Background
During the last 15 years, Azerbaijan made impressive progress towards achieving the MDGs. The poverty rate declined from 49% in 2001 to 5% in 2015. Azerbaijan’s food security is similar to that of the developed countries, with malnutrition affecting less than 5 per cent of the population. Over the last decades, Azerbaijan’s life expectancy at birth increased by 5.8 years, mean years of schooling increased by 1 year, and expected years of schooling increased by 0.6 years. Azerbaijan ranks 78 out of 188 countries and territories on the 2014 Human Development. Azerbaijan’s 2014 HDI is above the average of 0.748 for countries in Europe and Central Asia which puts the country in the high human development category.
In September 2015, the UN member states including Azerbaijan have committed to the new Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calling to transform our world by:
- Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger;
- Leaving no one behind, and significantly reduce inequalities;
- Putting sustainable development at the core of global, national and local policies, and accelerate the shift to low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathways;
- Building a renewed global partnership for sustainable development, based on multi-stakeholder partnerships that can leverage needed capacities and resources and achieve impact at scale; and
- Accelerating a data revolution and improving capacity to measure sustainable development.
Government of Azerbaijan indicated its commitment to support the integration of SDGs into the national policies and plans. On October 6th 2016, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed into decree the existence of the National Coordination Council for Sustainable Development (NCCSD). This marks a significant step forward in the need to work in a cross-sector manner to integrate the SDGs in Azerbaijan. The NCCSD is chaired by the First Deputy Prime Minister and will be supported by a Secretariat in the Ministry of Economy. Given these factors, Azerbaijan Government has the foundations to move forward on implementing the Agenda 2030.
In July 2017 Government of Azerbaijan presented its Voluntary National Review at the SDG High- level Policy Forum. The report outlines the core elements of the national SDG process, including the formulation of national SDG goals and targets and elaboration integrated strategies towards achieving those.
The report also confirmed, that the Government of Azerbaijan would continue relying on UNDP as well as other UN agencies on their support and guidance at the different stages of the national SDG process from the nationalization of the goals towards monitoring and reporting.
UNDP was particularly requested by the Government to support the process of policy simulation and formulation of policy scenario. The latter would be instrumental in defining the core drivers of growth and transformation and suggest the entry points generating the larger and broader positive spill-overs across various sector of the national economy, covering all the part of the country and addressing the
This policy simulation process would be conducted by a team of national experts, representing the key national institutions and think tanks, and particularly the Institute of Scientific Research on Economic Reform under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
UNDP will recruit a team of consultants who would facilitate this policy simulation process. The team will include both national consultants and an international one.
The international consultant would serve as a resource person who could consolidate the existing international experience and practices in applying various modelling tools for simulation of integrated cross-sectoral long-term policy scenario and could support the national team in adapting that experience in modelling for the context of the SDG process in Azerbaijan.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Review the existing modeling tools, which could be instrumental for formulation, and testing various SDG related strategies, and provide recommendations on applying the most relevant of those models/tools for the SDG process in Azerbaijan.
- Provide an overall guidance in the course of developing and calibrating the models and while testing and formulating of policy scenario;
- Support the national team in facilitating broad consultations around the proposed scenario and presenting those to development stakeholders in Azerbaijan and globally.
- Review of the ongoing debates on SDG modelling and SDG costing, focusing particularly on the existing experience and practices with UN entities (UNDESA, UNDP, UN Regional Commissions ), as well as those supported by IFIs and international think tanks ;
- Where appropriate and possible, conduct on-line consultations with these entities to explore on specific details, particularly related to the possibility of replicating of those practices and adapting/applying those in Azerbaijan, as well as the possibility of synergizing of the SDG modelling process in Azerbaijan with the global/international debates;
- Based on this review and consultations, provide recommendations for UNDP and its national partners in the NCCSD Secretariat on methodological and organizational issues related to the modeling/policy simulation exercise;
- Formulate the TOR for the team of national consultants engaged as a core local team in applying the modeling tools and using those for policy simulation and formulation of policy recommendations, support and guide the team through the entire exercise.
