UNDP Jobs - 48462- International Lead Consultant

International Lead Consultant - Midterm Review Under Access to Information - II Project

Location :

Dhaka with Field Visits as required, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

11-Aug-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

25 Working Days

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.

Background

A fundamental government responsibility is to provide information and services aimed at improving the social and economic welfare of its citizens. During the first phase of the Access to Information (A2I) project, fundamental progress was made in improving access to public services through electronic means. However, it is critical to expand the breadth and width of such simplified services and improve the service delivery model to counter the impact of widespread outdated manual processes, resistance to change by civil service staff and a lack of transparency that still frustrates citizens in their attempts to avail of government information and services.

The objective of the project is to increase transparency, improve governance, and reduce the time, difficulty and costs of obtaining government services for under-served communities of Bangladesh.

This is to be achieved by the following 4 components of the project:

Component 1: Strengthening existing e-services and launching a second generation of integrated, inter-operable e-government applications; (e-Service);
Component 2: Sensitizing government officials, training for service providers and expanding digital literacy among the general public; (Capacity and Awareness);
Component 3: Forging strong policy and strategy links to ensure implementation of needed legal and regulatory changes in support of the project; (Enabling Environment); and
Component 4: Promoting innovation in the delivery of e-services. (Innovation).

The ‘Access to Information II – e-Service delivery for transparency and responsiveness’ is looking to recruit an International Lead Consultant who will be leading the International Mission comprising of an International Consultant (Capacity Development), International Consultant (Service Innovation) and a National Consultant (Local Coordination) responsible for conducting a Mid-Term evaluation, identifying the achievements of the project and make recommendations on gaps.

The project is funded by the Government of Bangladesh, UNDP and other development partners, and is implemented by PMO and Cabinet Division.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives:

The specific objective of the Mid-Term evaluation is to evaluate the project components i.e., service delivery to the underserved citizenry, capacity development of the service providers, promoting enabling environment for service implementation and the innovation endeavors of the project with regard to:

The continued relevance of the project component with the national priorities of the government and identification of potential intervention areas during the lifetime of the project and beyond;
Effectiveness of the e-service delivery initiatives launched or catalyzed by the project;
Potency of the capacity development approach undertaken by the project;
Approach of the project to the concept of ‘Innovation in Service Delivery’ and to the promotion of a culture of innovation among the government offices;
Sustainability plan of the project initiatives in terms of ownership of the government and implementation of the sustainability of the project.

Scope of work and expected outputs / deliverables:
The specific scope of the mid-term evaluation is elaborated below:

The Lead Consultant will be primarily responsible for item 1, 2. 3 and 8, the International Consultant (Capacity Development) will be primarily responsible for item 4 and 5, the International Consultant (Service Innovation) will be primarily responsible for item 6 and 7.

Assess the overall planned outcomes vis-a-vis actual results:

Assess and score the project progress against the columns of the Results Resource Framework of the project
Review the project initiatives with the scopes defined in the project document;
Document project risks, challenges and mitigation measures, and overall learning of the project;
Recommend a set of indicators for the project and identify necessary amendments to the indicator framework of the project;
Recommend scopes of changes to the project document/ project initiatives such that they keep compliance with each other;
Identify potential intervention areas during the lifetime of the project and beyond.

Identify the continued relevance of the project components/ results with national priorities:

Evaluate the project’s contribution to the achievement of the national ICT priorities;
Assess the projects contribution in advocating for the formulation of technical and non-technical policies and standards;
Review the project’s contribution to the sector-specific policies e.g., agriculture, health, education etc.

Assess the effectiveness of the e-service delivery initiatives launched or catalyzed by the project:

Assess major e-service delivery initiatives launched or catalyzed by the project;
Assess the e-service delivery initiatives taken by different public and private bodies with or without support from the project;
Document the lesson learnt and ways forward for the e-service related activities of the project.

