Background

As a trusted multilateral partner serving 177 countries and territories around the world, UNDP is uniquely positioned to help advocate for change, connect countries to the knowledge and resources they need to develop and to coordinate the efforts of the United Nations at the country level.

The Responsive and Accountable Institutions Team (RAI), in the Governance and Peacebuilding Cluster of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, contributes to UNDP’s integrated work on rebuilding the basic functionality of government at the national and subnational level, strengthening local governance systems, and promoting responsiveness and accountability of institutions, with a particular focus on fragile and conflict-affected setting.

A core area of work of the RAI Team is supporting effective local governance and local development (LGLD) in urban and rural areas by strengthening the capacities of sub-national institutions and actors to deliver public services and sustain peace, ensuring that the state responds to the needs of communities in a more inclusive manner, strengthening social cohesion and supporting local resilience, including that of marginalized communities. Support is also provided to local governance as a multi-layered system, contributing to building effective relationships and coordination systems between central, regional, municipal and community governance levels. This also includes support to national and subnational governments to localize the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, through strengthened multilevel governance and partnerships for the implementation of the SDGs.  Additionally, and in order to deliver faster and more consistently in the aftermath of crises, a Crisis Response Package on the Restoration of Core Government Functions, including a pillar on Local Governance, is being developed together with UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. This includes a set of tools for programming on local governance in the aftermath of crisis, as well a training offer to build the capacity of UNDP country office staff on local governance.

As part of the Crisis Response Packages, and in order to respond to the high demand for accessible training in this field, the RAI Team is partnering with UNICEF to develop an e-learning course on ‘Local Governance for Sustaining Peace’.  The e-learning aims to offer a flexible and easily accessible training option providing an overview of the subject, equipping users with the foundations for understanding the main issues and approaches to local governance in conflict and fragile affected settings, as well as facilitating tools, resources and guidance developed by UNDP, UNICEF and partners for further capacity building in this field.

The e-learning course on ‘Local Governance for Sustaining Peace’ will build on the existing training materials and resources developed by UNDP, UNICEF, DeLoG and UNCDF for an in-person training on this same topic, and will use examples, cases, guidance and lessons learned from both UNDP and UNICEF country engagements as part of the e-learning material.

Objective of consultancy:

The objective of this consultancy is to carry out the revision of the existing training curricula and resources previously developed for the in-person training on Local Governance for Sustaining Peace’ to select, adapt and convert it into a format and amount that can be used for the e-learning course format.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Local Governance Specialist, and in collaboration with the e-vendor, the consultant will assume the following role and responsibilities:

• The Consultant will work with the Local Governance Specialist and the Local Governance Programme Analyst, as well as with UNICEF counterpart, to identify the learning needs, scope and focus for the training.
• The Consultant will analyse the existing training curricula and resources from the in-person training material, and extract relevant material, resources, cases and exercises for the e-learning course.
• Based on this selection, as well as on his/her knowledge of the subject of local governance in conflict and fragile settings and his/her knowledge of and experience working with adult training methodologies, the consultant will develop a proposal for the content of the e-learning course (breakdown in chapters, “storyline/storyboard”, text and possible voice over, presentation of cases and exercises, delivery modalities, e.g. texts, videos, animations, interactive exercises, etc.) that will serve as the foundation for the design and development of the e-learning course.
• The Consultant will ensure a balanced representation and inclusion of both UNDP and UNICEF cases, examples and policy and programme guidance/resources throughout the e-learning.
• The Consultant will work with the UNDP and UNICEF teams as well as with the e-developer for the duration of the development of the e-learning course to ensure that the e-learning design accurately reflects the content and meets the learning needs of users, as well as to adapt and/or integrate any additional substantial content, text, examples/cases as needed during the development and design of the e-learning.

