Background

BACKGROUND

Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian and development crisis of immense proportions. The sudden suspension of international aid (which contributed nearly 40% of the GDP), combined with disaster impacts such as the coronavirus pandemic), earthquakes, and floods, have further devastated the country. This has had a severe impact on peoples’ lives and livelihoods. The UNDP estimates that GDP could fall by 20% within a year and with the currency depreciation, the ensuing inflation, the banking crisis, and a significant fall in aggregate demand, could result in almost universal poverty.  

In the absence of an internationally recognized government, the Strategic Thematic Working Groups (STWGs), established under UNAMA (UNRC Office) are a core component supporting the operationalization of the New Aid Architecture for Afghanistan. They bring together relevant stakeholders to improve the quality and coherence of policy dialogue and funding and/or strategic priorities in respective sectors with a focus on basic human needs. These are based on priorities identified in the strategic framework of the UN and its partners in Afghanistan. The Agricultural and Livelihoods Strategic Thematic Working Group (AL-STWG) is co-led by ADB, FAO and FCDO.

The AL-STWG includes bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental organizations to provide financial and technical support to foster coordination across the agricultural and livelihoods sector in Afghanistan to avoid duplication of interventions and ensure synergies, and to identify sectoral priorities with the best potential to support vulnerable Afghans living in hunger. The work of the AL-STWG is based on human values including, trust, transparency, accountability, and mutual respect of differences regarding policy and support modalities.

It is effectively replacing all existing donor working groups in the Agricultural and Livelihoods sector pertaining to basic human needs and will coordinate closely with the Humanitarian cluster on Food Security & Agriculture (FSAC). It will serve as the key strategic collaboration platform on all respective assistance in the agricultural and livelihoods sector. It will be aligned with the strategic framework of the UN and its partners in Afghanistan.

Payment Modality:

Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance, and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed delivered upon clearance of RCO and approval of the NFM Project Manager.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Institutional Arrangements:

The international consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Senior Deputy Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Afghanistan, close coordination with the Head of RC Office, Co-Chairs of AL-STWG and direct supervision of the NFM Project Manager.

Duration of the Work:

The expected duration of the work is up to 120 working days up to 31 December 2023.

Duty Station

The consultancy will be in Kabul & Home – based with four mission (10 days each) to the duty station.

• This is a mixed assignment home-based and in-country (Kabul, Afghanistan).
• Part of this assignment required the individual to travel to Kabul, Afghanistan (4 visits, 10 days each).
• Any change to the preliminary travel plan/schedule above, in such cases, UNDP will cover travel costs in accordance with corporate regulations and rules.
• If unforeseen travel outside the consultant defined city or home-based is being requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. In such cases, the consultant shall receive living allowances not exceeding the United Nations (UN) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rate for such other location(s).

Note: A written approval from UNDP and relevant authorities will be required to facilitate the consultant's travel to other locations than Kabul on official missions where necessary.

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The individual consultant shall submit a price proposal as below:

• Daily Fee. The consultant shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication cost, insurance (inclusive of medical health and medical evacuation), The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract 120 working days.
• DSA/Living Allowance - The consultant shall be separately paid the DSA as per applicable UNDP rate, if required. The consultant need not quote for DSA in Financial Proposal. The consultant is expected to conduct 4 visits to Afghanistan each visit for 10 days.
• Travel and Visa. The consultant shall include lumpsum cost of travel and visa expenses for Kabul, within the Financial Proposal. The consultant is expected to conduct 4 visits to Afghanistan each visit for 10 days.
• Payment. The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the below-mentioned schedule of payment.

Payment shall be made as a deliverables-based lump sum payment, to be paid in the following instalments. The schedule of payment will be distributed upon satisfactory submission of the deliverables listed in the table hereunder:

For each payment the quarterly report shall be cleared by head of RCO and certification of payment including the quarterly report shall be approved by the NFM project Manager.

EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA

1. Evaluation Method and Criteria:

The individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• 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.

