Background

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, which is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). BPPS 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. BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

The Strategic Policy Unit (SPU) within BPPS has the primary objective to lead UNDP’s policy research agenda, policy incubation, provide forward-looking analysis, identify emerging development trends in multiple contexts (including crisis) and collaborate with academia and think tanks to advance UNDP’s contribution to global policy debates and the implementation of UNDP’s Strategic Plan.

In September 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), a universal and transformative set of commitments for ending poverty, improving wellbeing, and protecting the planet. With the 2030 Agenda, 193 countries agreed to tackle the inequalities and marginalisation that are preventing people from realising their full potential. It spells out 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved “for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society” by 2030. And it includes a firm commitment to “leave no one behind” and “endeavour to reach those furthest behind first”.

The 2030 Agenda does not explicitly define the pledge to leave no one behind (LNOB). Establishing a shared understanding of what it means in practice is therefore an essential first step to formulating appropriate initiatives and policies to drive action.

UNDP is developing a framework to guide its own work and as a contribution to wider efforts to implement the leave no one behind, in particular in collaboration with members of the UN Development Group (UNDG). The framework describes broad drivers of inequality that contribute to people being left behind across SDG themes. This framework can provide a starting place to assess who is being left behind in their particular national and local context, and why.

Against this backdrop, UNDP aims to develop a methodology for country-level assessments of who is being left behind and why (LNOB assessment). This methodology would be informed by UN/DP thinking on what it means to leave no one behind, lessons learned from the application of related practices and tools by different development actors, as identified through literature review and consultations. 

SPU is seeking a Consultant to work with a technical team in UNDP, and partners in the UNDG, to undertake the necessary research and consultations, and to support the elaboration of this organising framework and its operationalisation, in particular through the development of a methodology for LNOB assessments.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will work closely with a technical team from across BPPS and the UNDG to review materials, conduct interviews, and consolidate relevant sources to develop the framework and to draft a LNOB assessment methodology for the use of national partners and UN offices. 

The LNOB framework:

• Describes the context and LNOB imperative to achieve the SDGs;
• Outlines the drivers that leave people behind; and
• Derives implications and suggestions on how to operationalise the LNOB commitment.

The LNOB assessment methodology would enable countries to:

• identify populations and groups who are (or are at risk of) being left behind in any given country, and why they are being left behind, with the goal to inform efforts to achieve the SDGs; 
• get an overview of the scope and quality of existing (disaggregated) data and information related to marginalised and disadvantaged populations [i.e. those being left behind]; identify and understand how to fill data gaps; and strengthen national capacities to access, analyse and use related data and information - in particular to understand implications of policies and budget allocations for marginalised and disadvantaged populations and groups;
• establish feedback loops and connections between relevant parts of government; representative organisations and marginalised and disadvantaged communities [i.e. those identified as being left behind- to inform and guide SDG related policies, planning, tracking and reporting; 
• strengthen the capacity of relevant sub-national and national government entities and civil society groups/advisory committees etc - to engage, consult and work with marginalised and disadvantaged populations.

The LNOB methodology should elaborate: 

• when and how LNOB assessments should be undertaken and by whom; 
• options to identify the scope and scale of LNOB assessments, given varying levels of available data, information, capacity

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

In addition to supporting the technical team in drafting a framing paper on operationalizing the LNOB commitment (to be finalized by mid-December), the consultant is expected to:

a) provide an initial annotated outline (by early/mid-November) and then

b) write a practical draft methodology (by mid-December)

for LNOB assessments, taking direction from and integrating suggestions from the technical team.

Delivery Timeline: 

The consultancy work for this assignment is 1.5 months to be undertaken over the period from 06 November to 15 December 2017.

Competencies

• Strong analytical and communication skills;
• Strong understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of data sources, indexes and indicators used to track and assess multi-dimensional poverty, inequalities and vulnerabilities;
• Proven track-record of finding innovative ways around data and capacity constraints; and in assessing and employing indicators, indexes, proxies, new technologies etc.;
• Good interpersonal skills and proven ability to work in a multi-cultural setting, while at the same time being capable of working independently to agreed workplans;
• Demonstrated organisational and planning skills, and ability to meet deadlines and to manage multiple tasks effectively and efficiently;

Understanding of the 2030 Agenda and implementation issues

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Masters’ Degree in sustainable development, development planning or a related field is required.

Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of experience in integrated policy-making for sustainable development is required;
• Experience in working on whole-of-government approaches as well as in multi-stakeholder outreach and engagement is desirable;
• Demonstrated excellent synthesizing, writing and editing skills are required;
• Field-based experience in relevant field of development; work experience within the UN Development System and knowledge of UN normative frameworks at policy and legal level is desirable;

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required

Application Procedure

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

• Proposed outline for research on methodology, indicating available start date (up to 500 words);
• Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form /P11) including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained, including short-list of relevant publications drafted by the applicant and references (with links wherever possible).

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 daily fee (based on a 7-hours working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
• 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.  
• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should 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.
• 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. Relevance and feasibility of research outline for LNOB assessment methodology: Weight = 20%; Maximum Points: 20
• Criteria 2. Experience in working with data sources, indexes and indicators used to track and assess multi-dimensional poverty, inequalities and vulnerabilities Weight = 20 %; Maximum Points: 20
• Criteria 3. Familiarity with relevant aspects of the 2030 Agenda. Weight = 15 %; Maximum Points: 15
• Criteria 4. Experience in synthesizing diverse information and presenting it in a concise manner to be understood by a wide audience from government and civil society: Weight = 15 %; Maximum Points: 15

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 Policy Specialist, BPPS, SPU and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The assignment will be home-based and the consultant is expected to be available for teleconference when required. He/she will also be expected to visit the office in New York in early/mid-November (upon submission of the annotated outline), approx. 1 week.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop. 

Payment Modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hours working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily. 

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 - IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 - RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.

Additional Questions:

• Can you confirm that you have Masters’ Degree in sustainable development, development planning or a related field?
• Can you confirm that you have demonstrated excellent synthesizing, writing and editing skills?
• Can you confirm that you have Minimum 15 years of experience in integrated policy-making for sustainable development?
• Are you a former staff of the UN/UNDP? If yes, please clarify the reason of separation?
• Are you a UN/UNDP retiree?