Background

UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (ROSEAP) focuses on crime and drug challenges that are best addressed through a coordinated approach at the regional level. The Regional Programme is focused on five independent areas of work: Countering Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking; Anti-Corruption; Terrorism Prevention; Criminal Justice; Drugs and health (Drugs and HIV), and alternative development. Under the drugs and health sub-programme, UNODC addresses Substance/Drug Use Disorders (S/DUDs) as a public health, developmental and security problem both in industrialized and developing countries.

Through its regional programme on drugs and health, UNODC supports Member States in the region, including Malaysia, in strengthening their efforts in provision of comprehensive evidence-based services on prevention, treatment, and care of drug use disorders as well as HIV and hepatitis services for the populations affected by drug use. Generating strategic information and scientific evidence is an integral part of its overarching support in addressing drug problems, globally and in the region.

According to the World Drug Report (2021), it is estimated that 20 million people used cocaine in 2019, corresponding to 0.4 per cent of the global population aged 15-64. Although cocaine use has never been officially reported in Malaysia, an informal assessment conducted by the researchers at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, suggested that cocaine is used in the high-end entertainment setting and is being sold at a high price in the country. This is supported by the information on the seizure of 4.87 Kg of cocaine in Malaysia, in September 2021. As early detection and understanding of cocaine use in the region would be useful for informing the decision makers in developing relevant and appropriate demand and supply reduction programmes and interventions, it is necessary to have a proper understanding of the situation on the use of cocaine in Malaysia.

Objectives of the Assignment

Under the supervision of the Regional Drugs and Health Programme Officer, based in UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, the incumbent will be responsible for designing the study, preparing the tools, obtaining the necessary approval and clearance for conducting the study and leading the study in the selected locations of Malaysia.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

PROVISION OF MONITORING AND PROGRESS CONTROLS

Under the overall supervision of the UNODC Regional Drugs and Health Programme Officer, the incumbent will:

1. Propose allocation of consultancy days for each of the deliverables in the form of a summary workplan; and
2. Have regular communication and discussions with UNODC's Drugs and Health Programme Officer to review the progress of the work

Only once the following performance indicators have been approved, will the final products be signed off on: Technical competence.

• Quality of the documents produced, Timeliness of delivery.
• Flexibility to respond to changing project requirements

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All information and production of the knowledge product to the assignments, as well as, outputs produced under this contract shall remain the property of the UNDP/UNODC who shall have exclusive rights over their use. The products shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever format without written permission of UNDP/UNODC in line with the national and International Copyright Laws applicable.

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables. The financial proposal should include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including all related costs such as travel costs, per diem etc.)

Payments are subject to the submission of deliverables duly approved by UNODC and UNDP Malaysia which shall serve as the basis for the payment of services.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Demonstrates diplomacy and tact in dealing with sensitive and complex situations;
• Strong communication, team building, interpersonal, analysis, and planning skills.

Professionalism

• Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of the subject matter;
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate and apply good judgment;
• Shows pride in work and in achievements;
• Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines, and achieving results.

Planning & Organizing

• Organizes and accurately completes multiple tasks by establishing priorities while taking into consideration special assignments, frequent interruptions, deadlines, available resources, and multiple reporting relationships;
• Plans, coordinates, and organizes workload while remaining aware of changing priorities and competing deadlines;
• Establishes, builds, and maintains effective working relationships with partners and beneficiaries to achieve the planned results.

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

The consultant should ideally have the following expertise and experience:

• A minimum master’s degree from a university or institution in Health, Public Health, Social Sciences, or other associated fields is required.
• At least 7 years of experiences in the field of research preferably in drug use and health related topics is required.
• Proven ability to provide technical support on conducting and leading quantitative and qualitative studies in the field of health and social science is required.
• Previous experience working in the drugs and health related areas and understanding the context of health and drug use in Malaysia will be a great access.
• Ability to work independently.
• Excellent English and Malay both oral and written are required.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Document 1: Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability 
2. Document 2: Technical Proposal:

   (i) Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work

   (ii) Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work (if applicable) 

3. Document 3: Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per the payment breakdown above.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution and expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under the 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. The consultant should also indicate any travel and related costs, e.g., meetings, etc.
4. Document 4: 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  
5. Please submit this information in one file as Document 1, 2, 3, and 4. The system will only accept ONE (1) attachment, please merge all documents and submit them as one file.
6. Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
7. Candidates who fail to submit all the information requested above will be disqualified.

How to Apply:

• Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template, and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
• Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions (refer to below link);
• Click the ‘apply’ icon and complete what is required;
• Scan all documents into 1 (One) pdf folder and then upload;
• For clarification questions, please email procurement.my@undp.org. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put "MyIC/2022/014" as the subject matter.

General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

• The General Terms & Conditions for Individual contract 

Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNDP and a Company/institution, according to which, the latter makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments

• The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement  

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Only short-listed candidates may be contacted, and successful candidates will be notified.

EVALUATION AND AWARD OF CONTRACT

• Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be shortlisted for technical evaluation;
• 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 including education, experience, and written test will be based on a maximum of 70 points. Only the top 3 candidates scoring 49 points or higher from the review of the education and experience will be 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 fee and include breakdown per deliverable and all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, in-country travel costs, living allowance, and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the Specialist in completing the assignment.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including the number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
• An applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.