* Technical Criteria weight 60%

* Financial Criteria weight 40%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial

Financial Evaluation (40%):

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

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications merged into one single PDF document:

1. Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II).
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

Objective of the assignment

An International Agriculture and Livelihoods Coordination Specialist will be engaged to facilitate the AL-STWG in its activities, coordination with STWG members and to support delivery on the group’s key functions. The incumbent will support the co-Chairs and the Office of UN Resident Coordinator in coordination of AL-STWG activities. He/She will ensure an effective and efficient coordination and cooperation between UN – RC office and various stakeholders of the agriculture and livelihoods sector in Afghanistan. The international specialist will contribute to the strengthening of coordination and cooperation mechanism across members of the STWG to ensure smooth implementation of agriculture and food security interventions in the country and increased synergies and cohesion in future programmes.  The incumbent will perform the following tasks:

Key Tasks: (indicative)

• Plan and facilitate an effective and efficient coordination and cooperation mechanism among relevant Afghanistan Coordination Group (ACG) and other stakeholders of AL-STWG).
• Provide substantive support for strategic planning and coordination of respective STWG; including inputs for briefing papers and discussion points for senior managers on issues related to the STWG.
• Plan and facilitate the design, formulation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of joint programmes and programming processes for use in joint resource mobilization for respective STWG.
• Effectively contribute to review of agricultural and livelihoods sector performance including bottlenecks to support policy dialogue, advocacy, operational and sector planning with a focus on strengthening the agricultural and livelihoods sector coordination structure.
• Support reviewing of management of financial assistance to the agricultural and livelihoods sector and prepare a stakeholder map indicating support areas of each agency, its initiatives, and level of funding support to ensure synergies across development partners.
• Facilitate agricultural and livelihoods partners’ alignment with priorities as identified in the UN strategic framework, foster coordination across the agricultural and livelihoods sector to avoid duplication of interventions and ensure synergies.
• Support provision of in-country advocacy in support of agreed international development goals in the agricultural and livelihoods sector that enables alignment with SDGs specific to the agricultural and livelihoods sector.
• Support coordination of regular joint reviews of the agricultural and livelihoods sector as informed by the strategic framework, sectoral plans, and targets.
• Make recommendations for the strengthening and enhancement of the agricultural and livelihoods sector and present them to the STWG.
• Undertake sector specific assessments as recommended by the AL-STWG to contribute to increased knowledge, data, or analysis on specific areas.
• Support the bridging of humanitarian and basic human needs efforts, through ensuring representation from Food Security and Agriculture cluster of humanitarian coordination structure at the AL-STWG and supporting information-sharing between clusters and this STWG.
• Provide strategic sectoral inputs to assessment, planning and reporting processes of the UN and its partners.
• Plan and facilitate the development, maintenance and sharing of knowledge, lessons learned and policy recommendations relevant to the STWG and ensures information-sharing and collaboration across all STWGs.
• Support definition of sectoral Theory of Change, two-year work plan and set of 3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and 5-7 proxy KPIs for well-coordinated progress in agricultural and livelihoods sector.
• Develop a repository of existing knowledge and data which has already been prepared by various development partners which can be used as a basis for future development interventions and strategic support.
• Support AL-STWG meeting coordination, cross information sharing across other STWGs and preparing for meetings, coordinating schedules, developing agendas, and preparing meeting minutes.

Taking on other relevant responsibilities required by the Office of Resident Coordinator and/or AL-STWG co-chairs

Competencies

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS:

The Individual Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Proprietary interests on all materials and documents prepared by the consultants under the assignment shall become and remain properties of the concerned Bureaus and UNDP.

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan. UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Core competencies:

• Builds staff competence and creates an environment of creativity and innovation.
• Builds and promotes effective teams.
• Creates and promotes environment for open communications.
• Leverages conflict in the interest of UNDP and sets standards.
• Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:

The international consultant should have:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent degree) in business or public administration, information management, statistics, sustainable development, social sciences, agriculture, or related area.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Required experience:

The international Thematic consultant should have:

• At least 5 years relevant professional experience in coordination of development and humanitarian programmes, preferably in agriculture and livelihoods.
• Knowledge of Afghanistan agriculture sector at the national and sub – national levels desirable. 
• Knowledge and experience working in Afghanistan an added advantage, as well as experience in fragile and conflict country contexts.
• Proven experience in coordination of development and/or humanitarian programmes with different stakeholders, preferably in the agriculture sector.
• Strong knowledge of coordination, communication, analysis, and reporting, preferably in the agriculture sector.
• Knowledge and experience with UN or UN administered Programmes is desirable.

Language:

Excellent written and verbal English skills is a necessary requirement.