Background
As the UN system's development programme and a GEF Implementing Agency since 1991, UNDP supports countries in addressing development, climate, and ecosystem sustainability in an integrated manner.
In its role as a GEF Implementing Agency, UNDP-GEF offers countries highly specialized technical services for eligibly assessment, programme/project formulation, due diligence, mobilization of required co-financing, project implementation oversight, results management and evaluation, performance-based payments and knowledge management. UNDP-GEF’s Green, Low-emission, Climate-resilient Development Strategies team works to support countries to attract and direct public and private investment towards catalyzing and supporting sustainable economic growth through initiatives focused on integrated Climate Change Strategies, Advancing Cross-sectoral Climate Resilient Livelihoods and Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems for Climate Resilient Development.
The UNDP-GEF, launched the Multi Country Project to Strengthen Climate Information for Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa (CIRDA). The project has the objective of supporting with 11 countries in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia) to enhance national climate services in their efforts to collect, analyse and disseminate climate information as a key tool in long term planning and adaptation.
The CIRDA Project is providing support by providing technical support and capacity building as well as by fostering knowledge sharing between experts, regional organizations and the countries’ themselves.
UNDP is seeking a Junior Communication and Monitoring and Evaluation consultant to follow up in the implementation of the communication strategies and knowledge management platforms for the CIRDA Project at a global and national level and translate the information into the project’s monitoring and evaluation framework. This includes packaging and sharing of the project’s achievements, best practices and lessons learned through the appropriate communication channels and products as well as following up on indicators relevant to the Project monitoring and evaluation framework. Partners and other development practitioners relevant to the project. The consultant will also be responsible, under the guidance of the Project manager, for disseminating strategic messaging that will be transmitted through national and international events.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Consultant will be primarily home-based and work under the supervision of the CIRDA Project manager, with limited missions to regional/global meetings and UN offices (HQ). The consultant will manage the existing on-line repository of technical documents of relevance to the CIRDA supported countries. Furthermore, the consultant will support the CIRDA team to promote South-South collaboration by the elaboration and coordination of blog and newsletter articles and the harmonization of key national project indicators. The consultant will work towards ensuring that activities conducted on knowledge generation for CIRDA will complement the existing knowledge networks and platforms on adaptation to climate change and that monitoring and evaluation indicators are up to date and included in UNDP and GEF reporting platforms.
Under guidance of the Project Manager, the consultant will work with the CIRDA Team, national project managers, country offices, partner and donor country governments, other international/multi-lateral organizations, and contractors on the following:
- Coordinate, edit, and in some cases, write success stories and case studies to share as best practices with CIRDA projects at the national level as well as the donor community;
- Manage and coordinate material for the CIRDA blog to showcase ongoing efforts, results, and impacts of the CIRDA Project, this may include the use of technical analysis on project milestones and objectives;
- Collaborate with UNDP communications staff in order to ensure all the CIRDA Project content is shared and in line with the messages and visibility guidelines of the UNDP and Project donors;
- Develop when needed UNDP CIRDA Project press kits and assist with the facilitation of media at international events;
- Copy editing and dissemination of communication materials prepared by CIRDA national project teams and the global CIRDA Project team;
- Manage the CIRDA website and populate it with relevant guidance, methodologies and tools (e.g. sector specific guidance) and ensure that it serves as a repository of technical documents of relevance to CIRDA supported countries;
- Coordination of relevant material to the Climate Adaptation UNDP newsletters to ensure that project information is shared among developer practitioners and partner countries;
- Support in the development of technical and knowledge products;
- Support in the preparation of the analytical documents derived from project events, meetings and project implementation;
- Support Monitoring and Evaluation work and subsequent econometric and data analysis with information reported from country missions and by national implementing partners;
- Support in collecting data for econometric analysis;
- Assure harmonization among the CIRDA Project and the national CI/EWS projects on objectives, activities and milestones.
