The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is the UN’s Global Development Network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in over 170 countries, employing participatory approaches to developing local solutions to national and global development challenges. UNDPs core vision is to help countries achieve simultaneous eradication of poverty and significant reduction of inequalities and exclusion. 

The Gender Team of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) is the institutional anchor of UNDP’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Gender Team provides policy advice and technical support to all of UNDP’s Bureaus and leadership on how to mainstream gender across all areas of their work. The Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality. In addition, the Gender Team supports the Administrator and senior management in addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment in their convening and representational functions.

The global programme, Inclusive and Equitable Local Development (IELD) is jointly implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and UN Women. The programme addresses structural impediments that prevent women from entering the labour market through local public and private investments, with an emphasis on unlocking domestic capital for women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship. IELD is currently being piloted in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in 2018-2019, which include Bangladesh, Tanzania, Uganda, Palestine, Senegal and Mali.   

Within this framework, the UNDP seeks a consultant to deliver key time bound products of the IELD project, as well as of women’s economic empowerment portfolio in UNDP. The successful candidate will be based in UNDP and will report to the Director of UNDP Gender Team based in HQ and the IELD Programme Manager based in UNCDF HQ on a day to day basis.

• Coordinated and delivered “Capacity Building Modules for Local Authorities on Gender-Responsive Economics” (June-December, estimated at 55 days)

             -   Validation workshop coordinated, and workshop report developed (June- July, estimated at 15 days)

             -   Capacity building modules in coordination with external experts finalized including design & layout (Jun - Oct appx 25 days)

             -   First training of coordinated and carried out (December, estimated at 15 days).

• Resource mobilization strategy for the IELD programme developed (July-December, estimated at 30 days).
• High Level Political Forum IELD event coordinated including agenda and event report (July-August, estimated at 10 days).
• Portfolio review of UNDP work on women’s economic empowerment coordinated, including desk review, gather up information and develop final report, and design at least three proposals to engage new partners developed (June-December, estimated at 30 days)
• External technical/operational support to the IELD programme required provided including the support to the country offices (June-December, estimated at 39 days)

Duration 

• Contract timeframe from 3 June 2019 to 31 December 2019
• The consultancy will be full-time, 5 working days a week for a total of 148 days

Location

• Consultancy is office-based in New York

Institutional arrangement:

• The Consultant will be based in UNDP and will report to the Director of UNDP Gender Team based in HQ and the IELD Programme Manager based in UNCDF HQ on a day to day basis, BPPS.
• The Consultant will use his/her own laptop and software.

Travel

• No travel foreseen
• In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses will be agreed upon (guided by the UNDP Travel Policy), between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

• 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. 

• Excellent interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop herself or himself professionally
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments
• Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office

Academic Qualifications:

• MA Degree or equivalent in Economics or related field.

 Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible experience on gender and economics issues, preferably 2-3 years of which in field experience in the area of women’s economic empowerment.
• In-depth grasp of the relevance of gender in conceptualizing, articulating and debating issues relating to local development, poverty and feminist economics in general
• Experience at national and international level providing advisory services and establishing programmes specifically on gender and economics.
• Experience in drafting donor proposals, communications materials
• Good computer research and network management skills
• Prior knowledge and experience of the UN system highly desirable

Language

• Fluency and excellent analytical writing skills in English.
• Second official UN language an asset.

How to apply 

STEP 1

Qualified applicants are requested to apply online via this website. Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications (note: all documents must be compiled into one file to be uploaded as part of the online application):

• Cover letter explaining why the candidate is the most suitable for the assignment; and
• 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.

STEP 2

Financial Proposal

After review of applications, shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be contacted by UNDP and requested to submit a Financial Proposal:

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee base on TOR deliverables for 148 working days;
• 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; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; 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.
• 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 submitted by email as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Incomplete applications will not be considered, so please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Qualified women are encouraged to apply.

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

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

The consultant’s offer will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%;

Technical qualifications (Weight 70%)

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

Criteria for the desk review:

• Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible experience on gender and economics issues, preferably 2-3 years of which in field experience in the area of women’s economic empowerment (20 Points)
• In-depth grasp of the relevance of gender in conceptualizing, articulating and debating issues relating to local development, poverty and feminist economics in general (20 points)
• Experience at national and international level providing advisory services and establishing programmes specifically on gender and economics (20 points)
• Experience in drafting donor proposals, communications materials (10 points)

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP may invite shortlisted candidates for an interview. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - IC Contract Template  Sample only

Annex 2 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 3 – RLA Template