UNDP Jobs - 84298- Consultancy – ICT Support for Deployments, CB/UNDP

Consultancy – ICT Support for Deployments, CB/UNDP

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Apr-2019

Application Deadline :

05-Apr-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 months/ 40 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

12 months/ 40 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The Crisis Bureau (CB) is responsible for UNDP’s corporate crisis response strategy and capability. It develops and drives UNDP’s vision and priorities for crisis response, coordinates and facilitates UNDP’s crisis response with a whole-of-UNDP approach, provides oversight for all UNDP crisis response actions and ensures high quality engagement of the organization in crisis in general. The responsibility of CB focuses primarily upon and is confined to the two specific typologies of crisis listed below, to which CB provides support for limited duration:

• Sudden onset crisis: This would include countries that have been affected by natural disasters or sudden outbreak of armed conflicts;

• Complex protracted crisis: Examples include countries that are impacted by protracted conflicts, often with regional implications.

CB’s key functions, include: i) advising UNDP on identifying the level of a particular crisis or on scaling up or down a particular response; ii) leading timely and informed decision-making and management actions, particularly on high level crises; iii) supporting early warning and guiding corporate preparedness for crisis response; iv) managing UNDP’s crisis response tools (including Standard Operating Procedures for Crisis Response and the Crisis Response Packages); and v) managing deployments for crisis response through the SURGE and ExpRes rosters. The deployment of technical and operations experts through the SURGE (UNDP Staff), ExpRes (Consultants), and Standby Partnerships mechanisms are a key component of UNDP’s response to the immediate crisis and technical support to Country Offices.

SURGE Advisors are UNDP staff with extensive crisis experience in at least one of 26 generic UNDP profiles who are deployed to fill capacity gaps within CO units facing unexpected workload/portfolio requirements due to a crisis.

The Experts Roster for Rapid Response (ExpRes) is a recruitment and deployment mechanism which maintains pre-vetted consultants on a roster and contracts them quickly for country office support. The primary purpose of this roster has been to deploy Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR) technical experts to UNDP Country Offices on short notice in the aftermath of a crisis and for CPR Programming.

UNDP has Memorandums of Understanding with eight Stand by Partners who provide in-kind support to the UN through the deployment of technical expertise for crisis preparedness and response.

The RRPT is also responsible for managing deployment infrastructure and this includes expert databases, deployment tracking systems (DTS), automated communication tools, trainings and communications materials. The experts database allow for collating of all information related to the experts such as qualifications, avaibality etc. and also serves as the search engine for identifying experts for specific assignments.

The Crisis Bureau is looking for an ICT expert with extensive Share Point experience to support this deployment infrastructure. Under the overall supervision of the Team Leader, Rapid Response and Preparedness Team, and the day to day management of the Programme Specialist (Deployments), the Consultant will be responsible for the effective and efficient functioning and development of the ICT aspects of the CB’s Deployment mechanisms.

Objective:

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will support this deployment infrastructure. Under the overall supervision of the Team Leader, Rapid Response and Preparedness Team, and the day to day management of the Programme Specialist (Deployments), the Consultant will be responsible for the effective and efficient functioning and development of the ICT aspects of the CB’s Deployment mechanisms.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

Expected outputs and deliverables:

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist (Deployments) the Consultant will:

Provide technical support and troubleshooting for all ICT aspects of the deployment infrastructure
Develop/upgrade/enhance the Crisis Bureau Deployment Tracking System (DTS), including automated responses and reminders, evaluations, and reporting
Add new components (including contextualization) as required to the DTS
Oversee the maintenance and development of the deployments dashboard
Monitor and troubleshot flow of automated emails to ensure timely dispatch of information related to deployments
Support the continuous enhancement of the online vetting system
Oversee the maintenance and development of the SURGE Portal
Set up an online consultant review/assessment system for recruitments through the ExpRes roster
Provide ICT technical support to the deployment team’s outreach initiatives (web development, social media etc.)
Provide technical guidance and market research for identification of a new deployment database software and other relevant applications
Test potential new applications and their functionality, prior to adoption by the deployments team
Support ICT aspects of the UNDP wide integration of rosters including absorbing of existing rosters

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Ability to manage a team effectively;
Must possess effective conflict management skills;
Must have effective planning and organizing skills;
Must have effective communication skills;
Must have effective knowledge sharing skills.

Ethics & Values:

Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity;
Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status.

Functional Competencies:

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
Delivers verbal/written information in a timely, clear, organized and easily understood manner;
Excellent oral and written skills to develop knowledge products in relevant areas;
Meticulous and attention to detail, well versed in fact and policy checking;
Strong communication skills and the ability to listen and take direction and leadership from others.

Self-Management & Emotional Intelligence:

Creates synergies through self-control; tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity; and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively.
Conceptual analytical and evaluative skills to conduct independent research and analysis

Knowledge Sharing & Continuous Learning:

Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge.

Technical Competencies:

Extensive knowledge of SharePoint Server 2013 out-of-the-box features;
Extensive knowledge of Nintex Workflow 2013;
Extensive knowledge of InfoPath Designer 2013;
Must possess knowledge of SharePoint development best practices;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Master’s Degree in Computer Science or Bachelor’s Degree plus equivalent work experience (12 years or more) is required.

Experience:

Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in developing and maintaining web business applications is required;
Minimum of three years’ experience in the development and maintenance of SharePoint applications is required;
Minimum two-year ICT Project Management experience is required; Required
Experience in setting up and managing SharePoint based systems for crisis response, preferably in the UN system is desired;
Experience in MS SharePoint, with relevant exposure to SharePoint 2013; HTML, CSS, JavaScript/JQuery and XML would be considered as an asset; Desired
Good understanding of and ability to work with core SharePoint features such as document libraries, lists, Web Parts, workflows, metadata, taxonomy, search, site settings and configuration, and user administration is desired;
Relevant experience in using SharePoint Designer is desired;
Familiarity with the workings of the UN systems and in particular in the area of crisis response and recovery is desired;

Language:

Proficiency in English both written and oral is required;

Application Procedure

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

A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references;

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 hour 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; (excluding mission travel); 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.
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. (Minimum of 10 years) Proven and relevant experience in developing and maintaining web business applications. Weight = 28.5%; Maximum Points: 20;
Criteria 2. Experience in setting up and managing SharePoint based systems for crisis response. Weight = 28.5 %; Maximum Points: 20;
Criteria 3. Proven working in the different pillars of the UN system is highly desirable. Weight = 14.3 %; Maximum Points: 10;
Criteria 4. Proven ability to deliver in a timely manner within cost and quality standards. Weight = 7.2%; Maximum Points: 5;
Criteria 5. Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural setting. Weight = 7.2%; Maximum Points: 5;
Criteria 6. Proven networking skills in the development/humanitarian sector to leverage new ideas and technologies. Weight = 14.3%; Maximum Points: 10;

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 SURGE Deployment Coordinator/Deployment Specialist in the Crisis Interface Team, UNDP CB, New York and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

A work station will be provided to the consultant in the UNDP CB. The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop. Frequent interactions and consultations with a variety of UN stakeholders will form an integral part of the consultant’s duties.

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 hour 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.