Background

On 25 January 2012, the Secretary-General of the United Nations outlined his Five-year Action Agenda which laid out five generational imperatives including the engagement of Youth in social, economic and political development. To help advance this agenda, the UN system will develop and implement an action plan, create a youth volunteer programme under the umbrella of the UN Volunteers and appoint a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Youth. On 13 March 2012, the Secretary-General, through the Policy Committee (Decision No. 2012/5 – Youth) mandated the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth and Development (IANYD) to develop a UN System Wide Action Plan (SWAP) to deepen the youth focus of existing UN system programmes, in collaboration with the Special Adviser [on Youth] and with inputs from youth-led organizations and other relevant stakeholders, will develop a draft action plan to deepen the focus of existing UN system programmes at all levels (global, regional, national and local), to be taken up at HLCP/CEB at its Spring 2013 session. The action plan will focus on the priority areas identified by the Secretary-General: employment, entrepreneurship, political inclusion, citizenship and protection of rightsand education, including education on sexual and reproductive health. In addition, the action plan will be guided by the World Programme of Action for Youth; take into consideration relevant UN-wide action plans; systematically integrate gender perspectives across all areas; and provide a monitoring and evaluation framework.

It is therefore timely and important for UNDP, as an active member of IANYD to contribute towards the development of the SWAP and in doing so, develop its first-ever Youth Strategy. Such a strategy must be fully consultative, building on existing youth initiatives at the regional and country level as well as articulating key entry points where UNDP has a comparative advantage among other UN entities.
 
Several initiatives have been undertaken to strengthen joint work around youth inclusion resulting for example, in a “UNDG Strategy for Arab States/Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) Strategic Action Plan on Youth (2010-2011)”, developed even before the Arab spring phenomenon. RBAS’ “Strategy of Response to Transformative Change Championed by Youth in the Arab Region” (2011) also offers a blueprint strategy for engagement of youth in the region. UNDP embraces youth as a positive force for transformative change and aims at enhancing youth participation through inclusive governance. UNDP programming in democratic governance for example, recognizes theimportance in developing mechanisms to strengthen civic participation and explore how young people can utilize renewed confidence in their own capacity and potential for change to further foster the culture ofmeaningful participation and volunteerism, and provide opportunities to participate in and influence development processes that will shape their future. UNDP also sees the use of new Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) as a catalyst that can empower youth to be more engaged in key social and political processes while fostering information and knowledge exchange among them. And at the economic level, new ICTs are driving social innovation and social entrepreneurs in developing countries who are taking matters into their own hand and helping communities close critical development gaps – while giving them voice in the process.
However, on a global organization wide level, UNDP does not currently have a systematic and coordinated mechanism to address the issues of youth engagement, even though this is a stakeholder group comprising up to 60% or more of the population in many of our programme countries. UNDP lacks a comprehensive mapping of youth related initiatives and this is a priority undertaking for the organization.

Duties and Responsibilities

With this background, DGG seeks a highly qualified and motivated consultant for a period of three working months to prepare a draft policy and strategy for UNDP engagement of youth. UNDP’s policy/strategy note for engagement of youth will need to be completed no later than 31 October 2012.
 
