Background

The Praia Group on Governance Statistics (the “Praia Group”) was created by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2015, to contribute to establishing international standards and methods for the compilation of statistics on the major dimensions of Governance, and to collaborate with the UN bodies and other organisations concerned with specific aspects of Governance statistics. The overall objective of the Praia Group is to encourage countries to produce Governance statistics based on sound and documented methodologies. The specific objectives of the Praia Group are to provide a forum for national and international statistical organizations, international agencies, as well as academia, research groups and civil society organisations to share and develop expertise in Governance statistics and to review, propose and promote the definition and harmonization of Governance indicators, through the development of manuals and methodological guidelines.

The Praia City group has been given a mandate by the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) to produce a Handbook on governance statistics, which will be submitted for consideration to the 51st Session of UNSC in 2020. For this purpose, a final draft of the Handbook must be completed by November 2019. The Handbook builds on a conceptual and statistical framework established within a Praia Group Working Paper and includes specific governance dimensions that will be reflected as chapters in the Handbook. The Handbook is expected to be roughly 250 - 300 pages and will include the following structure: 

• Executive Summary
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
• Chapter 2 – Measuring Governance: Cross-Cutting Themes
• Chapter 3 – Human Rights
• Chapter 4 – Participation
• Chapter 5 – Openness
• Chapter 6 – Access to and quality of justice
• Chapter 7 – Responsiveness
• Chapter 8 – Government effectiveness
• Chapter 9 – Absence of corruption
• Chapter 10 – Trust
• Chapter 11 – Safety and security

Each of the above chapters are being developed through inputs and drafting by Praia member organisations with each group comprising approximately 5-10 member organisations. The groups are led by an institutional member of the Praia group who facilitates the members’ contributions and is responsible for the development of the chapter following the milestones and deadlines established by the Praia Group Secretariat and its steering committee.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT / REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS   
The Secretariat of the Praia Group, under the supervision of its Steering Committee, will provide overall supervision of the assignment. The Consultant is expected to provide weekly updates on progress in the assignment to the steering committee.

TRAVEL
The consultant will be required to attend at least one physical meeting of the Praia Group during the contract period. However, since the time and location of this meeting is yet to be determined, the travel will be at UNDP’s expense and the consultant shall receive a per diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications.

Step 1: Submission of technical proposal. That will include providing application via UNDP Job-shop (jobs.undp.org )

Interested candidates should provide the following documents and information

• Uploading a CV/P11 and a statement of interest indicating all past experience for similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references (the template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc;

• A mandatory, brief description and justification (approx. 300-500 words) of the approach proposed to conduct the tasks required for this assignment, demonstrating how the applicant’s qualifications and experience will enable him/her to successfully deliver against the requirements of this assignment.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Step 2: Financial Proposal.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The financial proposal should state the all-inclusive, fixed total contract price in USD, supported by a breakdown of costs. The term ‘all inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, travel as per ToR etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. The form can be found here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780.

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 this at in the Financial Proposal, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.   The consultant will be paid only after approving authority confirms the successful completion of each deliverable as stipulated under chapter 3.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses will be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP will 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.

Upon request, the Financial Proposal is to be e-mailed as per the instruction in the separate e-mail that will be sent to shortlisted candidates only.

Criteria for selection of individual consultant for award of contract:

Only those candidates who meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review and may also include interviews with shortlisted candidates.

The combine scoring method will be used to evaluate proposals:

Combined scoring method – the qualifications will be weighted a maximum of 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%.

Technical criteria weight: 70 (70% of total obtainable scores). Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 (70%) points on technical part will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial criteria weight: 30 (30% of total obtainable scores)

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:

• 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.

Technical Evaluation (70 Points) 70% weight
Criteria and scores for technical evaluation (total 70):

• Direct experience and expertise in the area of governance statistics (15 points)
• Experience and expertise with the development of statistics manuals and handbooks (15 points)
• Demonstrated ability to organize and structure information (10 points)
• Superior analytical and research skills  (10 points)
• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrating complete fluency in English language  (10 points)
• Demonstrated accuracy and attention to detail (5 points)
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure  (5 points)

Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 49 of the obtainable points of 70 points (70%) in technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Evaluation. 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

Consultant presence required on duty station/UNDP premises

Not required

Payment terms

The consultant will be paid as stipulated in the deliverable/payment schedule above.

References:

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20- %20General%20Conditions.pdf 

Duties and Responsibilities

The Praia City Group Secretariat within the Statistics Cabo Verde (INE CV) and the Praia City Steering Committee would like to hire the services of a Statistics  Expert and Writer for the Praia City Group on Governance Statistics Handbook to provide quality assurance and drafting support in the content development and finalization of the Handbook.

The Consultant will be responsible for:

• Supporting the Praia Group Secretariat in coordination of the chapters (for example, to avoid the overlaps of the chapters)
• Supporting the development of the introduction chapter and cross cutting chapter of the Handbook
• Proposing a coherent order for the sequencing of the chapters 
• Ensuring that the chapters of the handbook, and especially those covering different governance dimensions, do not overlap in their coverage, this should be done through identifying areas of overlap and following up with relevant chapter leads to agree on how this should be resolved.
• Participating in meetings of the Handbook chapter leads and Praia Steering Committee and providing strategic advice to support the Group
• Participating in meetings of the Chapter working groups to gain familiarity with the scope and content of each chapter
• Being available to communicate with the Praia City Group Secretariat/Steering Committee at the start and during the assignment and to be available for consultation online or by phone for follow-up questions. 
• Incorporating comments and inputs coming from the global consultation on the final draft.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Direct experience and expertise in the area of governance statistics
• Experience and expertise with the development of statistics manuals and handbooks
• Demonstrated ability to organize and structure information
• Superior analytical and research skills
• Excellent analytical and writing skills demonstrating complete fluency in English language 
• Demonstrated accuracy and attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Displays political, cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Excellent understanding of international development issues and knowledge of the UN system.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in statistics, political science, development, or other relevant disciplines.

Professional Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of professional work experience in a related field
• Expert knowledge and working experience with governance measurement and governance statistics;
• Proven experience in conducting research and writing papers or policy guidance publications;
• Experience from academia/think tank environments;

LANGUAGE:                       

• Fluency in English, both written and oral.
• Fluency in another UN language is an asset.