Over the last four decades, Saudi Arabia has achieved and sustained remarkable progress along the socio-economic development pathway at all fronts, as it spanned all sectors of the economy. As a result of this, the Kingdom has been able to move from an underdeveloped status to a very high human development country with all the means of a promising and sustainable future. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for instance, increased from SAR 156 billion in 1969 to SAR 942 billion in 2011 and SAR 2,575 billion in 2017, putting the economy among the top 20 global economies in terms of size.   

Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s long-term development blueprint, is built on three pillars 1) A vibrant society; 2) A thriving economy, and 3) An ambitious nation. Based on these three pillars, Vision 2030 aims to transform the economy of Saudi Arabia into a more diversified and sustainable economy by promoting new sectors. A key goal of Vision 2030 towards this end is to provide quality services to 30 million annual visitors performing Umrah by 2030. The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites (RCMC) was established by Royal Order to improve the quality of life for Makkah’s residents and the experience of its pilgrims.

In 2021, the RCMC developed a Makkah Conceptual Masterplan (MCM) that aims to meet the requirements of the future urban, social, economic, and environmental vision for the city. Parallel to the MCM, the RCMC has completed a series of projects that round out the MCM, including, but not limited to, a Structure Plan for the Holy Sites, architectural guidelines for the city, and an Integrated Transport Strategy. The RCMC is currently in the process of reviewing and updating the MCM with a particular focus on the following key areas:

1. Conducting a high-level validation of the MCM to identify and address gaps and potential areas for enhancement
2. Developing an economic model for the MCM that aims to validate and update all assumptions and develop a perspective across each sector
3. Validating and integrating the other relevant projects into the MCM

The RCMC’s vision for Makkah is a polycentric, liveable, cultural, resilient, and sustainable city for 2040. The strategic aim of the Support to RCMC project is to provide technical support and advisory services to RCMC to manage the formulation of the Makkah Conceptual Masterplan. Through this project, UNDP will provide support to the RCMC to ensure efficient and effective delivery of the Makkah Strategic and Spatial Direction, and to strengthen its capacity, particularly in ensuring the future development of the city is aligned with national and local strategic ambitions and in establishing a clear understanding of the economic and financial impact of the MCM on the Kingdom’s economy.

The Expert is expected to form the following assignments:

• Provision of Strategic Policy Advice to the assigned RCMC project manager on Strategic Urban Planning  
• Technical soundness of Strategy consultant's deliverables and Quality Assurance for deliverables related to the study
• Any other tasks requested related to MSSD
• Provide key technical expertise in Strategic Urban Planning in supporting MSSD  under the guidance of the UNDP Urban Development team 
• Ensure, Technical soundness and Quality assurance for activities such as City Frameworks, Master Plans, Urban Policies, Integration and policy coherence of the City Plans, Socio-economic assessments and others
• Work closely with key project partners, ensuring optimum participation and engagement with multiple consulting firms and community groups for MSSD
• Facilitate capacity building and training support, strategy planning and conduct consultation as needed on MSSD on Strategic Urban Planning  
• Set priorities among key tasks to ensure the successful delivery of the MSSD
• Closely collaborate with other contracted professional consultants appointed on the different components 
• Contribute to the process of Identification, documentation and incorporation of lessons learned from Urban Development activities  
• Advise on high-level  Benchmarking for Strategic urban Plans  
• Produce one concept note, review or propose KPIs for Strategic urban Plans
• Propose ways to mainstream SDG indicators in city strategies  
• Provide comments and recommendations that bring in a regional or/and international perspective, including case studies and inputs
• Negotiate with the consultants on board for better policy coherence and integration between the dimensions of the MSPSD, taking into consideration approved and finalized strategies and studies.

A.Expected Deliverables

B.Institutional Arrangement

• The Strategy Advisor will work under the overall guidance of the RCMC Makkah Concept Master Plan Project, Pillar 1 Programme Analyst and the UNDP Saudi Arabia Country Office and give updates at a weekly meeting to keep track of project activity and developments.
• Specific meetings with the UNDP Saudi Arabia Office Management, Pillar One Programme Analyst, and RCMC assigned project lead for MCM and other key local, regional and national stakeholders in addition to the UNDP project staff and Consultants throughout the process are also required.

C.Duration of the Work

• The expected duration of work is 75 working Days with the possibility of an extension.
• The anticipated starting date of the assignment is 25th of January 2023. And the expected date of full completion of all tasks under this assignment is 30th of April of 2023.

