Background

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

Objective:

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.

In accordance with these responsibilities, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub plans to develop a report succinctly illustrating the depth and width of UNDP’s contributions in 2018 towards advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls in countries in Asia and the Pacific.  The report will also include analysis of UNDP’s demonstrated strength and opportunities captured in 2018 to advance gender equality and empower women and girls in the region.

Scope of work:

Under the overall guidance of Asia-Pacific Regional Gender Team Leader based in Bangkok, and in close consultation with Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific, the consultant will undertake the development of an annual report as described above.

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

1. Desk review of relevant materials communicating or reporting UNDP’s work and contribution relating to advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls;
2. Identify outstanding examples to be highlighted in the report;
3. Analyze trends and commonalities in the strategies and effectiveness in terms of UNDP’s gender equality results across the region;
4. Draft a report using accessible language.

Performance of the consultant is monitored closely, and regular feedback will be provided by Asia-Pacific Regional Gender Team Leader.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The final product is ‘2018 Annual Report on UNDP’s contribution to gender equality and empowerment of women in Asia and the Pacific’. The consultant is expected to deliver the followings:

Institutional Arrangement:

Three face-to-face consultations with Regional Gender Team Leader in Bangkok for progress monitoring and quality assurance as well as to ensure the timely delivery of the specified deliverables.

Duration of the Assignment:

Up to a maximum of 20 working days over a period of maximum 3 months. The expected starting date is 05 December 2018, and the expected ending date is 28 February 2019.

Duty Station:

This is a home-based assignment with three face-to-face consultations at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, Bangkok, Thailand.  Indicative dates for the consultations are: 1st meeting – during the week of 17th December 2018; 2nd meeting – during the week of 7th January 2019; and 3rd meeting – during the week of 18th February 2019.

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

Essential

• Master’s degree or equivalent in relevant areas such as Gender Studies, Development Studies, or Public Policy;
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in research and analysis on social development and/or public policy issues;
• Professional experience in the UN’s development work;
• Working knowledge of development challenges in Asia and the Pacific, in particular in the fields of social development or public policy;
• Proven fluency in English writing skills.

Desirable

• Previous relevant experience with UNDP 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.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

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:

• 1st payment upon the submission and approval of Deliverable 2:  First Draft Guidance Note: 60% of total contract amount
• 2nd payment upon the submission and approval of Deliverable 3 Final Draft Guidance Note: 40% of total contract amount

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.

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:

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.

• Relevant academic background (10%)
• Demonstrable relevant experience in research and analysis on social development and/or public policy issues (40%)
• Working knowledge of development challenges in Asia and the Pacific, in particular in the fields of social development or public policy (30%)
• Professional experience in the UN’s development work (10%)
• Fluency in written English (10%)

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

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document/ or one ZIP File 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, 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.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short listed candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ Report Writing-2018 UNDP Gender Equality Contribution in Asia and the Pacific

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at : http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=51463