Background

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is a UN organization with a capital mandate (unique in the UN System) focused on reducing poverty and inequality first and foremost in the least developed countries (“LDCs").  

UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in  the local economy and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local development finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.

The UNITLIFE programme is an innovative financing instrument hosted by the UNCDF dedicated to the fight against chronic childhood malnutrition in two priority areas: (a) reducing child stunting and other immediate effects of malnutrition; and (b) closing the gender gap in climate-smart agriculture. UNITLIFE has an innovative financing approach and instruments including, but not limited to developing a voluntary micro-donations platforms for payment transactions, leveraging sports events and star power to drive social giving, and devising creative donation matching and revenue sharing schemes with private partners. This is the underlying concept behind the application of innovative finance for UNITLIFE — shaving small amounts off targeted transactions and channel them towards development actions that respond to chronic malnutrition needs in developing countries. The funds raised through these instruments will be directly channelled to funding in high impact projects addressing the immediate effects and root causes of chronic malnutrition. 

The UNITLIFE fund was established through a MoU between UN Women and UNCDF. The MoU establishes the UNITLIFE fund, administered by the UNDP Multi-partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF-O), with a Secretariat hosted by UNCDF. In addition, the MoU establishes the UNITLIFE ‘’Steering Committee’’, also referred to as the ‘’Executive Committee’’, and as ‘’the Executive Board.’’

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The UNITLIFE Secretariat is seeking the services of a Consultant in Organization and Governance to examine the management cycle and governance structure of UNITLIFE, with the ultimate objective to determine the most appropriate model in order to maximize the operational efficiency of the UNITLIFE fund.

The Consultant will assess the end-to-end money flow of the fund, with a particular focus on the 2 critical functions: partnerships building with donors (identification steps, due diligence process, agreement negotiation and signature), and projects selection and disbursement (country selection, calls for proposals/interests, technical assessment, project approval, implementing partners fiduciary assessment, agreement signature and disbursement, project monitoring and audits).

In order to perform the assessment, the Consultant will benefit from all available literature, namely the project document, the terms of reference of the different committees, standard operating procedures, minutes of Executive Committees’ meetings and all legal documentation in support of the creation of the UNITLIFE fund.  

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The deliverable for this assignment is a report highlighting the following:

Output 1: Partnership building report that captures the different partnership scenario and donation mechanisms, identify the challenges and areas of improvement, based on lessons learned, and provide recommendation on the best-case scenario to secure partnerships through appropriate governance and operating model.

Output 2: Projects selection and disbursement report that  captures the process steps and critical activities for disbursing to projects, consistently with MPTFO standards and Project delivery requirements, identify the challenges and areas of improvement, based on lessons learned, and provide recommendation on the best-case scenario to deliver project funding in an efficient way (financial threshold)

Please see related payment terms below under Section H. 

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant is expected to liaise with the UNITLIFE Secretariat, UNCDF focal points, MPTF fund managers, and the different Committee Members (Executive Committee and Technical Review Committee). The Consultant should also liaise with UNITLIFE implementing partners and private sector donors.

The Consultant will directly report to UNITLIFE Project Manager, with daily follow-up session to ensure proper advancement of working plan and mitigation of any time sensitive issues.

The Consultant will deliver a progress report to the UNITLIFE Secretariat, MPTF and UNCDF 5 days after the beginning of his assignment in a format to be discussed upon initiation of the assignment.  

The consultant is expected to deliver his/her final report addressed to the UNITLIFE Executive Committee through the UNITLIFE Secretariat and make a presentation to UNITLIFE Executive Committee if requested to do so. The deliverables should be reviewed and accepted by the UNITLIFE Programme Manager.

Duration of the Work

• The duration of the work is 15 days. The work should be completed before/on March 25th, 2022. Delays may lead to postponement of UNITLIFE’s Executive Committee meeting, and subsequently delays in decision on the institutional arrangements of the UNITLIFE fund.
• The target start date is 7 March.

Competencies

• Leadership: ability to work in an autonomous way and take the lead on the assignment
• Communication: ability to listen, adapt, challenge information and identify solution
• Analysis: acts as a Strategic Advisor to quickly capture operating model, governance, high level process and decision-making flow and identify optimum scenarios
• Delivery: ability to get things done in a timely manner

Required Skills and Experience

Skills, Education, and Experience

• Candidates should have a deep understanding of United Nations institutional framework. Ideally a successful expert has worked on setting up United Nations hosted initiatives and understand United Nations agencies and pooled funds standard operating processes.
• The minimum level of education acceptable for this assignment is Master’s degree in international development, international finance, social sciences, law or economics (required)
• A minimum of 5 to 7 years of experience working in the United Nations framework in project management is required
• Experience with United Nations pooled funds and/or special initiatives hosted by the United Nations is an advantage

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Price proposal should be in a Lump Sum Amount covering all cost elements to complete the work and deliver the outputs. The contract price is fixed regardless of changes in the cost components and timelines to complete the deliverables.

Payment Terms

• Payment 1:  Intermediate Report, to be submitted to UNITLIFE Secretariat by 16th of March (indicative date): 30% of payment upon receipt and approval
• Payment 2: Final Report, submitted to and approved by UNITLIFE Secretariat by 18th of March (indicative date): 70% of payment upon receipt  and approval

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested Candidates should submit an offer by providing the following documents:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Please click here for document); this also covers the Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.

J.      Selection of the Best Offer

Evaluation Process:

• Step I: Screening: Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the mandatory criteria (i.e., required) developed under skills, education and experience section (section G, II) will progress to the longlist or pool for shortlisting.

• Step II: Desk review (70 points).

  A desk review will be conducted to produce a shortlist of applicants according to the criteria below. Only applicants obtaining 70% of the points shall be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation Criteria for Desk Review

Step III: Financial Evaluation (30 points).

Only applicants who obtain a minimum of 70% at the desk review will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: (lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated) x 30%.

Award Criteria

The contact shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/ acceptable
• Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%

Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. 

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly).

Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.

/mnl