Evaluate the capacity building milestones achieved by the project:

Review the existing capacity development patterns and understand the key milestones of the existing capacity development strategy of the project;
Assess the impact of the project’s effort to develop the institutional capacity of the government to conceptualize, design, implement and maintain e-service delivery and create new e-services for the citizen;
Evaluate the projects achievement in nurturing the champions and developing incentive mechanism for the e-service delivery within different tiers of the government ( from ministries to upazila) offices;
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the capacity development activities and their results
Review the activities of the communications team in terms of media presence to communicate benefits of e-services and create demand among citizens;
Document the lesson learnt and ways forward for the capacity development initiatives of a2i-II.

Assess the approach of partnerships developed by the project:

Assess the projects’ achievement in developing partnership with different public and private organizations to launch and operate e/m-service delivery initiatives and develop ICT infrastructure;
Evaluate the projects’ approach to resource mobilization from development partners;
Identify lessons learnt from the various partnerships and assess the possibility of broadening, deepening and sustaining partnerships for expansion of e-services;
Assess the scope for South-South cooperation of the project initiatives.

Assess the projects’ approach to the concept of ‘Innovation in Service Delivery’ and promoting a culture of innovation among the government offices:

Asses the process of capacity development for the promotion of a culture of innovation among the government officials;
Evaluate the project’s contribution in advocating for relevant policies required for innovation;
Assess the projects contribution in terms of recognition and reward for the innovative ideas.

Review the existing process of Service Innovation Fund:

Review the operations manual of the ‘Service Innovation Fund’ and identify its strengths and weakness in fostering innovation in public and private entities;
Evaluate the M&E process of Services Innovation Funds disbursed in different organizations
Document lessons learnt and ways forward for the ‘Service Innovation Fund’ initiative.

Review the indicators and targets and a monitoring framework of the project:

Review the existing indicator framework of the project and identify SMART indicators for the project;
Assess existing TCV approach of the project as an M&E tool
Review the existing monitoring mechanism of the project

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The International consultant will report to the Government of Bangladesh, represented by the National Project Director, and UNDP, represented by the Assistant Country Director for Policy Support and Communication;
The NPD and the ACD will be responsible for reviewing the performance of the consultant and approve their deliverables.

Timeframe and deadlines:

The assignment will be for 25 working days months from 17 August , 2014 to 25 September, 2014. Completed products under each area and activity will be as follows:

An inception report including evaluation matrix, methodology and data collection tool ( 23 August, 2014);
A presentation on the key findings of the team (07 September, 2014);
A draft report and presentation on the key findings of the team (15 September, 2014);
A final evaluation report incorporating all the observation and comments from the key stakeholders ( 25 September, 2014).

Reports:

The activities done by the incumbent will be regularly monitored by the ACD, UNDP and the Policy Advisor of the Project. However the International Consultant will be directly supervised by the Policy Advisor of A2I-II Project. For this contract payments will be made as follows:

50% upon submission of inception report (after 5 working days);
50% upon submission of final report.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Familiar with and shares the vision of human development as laid out in the flagship HDR series.

Functional Competencies:

Encourages Knowledge Sharing and Learning;
Disseminates specialized knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Able to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
Able to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems;
Able to perform work of confidential nature and handle a large volume of work;
Has good knowledge of financial rules and regulations;
Able to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new system.

Leadership and Self-Management:

Focuses on result for the client;
Has demonstrable leadership skill;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
Demonstrates openness to change;
Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters / Post Graduate degree in Computer Science, Public Administration, Economics, Business Administration, Political Science, Social Science or related fields.

Experience:

Minimum 5 years of proven experience in communications, development research, and policy analysis/support and advocacy;
Experience of working in UN system desirable, experience with UNDP considered an additional asset;
Understanding of the specifics of the current governance systems in South/South East Asia and the dynamics of political, economic, social and technological transition will be an advantage.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Evaluation of the Candidates: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis: The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. The award of the contract will 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.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points out 70 Points in the technical evaluation would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

Working experience in development research, policy analysis/ support and advocacy. (35 Marks);
Experience in evaluating ICT4D projects (20 Marks);
Previous experience of working with UN or other international organizations (15 Marks);

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks):

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

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:

Financial proposal (including fee, travel cost, Living Allowances, and other relevant expenses);
Personal P-11 form (including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references).

Financial Proposal:

Lump sum contracts:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). 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 this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed