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, as envisaged by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are on the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners that can bring about results.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and help countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.? BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

BPPS supports UNDP’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, focusing on 7 outcomes including strengthening institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (outcome 3). The HIV, Health and Development Group (HHD), within BPPS, is helping to contribute towards this outcome.

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development, as described in the HIV, Health and Development Strategy 2016-2021: Connecting the Dots, leverages UNDP’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 Sustainable 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 the law and legal environments in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics. UNDP also works to empower and include marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV, such as sex workers, men who have sex with men and people living with HIV. 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 municipal action on SDGs, sustainable responses for Health and HIV such as improving sustainability of AIDS financing, sustainable health procurement, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for key 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 SDG 3 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 temporary 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 to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

In September 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), a universal and transformative set of commitments for ending poverty and protecting the planet. The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out concrete aspirations to end hunger and disease; fight inequality and discrimination; and tackle climate change. The SDGs also recognize the importance of peaceful and inclusive societies as a prerequisite and indivisible component of sustainable development. UNDP will support UN Member States and other stakeholders in the implementation of these commitments. This support is framed by the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) common approach to supporting SDG implementation, MAPS, comprising: Mainstreaming of the 2030 Agenda, Acceleration towards the SDGs, and Policy Support drawing on the expertise and programmatic experience of different parts of the UN.

Responding to the demands of an integrated and indivisible agenda, UNDP has been providing targeted support to several priority countries (10 in 2016; an additional 40 planned for 2017) in various contexts, based on country demand and prioritization by UNDP Regional Bureaux.

Objective of the assignment:

Reporting to the SDGs and UNAIDS Manager based in New York, the consultant will support the collaborative process of policy development in relation to the Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS and the HIV and health related dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development .? S/he works with teams across UNDP’s Regional Hubs, Country Offices and Global Policy Centers, supporting the development of substantive approaches, products and tools and the documentation and communication of results in the thematic area. This guidance is informed by the empirical perspectives of programmatic and partnership dimensions at the country level.

Scope of Work

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

  • Research, analytical, and writing support
  • Facilitate effective delivery of technical support and guidance on SDGs and health
  • Consolidation of lessons learnt and knowledge sharing
  • 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Manager SDGs and UNAIDS, the Consultant will be responsible for:

Specific Deliverables and Activities:

Research, analytical and writing support

  • 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 SDGs, HIV, health inequalities and exclusion that? drive poor health, inclusive governance for health, resilient and sustainable systems for health, among others;
  • Perform data collection and analyses of specific HIV, health and development issues to help strengthen evidence-informed decision-making, programming and advocacy;
  • Support the Manager SDGS and UNAIDS in managing the UNDP and UNAIDS reporting processes to ensure timely and high-quality reports on HHD work and results.

Facilitate effective delivery of technical support and guidance on SDGs and health

  • Contribute to the knowledge building and management efforts of the HIV, Health and Development Group and its contribution to SDG implementation;
  • Support regional and global teams in providing an analysis of the HIV and health situation in-country targeted for MAPS missions and identifying strategic opportunities for inclusion of HIV and health issues in the country roadmaps that are being developed.
  • Support the project manager in maintaining and implementing the annual project budget and the recruitment and procurement plans
  • Support the organization of the team’s activities, including communication, organizational, and partnership support

Consolidation of lessons learnt and knowledge sharing

  • Timely analysis of lessons learned and sharing knowledge from HIV and health activities;
  • Facilitate and coordinate the formulation and implementation of comprehensive knowledge management strategies;
  • Document good practices and lessons learned HIV and health programming;
  • Provide knowledge management services for the team and within BPPS and UNDP, including facilitating knowledge exchange, as well as define needs for the development and implementation of related products and services;
  • Maintain the quarterly publication schedule for the HIV, Health and Development Group and develop a dissemination plan for key publications and its execution, including compilation of data to measure the success of dissemination campaigns

Expected Outputs:

  • Deliver set of knowledge materials and website related to SDGS and HIV (at least bi-monthly, frequency of review and reporting to be agreed with the team);
  • Provision of support for analysis of HIV and health issues in countries supported through MAPS missions (on-going - through 2017 40 MAPS missions are planned);
  • Internal and external knowledge sharing and communication platforms regularly maintained; new knowledge resources are shared, well organized and easily accessible to internal and external audiences (at least bi-monthly, frequency of review and reporting to be agreed with the team).