• Expected Deliverables:

  The total duration of the assignment is set for 23 working days between November 2018 to March 2019. During this period, the following milestones and deliverables are expected:

  	Deliverable	Time Dedicated	Date for deliverable
  1	Proposal for the content of the e-learning course, divided in the following: A proposal for how the existing training material may be adapted to online e-learning format including a course outline of proposed sections/chapters, and country cases and/or exercises for each section. A proposal for the text for each section and subsections of the e-learning, and when needed, text for possible voice over). This deliverables is to be presented in a format that can l be easily shared with e-vendor and form basis of discussion with the e-vendor for the development of the e-learning modules.	80% (18 days)	21 January 2019
  2	Integration of needed changes and/or additions to content of e-learning after revision and test of the first iteration of e-learning course.	20 % (5 days)	30 April 2019

Impact of Results

E-learning courses are widely accessible enabling the users to progress on his/her own terms and abilities. Hence it is an especially important tool to reach out to development practitioners working in the field of local governance, peacebuilding or related fields but, who are not able to participate in full-time or all-day learning events. As the course will be free of charge, enrolment accessible to all with no pre-qualifications required, the course allow for an inclusive approach to capacity development on all levels.

This e-learning will contribute to:

• facilitate a better understanding of UNDP’s and UNICEF’s work on local governance and sustaining peace, highlighting the comparative advantages as well as complementarities of the two agencies in an effort to strengthen collaboration between agencies, particularly at national and local level.
• strengthen understanding of the conceptual underpinnings to promote a stronger focus on local governance for crisis response and for sustaining peace.
• to equip staff and development practitioners with frameworks and tools for designing and implementing local governance programmes that can effectively contribute to stabilization and recovery after a crisis and building resilient peace in the long-term.
• to strengthen knowledge- and practice-sharing on local governance in fragile and conflict-affected settings, through the use of country case studies.
• to make a training framework and resources available to field/programme staff and national and local partners that they can adapt to their particular countries and contexts and use for capacity development activities geared to their programme beneficiaries. 

The course will target:

• UNDP and UNICEF staff, particularly working on local governance, local economic development, crisis recovery, service delivery and conflict prevention at country level;
• UNDP’s and UNICEF’s development partners from government, civil society and academia, particularly working at the local level;
• Regional and local governments and their associations, national governments, national and local SDG focal points and policy makers;

Development practitioners working on local governance, LED, urban governance / urban crisis, sustainable development in fragile settings, SDG localization.

Competencies

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the UN system;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Communication:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Professionalism:

• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Focuses on results;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Technical Competencies:

• Ability to work independently and make decisions that support and align with the organization’s overall goals and objectives.

• Ability to communicate complex ideas and concepts in clear language, facilitating the learning by others.
• Ability Expertise in Local Governance / Local Development policy and programming in crisis settings, including in fragile and conflict-affected settings);
• Expertise in adult learning methodologies and training development;
• Demonstrated ability to develop new instructional/learning programmes and effective training material on based on the principles of adult learning;
• Demonstrated ability to apply current research, policy and programme guidance, case study material and theory to the practice of instructional design.

Required Skills and Experience

Education;

At least advanced university degree in development studies, political sciences, international relations, social sciences or related discipline, required

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience in Local Governance, local economic development and community development programme/project design, implementation and evaluation, of which a minimum of 5 years in in challenging environments/ crisis affected countries and with conflict-sensitive approaches; required
• Experience developing capacity building / training programmes for development practitioners; required
• Experience and knowledge of adult learning methodologies; required
• Previous experience with UN/UNDP/UNICEF systems and processes is an asset; desired

Languages

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Evaluation of the applications

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.

The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical (desk reviews based on CV) and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates who meet the minimum requirements reflected in the Terms of Reference will be longlisted. Longlisted candidates will be evaluated during a desk review and must obtain at least 70% of the total obtainable points (490 points out of 700) to be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation (Up to 700 points)

• Criteria A: Relevance of the expertise in Local Governance, local economic development and community development programme/project design for this assignment. Maximum points:, 200 points;
• Criteria B: Relevance of the experience and knowledge of adult learning methodologies for this assignment. Maximum points: 200 points;
• Criteria C: Experience/familiarity with the UN system Maximum Points: 100 points.
• Criteria D: Interview. Maximum Points: 200

The top three candidates resulting from the desk review evaluation will be invited for a phone interview, Interviewees who do not obtain at least 50% of the interview obtainable points will not be considered for financial evaluation.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation.

Application procedures:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

• CV;
• Financial Proposal- Costs related to missions will be paid separately as per UNDP rules and regulation. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services).

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

Payment Scheme

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 the Local Governance Specialist and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above

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.