1. BACKGROUND

Launched in September 2020, the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR, is a finance instrument that blends private and public funding to support businesses and finance mechanisms that improve the health and sustainability of coral reefs and associated ecosystems while empowering local communities and enterprises. The GFCR is administratively hosted by the UN Multi Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTFO).

The Global Team is an independent structure under the Global Fund for Coral Reef Executive Board and manages the day-to-day activities and operation of the Fund. While hosted within the MPTFO, the Global Team works closely with relevant focal points of the Participating UN Organizations (UNDP, UNEP, UNCDF) and the Investment asset management team.

The Global Team has management, technical, and operational expertise, and one of its primary roles is to develop the Fund investment plans and manage approval of project or programme proposals in accordance with financial decisions made by the GFCR Executive Board and in open collaboration with the Investment Window partners. The Global Team guarantees that successful innovative blended solutions are developed in accordance with agreed-upon objectives and criteria specified in the Terms of Reference and criteria specified in the Standard Operations Manual.

2. SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED WORK 

Working on a daily basis with the Strategic Engagement & Partnership Specialist and with overall reporting to the Deputy Head of the GFCR Grant Fund, the Communications and Events Consultant will perform the following tasks:  

1. Communications  

• Maintain updated GFCR Briefing notes, speaking points, and communications materials. 
• Develop and input to multimedia stories from the GFCR portfolio that have compelling narratives and reflect noteworthy achievements.
• Plan and update GFCR website content.
• Support the formation of target listings and contacts, including GFCR global and programmatic spokespeople/champions, and arrange check-in meetings, webinars, and relationship-building activities as needed. 
• Delivering the draft of two communications campaigns. 
• Input to GFCR communications workplan.
• Draft communications related reporting updates

2. Event Engagement  

  Substantially contribute to the 2023-2024 event engagement strategy planning and execution.

• Conduct mapping on relevant forums/events, including mandates, priority topics, participants and key lessons learned.  
• Substantive support for organisation and execution of high-level event plans; including delivering briefs, engagement plans, speaking points, and other documents related to global event engagement. 
• Deliver event collaboration and visibility opportunities, including engagement plans with key partners and sponsors, defining the scope of joint initiatives and providing substantive input. 
• Deliver GFCR Convening Agents event engagement plans and related products.  

3. EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES 

4. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS/REPORTING LINES

Maximum number of working days: The consultancy will be for a period of up to 200 days spread over a period of  72 weeks, with potential for up to 2 years of contract extension.

The target start date is the week commencing of 10th of April 2023

Duty Station: Home-based with travel as required.

Travel to the following destinations will be required.

·      Geneva, Switzerland, duration 5 days in Q4 of 2023;

·      Nairobi, Kenya, duration 5 days in Q2 of 2024; and

·      Geneva, Switzerland, duration 5 days in Q4 of 2024.

All envisaged travel costs to the destinations above must be included by consultant in the financial proposal. The unit price for tickets should be provided based on most direct economic class (business and first-class airfare are not permitted as per UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations);

Please note that consultants already residing at the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses.

• 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 travelling 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 is responsible for required health and life insurance related to work or travel.
• The consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during his/her engagement with UNCDF. 

If any additional travel is requested by the program, all the subsequent travel costs associated to the assignment will be paid on reimbursable basis and following the UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations which states that consultants shall only be paid the most direct and most economical ticket, as will be quoted by the official UN travel agency. Any amount in excess of the said quotation, such as class and airline preference of the consultant, shall be borne by the consultant and the daily living allowance will be paid as per UN Rate. 

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Control 

• The Communications and Events Consultant will work on a daily basis with the Strategic Engagement & Partnership Specialist and with overall reporting to the Deputy Head of the GFCR Grant Fund.
• The Strategic Engagement & Partnership Specialist will provide feedback on the work of the consultant to ensure the quality of deliverables as per the expectations of UNCDF and that the work is aligned with the broader project objective
• The consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during his/her engagement with UNCDF. 

Payments

Price proposal should be made in a Lump Sum Amount, covering all cost elements to complete the work and deliver the outputs. The contract price is fixed regardless of changes in the cost components and timelines to complete the deliverables. 

• Payment is linked with deliverables and will be made within 30 days upon full and successful completion of the requested outputs and as per certification and evaluation by the Head of GFCR Fund Secretariat of the satisfactory delivery of the above referenced deliverables.
• Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

The following supporting documents will serve as conditions for disbursement: 

• submission of an Invoice and Certificate of Payment (COP). 
• submission of each deliverables / workplan / progress report with relevant supporting documentation; and 

review, approval and written acceptance of each deliverable by the Deputy Head of GFCR Fund Secretariat and/or his designate.

