vendors,
5. Prepare a and submit a Survey Report (in English) including an executive summary, methodology, and presentation of key results and analysis.

Under the direct supervision of the UNDP-ARR for the Governance & Poverty Reduction Unit, the selected National Consultant will work closely with the Project Technical Group, and PUNOs, and is expected to engage with a range of Stakeholders ranging from Government Ministries, Private Sector Entities, Civil Society Organizations, Market Vendors, and Communities, to ensure the timely delivery of the following deliverables within the set timeframes.

1. Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s & UN Women’s mission, vision and values
2. Highly effective in working with multi-sector teams
3. Ability to function effectively under pressure and tight timelines
4. Self-motivated and able to work independently
5. Excellent oral and written communication
6. Creative thinking and emotional intelligence

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFER

The award of the contract will be made to the Individual Consultant whose offer has been evaluated using the “Combined Scoring Method” 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%

FINANCIAL CRITERIA WEIGHT – 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total technical points (49 points) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Interviews may be conducted as part of the technical assessment for shortlisted proposals.

Technical Proposal (70%)

• Technical Approach, Methodology and Workplan (30 marks) - This explains the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out of the activities and obtaining the expected output. The Applicant should also provide a workplan broken down by deliverable.

Qualification and Experience (40 marks) – Evaluation of CVs for Shortlisting

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences disciplines with special focus on research, data collection and management, and survey implementation (10 marks)
• Minimum overall experience of 5years and demonstrated knowledge in application of statistical theory and techniques (8 marks)
• Demonstrated experience in designing, planning, and implementation of community-based surveys (8 marks)
• Strong knowledge and experience in data management and producing relevant and reliable analysis of survey results with thorough and clear presentation. (7 marks)
• Prior working experience and knowledge of UN System would be an advantage (5 marks)
• Excellent written and spoken English skills. (2 marks)

Financial Proposal (30%)

• Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price in United States Dollars (including professional fee and all other related and applicable costs to be incurred by the individual consultant in completing the assignment), supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II)

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.

NOTE: 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 UNDP and the Individual Consultant, before travel and will be reimbursed.

Download the full Terms of Reference from the UNDP Procurement Notice link https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=84927.