The continuing and rapid rise of HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons; the marginalization of people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities, and their extremely low access to information and services regarding prevention and treatment; and the presence of punitive laws across the region are among the complex challenges raised by the ever-growing HIV epidemic in South Asia. The Commission on AIDS in Asia further notes that by 2020 up to 50% of all new infections might be caused by male to male sex. The main high-risk behaviors for MSM are the frequency of unprotected anal sex with regular and commercial male partners. In addition, it is well documented that a high number of MSM throughout the region also have female sex partners. Poor access to health services, high stigma among the general population as well as health practitioners, police repressive actions are among the key factors further fuelling HIV epidemic among MSM and TG in the region.

UNDP is a key partner to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund) and serves as Principal Recipient (PR) of last resort. In December 2012, the Country Coordinating Mechanism/Steering Committee requested that UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Centre (APRC) assume the PR role for the Phase 2 of the MSA grant. The overall goal of the grant is to reduce the impact of HIV on MSM and transgender people. In its role as the PR, UNDP is responsible for the financial and programmatic management of the Global Fund MSA Regional HIV Grant as well as for the procurement of pharmaceuticals, health and non-health products. The grant will support regional advocacy initiatives and country level advocacy and capacity building activities with civil society partners in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan and Pakistan also have HIV service delivery components.

Country sub-recipients (SRs) include Youth Health and Development Organization (Afghanistan), Bandhu Social Welfare Society (Bangladesh), National AIDS Control Program and Lhak-Sam (Bhutan), Blue Diamond Society (Nepal) and Naz Male Health Alliance (Pakistan), Humsafar Trust and Voluntary Health Services (India) and Family Planning Association (Sri Lanka). In addition, UNDP will also implement important regional initiatives in partnership with regional community SRs, Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) and Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+).

UNDP‘s management role consists in ensuring successful implementation of grant activities by SRs, ensuring programmatic and financial accountability, and capacity building of national and international counterparts on programme, monitoring and evaluation and financial management. More importantly, the grant focuses on community system strengthening (CSS) and human rights of the MSM and transgender communities and community-based organizations and advocacy efforts to create a more enabling environment for them.

For the implementation of the programme, UNDP APRC has established a Programme Management Unit (PMU) based in Bangkok that will coordinate the implementation of the grant and provide general guidance of the Global Fund rules and procedures to all SRs participating in the implementation of the activities, with support from the in-country national staff in UNDP Country Offices. UNDP, in coordination with the regional SRs, will provide guidance and support in implementing the CSS, human rights and advocacy initiatives at the regional and at the national level in seven countries where required. Furthermore, UNDP in coordination with the regional SRs will also provide support to building capacity of the SRs under the grant.

Objective of the assignment

The CSS, Human Rights and Advocacy Consultant will provide substantive support for the implementation of the various regional and national level community system strengthening (CSS), human rights and advocacy initiatives. The Consultant will also provide strategic support to the SRs in building their capacity (both organizational and staff capacity) for implementing CSS and advocacy activities in the countries.

Scope of Work

The scope of work for this assignment includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Support the MSA grant to accelerate the programme implementation of national level CSS, human rights and advocacy initiatives;
• Provide strategic support the SRs in building their capacity (both organizational and staff) for implementing CSS, human rights and advocacy activities in the countries, referring to Global Fund CSS Framework and UNDP or other capacity building tools;
• Monitor the grant work plan and ensure the CSS, human rights and advocacy initiatives under different grant partners are progressing timely and provide support where necessary;
• Support regional CSS, human rights and advocacy policy development and advisory services for MSM, transgender and HIV programming;
• Support APCOM in its initial scale-up phase to implement the CSS and advocacy activities;
• Support APN+ in using successes of the CSS and Advocacy Seed Fund Programme for wider advocacy;
• Document the South-South learning on CSS, human rights and advocacy among regional community SR/SSRs (MSA, ISEAN-HIVOS and APN+);
• Contribute to various studies planned under the grant with reference to CSS, human rights and advocacy as relevant;
• Contribute to various regional and country-specific write-ups and knowledge products (e.g. policy briefs, discussion papers, position papers) on MSM and transgender HIV, human rights and advocacy based on updated strategic information; contribute to UNDP deliverables like semi-annual progress updates, annual reports etc.);
• Participate in and provide strategic contribution to various conferences/workshops/meetings to CSS, human rights and advocacy knowledge building;
• Contribute to learning from cross sharing of MSA grant staff participation in international/regional/national CSS, human rights and advocacy events (meetings, consultations, workshops, trainings etc.);
• Provide technical support to regional and national SRs, UNDP Country Offices and key beneficiaries in the areas of CSS, human rights and advocacy for MSM and transgender people;
• Contribute to development and support implementation of new regional and country-level initiatives focused on transgender people, including close support to APRC team and SRs when necessary;
• Provide support to APCOM to manage the grant’s networking and collaboration platform group on CSS, human rights and advocacy;
• Provide additional technical assistance as require.