Competencies:

Leadership: Plans and acts transparently, actively works to removes barriers

• Creates awareness of substantive opportunities and risks among others
• Navigates complex circumstances thoughtfully and is solution-minded

Communication and Relationship Management: Gains trust of peers, partners, clients by presenting complex concepts in practical terms to others

• Persuades others to embrace new ideas, even when controversial
• Empathizes with client perspectives and needs and communicates messages with the clients’ experiences in mind
• Creates opportunities for developing new client relationships

Innovation: Creates new and relevant ideas and leads others to implement them

• Integrates diverse contributions to formulate coherent approaches
• Aligns innovation to service delivery components
• Manages prototype / pilot efforts and seeks feedback

Delivery: Critically assesses value and relevance of existing policy / practice and contributes to enhanced delivery of products, services, and innovative solutions

• Anticipates constraints and identifies solutions
• Ensures high quality of work in terms of both substantive depth and adaptive relevance to client needs
• Accepts responsibility for implementation / team deliverables / client satisfaction consistent with organizational standards
• Exhibits thorough organizational awareness of UNDP’s approach to client
• service delivery and integrity and accountability

UN System

Knowledge and understanding of the UN system and the mandates of constituent agencies, including with UN corporate standards and language requirements.

5. REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE 

Academic Qualifications:

Masters’ degree (or equivalent/higher) in public relations, media relations, journalism, communications, marketing, political science, biodiversity, and/or other relevant field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 2 years’ experience developing audience-specific content for communications and marketing pieces, engagement and advocacy calls to action.
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience developing story-telling content.
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in curating corporate social media platforms, including using analytics tools.
• A minimum of 1 year experience managing and maintaining websites.

• Prior work experience in event planning is an asset.
• Demonstrable experience in producing and editing video and/or animations is an asset.
• Prior work experience at or familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other UN agencies is beneficial.
• Knowledge of biodiversity conservation and/or innovative finance is an asset (e.g., marine conservation, blended finance, ecosystem-based management, etc.).

Language:

Fluent in written and spoken English. Working knowledge of another UN language (French, Arabic, and/or Spanish) is considered an asset.

Skills:

• Demonstrated ability to pitch editorial and other content ideas, and provide rationale grounded in the propensity to directly support organizational objectives;

• Demonstrated ability to identify, collect and curate content to support storytelling in digital channels including web (including both blog and conversion pages), social media channels and email communications;
• Knowledge of sustainable finance topics (public/private); and
• Demonstrated knowledge of international development and world affairs in addition to a passion for the digital space and trends.

6. APPLICATION PROCESS AND EVALUATION 

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document: 

- Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability
- 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 the names of at least three (3) professional references (e-mail addresses, telephone numbers);
- Summary statement of competencies in relation to the TOR.

- Portfolio sample of story-telling content, corporate social media platform posts curated, and/or samples of websites maintained.  
- Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price including professional fees and other professional expenses, such as insurance, taxes, etc.), supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. Available at http://procurement- notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).  Travel to Geneva, Switzerland (two trips - one in 2023 and another one in 2024, 5 days each trip) and Nairobi, Kenya (5 days) in economy class must be included in the proposal;

If an 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 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. 

Failure to submit all the below mentioned documents may result in rejection of the application. 
 

Evaluation Criteria 

Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions. The following selection method will be used: Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals. The overall combined score will be 100%, where weight distribution shall be 70% technical (desk review (40%) + interview (30%)) and 30% financial. 

The Technical Evaluation will entail three key steps, as follows: 
 

Step I: Screening 

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the mandatory criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting. 

• Masters’ degree (or equivalent/higher) in public relations, media relations, journalism, communications, marketing, political science, biodiversity, and/or other relevant field.
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in developing audience-specific content for communications and marketing pieces or in curating corporate social media platforms, including use of analytics tools.
• Minimum of 1 year experience managing and maintaining websites.

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review (Maximum 100 points x 40%) 

UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate the candidates. Only candidates that obtained 70% of the points at this stage shall be invited for the next step. 

Shortlisting scoring: 

Education (20 points): 

-  Masters’ degree (or equivalent/higher) in public relations, media relations, journalism, communications, marketing, political science, biodiversity, and/or other relevant field. – 30 points

Portfolio Sample (15 points): 

- Portfolio sample of story-telling content, corporate social media platform posts curated, and/or samples of websites maintained.  

Experience (65 points): 

• A minimum of 2 years’ experience developing audience-specific content for communications and marketing pieces, engagement and advocacy calls to action – 10 points 
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience developing story-telling content – 10 points
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in curating corporate social media platforms, including using analytics tools – 10 points
• A minimum of 1 year experience managing and maintaining websites – 10 points

• Prior work experience in event planning is an asset – 10 points
• Demonstrable experience in producing and editing video and/or animations is an asset- 5 points 
• Prior work experience at or familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other UN agencies is beneficial - 5 points
• Knowledge of biodiversity conservation and/or innovative finance is an asset (e.g., marine conservation, blended finance, ecosystem-based management, etc.) - 5 points

Step III: Interviews (Maximum 100 points x 30%) 

UNCDF will conduct an interview of shortlisted candidates and technically evaluate the candidates. Only candidates that obtained 70% of the points will be considered as technically qualified and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.
 

Step IV: Financial Evaluation 

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30. 
 

Step V: Award Criteria 

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

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
b) Having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). 

Both individual consultants and individuals employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. 

Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly). 

Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply. 

UNCDF 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.

References 

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20- %20General%20Conditions.pdf