Under the overall guidance of the UNDP Youth Focal Point, the Director of the Democratic Governance Group, Bureau for Development Policy (DGG/BDP) and direct supervision of the Practice Manager (DGG/BDP), the Consultant will undertake the following activities towards the development of a draft policy and strategy for UNDP engagement of youth over the next 3-5 years:
  • Conduct a thorough situation analysis including review of existing initiatives on youth across the organization;
  • Establish a list of stakeholders, develop outreach strategy for engagement of stakeholders during the consultative and planning process;
  • Facilitate development of a 3-5 year vision for UNDP’s engagement of youth, with view to prioritization of activities consistent with UNDP’s organizational mandate, comparative advantage and roles of partner organizations;
  • Conduct through highly participatory process, a comprehensive organizational SWOT analysis to assess organizational readiness, commitment and capacity to adopt and implement an organizational policy and strategy on youth;
  • Consult relevant stakeholders (extensive consultation within UNDP system, with youth based organizations and other UN and regional bodies working on youth issues) throughout the process;
  • Compile a comprehensive situation analysis report to inform stakeholder consultations and ultimately, policy formulation;
  • Present a table of contents for a zero draft strategy;
  • Develop a zero draft policy, costed draft strategic plan including anticipated outcomes, indicators, objectives, activities, timeline, budget, monitoring and evaluation plan;
  • Ensure that the draft plan reflects emphasis on cross practice, cross sectoral collaboration (poverty, governance, crisis prevention and recovery, gender, capacity development);
  • Ensure that the principles of the draft UNDP policy and strategy are consistent with international policy guidance and frameworks on youth issues;
  • Stay actively abreast of international debates and discussions on youth issues, emerging issues and overall landscape of youth issues in the context of development. Stay actively abreast of process of the elaboration of the UN System Wide Action Plan on Youth;
  • Incorporate feedback and produce a first draft for review and inputs; revise documents accordingly and produce a second draft.
Deliverables and Timelines:
  • Situation analysis including SWOT   - 31 July 2012
  • Draft vision, mission and overall objectives 7 August 2012
  • Zero draft strategy  –  31 August 2012
  • Revised draft  –  30 September 2012
  • Finalized Strategy  – 20 October 2012

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:
  • Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of  the UN;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Contributes effectively to team-based activities, working collaboratively and sharing information openly; works effectively with colleagues inside the UN as well as its partners and other stakeholders to pursue common goals;
  • Remains calm, composed and patient when facing conflict, manages conflict productively, focusing on mutually acceptable solutions;
  • Takes initiative and seeks opportunities to initiate action.
Functional Competencies:
  • Experience in discussions, negotiations in international agreements, an asset;
  • Ability to document decisions and processes;
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity to effectively interact with all levels of staff;
  • Proven ability to formulate an organizational policy or strategy in a collaborative environment;
  • Demonstrated ability to cultivate and maintain inter-agency and other professional  networks and partnerships;
  • Understanding of UNDP’s priorities, structures, hierarchy of UN/UNDP, process flows throughout the organization, products and services and the perceptions of client will be an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 
  • Masters Degree in social, economic, or political science or related discipline.
Experience: 
  • Minimum 5 years’ experience working in international development;
  • Experience working in an organization with multi-country operations;
  • Experience working on initiatives involving youth and development objectives;
  • Proven experience in strategic planning, programme/project and/or policy formulation (demonstrated by policy or strategy being subsequently adopted and implemented by the organization);
  • Expertise in using modern technology tools in managing documents and data in shared spaces.
Language requirements:
  • Fluency in English;
  • Knowledge of French, Spanish or Arabic an asset.
  
Evaluation of Applicants:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as (a) responsive/ compliant/ acceptable, and (b) having received the highest score out of a predetermined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation. Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
 
Technical Criteria weight 70%. ( max 70 points)
Evaluation criteria weight 30% ( max 30 points)
 
Criteria for Technical Evaluation:
  • Relevant experience working in international development -15 points
  • Experience working on initiatives involving youth and development objectives - 25 points
  • Proven experience in strategic planning, programme/project and/or policy formulation (demonstrated by policy or strategy being subsequently adopted and implemented by the organization) - 25 points
  • Experience in data managment in shared spaces - 5 points
Only those obtaining a minimum of  49 points will considered for financial evaluation.
 
Application procedures:
Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. All the required documents should be compiled into one file which must be uploaded with your application online.
 
The application should contain:
  • Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (if applicable). Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
  • Completed  P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees
    (blank form can be downloaded from  http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc);     please upload the P11 instead of your CV. );     please upload the P11 instead of your CV.
  • Financial Proposal – specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days, travel, per diems and any other possible costs). Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. 
 
Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.
General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found here: : 
Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.
Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or