D.Duty Station

• The assignment will be based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• The assignment will be hybrid (in-country and home-based). The duty station for the work in the country will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He/ She will be embedded within the Digital Economy Statistics Department within the Economic Statistics General Department at GASTAT.
• If unforeseen travel outside the consultant’s home-based city is 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 any locations than stated on this TOR on official missions where necessary

Working Arrangements:

• All mission travels must be approved in advance and in writing by the Supervisor.
• United Nations Development of Safe and Security – BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to the commencement of travel.
• The Consultant is responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director.
• The consultant is also required to comply with the UN security directives.
• The consultant is responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP.
• The consultant will be responsible for submitting his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies.
• The consultant is responsible for required health and life insurance related to work or travel.
• The consultant is expected to have his/her own Laptop/Computer.

• People Management

• Build an Enabling Workplace - Create a working environment where people are engaged and want to do their best; empower and enable team members to perform and have a positive workplace experience
• Motivate and Direct - Align people and resources with organizational vision, Strategy, objectives
• Show Managerial Courage - Not be afraid to take decisions and act when and as needed

• Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need
• Ability to plan, organize, prioritize, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
• Ability to identify and organize action around mitigating and proactively managing risks
• Ability to look at information from the past and present, identify patterns and trends and use them to inform decision-making with a long-term view.
• Being sensitive and able to scan horizons and pick up weak signals of change, explore their potential implications and assess their impact and urgency. Using creativity and imagination to communicate insights in compelling and engaging ways to challenge current mental models.
• Ability to develop scenarios and speculative designs to present future visions or make them experiential.
• Being able to facilitate debate and discussion about possible futures; helps people to feel comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

All proposals must be expressed in a lump sum amount. This amount must be “all-inclusive”. Please note that the terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal.

Payments shall be made to the individual contractor upon successful completion and certification by UNDP that services have been satisfactorily performed, based upon the actual number of working days and accomplishments of each deliverable.

Payment shall be made as a deliverables-based lump upon the receipt of the deliverables and certification of satisfactory performance by UNDP.

The Expert will share a Certificate of Payment (CoP) where he/he needs to indicate achieved outputs. Then the certificate of payment must be verified by the UNDP Team and certified by UNDP top management. The Expert is advised to keep a detailed timesheet of the days worked and tasks performed throughout the consultancy assignment. A bi-weekly update of the timesheet will be requested, and such documentation will support the payment process as deemed needful.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

For purposes of generating Offers whose contents are uniformly presented and to facilitate their comparative analysis, it is best to recommend the preferred contents and presentation of the Offer to be submitted, as well as the format/sequencing of their presentation. The following documents may be requested:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. 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;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment. A method is recommended for intellectual services but may be omitted for support services [Note: this is optional for support services];  
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per the template provided. Suppose an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in releasing him/her to UNDP under the Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA). In that case, the Offeror must indicate at this point and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Technical Criteria (CV review and Desk Review/Interview optional) – maximum 70 points. Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the CV desk review (who will score at least 49 points) will be considered for the next evaluation stage, i.e. financial evaluation.

Applications will be first screened, and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

Technical Evaluation (70 Points, 70% weight)

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

Step 2: Financial Proposal Analysis

Financial proposal – Maximum 30 points

• Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described. (Annex II)

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

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 schedule of payment linked with deliverables. The financial Proposal should include all relevant costs (consultancy fees, all envisaged travel costs, living allowances, etc.).

UNDP applies the “Best value for money approach” – the final selection will be based on the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate the 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

Instructions for on-line submissions

Step 1:  Please prepare all required documents electronically.

Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF however, Word format can also be accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs links

Step 3: After that, you will receive an auto-reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described. 

Given the volume of applications that UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.

UNDP reserves the right to reject any incomplete applications.

Please be informed that we don’t accept applications submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit an application via UNDP Jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP Jobsite system. Please note that UNDP Jobsite system allows only one uploading of application documents, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online application submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows you to upload a maximum of one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email mohammed.abbas@undp.org with a copy to huda.alsaud@undp.org    the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 3 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain updates related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice

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.

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described. 

The interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=97378  for more detailed information about terms of references, instructions for the offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer online.

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.

APPROVAL

This ToR is certified by:

Signature:                                                                                                              

Name:                                                                                                                    

Designation:                                                                                                          

Date of Signing:                                                                                       

This ToR is approved by:

Signature:                                                                                                              

Name:                                                                                                                    

Designation:                                                                                                          

Date of Signing: