Background

UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, along with the Pacific Office in Suva, primarily provide the 24 UNDP Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific with easy access to knowledge through high quality advisory services and technical support based on global applied research and UNDP lessons learnt.

The second priority is to provide regional thought leadership, build partnerships and promote regional capacity building, which allow UNDP, governments and other development partners to identify, create and share knowledge relevant to solving urgent development challenges.

Gender equality and empowerment of women are at the core of UNDP’s development mandates and strategy.? For UNDP, gender equality is primarily a matter of human rights.? It also recognizes the role of gender equality and women’s empowerment as an integral and indispensable driver for sustainable development.? UNDP believes that unless women and men are able to fully realize their rights in all spheres of life, and their contributions are equally valued in the process and outcome, human development will not be advanced.? Gender equality and women’s empowerment are integrated into every aspect of UNDP’s work in supporting countries through a range of programmes and projects.

Gender inequalities remain a development challenge throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This persistence is particularly troubling when considering the enormous economic progress the region has made. This continuing discrimination and neglect threaten the security and well-being of women as well as their families and communities throughout Asia and the Pacific.? In accordance with the principle of SDGs, i.e., “Leave No One Behind”, UNDP places an emphasis on eliminating the inequalities experienced by women and girls in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Project Description and Objectives

UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub is addressing gender equality and women’s human rights through a multiple regional development initiatives.? It has also been sustaining robust communication and knowledge management activities to contribute to UNDP’s delivery of strengthened gender equality results in the region.?

One regional initiative with a dedicated focus on women, peace and security is the N-Peace.? Since 2010, UNDP and its partners have been working through the N-Peace Network to promote, support and publicize the efforts of grassroots peace builders from across Asia and the Pacific. N-Peace Awards recognizes individuals whose work advances the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, and is currently active in Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar, The Philippines, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.? N-Peace offers capacity building training, awards campaigns, and network building support.? N-Peace’s next annual awards ceremony is scheduled to take place in January 2018, with an accompanying week-long programme involving a public exhibition, outreach and advocacy activities, social media campaign and capacity building activates.

Another regional initiative addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment is the UNDP Gender Equality Seal Certification Programme for the Private Sector.? The Programme promotes gender-equal work place and business practices with a view to supporting improved opportunities for women’s economic empowerment as well as stronger company performance.? The Programme was initially launched in Asia in November 2016 at the Responsible Business Forum (RBF) in Singapore.? In the 2017 RBA in November 2017, UNDP will organize advocacy and outreach in order to further mobilize partners from national governments as well as the private sector in Asia.

At a more broader level, the Bangkok Regional Hub has a proactive communication programme for gender equality and women’s empowerment.? In 2016, it initiated a region-wide social media campaign, #Champions4Equality, with the first communication and outreach activity coinciding with the International Women’s Day.? The second #Champions4Equality campaign was rolled out in September 2017.? At the same time, the Asia-Pacific Gender Team of the Bangkok Regional Hub launched a bi-annual online newsletter with an objective of communicating UNDP’s engagement in the region’s efforts to advance gender equality.

The main objective of this consultancy is to support various communication activities focusing on gender equality and women’s empowerment of the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, working across the teams with guidance from the Governance and Peacebuilding Team, the Communications Team and the Gender Equality Team.? In particular, the consultant will lead the preparation and implementation of the communication, outreach and knowledge management tasks related to 1) the implementation of a detailed communications and outreach plan for the N-Peace Awards Week in January 2018, 2) the outreach related to the UNDP Gender Equality Certification Programme for the Private Sector with focus on Asia, 3) the design and organisation of the #Champions4Equality in March 2018, and 4) the roll-out of the Asia-Pacific Gender Equality Newsletter in April 2018.??

Scope of Work

Under the overall guidance of the Regional Gender Team Leader and the Regional Policy Specials (Gender and Crisis) and the Regional Gender Advisor, and with expert advice from the Regional Communications Team at the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Hub, the consultant will undertake communications, knowledge management and outreach activities in the above-described context.

More concretely, the consultant will be responsible for the following:??

1. N-Peace Awards Info-Booklet:

• Preparing booklets, flyers and invitations for the awards week events (both public and private) with the following sections:

1. N-Peace Introduction
2. Women, Peace and Security summary brief
3. Meet the Winners (an individual section with a 500 words bio of each winners’ story);
4. 2 critique blog posts
5. Final words

2. N-Peace Winners’ Video-essays

• Interviewing the N-Peace Awards Winners (via Skype) to produce a synthetized 500-word biographical summary of work – 11 essays are expected.
• Publishing and promoting winner video essays for the Sharing Untold Stories event;
• Preparation of the content and text for the posters to be displayed at the Exhibition on Women, Peace and Security

3. UNDP Gender Equality Seal for the Private Sector with focus on Asia

• Develop printed advocacy materials
• Interview selected private sector representatives to produce online advocacy materials

4. 3rd #Champions4Equality Campaign

• Develop the campaign plan
• Develop the contents for social media platforms, including infographics
• Organize outreach for wider engagement of partners and launch the campaign

5. 2nd Asia-Pacific Gender Equality Newsletter

• Collect, develop and edit the contents, including photo images
• Launch the newsletter (April 2018)

Performance of the consultant is monitored closely, and regular feedback will be provided by Regional Gender Team Leader and Programme Specialist (Gender and Crisis).

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:?

Institutional Arrangement

Consultations and meetings will be organized on daily basis with Regional Programme Specialist (Gender and Crisis) and Regional Gender Team Leader for progress monitoring and quality assurance as well as to ensure the timely delivery of the specified deliverables.

Duration of Assignment, Duty Station and Expected Places of Travel:

Up to a maximum of 80 working days over a period of maximum 6.5 months. The expected starting date is 23 October 2017, and the expected ending date is 07 May 2018.

Duty station will be Bangkok.? No travel will be required.

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

Degree of Expertise adn Qualifications:

Essential

• Master’s degree or equivalent in relevant areas such as Communications, Journalism, or Gender Studies.
• Minimum 12 months of relevant experience in communications and outreach using traditional and social media tools.
• Proven fluency in English writing skills.

Desirable

• Previous relevant experience with UNDP or the broader UN System would be an asset.

Competencies:

• Strong command of English.
• Ability to perform tasks in timely manner and under pressure, to tight deadlines.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing with a wide range of partners persuasively and collaboratively.
• Able to work independently and as part of a team seamlessly using a range of modern means of communication as required.

Payment Terms:

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. 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. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:?

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

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)

• Knowledge on gender equality challenges in Asia and the Pacific (20%)
• Demonstrable experience of leading a social media campaign on gender equality issues (30%)
• Minimum 12 months’ experience in communication and outreach including developing written communication materials and online visual communication materials (30%)
• Fluency in written English (20%)
• Working knowledge of UNDP or other UN entities and agencies is an asset.

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

Required Documents:

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:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all relevant and similar previous experiences, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Applicant and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Brief description of why the applicant considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, relating how he/she proposes to conduct the assignment to their previous experience.
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.? If an 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 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.
5. A sample of social media campaign plan / package with dedicated focus on gender equality issues led by the applicant.
6. Online link to sample of visual communication materials developed by the applicant
7. Online link to sample of written communication materials developed by the applicant

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

Annexes:

Annex I - TOR_ Communications, Knowledge Management and Outreach (Gender Equality)

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

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=41156