Key Deliverables:
- Develop 5 knowledge products with good practices and case studies (e.g. fact sheets and case studies, technical reports), including harvesting information from regional workshops (e.g. gathering power points and developing stories and fact sheets) and national projects, for dissemination through the project website or blog, inclusion in the newsletter;
- Maintain and improve the CIRDA website and blog (with continuously updated information, simple classification and attractive imaging) - on a weekly basis;
- Preparation of technical materials (presentations, project reports with indicators) communicating to stakeholders the objectives of the project and short term goals as well as ongoing activities;
- Support in the preparation of presentations and material for Project Board Meetings communicating the Project Work Plan, achievements, and short and long term objectives;
- Analytical support and preparation of the Monitoring & Evaluation reports to the LDCF/GEF;
- Monitoring of in-country missions and the translation of information from Back to Office Reports (BTORs) into indicators that monitor national project implementation;
- Support in preparing at least one regional workshop (with technical material and logistics).
Information on Working Arrangements:
- Estimated level of effort: 60 days including travel days;
- The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
- The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection;
- Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;
- The consultant will report directly to the CIRDA Project Manager and will effectively cooperate with CIRDA Regional Technical Advisors and CIRDA Team, as well as, UNDP Country Offices and Project Managers;
- The consultant must be available to participate in weekly team meetings on a virtual basis (skype) as well as periodical in person meetings with the Project Manager when requested;
- Payments will be made upon submission of a detailed time sheet and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the Supervisor on days worked (with a “day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and outputs delivered.
Travel:
- Travel may be required to regional/global meetings and UN offices (HQ);
- Any necessary mission travel must be approved in advance and in writing by the Supervisor;
- The Advanced and Basic Security in the Field II courses must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
- 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 https://dss.un.org/dssweb/;
- Consultants are responsible for obtaining security clearances and any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
- The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies;
- All related travel expenses will be supported by the project travel fund and will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F-10 claim form and supporting documents. Costs for mission travel should not be included in the financial proposal.
Competencies
Corporate:
- 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:
- Advanced editing skills;
- Good command of commonly used design and publishing software packages;
- Good command of online publishing software and tools including Wordpress and Blogspot;
- Computer literacy for Microsoft Office Package or equivalent;
- Good knowledge and command of social media tools (You Tube, etc.);
- Demonstrated skills in editing news articles, press releases, success stories, newsletters, communication strategies and programmatic reports.
Professionalism:
- Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills;
- Exercise the highest level of responsibility and be able to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.
Communication:
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills;
- Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.
Teamwork:
- Work well in a team to advance the priorities of the CIRDA Project and UNDP as a whole;
- 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
Education:
- Master’s or advanced graduate degree in international development, economics, communications, or other closely related field (Max: 5 points).
Experience:
- At least one-year experience working in international development or related fields (professional or internships) (Max. 5 points);
- International experience with developing countries is an advantage (Max. 5 points);
- Experience in developing research using data analysis and monitoring and evaluation frameworks (Max 10 points)
- At least one-year experience in drafting policy papers/briefing materials on sustainable development and/or climate related issues. Please provide a link to at least one writing sample demonstrating such experience (Max. 10 points);
- At least one-year experience in developing related content for social media or online platforms (Max 5 points);
- Experience in developing or supporting international events (Max 5 points).
Language Requirements
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English language (3 Points);
- Command of French a strong asset (Max. 1 point);
- Knowledge of Portuguese a strong asset (Max.1 point).
Evaluation Method:
- Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;
- Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the technical criteria will be weighted at 60% and the financial offer will be weighted at 40%;
- The technical criteria (education, experience, languages [max 50 points], interview [30 points]) will be based on a maximum 80 points. Only the top 3 candidates scoring 35 points or higher from the review of the education, experience, languages will be considered for the interview;
- Applicants obtaining 21 points or more of the total interview points will be deemed technically compliant and considered for financial evaluation;
- Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
- The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including number of anticipated working days and all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
- Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.
Documentation to be submitted
- Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) to be downloaded from the below link;
- A link to at least one writing sample demonstrating experience in drafting policy papers/briefing materials on sustainable development and/or climate related issues;
- Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
Kindly note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).
UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.
General Conditions of Contract for the ICs:
Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment:
http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=37563