- In consultations with the Government of Azerbaijan and UNDP, communicate the preliminary and final outputs of the modelling exercise to a broader range of stakeholders, ensure participatory consultations on the suggested policy scenarios.
Deliverables:
- Review on the existing approaches applicable for SDG modelling.
- Report on the results of policy simulations exercise, suggesting the optional policy scenarios and TOR for the team of national consultants.
- Presentation for the NCCSD (or other policy forum) on the recommended SDG strategies and follow up action.
Competencies
Corporate 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
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism
Functional Competencies
Knowledge Management and Learning
- Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example.
- Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
Innovation and Marketing New Approaches - Developing new approaches
- Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;
- Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;
- Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
- Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.
Self-management/Emotional Intelligence
- Stays calm and maintains composure under stress or during a crisis, keeping disruptive emotions under control
- Adapts flexibly to changing situations, overcomes obstacles and recovers quickly from set-backs
- Tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively
- Is realistic about own limits using support mechanisms as needed and maintaining an appropriate work-life balance
- Senses the emotions of others, understanding their perspective, taking an active interest in their concerns
- Fosters a positive outlook and maintains focus during period of stress and heavy work load, inspiring and guiding others towards goal achievement
- Creates a climate of enthusiasm and flexibility, where people feel encouraged to give their best
- Stands up to group pressure, not giving in out of a desire to please or to avoid confrontation and conflict
Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing - Developing tools and mechanisms
- Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
- Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise - In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter
- Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
- Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
- Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
- Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;
- Have effective interpersonal and negotiations skills and ability to coordinate complex, multi-stakeholder projects and be able to think in a strategic manner on complex and difficult projects.
- Strong drafting, presentation and reporting skills;
- Excellent written communication skills.
Client Orientation - Contributing to positive outcomes for the client
- Anticipates client needs;
- Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
- Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.
Required Skills and Experience
1. Cumulative evaluation that takes into account both financial offer and the technical expertise of the potential candidates
A two-stage procedure will be utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical component being completed prior to any price component being reviewed and compared. The Price Component will be reviewed only for those individuals whose Technical Component meets the requirements for the assignment. The total number of points which individual may obtain for both components is 100. The technical component, which has a total possible value of 70 points, will be evaluated using the following criteria:
- At least Master’s degree in Development Studies or related areas (10 points);
- A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in economic and sustainable development research and analysis, policy formulation, application of advanced modelling techniques and linking those to policy consultation and policy communication (25 points);
- At least 7 years of experience in policy development, strategic planning, preferably in a cross-sectoral integrated manner; previous experience with MDGs, MDG-costing, SDG will be an important asset (25 points);
- At least 5 years of the professional experience in policy advisory work in developing countries (including countries in transition) is required. Good understanding of the local context and previous work in Azerbaijan and/or transition economies will be an asset (10 points);
- Experience applying advanced modelling techniques and linking those to policy consultation and policy communication;
- Ability to effectively coordinate a large, multi-stakeholder policy research project;
- Strong drafting, presentation and reporting skills;
- Strong computer skills;
- A good working knowledge of English is a requirement; knowledge of Azeri and/or Russian is an advantage.
The minimum threshold for technical part of the offers is 49 point.
If the substantive presentation of a technical proposal achieves the minimum of 49 points, the competitiveness of the offered consultancy expenses will be taken into account in the following manner:
The total amount of points for the fees component is 30. The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest fees proposed that is compared among those invited individuals which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical proposal. All other proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest fees; e.g;
[30 Points] x [US$ lowest]/[US$ other] = points for other proposer’s fees
Both technical and financial proposals mustbe submitted. The system accepts only one attachement, so please send both technical and financial proposals as one attachement.
Travel
The assignment will be a combination of field and home-based works.
The Expert will have 2 (two) trips one week per each to Baku.
The consultant should take into consideration the DSA rates in the country based on UNDP rules (maximum 176 USD in the region). Therefore, consultant can offer 176 USD or less for DSA rates.
Interested candidates, along with their technical proposal, will have to submit their financial proposal by taking into account those expected travels, and showing in their financial proposals breakdown of financial expenses for consultancy fee