Background

The ART Initiative – Hub for Territorial Partnerships is a UNDP’s global project that is geared at harnessing the potential of territorial partnerships through a variety of modalities, such as Decentralized Cooperation, South-South and triangular cooperation.

Through the ART Initiative, UNDP promotes Local Economic Development (LED) in territories where considered a priority by the national and territorial stakeholders. A wide network of international centres of excellence (e.g. organisations, associations, universities, research institutes, etc.) and local governments articulate their support to LED processes through the Initiative and its framework programmes in partner countries. While LED is rooted in a decades-long history of theory and practice in both developed and developing countries, never has there been a more pressing demand to fully explore and understand different models of LED and scale up best practices. This is reflected in growing international interest in LED as a vehicle for facilitating the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indeed, since the LED approach boosts a strategic, integrated and transversal perspective emanating from locally driven partnerships, it is potentially relevant to most SDGs, and constitutes a potential framework for channelling their overall implementation at the local level, connecting different SDGs objectives and principles, and fostering linkages and complementarities as part of a coherent, multidimensional setting.

In this context, ART is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Forum of Local Economic Development, an ongoing process that culminates every two years with the celebration of a global event. Since 2011, the Forum is offered as a platform to critically review experiences and assumptions that dominate LED discourse and practices. The Forum provides a space for a critical reflection and aims at promoting creative discussions on how can we do things differently in order to better respond to the key challenges that are presented in the new SDGs and the related 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Forum’s process is jointly promoted by UNDP together with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organization of Regions United (ORU FOGAR), with the support of the Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE), Municipality of Turin and Metropolitan City of Turin and the Government of Cabo Verde.

After the celebration of the 4th edition of the World Forum in Praia, Cabo Verde, in October 2017, the forum process is poised to continue in 2018 and 2019 and will include several thematic and regional meetings before the 5th world edition to be celebrated in Cordoba, Argentina in the fall 2019. In order to strengthen the process of the World Forum of LED and in the path leading up to the 5th world edition in Cordoba, Argentina, UNDP is looking for a junior consultant that shall provide technical support to the Executive Committee and National organizing Committee of the WF of LED in support of the world forum of LED process.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Executive Committee and the National Organizing Committee and shall report back to it. The consultant will be contracted by UNDP on behalf of the Executive Committee.

In particular, he/she will undertake the following duties:

Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Support the coordination of the Executive Committee;
  • Provide technical support for the organization of the meetings of the Executive Committee;
  • Produce agendas, summaries and other relevant documents under the guidance of the Ex. Co. members;
  • Ensure technical follow up to any decision of the committee;
  • Support the mobilization and participation of partners in the Forums;
  • Identify and invite institutions that can meaningfully contribute to the events;
  • Organize follow-up meetings with them to concretize their involvement;
  • Identify potential speakers, send invitations and tracking participant registration;
  • Support the participation of foreign delegations to the Forum;
  • Liaise with executive committee members to track participation of delegations;
  • Liaise with the National Organizing Committee;
  • Provide guidance to the National Organizing Committee with regards to organizational and logistical aspects of the forum’s organization;
  • Report back to the Ex. Committee any advances in the organization of the event;
  • Provide support in the logistics for the smooth running of the events:
  • Support general logistical arrangements;
  • Produce a logistics note for speakers and participants;
  • Provide information and assistance to participants as required, including issuing invitation letters as requested, in support of visa procedures and assisting with participants' travel needs;
  • Any other similar tasks as requested.

Expected outputs and deliverables

  • Virtual and in person meetings of the members of the Executive Committee  supported;
  • Wide array of partners informed and mobilized to participate in the Forum;
  • Direct liaison between the National Organizing Committee and the Executive Committee ensured;
  • Notes on logistical and organizational aspects drafted and  widely distributed;

The consultant will directly report to the Executive Committee and the National Organising Committee. She/he will be requested to provide monthly report to update the committees on advances.

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, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

  • Ability to work in a team;
  • Ability to work independently;
  • Working knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues including gender equality and empowerment issues, as well as a good knowledge of the inter linkages between the social, economic, environmental and cultural dimensions of sustainable development.
  • Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills;
  • Openness to change and ability to receive / integrate feedback;
  • Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
  • Excellent writing skills;
  • Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNDP.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced degree in a relevant discipline, such as Political Science, International Relations, Development Management, etc

Experience:

  • 1-2 years of relevant work experience;
  • Previous experience in supporting the organization of international events;
  • Knowledge of international development related processes, e.g. post 2015, Global Partnership for development cooperation effectiveness, etc.
  • Knowledge of LED processes is an asset;
  • Experience in working with local governance and local development actors is an asset;
  • Past experience in working with international and multilateral organizations is an asset;
  • Knowledge of the Latin American region is an asset.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in spoken and written Spanish and English.  French is a distinct advantage

 

Important notice

Application Submission Process:

Interested consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one(1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

Financial Proposal:

The proposal shall be provided as per the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780 and needs to be sent to: procurement.be@undp.org by  22 April 2019. The proposals should be sent via email with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal / ART initiative - Junior Technical Officer”. Proposals received after the deadline will be rejected. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown. The term ‘all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal. 

Criteria for Evaluation of Proposal:

Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated.  Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the educational background, experience on similar assignments, letter of interest and brief methodology will be weighted at 70% and the price proposal will weigh as 30% of the total scoring.  The applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score that has also accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract. Only Consultants obtaining a minimum of 70% on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 100 points:

Criteria A – Relevant work experience in the field of development – max points: 30;

Criteria B – Relevant work experience in the organization of international events – max points: 30;

Criteria C – Concept and experience in working on international development processes, including knowledge on local economic development -  max points: 20;

Criteria D – Methodology approach – max points: 20.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 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.

Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

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.