UNDP Jobs - 67342- Social Innovation Consultant

Social Innovation Consultant

Location :

UNDP Country Office, Bangkok - No travel required, THAILAND

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Aug-2016

Application Deadline :

28-Jul-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 August 2016 - 31 October 2016

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

up to 66 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

In September 2015, the world’s leaders signed off on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a global agreement identifying the world’s policy priorities for the next 15 years. As the governments of Asia and the Pacific and the UN look towards implementation of the SDGs, it is increasingly being realized that one of the greatest challenges facing policymakers in the region is how to engage the region’s large youth population in their own governance and development.

Innovative solutions need to be developed to ensure that scarce resources are leveraged for maximum impact and engagement. Youth voices and participation were an important part of the consultations for the Post-2015 development framework, with national dialogues undertaken and the online “MY World” global survey eliciting a huge response from youth aged 16 to 30. That said, this policy engagement was relatively ad hoc and it is not clear how countries will build on this success over the coming years of SDG implementation.

UNDP believes that youth can make a real and positive difference by engaging with these challenges head on through innovation, exploring dynamic approaches to mobilizing their peers and communities and creating adaptive solutions. Since 2012, UNDP has been investing in exploring innovation by providing seed-funding to initiatives with the belief that innovation happens through practical explorations of new ways to address old problems. “Innovation” has tended to be understood by lay people as focusing primarily on tech solutions, but for purposes of this initiative, it is important to recognize that innovation can occur in multiple ways using multiple media. Innovation encompasses the creation of new ideas and processes to better harness talent and the development of new understandings of old problems or solutions. With this in mind, this Project seeks to support youth innovation, recognizing that young people often have a natural instinct for looking at old problems anew and responding with improved solutions.

Thailand presents fertile terrain for leading innovation practices in the Asia-Pacific region. As Thailand has joined the ranks of middle-income countries, with high levels of youth reaching third level education, innovation can lead the way to address ongoing social challenges and enhance effective civic engagement. Groups such as InnovationLabs Thailand recognize the country’s increasing reliance on innovative solutions to societal and economic issues, and provide training courses in innovation. While several innovation agencies exist in Thailand, such as the National Innovation Agency, Thailand Social Enterprise Office and Change Fusion, indicating that there is an appetite for innovation, the work remains ad hoc.

UNDP in Thailand is seeking to design and deliver a social innovation service model that empowers and engages youth to internalize innovation, co-design and develop the next generation of services by prototyping new ideas and solutions that address national priorities and can be scaled by the Government or Private Sector Partners. It will support youth together with expert partners to:

Reframe policy issues and redesign programing by identifying key insights into the needs of service users (using methods such as ethnographic research, human-centered-design, behavioral science and social innovation camps);
Connect and co-design with leading thinkers, citizens, think tanks, private sector and organizations on the cutting edge of progress and development in key policy issues (using horizon scanning, crowdsourcing, online collaboration, incubators, accelerators and challenge prizes);
De-risk investment to enhance deliverability of policies by running rapid prototypes, parallel field tests and experiments.

For UNDP in Thailand, innovation begins with a critical rethink of how we approach development challenges and identifying solutions outside of traditional project cycles, recognizing innovation as an intrinsic design principle to programme development.

Since its launch in 2014, UNDP’s Global Innovation Facility has supported more than 60 innovation projects globally each year through its regional innovation hubs based in Addis Ababa, Amman, Bangkok, Istanbul, and Panama City. In the Asia Pacific Region alone UNDP has piloted 26 social innovation projects from 16 countries across the region, 8 of which scaled up in the first year that include: youth led social entrepreneurship, social impact investments, and the use of technology in tackling global development challenges. In Thailand, UNDP has run two social innovation challenges, one on the theme of Disaster Risk Reduction and one on the theme of Anti-Corruption. The DRR campaign recently concluded with 4 innovations being awarded prizes, and all 4 currently in discussions with private investors for scaling up the innovations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

Strengthen the current concept and develop a fully budgeted UNDP project document as well as sample partnership agreements for various categories of partners.

Develop concept note for partnership development and fundraising for the Thailand Social Innovation for Development Facility (TSI4D)
Develop promotional materials, including proposed website content for fundraising for TSI4D
Develop fully budgeted UNDP project document for TSI4D for a 4 year project
Compile sample partnership agreements for TSI4D for various categories of partners, including government agencies, private sector companies, universities, CSOs, social enterprises, individuals, etc.
Conduct private sector due diligence assessments, based on UNDP Policy and Procedures, published on BERA Intranet site, on all potential private sector partners.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Concept note for partnership development and fundraising for TSI4D
Promotional materials including proposed website content for fundraising for TSI4D
Fully budgeted project document for TSI4D for a 4 year project
Sample partnership agreements for TSI4D for various categories of partners, including government agencies, private sector companies, universities, CSOs, social enterprises, individuals, etc.
Conduct UNDP private sector due diligence assessments for potential partners.

Institutional Arrangement:

The consultant will work with the Deputy Resident Representative and the UNDP Thailand Country Office team to develop the products described in the list of key activities above;
The consultant will meet on a weekly basis with the DRR to discuss progress and challenges;
The consultant will also engage with the UNDP Regional Hub innovation advisor;
The consultant will be responsible her/his own computer but will be provided a desk and access to printing facilities in the UNDP Country Office.

Contract Duration: The consultancy will begin on 1 August and go on for 3 months, till the end of October 2016, equivalent to 66 working days.

Duty Station: At the UNDP Country Office, Bangkok, Thailand

Expected places of travel: No travel required.

Competencies

Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
Strong analytical, reporting and writing skills;
Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
Excellent presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master Degree or above) in social sciences, or other relevant disciplines, with proven track record in project development and advanced social research and analysis.

Experience:

At least 5-7 years of experience in social or development expert with substantive knowledge of innovation for development issues;
At least 1-2 years of experience in developing concept notes and project documents is essential. Familiarity with UNDP or UN operations will be advantageous;
Must be able to work collaboratively in a multi-cultural team;
Commitment to respecting deadlines and the delivery of outputs within the agreed time-frame;
Familiarity with the innovation/social innovation/social enterprise/social impact investment landscape in Thailand is desired;
National or International Consultant with current residency in Thailand is preferable.

Language requirements:

Fluency of English language is required;
Knowledge of Thai would be an asset.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The contract will be based on daily fee.Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Important: Travel cost from home to the duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

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 pre-determined set of weighted technical (70%) and financial criteria (30%) specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points):

Criteria 1 : Education - max 5 points;
Criteria 2: Experience in social innovation - max 25 points;
Criteria 3 : Experience in developing project concepts and project documents - 25 points;
Criteria 4: Knowledge of innovation environment in Thailand - 10 points;
Criteria 5: English language skills - 5 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Shortlisted candidates shall be called for an interview which will be used to confirm and/or adjust the technical scores awarded based on documentation submitted.

Documentation required

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:

Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
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.
Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Thai Baht.
At least three references

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

To download required documents, please click on the link below :

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=31156

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to brh.gef.procurement@undp.org