UNDP is a global development organization present in over 135 countries and with over 21,000 personnel, recruited both internationally and locally.  UNDP’s mission is to works with countries to expand people’s choices for a fairer, sustainable future, to build the world envisioned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with planet and people in balance.

The recently launched UNDP Strategic Plan, 2022-2025 envisions bold goals, making a difference to millions of lives, through its six signature solutions in the areas of poverty and inequality, governance, resilience, environment, energy and gender equality. Powerful enablers – strategic innovation, digitalization and development finance – are expected to accelerate and scale up results.

The right capabilities, at both organisational and individual level, are essential for UNDP to succeed. This is explicitly captured in the Strategic Plan which commits UNDP to building, through its “People for 2030” Strategy, “the skills and competencies to respond to development challenges of the future. Through attracting new talent and continually building the capabilities of its personnel through targeted learning and development, it will have strengthened its capacity to deliver, with skills in portfolio and risk management, strategic foresight, systems thinking, finance, digital literacy and data management, as well as “frontier” skills such as artificial intelligence and others that may not even be on the development radar yet. Where country priorities call for specialized expertise beyond country office skillsets, for example niche areas of energy or finance, these will be readily accessible.”

Making sure that the required capabilities exist in UNDP requires both a clear understanding of the required and available competencies, skills, knowledge and experiences, as well as ensuring that these are readily available and accessible across the organisation. In this context, strategic workforce planning and management are at the core of UNDP’s integrated people strategy - People for 2030 - launched in 2019.

Phase 2 of People for 2030 aims to implement the strategic HR and talent management framework which has been put in place in order to ensure that UNDP has access to the required capacities and deploys them in an effective manner. This will be achieved by implementing the new, integrated talent management system, accompanied by the development of specific People Plans for Bureaus/Offices, and UNDP as a whole, supported by the strategic HR business partnering and people analytics functions.    People Plans will focus on identifying the people implications of business strategies, including strategic workforce planning, in terms of numbers and capabilities, facilitate setting of people goals and KRIs, etc.

Currently, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) in UNDP’s Bureau for Management Services (BMS) has no methodology, process, guidelines or templates for the development of the People Plans. Therefore, OHR/BMS is seeking expertise to address this gap.

The Consultant will be accountable for the delivery of the following outputs:

Output 1. A methodological note, a process and templates for the development of the business-unit specific People Plans. Development of one Bureau-specific People Plan applying this methodology, which will be used as an example by other Bureaus.

Output 2. A UNDP People Plan, aligned with the UNDP Strategic Plan and People for 2030

The People Plan should answer, as a minimum, these questions:

• What are the key talent needs of the organization, based on the analysis of the business strategy, i.e., UNDP Strategic Plan, 2022-2025, a new Competency Framework, as well as key strategic documents, commitments, plans, requests for internal advisory support? Are there any skills/competencies/profiles that are no longer needed? 
• Based on the confirmation of the key needs, the results of the most recent capacity mapping, and projected attrition due to retirements, what are the main capacity gaps?
• How would UNDP fill the current and immediate future gaps? Which ones can be met through internal personnel development? Which ones should be filled through external recruitments? Can gaps in parts of the organization be met via reorganizing the way expertise available elsewhere is accessed and deployed (internal consultancy model)? 
• How do the elements of the People Plan line up with UNDP’s strategic objectives? How the outcome of each People Plan element serves a corresponding component of the business strategy, i.e., which critical objectives of the business are satisfied by which of the new skills targeted to be developed or acquired?

The consultancy is to be managed and directed by OHR/BMS and implemented in close consultation with relevant stakeholders across UNDP.

Corporate

• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Technical / Functional

• Expertise in Human Resource Management, including in interagency settings.
• Proven expertise in strategic workforce planning and management
• Ability to develop actional Standard Operating Procedures and Templates for HR Processes
• Excellent Presentation and Writing Skills.

Academic qualifications:

• At least a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Management, or another related discipline is required.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in Human Resource Management, including strategic workforce planning and management is required
• Experience in similar roles within the UN System, or with other multilateral organizations, is desirable
• Experience in designing people strategies/workforce plans aligned with business objectives is required
• Experience in the development of policies, SOPs and guidance in HR management is an asset

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
• A technical proposal/methodology explaining an initial outline detailing what they believe the People Plan process will be in UNDP, how the consultant will go about their work, the support they will require from BMS/ OHR and any comments that they may have on these Terms of Reference. Maximum number of pages is 5. Please note applications without this document will not be reviewed/accepted.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around the specific and measurable deliverables of the TOR. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR, and deliverables accepted and certified by the technical manager. 
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; (excluding mission travel); living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
• This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel. 

• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
• If the 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 a 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 Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being 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 where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

• Criteria 1: Evaluation of the technical proposal. Maximum of 10 points.
• Criteria 2: Proven expertise in strategic workforce planning and management. Maximum of 10 points.
• Criteria 3:  General human resource management experience. Maximum of 10 points.
• Criteria 4:  Work experience in a global institution similar to UNDP. Maximum of 5 points.
• Criteria 5: 10 years of experience in Human Resource Management, including strategic workforce planning and management. Maximum of 10 points.

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top three technically qualified candidates for interview.

• Criteria 5: Interview. Maximum Points: 25 points.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

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

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of OHR Deputy Directors and in coordination with the Project Team Coordinator.

Payment modality

• Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified above and deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager. 
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs
• Annex 2 - IC Contract Template
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.