On 1 January 2021, UNDP launched its new Digital, Inclusive, Accessible: Support to Digitalisation of State Services in Ukraine (DIA Support) Project. The project is made possible due to the support of the Government of Sweden and is carried out in close collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDT) and other government stakeholders. 

At the global level, the digitalisation of customer-oriented services and the development of mobile technologies that involve citizens in creating new solutions while leaving no one behind meet several Sustainable Development Goals at once. The creation of digital services – particularly mobile-based – contributes to an improvement in the quality of public administration and a reduction in corruption.

This, in turn, promotes the development of effective, accountable and inclusive public institutions capable of responding to the needs of women and men belonging to different groups, in line with Goal 16 to ‘Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.’ Another aspect related to creating more accessible and inclusive electronic or mobile services is in line with Goal 4 to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.’

Digitalisation in certain aspects may also have an impact on SDG 5 of Gender Equality, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, as currently they seem underrepresented among both groups – developers and final beneficiaries of digital services. Throughout the DIA Support Project, UNDP promotes ideas of gender-sensitive and accessible IT and services and the transformation of policies to reflect those priorities. While the project is not explicitly designed to target gender equality, the selection of target groups for the digitalised services includes gender considerations.

UNDP assumes that a more inclusive and gender-responsive approach to the design and implementation of the digitalisation policy is needed to meet the expectations of women and men-clients from different groups. It foresees extensive target group consultations at all stages of the policy cycle, including the design of the ‘look and feel’ of an electronic service or the way that the user story in “Diia” feels.

To fulfil a comprehensive approach, gender considerations should also be addressed through cooperation with the project’s key partners and stakeholders, not only beneficiaries. Beyond direct strategic objectives, the DIA Support project is aimed to empower women working in the field of digitalisation policy design and reengineering of public services. Moreover, UNDP strives to make their inputs in the digital transformation reforms more visible and influential. To illustrate the concern, as of the end of 2021, the list of members of the Chief Digital Transformation Officers (CDTOs) network at the government level (and these are mainly deputy ministers and heads of departments relevant to digitalisation policy implementation) included only 2 women out of 18 representatives in total. Although women are often engaged in building the legislative framework, PR and communications activities related to digitalisation, they rarely act as public speakers or pretend for top positions, and thus, their contribution might be underestimated. 

Through the DIA Support Project, UNDP aims to strengthen the soft and hard skills of women innovators working at governmental institutions and contributing to the digital transformation process at the professional level. To achieve the objective, UNDP is cooperating with MDT to conduct a short-term Leadership Programme with a wide range of educational activities and events to empower women’s capacities in the field and establish a network of women governors to share the experience and facilitate reforms in the e-governance area. The Leadership Programme will also enhance the capacities of the selected participants in strategic planning, participatory policy cycle, HRBA and gender mainstreaming for public policy, and policy impact analysis.  

As the first step on this path, UNDP is looking for a highly qualified Consultant, a training expert with in-depth knowledge of gender strategy analysis, to design the Leadership Programme for women who work in the central bodies of power and deal with digital transformation and development, selected on a competitive basis. 

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of the assignment is to provide support to UNDP in designing and conducting the Leadership Programme for women involved in digital transformation as civil servants at the national level. The Consultant will be responsible for the Programme’s technical arrangements, recruiting trainers and speakers, daily communication with participants and delivering other activities related to the proper Programme implementation. The Consultant will be engaged in the development of the Programme’s quality assurance and learning evaluation tools to ensure that sufficient knowledge and skills are obtained by the Programme participants.

3. DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK

The Consultant will work in close cooperation with MDT and DIA Support Project teams and he/she will be tasked with producing the following deliverables:

1. Finalize the Programme’s concept note, including a list of  themes to be covered, and sequence and depth of the Programme modules.
2. Design the Programme curriculum with all the objectives of the initiative to be properly considered. Schedule the implementation plan, and advise the mentors and trainers to be involved. Prepare all the required technical materials for the Leadership Programme announcement including content for a separate landing page for the Programme, if it is decided to create such a page.
3. Coordinate the conduction of the Programme in accordance with the approved implementation plan and lead communication and interaction activities with the participants.  
4. Assist the project team in conducting at least two interviews with the Programme graduators to popularize the outcomes of the Programme and strengthen the role models of women as e-governance professionals.  
5. Design learning evaluation and the feedback collection toolkits, based on the examples of feedback questionnaires provided by UNDP.  
6. Contribute to arrangements for the Programme’s closing ceremony, namely – design the ceremony’s agenda, invite the participants and guest speakers.  
7. Provide support to UNDP in the Programme’s qulity assessment through development of a brief narrative report on key achievements and lessons learnt in terms of the Leadership Programme implementation.  

While the ultimate configuration of the Leadership Programme is to be discussed and agreed upon by all relevant stakeholders, the approximate contents and thematic blocks could be summarized as follows:

• Digital transformations in public administration;
• Inclusive and comprehensive digitalization policy design, with a human rights-based approach (HRBA) in the spotlight;
• ICT development in practice: project management, product ownership, business analysis, etc.
• Soft skills in front of digital challenges: interpersonal competence, enhancement of communications, negotiations, decision making, etc;
• Leadership and teambuilding skills through various interactive activities.

