UNDP Jobs - 107106- Project Support Consultant

Project Support Consultant

Location :

Tbilisi, GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

21-Jun-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Up to 144 consultancy days during 1 July 2022 – 20 May 2023

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

In December 2020, the Government of Georgia officially published the Government Program for years 2021-2024, titled “For Building the European State” for the newly elected Parliament’s approval, which has been revised in February 2021, immediately upon appointment of the new Prime Minister. Chapter 4 of this program, titled “Public Administration” stipulates, “Professional, conscientious, functional public administration system will form the basis for effective implementation of the government… Continued reform of Public Administration and enhancing cooperation with international partners in this area remains a priority for this Government.” Further, the chapter outlines the priorities of policy planning and coordination, continued reform of civil service, promotion of transparency and accountability, de-concentration and decentralization, development of service delivery and e-governance, and enhancement of cyber-security as key priority areas. The program states, that these priorities will be further expanded upon in the new Public Administration Reform Strategy development of which is currently underway.

In 2016 UNDP Georgia rolled out the multi-year project “Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia” (PAR Project), funded by the UK Government. The project addressed a complementary, but distinct, set of specific, predetermined needs in three crucial areas of the ongoing Public Administration Reform (PAR) - Policy Development and Cooperation; Civil Service and Human Resource Management, and Service Delivery, as stipulated by the PAR Reform Roadmap 2020.

The PAR Project helped Georgia make significant transformations in the way civil service is structured and opened the way for the meaningful transformation in how it works.

UNDP PAR completed in March 2021 and the new phase of the project was initiated in May 2021. The ‘Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia - Phase 2’ (herein after referred as PAR-2), funded by the UK Government, builds on successes and lessons learned during the previous iteration of the UNDP’s ‘Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia’ project and transforms its focus to supporting already achieved institutional changes, prioritizing the effective, transparent and participatory operation of the policy cycle through a set of targeted interventions and reinforcing Gender and Social Inclusion perspectives in the planned activities.

UNDP’s PAR-2 project will continue addressing needs in three crucial areas – 1) Policy Planning and Coordination; 2) Civil Service and Human Resource Management and 3) Public Service Delivery, while the measures will be taken to synchronize the interventions with the new PAR strategy. Compared to its previous iteration, the project will be more focused on creating effective processes that give real-life, operational meaning to the new laws and rules.

Stronger emphasis will be made on equipping the target state agencies and implementing partners with the capabilities to apply gender lens and align their practices to GESI objectives across the PAR pillars identified above. The elements of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion will be streamlined under each of the project target areas.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of the consultancy work of the Project Support Consultant is to provide a combination of organizational, technical and content-related support to the multi-year initiative, ”Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia”.

Under the direct supervision of the PAR-2 project Manager the Project Support Consultant will assume the following duties and responsibilities:

Participate in the planning and organization of the events organized as part of the PAR-2 project throughout the year2022 and the first two quarters of the year 2023;
Provide logistical, linguistic and content-based support of meetings, workshops, seminars and trainings conducted as part of projects especially under the output 2 – Human resource Management and Civil Service Reform; develop relevant meeting notes and minutes;
Support in drafting Terms of References (ToRs), on demand;
Coordinate with the representatives of the Project’s partner/grantee SCOs for timely and regular submission of progress reports and final deliverables;
Provide translation of documents (English-Georgian, Georgian-English) in support of the PAR-2 project activities;
Prepare reports on the initiatives undertaken as part of the various project interventions, with a focus on analyzing the impact and outcome of these interventions, on demand;
Participate in the publication/communication activities of the project, in close collaboration with project staff.

Deliverables and payment modality:

20% of the consultancy fee - 18 July 2022

Provide logistical, linguistic and content-based support of meetings, workshops, seminars and trainings, conducted as part of projects especially under the output 2 – Human resource Management and Civil Service Reform; develop relevant meeting notes and minutes;

15% of the consultancy fee - 20 September 2022

At least three CSO research initiatives monitored and coordinated;

20% of the consultancy fee - 20 December 2022

At least 40 pages of relevant documents translated (English-Georgian, Georgian-English) in support of the PAR-2 project activities;

15% of the consultancy fee - 10 January 2023

Reports prepared on the initiatives undertaken as part of the various project interventions, with a focus on analyzing the impact and outcome of these interventions, on demand;

15% of the consultancy fee - 10 March 2023

Public awareness/communication activities of the project coordinated, in close collaboration with the project staff and UNDP communications unit.

15% of the consultancy fee - 10 May 2023

At least five events (online and physical) planned, organized and facilitated as a part of the PAR-2 project throughout 2022 and the first two quarters of 2023. This will include: preparation of agendas, lists of participants, invitation letters, event materials, translation/provision of presentations/written material, provision of technical support, preparation of meeting minutes, development of communication and public awareness materials.

Competencies

Organizational Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Strong analytical and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality knowledge products;

Project and Resource Management

Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner;
Strong organizational skills;
Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs;
Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Partnership building and team work

Excellent networking skills;
Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.

Communications and Advocacy

Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly;
Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;
Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly;
Strong inter-personal and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

At least Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Education, Social Science, Public Administration/Policy, International Relations or related field (minimum requirement) - 15 Points;

Experience:

At least two years of proven administrative and/or program assistance experience (including but not limited to logistical, linguistic and content-related support), preferably in an international organization and multicultural setting (minimum requirement); - 2 years – 7 Points , More than 2 years – additional 3 Points;
Demonstrated interest and experience in the field of development assistance, governance reform and related areas (minimum reequipment) - 6 Points;
Experience in research/analysis of the PAR related topics, especially in the area of Policy Planning, Human Resource Management and Public Service Delivery will be considered an asset - 3 Points;
Experience of coordinating communication and advocacy activities on issues of public administration and policy reform will be considered an asset - 2 Points;
Experience in coordinating a research project in partnership with CSOs or academia will be considered an asset - 2 Points;
Experience with providing both - written and verbal translation in PAR related areas - 2 Points;

Language requirements:

Fluency in Georgian and English (both written and oral) languages.

Evaluation :

Offerors will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria provided in the below table. Technical criteria consist of a desk review and an interview. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 points (70%) and for financial criteria 30 (30%). Technical criteria compose of desk review (40 points) and interview (30 points). Offerors not meeting any of minimum technical qualification requirements will be automatically excluded from the list of candidates for further technical evaluation. Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. Offerors obtaining minimum 28 points as a result of the desk review will be short listed and invited for an interview. Offerors obtaining minimum of 21 points (70%) as a result of the interview (i.e. minimum of 49 points in the technical criteria) will be considered qualified and requested to provide financial proposal for the assignment.

Financial Proposal:

Lump sum contracts The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount.