Background

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy and programme work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office (CO) levels, forms a continuous spectrum of deep, local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. Within this context, UNDP invests in a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.

Enabling the network of expertise across the SDGs, within and beyond UNDP, SDG Integration is the team that influences, shapes, and activates platforms for intersectional collaboration for complex, multi-faceted, and ‘frontier’ issues in sustainable development. As such, the SDG Integration team is at the heart of UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN). In collaboration with relevant Regional, CO and HQ units, the SDG Integration team in Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) curates and coordinates support on SDG implementation at the CO level and ensures that UNDP’s offers/integration services are informed by the experiences with implementation on the ground and by the broader debates and analytical advances on SDG implementation.

Concurrently, the programme and policy teams in BRH respond to requests from countries to adapt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a set of SDGs at its core to national, sub-national and local conditions and realities, incorporating regional and global perspectives. In the Asia-Pacific region, how countries manage their cities will be a critical determinant of whether they achieve the SDGs. UNDP has established a cross-practice urban team to help provide the multi-dimensional solutions needed to support inclusive and sustainable urban management. The cross-sectoral urbanization team uses UNDP’s comparative advantage and experience to support countries and cities to address pressing and complex urban issues, its interrelated development choices and consequences for sustainable development. The UNDP Sustainable Urbanization Strategy outlines our unique offers of approaches, mechanisms, and tools that have been successful in defining and addressing gaps for the promotion of more inclusive cities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Under the overall supervision of the SDG Integration Advisor and the Regional Advisor on Local Governance, the consultant will be responsible for:

• SDG Integration and CO Support

  i) Supporting UNDP COs with development solutions for complex, large scale development challenges at the regional and country levels;

  ii) Coordinating multi-disciplinary engagement and collaboration across the SDGs for UNDP pilot/start-up initiatives in support of SDGs as well as an in-house coordination platform for scoping and deploying technical engagements that draw from UNDP’s network of SDG advisory expertise;

  iii) Keeping relevant staff updated on key milestones and supporting the SDG Integration Advisor on applied learning and capacity developments;

  iv) Assisting with the organization and dissemination of SDG Integration team activities and outputs, including drafting meeting briefs and agendas, engaging stakeholders, and preparing communications materials;

  v) demand-driven supporting to the Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific and taking a bridging role between the regional hub and country offices;

• Integrated Urban Team Support

  vi) Implementing the regional integrated urban portfolio in Asia and the Pacific and disseminating lessons learned and approaches from the implementation of urban initiatives and projects;

  vii) Supporting the localization of the SDGs and the coordination of different streams of work on inclusive and sustainable urbanization that incorporates the governance, environment, urban resilience, and climate change teams;

  viii) Tracking data and new trends on urban development, including climate change adaptation and mitigation, to inform the development of feasible policy options;

  ix) Advancing urban and environmental project proposals at both the regional and country levels and assisting in partnership building with focus on ASEAN, Japanese and Korean stakeholders (government, private companies, think tanks, etc.);

  x)  Providing support and technical assistance across functions and teams within BRH and to COs in Asia and the Pacific with a highlight on urban governance and environmental management, including desk research, presenting at relevant forums, drafting and editing briefs, and developing project documents;

• Resource Mobilization and Communications

  xi) Periodically monitoring project activities and progress and ensuring project results are delivered as agreed with donors and external partners;

  xii) Supporting the production of donor reports and assisting in the development and implementation of resource mobilization strategy by conducting research and donor analysis, identifying new potential donors and partners; and

  xiii) Supporting advocacy activities and preparing information package on regional hub updates with specific focus on urban and SDG integration work.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

• Research and Analysis

  i) conduct desk research on the key themes taken up by the Regional Hub especially the Urban team and SDG Integration team, and write briefs, blogs and summaries based on urban data and trends analysis;

  ii) review data and information that the teams are currently using on reports, PowerPoint slides, etc. and update them accordingly;

• Communications and advocacy:

  iii) conduct additional interviews (in Banda-Aceh - Indonesia, Islamabad – Pakistan and possibly other cities where the teams are implementing their projects) and create materials based on the developed micro-narratives of the challenges people face in urban areas;

  iv) continue producing and managing the urban team’s quarterly newsletter – Urban Update and Urban Flash that includes conducting interviews, video filming and photography, writing articles, editing, designing, mailing list updates, and management and disseminating;

  v) develop more various key info-graphics and pictograms on the Regional Hub’s initiatives, especially those are related to sustainable urbanization and SDG integration;

  vi) produce and provide materials such as PowerPoint slides, brochures and briefs for the SDG Integration team in an ad-hoc manner;

  vii) create information packages and distribute the Urban Updates through social media channels including LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.;

  viii) support guiding an intern(s) or young professional(s) on communications and partnerships and provide feedback together with other team members on a regular basis.

• Project Implementation and CO Support:

  ix) conduct required research for the urban team’s on-going and potential projects such as city diagnostics, basic assessment on governmental structure and environment, stakeholders mapping, etc.

  x) support producing concept notes, proposals and project documents in order to mobilize additional resources needed for on-going and potential projects of the urban team (e.g. a proposal to the mission of Japan to ASEAN on SDG indicators establishment in ASEAN).

  xi) assist in producing donor reports, especially for two on-going projects in Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Islamabad, Pakistan, and implement resource mobilization strategy by conducting research, donor analysis, identifying new potential donors and partners;

  xii) prepare for “UNDP-ROK ASIA SDG SUMMIT 2019” in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment of ROK and the Korea Business Council for Sustainable Development, including the development of concept notes, creating agenda and invitation letters, identifying speakers and invitees, designing areas of collaboration with the Ministry and Korean private companies, etc.;

  xiii) support developing projects in smart cities development, circular economy (waste management/plastics), and other environmental issues with identified partners through the Summit;

  xiv) create required documents such as concept notes, briefing notes and talking points for senior managers’ missions to the Republic of Korea and seek opportunities to further collaborate with major actors from Korea;

  xv) support gathering suitable examples to SDG integration from the UNDP country offices and create and disseminate matrix and tables to the country offices as needed;

  xvi) provide policy notes and briefs on urban-related issues covering Asia and the Pacific that directly support the development of taking up urban development in UNDP’s Country Offices, especially Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan Country Offices.

• Support to thought leadership

           xvii) support the research for and compilation and preparation of speeches, talking points, presentation materials, background notes

                  etc. on urbanization and the localization of the SDGs in citites.   

• Support the implement SDG impact measurement in pilot cities (Islamabad, Pakistan and Banda-Aceh, Indonesia) in Asia and the Pacific

           xviii) envision a mix of individual reporting which would leverage BCtA Impact Lab- but mixed with Big Data collection and analysis- to

                   assess impact in the city vis-a-vis selected issues; and

            xix) assist in gathering data and information for the impact measurement that can be comparable before and after the implementation of

                   projects in two cities.

Institutional Arrangement

The international consultant will have matrix reports to the SDG Integration Advisor and the Regional Advisor on Local Governance, and will closely collaborate with urban task team colleagues including provide support to the Asia Pacific Network of Economists as part of the SDG Integration.

Duration of the Work

1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020 for a maximum of 261 working days

Duty Station

Bangkok, Thailand with possible travel to countries in Asia Pacific. 

Competencies

• Strong analytical, reporting and writing skills;

• Openness to adapt and ability to receive/integrate feedback;

• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;

• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;

• A thorough understanding of urban issues, and the SDGs, especially in the Asia Pacific context;

• More complete understanding of the private sector, knowledge of due diligence.

• Advanced skills in the use of the following applications

• Microsoft Office - PowerPoint, Excel, Word

• Graphic design programs - Photoshop, Illustrator

• Video editing programs - Adobe Premiere

• GIS programs - QGIS, ArcGIS

• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills;            

• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;

• Positive, constructive attitude towards work;

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, age sensitivity, and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in sustainable development, urban planning and development, development studies, natural resource management, environmental science, or related fields.

Experience

• 5 years experience with a minimum of 3 years working directly on sustainable urban development related issues;

• Knowledge and research experience on SDGs in an international context; prior experience with UN organization will be advantage;

• Experience working in and/or covering Asia Pacific countries on urban and environmental issues;

• Experience in developing presentations and infographics on urban related issues is preferred.

Language requirements

• Excellent English communication skills.

Price Proposal and Schedule of payment

The contract will be based on Daily Fee

Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

In general, UNDP shall 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

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.                                                  

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevance in education background - Max 10 points;

• Criteria 2: Direct experience in sustainable urban development- Max 25 points;

• Criteria 3: Knowledge and research experience on SDGs- Max 20 points;

• Criteria 4: Urban and/or environment experience in Asia Pacific- Max 20 points;

• Criteria 5: Presentation and infographic development skills- Max 25 points;

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total aocre) would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual 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:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.

• Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultant must quote price in U.S. Dollar that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. 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 at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

• Presentation and infographic design portfolio: sample of your work design in the forms of presentation files, infographics, graphic design including layout and formatting for technical reports, etc.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

To download related documents and templates, please click the link below:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=56983