It is stipulated by the Programme concept that the participants will also gain first-hand knowledge from the national and foreign experts/practitioners, and such formats as a case study, good practices analysis, and a study tour (if there will be no restrictions) should be incorporated into the Programme design.

The duration of all the Programme stages, the total number of the participants and other technical details will be deliberated and clarified during the kick-off meeting between the Consultant, UNDP, MDT and other stakeholders. However, it is estimated that only one group of women, suitable for an offline/online classroom format, will be selected for this pilot initiative, and the total duration of the Programme will not exceed three months.

4. Measurable outputs of the work assignment/deliverables

Deliverables expected under the contract should be achieved in accordance with the following schedule:

5. Management arrangements

The Consultant will be primarily responsible for achieving the objectives of the assignment. The Consultant will report to the Diia Support Project Manager and will work closely with Diia Support Project Digitalisation Policy Specialist and the MDT and other stakeholders, e.g. executive government bodies, international technical assistance projects’ representatives.

The Consultant will be responsible for all personal administrative expenses associated with the assignment. In case any public events are planned jointly by the Consultant and UNDP as part of the present assignment, the Consultant will not be responsible for the logistics of events, but might be asked to contribute to the preparation of technical requests. UNDP will cover the conference costs (including possible printing, food, accommodation and etc.) on its own. Also, the Consultant’s area of responsibility will not include hiring personnel for delivering educational activities within the Leadership Programme.

6. monitoring requirements / Terms of payment

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and will work closely with DIA Support Digitalisation Specialist. The Consultant will interact with UNDP and MDT to receive any clarifications and guidance that may be needed. The Consultant will duly inform UNDP of any problems, issues or delays arising during the implementation of the assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

UNDP will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the Consultant’s work. The satisfactory completion of each of the deliverables shall be subject to the endorsement of the DIA Support Project Manager. Each deliverable will be submitted in a draft for comments and feedback before finalisation. No reports or documents should be published or distributed to third parties without the approval of UNDP.

All reports and results are to be submitted to the UNDP in electronic form (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, and *.pdf or other formats accepted by UNDP). The language of the materials and reports is Ukrainian.

UNDP will provide payment upon provision of each deliverable duly certified by UNDP in accordance with the schedule below:

Deliverable 1.  20%

Deliverable 2.   20%

Deliverable 3.   40%

Deliverable 4.   20%

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

8. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

• Advanced university degree (Specialist) or equivalent in Social Sciences, Public Administration, Management, PR, Communications, Public Administration or related field;
• Proven practical experience – at least three examples – developing adult learning materials and training programmes (university courses, interactive online courses, training courses for civil servants or other similar activities) related to public administration, digital transformation or similar fields;
• Proven experience in event management – at least three examples of coordinated trainings/ conferences/ study tours;
• Experience in leading women-centred projects is considered a strong asset;
• Experience of cooperation with international technical assistance projects is an asset;
• Native-level knowledge of Ukrainian is required. At least working-level knowledge of English.

9. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

10. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

 Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (please, refer to Section 4 Measurable outputs of the work assignment/deliverables). 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 Cost by Components.

Travel

All travel arrangements will be handled by UNDP if such travel is deemed necessary. Consultations regarding travel options will be held with the Consultant prior to planning of the trips and relevant logistics.

11. EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Educational background – 8 pts max

• 8 pts – PhD degree or similar in social sciences, IT sciences, Public Administration, Management, PR, Communications, Public Administration or related field;
• 6 pts –  Advanced university degree (Specialist) or equivalent in social sciences, , IT sciences, Public Administration, Management, PR, Communications, Public Administration or related field.

• Practical experience in developing adult learning materials (university courses, interactive online courses, training courses for civil servants or other similar activities) related to public administration, digital transformation or similar fields – 25 pts max

• 25 pts – 7+ examples of courses developed;
• 24 pts – between 6 and 4 examples of courses developed;
• 23 pts – at least 3 examples of courses developed.

• Proven experience in event management – 26 pts max

• 26 pts – coordinated 7+ trainings/ conferences/ study tours;
• 22 pts – coordinated 4-6 trainings/ conferences/ study tours;
• 17 pts – coordinated 3 trainings/ conferences/ study tours.

• Proved experience in leading women-centred projects –  5 pts max

• 5 pts – proven experience in leading women-centred projects;
• 0 pts – no experience in leading women-centred projects.

• Proved experience of cooperation with international technical assistance projects –
  3 pts max

• 3 pts – provided examples and detailed information on cooperation with international technical assistance projects;
• 0 pts – no experience with international technical assistance projects.

• Language Skills – 3 pts max

• 3 pts – Native-level knowledge of Ukrainian. At least working-level knowledge of English.

Maximum available technical score – 70 points

Evaluation method:

 Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will be equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.