Final Products

The final products will be as follow:

• Countries’ specific legal barriers to prevention, treatment and care analyzed and prioritized;
• The priority areas for the programmatic interventions agreed with SRs and incorporated into their wok plans for 2015;
• 2015 work plan covering priority SRs CSS, human rights and advocacy initiatives developed and monitored for timely progress;
• Support provided to APCOM’s scale-up phase to implement the CSS and advocacy activities within their contract;
• Provide support to the HHD Policy Advisor on monitoring progress and supporting local follow-up activities to Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Provide support in building SRs and national partners (NHRC, police, parliament, other decision makers) organizational and staff capacity for implementing CSS, human rights and advocacy activities;
• Contribute to various regional and country-specific CSS, human rights and advocacy write-ups and knowledge products related to MSM and transgender;
• Attend and contribute to the national and relevant regional consultations and other human rights advocacy events as per work plan and budget.

Contract Duration:

During December 2014 – November 2015 with maximum 195 working days.

Duty Station:

Bangkok, Thailand with regular travel to seven programme countries in South Asia including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (at least 12 trips during the assignment). Payment of travel costs including tickets, living allowance, terminal expenses and other travel related cost should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel. The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Provision of Monitoring and Progress Controls:

The consultant will directly report to UNDP Programme Manager, MSA grant. The Programme Manager, MSA grant will communicate and work closely with the consultant to ensure quality and timely delivery of expected outputs.

Documents to be included when submitting proposal:

Interested individual consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate your  qualifications:

• Brief Proposal:  Brief proposal explaining why you are the most suitable for this consultancy and confirmation on availability to take up assignment for the whole period.
• Financial proposal: The financial proposal must indicate daily professional fee in USD. To submit Financial Proposal, please use Template of Submission of Financial Proposal provided in Annex I.
• Personal CV and/or P.11 including past experience in similar projects and the name and contact details of 3 references

Financial proposal:

Professional Fee

The contract will be based on daily fee

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee in USD. The payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based on approved timesheet on a monthly basis and upon completion of the deliverables.  To submit Financial Proposal, please use Template of Submission of Financial Proposal provided in Annex I.

 Travel:

Payment of travel costs including tickets, living allowance, terminal expenses and other travel related cost should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel. The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Evaluation:

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.

Technical Criteria weight; 70%

• Experience related to services: 40 points;
• Written proposal/test AND/OR interview result: 30 points;
• Expertise & Availability: 30 points.

Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of international legislation and practices with regards to human rights and law;
• Good understanding of CSS, human rights and advocacy issues with regards to HIV;
• Strong analytical skills and ability to consolidate information from multiple sources;
• Ability to draft strategic information for decision makers in concise and attractive manner;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English;
• Strong presentation skills;
• Respect to cultural and sexual diversity.

Client Orientation

• Contributing to positive outcomes for the client
• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing 
Developing tools and mechanisms 

•  Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in law, social sciences, public administration or international development.

Experience:

• 5 years professional experience in development area of which 3 years’ experience working on human rights issues;
• Working on human rights pertaining to sexual minorities is a strong advantage;
• Experience of working with HIV programmes and projects is a strong advantage;
• Experience of drafting policy documents, analytical reports or legal frameworks to remove legal barriers;
• Proven experience of working on development issues with various stakeholders (UN, governments, human rights bodies, civil society, I/NGOs, CBOs, etc.);
• Proven experience on strategically communicating social issues to decision makers to bring change.

Language:

• Fluent in English.