Background

In Asia and the Pacific, UNDP is increasingly being requested to provide governance related services that support governments in articulating their response to climate change. These services include strengthening government’s institutional and administrative framework to be able to deliver integrated climate policy and programming within a range of sectors; strengthening government’s planning and budgeting processes to be able to account transparently for climate relate services; strengthening parliament and civil society’s roles in holding governments to account for their response to climate change and supporting local governments in integrating climate related services into their programming. There is also an increasing urgency to ensure that the needs, priorities, and interests of all people, including women, the poor, youth, and minorities and others who are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts are included and that these people participate in the governance of a climate change response: in all stages of policy formulation, programme implementation and processes of accountability that determine a response to climate change.

To respond to the growing demands, in 2009 BRH established a multi-disciplinary team to deliver services which can support governments develop comprehensive approaches to govern the challenge of climate change in ways that support their overall development, particularly in the context of Rio+20 follow up and post 2015 development agenda. This team works across practices within UNDP and HQ, BRH, UNDP country offices and in partnership with a range of development partners at the regional level, to deliver this support.

Beginning 2014, UK Aid has financed will finance a 3 year sub-regional programme titled “Strengthening the Governance of Climate Change Finance to Benefit the Poor and Vulnerable in South Asia”, which has been further extended until the March 31, 2019  This programme is based around three mutually reinforcing outputs – the first looks to strengthen the policies and institutional arrangements which will enable central government, particularly Ministries of Finance to FORMULATE CLIMATE COMPATIBLE BUDGETS that will lead to effective prioritization of  climate change finance; the second output looks at strengthening capacity of Ministry of Finance to TRACK AND REPORT CLIMATE CHANGE EXPENDITURE with relevant ministries; and the third output will work to SHARE EXPERIENCEACROSS STAKEHOLDERS including governments, civil society, development partners and international organizations across the region and globally aligned with international process. The programme is being implemented in Pakistan and Nepal.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to support the regional programme in achieving country level results based on existing work-plans, as well as specific regional outputs.

Scope of the work

The Governance and Climate Finance Consultant will work together with specialists in Public Financial Management, Climate Change, to support the implementation of the ongoing programme in specific areas (please refer to scope of work). He/she will work with provide technical inputs on specific products, with a focus on accountability, and engagement with CSOs and parliaments in Nepal and Pakistan, as well as potentially in the Pacific.

The consultant is also expected to provide substantive and administrative support in reporting to the donor of the project, including progress reports, and country specific work-plans.

• Support the implementation of the country specific work-plans, with a focus on the accountability component, which includes engagement with parliaments, and civil society organisations
• Provide technical inputs and quality assurance on submitted deliverables from in-country TA to advise Governance, Climate Change Finance, and Development Effectiveness Advisor prior to work-completion certificate.
• Provide technical inputs and quality assurance to programme key products, such as country specific research products, and budget review toolkits for parliamentarians
• With other members of the team, coordinate the development of regional product, in particular the “Briefing Paper – Flows, Systems, and Impact” and ensure quality assurance of the final products, both at the country level and regional levels
• Provide substantive support in reporting to the project donor, in particular progress reports, and work-plans.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the followings:

Institutional Arrangement

The Governance and Climate Finance Consultant will work under the supervision of the BRH’s Governance, Climate Finance and Development Effectiveness Advisor with guidance of the Governance of Climate Change Finance team in UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

Duration of the Assignment

The contract will be for a maximum of 70 working days between September 15 2017, and December 31 2017.

Duty Station

The assignment will be Bangkok-based with possibility to travel in Asia and Pacific countries including Nepal and Pakistan.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• 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 Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

 Teamwork:

• 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

Requirements for Experience and Qualifications: 

The consultant should possess the following expertise and qualification;

1. Advanced degree in development studies, political science, law, social sciences, or other related fields.
2. At least 10 years of proven experience working with government partners, including with high-level officials in Asia.
3. Demonstrated, substantive knowledge on governance, and accountability issues
4. Proven experience in policy analysis, and advisory role to senior government stakeholders.
5. Excellent analytical and writing skills
6. Excellent organizational and communication skills.
7. Proven experience in overseeing and ensuring technical soundness of research and analysis products
8. Work experience in an international organization is an advantage.
9. Knowledge of UNDP’s policies, procedures and practice is an asset.
10. Ability to work as a part of a team, sharing information and coordinating efforts with multi-country teams
11. Excellent English communication skills, both written and oral

Payment terms for the contract.

Lump Sum

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

The method of payment is output-based lump-sum scheme. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. The payments shall be released upon submitting the required deliverables with satisfactory by or before the due dates agreed with the Governance of Climate Change Finance team as per below percentages:

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed at actual documented cost.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevance of the Education – Max 10 points
• Criteria 2: Experience on policy analysis, and advisory role to senior government stakeholders – Max 20 Points
• Criteria 3: Experience in working with government partners, including with high-level officials in Asia,– Max 20 points
• Criteria 4: substantive knowledge on governance, and accountability issues – Max 25 points
• Criteria 5: Experience in overseeing and ensuring technical soundness of research and analysis products – Max 25 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documents to be Included when submitting the proposals: 

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: the consultants must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

ANNEXES

• Annex I - ToR - Governance and Climate Finance Consultant
• Annex II – General Terms and Conditions
• Annex III - Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

All documents can be downloaded at : http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=40342