Background

China’s importance in global development is growing. Emerging development actors such as China have already had a profound impact on global development issues and achievement of the MDGs and Post-2015 Development Agenda. China, as the world’s second largest economy in absolute terms, is a critically important development partner, and if current trends continue, China’s role will only become more important. In playing this role, China will continue to draw on its own unique experiences of development, through which over 550 million people were lifted out of poverty.

At the same time as lifting its own people out of poverty, China has been giving aid to other developing countries since the 1950’s. In particular, since the global financial crisis in 2008, the degree of China’s multi-faceted economic development cooperation has increased considerably. Bilateral South-South cooperation makes up a great majority of this development cooperation. Indeed, 90% of China’s aid is provided though bilateral channels, while 10% is provided through multilateral modalities, including through the UN system. Over the next five years, China’s international development assistance is set to increase further, continuing the trend that has seen it grow at approximately 20% per annum since 2001.

While China’s international assistance figures are impressive, Chinese aid officials acknowledge that there are some areas where they would like to learn from international experience. China is interested to engage with and learn from others about how they address aid and development provision challenges and how the international aid system works. This is why China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UNDP in 2010, outlining a goal to work together within the framework of South-South Cooperation, towards the achievement of the MDGs. In December 2014, China announced measures to strengthen the effectiveness of its international assistance, for all the main modalities used, one of which includes volunteer services where China sends volunteers to recipient countries to engage in public welfare services.

The Government of China is keen to engage UNV as a platform for deploying Chinese youth as International UN Volunteers and for developing the capacity of Chinese volunteering organizations to implement more effective volunteer programmes internationally and within China. In October 2015 UNV with the Beijing Volunteer Service Federation (BVF) and support from UNDP China, co-hosted the first International Volunteer Service Exchange Conference (IVSEC) in Beijing. The Conference focused on international volunteering as a driving force to support international and South-South Cooperation (SSC) in the context of the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. In attendance at the event were a broad range of stakeholders involved or interested in volunteering in Middle Income Countries (MICs). At the conference participants called on UNV to become a broker of volunteering for South – South Cooperation and create further opportunities for dialogue around topics of shared interest. This call was taken up by UNV and in October 2016 at the UNV Global Partnerships Forum in Bonn, Germany, UNV and BVF with the China Volunteer Service Federation (CVF) co-hosted a side event on volunteering for South-South Cooperation.

UNDP is now also working on a support project to CICETE that aims at building capacity on SSC. The project include an analysis on volunteering sector as well (nationally and internationally) and how it can leveraged on the context of China South South Cooperation.

With this strong momentum a 4 months consultancy has been created by UNV in UNDP China’s South-South and Global Development Cooperation Team (SSGDC) to continue the development of new partnerships focused on South-South Cooperation and to support the development and execution of the second International Volunteer Service Exchange Conference (IVSEC 2017), to be held in Beijing in the final quarter of 2017. 

In 2015, UNV engaged 6,796 UN Volunteers on a total of 7,053 assignments. With an average age of 38 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UN Volunteers served in 122 countries in 2013 and came themselves from 153. The majority – some 82% – come from developing countries. One third of UN Volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The financial equivalent of programme activities exceeds US$220 million annually. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Support IVSEC 2017 and ensure tangible outputs (programme and partnerships) emerging from the conference.

• Act as the UNV focal point for IVSEC 2017 by dealing directly with partners in Beijing and ensuring smooth substantive preparations in close coordination with relevant divisions/sections in UNV Bonn and with UNDP/UNV China;
• Provide guidance and advice to the national organizers to ensure an action oriented, dynamic conference– including setting of the agenda, organizing facilitators, group discussions, etc.;
• Provide support to organization of meetings and briefings of the UNV Executive Coordinator with key partners during the conference, and ensure follow up to meetings leading to concrete results;

• In conjunction with partners produce the official report of the IVSEC 2017 meeting including recommendations and follow up actions.
• Prepare a follow up plan on the concrete ideas, initiatives and proposals that emerge from the IVSEC 2017 event with a particular view to strengthening UNV partner relations and programmatic engagements.
• Consolidate a list/database of participating partners, including their priorities on volunteerism and South-South Cooperation.

2. Strengthen existing partnerships to support development of initiative and knowledge around volunteering and South-South Cooperation:

• Provide technical support to Chinese partners engaging with UNV and UNDP on South-South Cooperation projects focused on volunteering.
• Support the production of Studies on the Overseas Deployment of Chinese Volunteers under the South-South Cooperation Framework together with CICETE.
• Develop options for China to scale up and improve its deployment of international volunteers, including Chinese national and international Full-Funding; 

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Team Leader of SSGDC, UNDP China and UNV Regional Manager in Bangkok Regional Hub (in close consultation with UNV Programme Officer), the Programme Specialist is part of the SSGDC Team  at the country office level and responsible for the following deliverables:

Competencies

Event, Meeting, and Workshop Facilitation - Ability to plan and organize events

Partnerships - Ability to engage with other agencies, donors, and other development stakeholders and forge productive working relationships

Resource Mobilization - Ability to identify and organize programmes and projects to implement solutions and generate resources

Results-based Management - Ability to manage programmes and projects with a strategy aimed at improved performance and demonstrable results

Research - Knowledge of analytical tools and methods for undertaking substantive research on various policy related issues

Knowledge Management - Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge

Relationship Management - Ability to engage with other parties and forge productive working relationships

Report Writing - Ability to prepare quality reports

Required Skills and Experience

Applicants have to provide a technical and financial proposal (http://pan.baidu.com/s/1geG4mWV ) with CV

The technical proposal shall describe the methodology and the approach how to fulfill the required deliverables as well as outline the major components of its implementation.

The financial proposal shall consist of all-inclusive lump sum for the whole duration of the contract period, which shall include the consultancy fee, costs of living, costs for insurance, and cost of travel to and from the duty station. The financial proposal shall contain a breakdown of these costs and indicate the number of off-days the consultant wants to take during the contract period (if any).

The lump sum/contract price is fixed regardless of subsequent changes in the cost components.

Criteria for Selection of the Best offer:

The selection of the best offer will be based on the combined scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted – 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30%.

Key selection criteria are

• Approach and working experience in the field of partnership and programme development (30%)
• Proven experience in organizing event and conference (15%)
• Proven analytical skills (15%)
• Proven experience working in conflict countries (10%)