Background

1. In April 2018, the Executive Committee established by the Secretary-General highlighted the urgent need for the United Nations system to improve its performance with regard to disability inclusion in the context of supporting Member States to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, leave no one behind and reach the furthest behind first in all United Nations pillars.

2. In this regard, through its decision 2018/20, the Executive Committee outlined the following tasks:

(a) The Executive Office of the Secretary-General should coordinate an institutional review of the United Nations system’s current approach to mainstreaming disability into the Organization’s operations;

(b) Building on existing work and the above-mentioned review, the sub working group of the Inter- Agency Support Group on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management should develop a policy, action plan and accountability framework to strengthen system-wide accessibility and the mainstreaming of the rights of persons with disabilities across the Organization’s operations.

3. Under the leadership of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the institutional review was con­ducted in July 2018 with the support of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. The key findings, which were considered fully when developing the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, included the following:

(a) The United Nations system evidences good practices in mainstreaming disability inclusion, which demonstrates that the system has the capacity to improve its performance; however, the good prac­tices are not systematic;

(b) Gaps clearly exist in mainstreaming disability inclusion into all pillars of the United Nations system at all levels, demonstrating a lack of coherent and comprehensive approaches;

(c) While several United Nations entities have relevant and specific responsibilities for mainstreaming disability inclusion, no single entity has the dedicated capacity and authority to actively coordinate, support and track progress.

4. At the meeting of the Senior Management Group of the Secretary-General of 6 December 2018, the outcomes of the institutional review were considered, and it was concluded that there was wide consensus on:

(a) the need of the United Nations pillars to mainstream disability inclusion into everything that they do; and

(b) the need to thoroughly address the review’s findings through the system-wide approach to the policy, action plan and accountability framework.

5. The Secretary-General requested the United Nations Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, jointly with the High-level Committee on Management, to look into the internal tools needed to mainstream the recommendations resulting from the review.

6. The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy will play a key role in enabling the United Nations system to support Member States in their achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Agenda for Humanity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, among other international human rights instruments, as well as development and humanitarian commitments. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Disabilities Consultant, under the direction of the Resident Coordinator (RC), and with the support of the Resident Coordinator Office (RCO), will review the work of United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Samoa in relation to the UN’s Accountability Scorecard on Disability Inclusion. The consultant will assess and report on evidence of implementation of the UN disability policies, mainstreaming of disability inclusion policies and practices, and advise on disability policies in support of the drafting of a new Development Cooperation framework for the Pacific. The consultant will also review the current UNCT joint programmes for their alignment with the CRPD provisions.

Deliverables:

1. Completion of the UNCT Accountability for Disability Inclusion Scorecard
2. Upload of the scorecard and supporting evidence into the UN Information Management System database (with support from the RCO)
3. Provision of policy advise for the development of the Pacific Cooperation Framework through participation in relevant discussions and presentation of requested briefings
4. Presentation of a review of the UNCT joint programmes alignment with the CRPD

Institutional Arrangement

This IC will be directly supervised by the RC with the support of the Head of Office

RCO will provide a workspace with reliable Internet connection, for this assignment during the consultant’s work required in the office. Additional IT resources may be made available in consultation with the RCO to meet the deliverables.

The payment will be made upon satisfactory completion of deliverables as per the payment schedule. 

Duration of the Work

The expected start date of work is 21 March 2022 and will conclude on 31 June 2022. (27 days in total)

?Duty Station

Apia, Samoa

Competencies

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and communication skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Comprehensiveness knowledge of UN disability policies
• Proficiency in the use of relevant office IT applications;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays sensitive to all elements of the UN’s inclusivity agenda

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications and experience:

• Direct experience of disability and providing support to persons with disability
• Experience in working with a combination of public, private sector and civil society organizations and platforms
• Experience working on the development of policies for disability inclusion
• Familiarity with UN development planning processes

Language requirements

• Fluency of English and Samoan languages is required;

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The consultant will be paid in 4 equal instalments of upon acceptance by the RCO of the 4 deliverables outlined in the following schedule:

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 using the template provided.
• Personal CV/P11 using the template provided, indicating all experience, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Annexes

• Annex (I, II, III, VI) – Template for completion of proposal
• Annex IV – UNDP General Terms & Conditions
• Annex V – UNDP General Terms for RLAs
• Annex VII - UNITED NATIONS DISABILITY INCLUSION STRATEGY

Evaluation Criteria:

Only those applications that are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 

• Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%. 
• The technical criteria (experience and, language) will be based on a maximum 70 points. Only candidates that have achieved a minimum of 49 points from the review of experience and language will be deemed technically compliant and considered for financial evaluation. 
• Financial score (max 30 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified. 
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive lump sum fee. To assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, a detailed cost breakdown must be provided in the format of the Financial Proposal Template. (Including all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment).  
• Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract. 

Technical Evaluation Criteria (based on the information provided in the CV and the relevant documents must be submitted as evidence to support possession of below required criteria:  

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to ryank@un.org

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Please download the full Terms of Reference from the UNDP Procurement site link https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=88433 AND the templates for the submission of your proposal [mandatory].