Reporting: The consultant will work under close supervision of the Manager SDGs and UNAIDS and regularly report progress to the Manager on work undertaken.

Duration of Assignment:

The duration of the assignment is up to 140 days between 5 June 2017 and 30 April 2018.

Duty Station and Expected Places of Travel:

The consultant will be based at the UNDP HQ in New York.

Travel:

There is no anticipated travel for this assignment. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP HHD Team and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be covered and paid by UNDP.

The fare will always be “most direct, most economical” and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the expert.

UNDP will not cover any costs associated with moving to the duty station. If applicant is requesting for such coverage the cost to be calculated and included in the financial proposal.

Applicants should quote all-inclusive lump sum cost for each of the travel in their applications below in the payment section.

(Please be sure to include any travel costs in section B below)

Evaluation:

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review and interview process. Applicants will be evaluated based on: Cumulative analysis method that combines the results of technical and financial evaluation results.

The award of the contract should 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 the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (maximum 70 points):

  1. Criteria 1: At least 8 of progressive professional experience in HIV and health – Maximum points 5
  2. Criteria 2: Demonstrated knowledge of sustainable development issues and experience relevant to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Maximum Points: 10
  3. Criteria 3: Demonstrated experience in supporting policy advise and technical assistance, including through the production of analytical think pieces and other knowledge products.? Maximum Points: 15
  4. Criteria 4: Experience in supporting and facilitating large and complicated multi-stakeholder partnership processes.? Maximum Points: 10
  5. Criteria 5: Technical written test. Maximum points: 10
  6. Criteria 6: Competency Based interview – Maximum points 20

Financial Evaluation Criteria (maximum 30 points):

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

Payment Method: All-inclusive daily fee

Payment:

  • The consultant will be paid as a daily rate (based on the number of days worked);
  • Payments will be based on the Certificate of Payments that will be submitted on a monthly basis;
  • Time Sheet will be attached and verified by the direct supervisor;
  • Payments will be made monthly, based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager;
  • The work week will be based on 40 hours, i.e. on a 8 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.; and
  • Final tranche upon performance evaluation from the direct supervisor.

Competencies

Organizational Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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.

Functional Competencies:

  • Ability to integrate knowledge with broader strategic, policy and operational objectives;
  • Innovative Approach to Problem-Solving and Global Development Issues
  • Ability to analyze and understand development cooperation, with emphasis on functional issues related to analysis, advocacy, and partnership building.
  • Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products,
  • Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the health and development field.

Project and Resource Management:

  • Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
  • Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service.
  • Strong organizational skills.
  • Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.
  • Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Partnership building and team work:

  • Excellent negotiating and networking skills.
  • Demonstrated flexibility to excel in a multi-cultural environment.

Communications and Advocacy:

  • Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.
  • Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically.
  • Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.
  • Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced Degree Masters in Social Science, Public Health, Law, Economic, International Development or other related field.

Experience:

  • Minimum of 8 years of national/international professional experience in the practice area with policy or programme management experience.
  • Demonstrated experience in supporting policy advise and technical assistance, including through the production of analytical think pieces and other knowledge products.
  • Experience working in the field of Knowledge Management and/or organizational management highly desirable.
  • Work experience from a developing country highly desirable.
  • Experience in the use of computers and office software packages as well as web based management systems.
  • Experience in supporting and facilitating large and complicated multi-stakeholder partnership processes
  • Experience relevant to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills.
  • Knowledge of UN and/or UNDP procedures, grant applications and program implementation is highly desirable.
  • Any preference in knowledge or expertise in the following areas:
    • HIV and health
    • sustainable development issues

Guidelines for Applications:

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

Please note that our system only takes one attachment. Therefore, kindly scan all your documents into a single PDF file to upload.

ANNEX 1- INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS is provided here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. rent of dwelling, fee, health insurance, vaccination, visa costs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged costs (except of the unforeseen travel costs for missions, if any) must be included in the financial proposal. Unforeseen travel costs for missions, if any, will be paid separately according to UNDP rules and regulations. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. Per diems cannot exceed UN DSA rates (http://icsc.un.org/rootindex.asp).

Security: 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://trip.dss.un.org

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.