UNDP Jobs - 72080- Consultant to provide technical, analytical and re

Consultant to provide technical, analytical and research support to UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Work

Location :

Bangkok, Thailand with No Travel Required, THAILAND

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2017

Application Deadline :

16-May-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

UNDP is a founding co-sponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development leverages the organization’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Millennium Development Goals. For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector. UNDP also promotes specific action on the needs and rights of women and girls as they relate to HIV.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of legal environments (law and access to justice) in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property and human rights law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics and to increase access to HIV-related treatment. UNDP also works to empower and include people living with HIV and marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV - also known as key populations - such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender people. Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to district and municipal action on MDGs, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for marginalized populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on MDG 6 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding. UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity for governments or local entities to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

Responding to the threat of non-communicable diseases

Building on its experience in HIV and leveraging its core competencies in governance, poverty reduction and gender, UNDP is contributing to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including through tobacco control. NCDs are one of the most serious global health and development challenges of the 21st century. Tobacco use is a key modifiable risk factor for a host of NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, various cancers and chronic respiratory disease. The 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases requests the agencies, funds and programmes of the UN system to support multisectoral responses to NCDs. The UN Secretary General’s Ad Hoc Inter-Agency Task Force on Tobacco Control explicitly requests UNDP to incorporate Article 5 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in its convening and coordinating role of the UN system at country level. The report also requests UNDP to incorporate Article 5 under its governance programming. Moreover, UNDP (with WHO and UNAIDS) co-convenes the work of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on NCDs (UN IATF on NCDs)(formed pursuant to ECOSOC resolution E/RES/2013/12) on Objective 2 of the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020. Objective 2 aims to strengthen national capacity, leadership, governance, multisectoral action and partnerships to accelerate country responses to NCDs.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes NCDs as a priority issue for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include two specific targets on NCDs: one on reducing premature mortality from NCDs and the other on strengthening implementation of the WHO FCTC in all countries. The depth and breadth of the SDGs will place increased demand on countries to identify synergies and efficiencies in health and development financing, including with respect to NCDs and HIV. UNDP supports countries to implement the SDGs, including through identifying innovative solutions for financing health and development.

The Asia-Pacific HIV, Health and Development Team is located at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, whose primary purpose is to provide UNDP Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific with easy access to knowledge through high quality advisory services based on UNDP’s global experiences.

The Team addresses social determinants of health with special focus on equity, rights and human development. This includes non-communicable diseases; health-related social protection including universal health coverage and access to affordable health technologies; enabling legal and policy environments to protect and promote the rights of people affected by HIV, LGBTI people and persons with disabilities, among others.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The consultant will be tasked with the following scope of work:

Provide research, analytical, and writing support for the development of health and development policy guidance, issue briefs, stakeholder and project mappings, talking points, concept notes and other documents, including those related to non-communicable diseases, tobacco control, environment/climate change, disability rights, urbanization, anti-corruption, health governance, health procurement, among others;
Perform data collection and analyses of specific health and development issues in the Asia-Pacific region to help strengthen evidence-informed decision-making, programming and advocacy;
Support the organization of the team’s activities, including communication, organizational, and partnership support;
Contribute to identifying opportunities to address social determinants of health within UNDP’s mandates and practice areas;
Identify opportunities to mobilize resources and develop proposals.

In addition, the consultant is expected to support other work of the HIV, Health and Development team as may be required during the period of consultancy.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Mapping of resource mobilization opportunities and development of at least one (1) funding proposal
Completion of knowledge products, including NCD sectoral briefs for Thailand, supporting multisectoral NCD responses and coordination, leveraging UNDP’s energy and environmental portfolios to address health co-benefits, among others.
Provision of data and analyses to inform evidence-based decision making and programming on social determinants of health, NCDs, and other relevant issues as required.
Provision of support for the inception of FCTC 2030 activities in Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Institutional Arrangements

The consultant will work under close supervision of the HIV, Health and Development Team Leader and regularly report progress to the Team Leader on work undertaken.

Duration of Assignment:

The duration of the assignment is up to 140 days between 1 June 2017 and 31 December 2017.

Duty Station and Expected Places of Travel:

The consultant will be based at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

At the time of writing this TOR, no travel is anticipated.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, the respective business unit and Individual Consultant need to agree on the schedule and travel cost to be reimbursed prior to travel. The consultant will be arranging his/her travel. UNDP will reimburse at actual ticket cost, up to the entitled amount advised by authorized UNDP travel agent. The reimbursement will be made together with the respective UNDP DSA rate.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
Focuses on results for the client;
Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Degree of Expertise and Qualifications

An advanced degree in public health, law, international development, or a relevant field
A minimum 3 years of relevant work experience in the area of HIV, health, NCDs or a related field;
Fluency in English is essential;
Work experience from a developing country highly desirable;
Knowledge of UN and/or UNDP procedures, grant applications and program implementation is highly desirable;
Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

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 consultant in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the consultant’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In general, UNDP shall 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 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.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent. 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.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review and/or an interview process. Those selected for the next stage of the selection process will be reviewed based on a cumulative analysis method that combines the results of technical and financial evaluation results. Specifically, 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 points; Financial Criteria weight: 30 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) out of a maximum 70 points on the Technical Evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria for Technical Evaluation (70 points maximum)

Minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience in NCDs, HIV and/or health, especially in a development context (25 points maximum);
Excellent research, writing, and analytical skills, as evidenced by a submitted writing sample and the experience listed in the candidate’s CV (20 points maximum)
Advanced degree (at least honors level) in Social Science, Public Health, Law, Economics, International Development or a related field (15 points maximum).
Language (10 points maximum)

Criteria for Financial Evaluation (30 points maximum)

the following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal:

• 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

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents 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 III.
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 III. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Thai Baht.
One sample of your writing that you feel is most relevant to this consultancy. The sample should clearly indicate your role as sole author or as a co-author.
Briefly explain why you are the most suitable candidate for this consultancy.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

ANNEXES

ANNEX I – TOR_ Consultant to provide technical, analytical and research support to UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Work: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=107224

ANNEX II - General Conditions: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=107219

ANNEX III - Daily Financial proposal and Offeror's Letter To UNDP Confirming Interest and Avail for IC http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=107220

All documents can be downloaded at : http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=37342