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.

Sustainable energy is a priority area in UNDP’s current strategic plan as energy is an engine for poverty eradication, social progress, gender equality, enhanced resilience, economic growth and environmental sustainability. Unsustainable patterns of energy production and consumption threaten not only human health and quality of life but also affect ecosystems and contribute to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions which accelerate climate change.

In September 2015, the United Nations Special Summit on Sustainable Development in New York adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of the goals, SDG No. 7, aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. Thus, the upcoming sustainable development agenda recognizes that energy is a major ingredient of transforming societies and boosting human development. Without access to sustainable energy services other development goals cannot be achieved. In addition, the ability of countries and communities to cope with and rapidly recover from conflict, natural disasters and disease epidemics, hinges in many ways on their ability to gain access to sustainable energy. Energy fuels communities’ access to water, to social services like health and education, to transport and communication needs, and is critical for regenerating livelihoods and resuming local economies.

UNDP’s work with countries and partners is guided by its Sustainable Energy Framework which is strongly aligned to SDG No. 7 through its three thematic areas of energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency linking to sustainable development. As countries seek new resilience-based approaches to development and recovery from disasters and crisis, the role of sustainable energy solutions has come into greater focus. In these contexts, expanding sustainable energy solutions is seen not as an end in itself, but as an enabler on the road from fragility to long-term recovery and resilience.

The Energy and Recovery Consultant will support the emerging area of sustainable energy for recovery from crisis, conflict, and natural disasters. The rationale for developing this new work-stream at the nexus of energy, conflict, and post-disaster settings is 1) growing demand from UNDP developing country partners for support to respond to energy needs of populations in the context of fragile situations; and, 2) to capitalize on existing experiences in UNDP’s work on providing access to energy services in crisis and post-disaster and post-conflict situations, and 3) helping position UNDP in this area of work and demonstrate how integrated efforts can further advance the implementation of the SDGs.

The Energy and Recovery consultant will be based in New York or/and home-based. S/he will be responsible for identifying strengths and gaps in UNDP’s current activities related to energy and recovery and support development of a number of products to further advance UNDP’s advocacy and resource mobilization in this area. 

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK 

The Consultant will work closely and consult with UNDP policy and programme specialists on energy, recovery, and crisis/conflict at global, regional (particularly Arab States and Africa), and country-levels (particularly countries with post-disaster recovery support from UNDP). Under the overall supervision of the Policy Specialist, Energy and Climate Change, the Consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables and activities:

• Conduct a mapping exercise of existing work across different regions, projects, and strategies (Energy, Post-disaster Recovery, Conflict and Crisis Prevention & Response) with energy components and/or implications, and results being collected;
• Assess and provide analysis of emerging service lines for energy and recovery work;
• Conduct a mapping exercise of key partners/donors including UN agencies and private sector entities and examine existing projects/strategies/ initiatives to identify collaborative opportunities for UNDP; 
• Help develop a specific guidance note for linking current work on post-disaster and post-crisis guidelines to the provision of energy;
• Contribute to issue briefs and strategies on energy and recovery;
• Contribute to development of Post-Disaster Needs Assessment guidelines and training materials for the energy sector;
• Explore potential partnerships with foundations and other donors as well as academia and help foster new partnerships;
• Contribute to resource mobilization strategies and help develop proposals on energy/recovery
• The consultant is expected to visit UNDP HQ, New York for a one-day meeting twice during this assignment, first at the beginning and second at the end of the consultancy  

Expected Outputs:

• Report based on the mapping exercise and analysis, identifying key strengths and gaps in UNDP’s current work, and opportunities for future proposals (approx. 20 days) due by end of September
• Issue brief of energy and recovery (approx. 10 days); due by Mid-October 2017
• Guidance Note on how energy should feature in UNDP’s crisis-prevention/recovery work (approx. 20 days); End of November. 2017
• Draft resource mobilization strategy and proposal framework, including key partners/donors (approx.10 days). End of December. 2017

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:

• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
• Professional and/or academic experience in energy and recovery or related fields with a demonstrated understanding of emerging global energy challenges related to the countries in crisis, conflict, and post-disaster and fragile states;
• Familiarity with key actors within and outside the UN system, including donors, CSOs, academic networks etc. working on issues related to energy, environment and recovery;
• Experience in project design and resource mobilization in relevant areas

Project and Resource Management:

• Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
• 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:

• Demonstrated well developed people management skills;
• 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 presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences;
• 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

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in energy, environment, international development, or other related field is required

Years of experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of national/international professional experience in the practice area with policy or programme management experience is required;
• Demonstrated experience working in an international context with a variety of stakeholders on global energy challenges (access, renewables, efficiency, fragile states etc) is required;
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages as well as web based management systems;
• Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills;
• Knowledge of UN or experience working for an international organization, government, academic institutions or non-profit sector on public health issues.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
• A maximum two-page methodological note for development of the expected outputs.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive fee for each output.
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
• This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel.  
• The consultant is expected to visit UNDP HQ, New York for a one-day meeting twice during this assignment, first at the beginning and second at the end of the consultancy.
• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP
• The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being 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 where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

• Criteria 1: Years of progressive professional experience in research and/or policy and programme design on energy in the context of fragile states - 15 points
• Criteria 2: Demonstrated experience working in an international context with a variety of stakeholders and knowledge of UN system and key development agendas (SDGs; Paris Agreement etc) - 10 points
• Criteria 3: Understanding of emerging global energy challenges and experience working across substantive siloes and demonstrated ability to forge and maintain partnerships with stakeholders of different background and working in distinct areas (recovery, conflict prevention, and gender) - 10 points
• Criteria 4: Experience in project design and resource mobilization - 5 points
• Criteria 5: Excellent writing, research, analytical and presentation skills- 10 points
• Criteria 6: Methodology: 20 points

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate 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

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Head of Energy and Global Energy Policy Advisor and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Policy Specialist will regularly evaluate progress in meeting the specific deliverables.

The following is a list of key deliverables and their timeline and payment schedule: 

Expected output

• Report based on the mapping exercise and analysis, identifying key strengths and gaps in UNDP’s current work, and opportunities for future proposals - End of September 2017
• Issue brief of energy and recovery - Mid-October 2017
• Guidance Note on how energy should feature in UNDP’s crisis-prevention/recovery work - End of November. 2017
• Draft resource mobilization strategy and proposal framework, including key partners/donors - End of December 2017

Payment modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
• The consultant will be paid as a lumpsum, per output delivered.
• Payments will be based on the submission of outputs expected;
• Outputs delivered will be verified by the direct supervisor;
• Four tranches (one tranche per output) upon satisfactory evaluation from the direct supervisor