Background

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract a consultant who will assist UNDP to develop standard operating procedures outlining mechanisms, processes, and workflows for responding to country offices' requests of support on complex development challenges through the GPN portfolio of work on SDG integration.

The UN Reform Resolution tasks UNDP to provide countries with an “integrator function” to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by tackling multiple interlinked and interdependent development challenges. 

The UNDP Global Policy Network (GPN) draws on expertise globally to provide more effective responses to the complex development challenges countries face in achieving the SDGs and responding to crisis in an integrated and coherent manner. Anchored in the Crisis Bureau (CB) and the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), the GPN has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan, which is aligned with the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). 

An SDG Integration Team located with UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) aims to build a coherent and consolidated menu of services (the SDG Integrator “offer”) emphasizing direct short- to medium-term engagements to respond rapidly to requests from country offices for support on national implementation and monitoring of integrated policy solutions, qualitative and evidence-driven analysis for accelerated progress, and knowledge sharing and upscaling of innovative approaches to sustainable development.

UNDP's offer on SDG Integration will unpack and leverage the lessons from existing UNDP initiatives to respond with agility to the demand of support from programme countries in their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda. These include integrated policy support building on the Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) engagements to date, and emphasize the application of evidence-driven data and analytics, the combination of SDG financing approaches, and the identification and scaling up of in-country experiences on innovation, and the roll-out of the nascent network of UNDP Accelerator Labs.

To develop its offer on SDG Integration, UNDP is taking a "learning while doing" approach, reviewing country case studies and best practices, in order to identify the key characteristics of integrated service delivery, and develop a comprehensive narrative to guide the way the organization will go about offering its services as “SDG integrator”. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Review relevant documentation and experiences from existing corporate practices and systems, including the Crisis Bureau's standard operating procedures for immediate crisis response.
• Consult staff and key decision-makers in the GPN at global, regional and country levels.
• Present briefings as required to the Senior Advisory Group on SDG Integration.
• Coordinate closely with the SDG Integration Team to codify and pilot-test the SOPs using the experience of country offices selected as "early movers" on SDG integration as reference base.
• Prepare and finalize draft SOPs on SDG Integration.
• Support a validation exercise (consultations and workshop) for the draft SOPs.
• Provide recommendations on the implementation of the SOPs on SDG Integration. 

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Methodology and workplan 
• Draft SOPs including activation criteria, roles and responsibilities, corporate processes and workflows for country support through UNDP's offer on SDG Integration 
• Validation workshop with select key stakeholders

Estimated timeline:

Competencies

Competencies include: 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and fluency in English;
• Excellent and demonstrated research, synthesizing and critical thinking skills;
• Strong organizational, time-management, and problem-solving skills;
• Proven expertise in the field of policy innovation for development;
• Proven expertise in the field of facilitating stakeholder consensus;
• Proven expertise and deep understanding of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
• Proven ability to create new and relevant business opportunities;
• Ability to engage collaboratively with partners (including other UN agencies), donors, and other development stakeholders and forge productive working relationships;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Master’s Degree or equivalent Advanced Degree in social science, economics or related field with specific focus on systems thinking, strategy and policy development, communications, and innovation.

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of professional work experience in developing country contexts, leading design on integrated service provision or change management, including work on policy and innovation, required
• In-depth knowledge and experience in the use of innovation approaches for development is required;
• Experience with advancing new ways of working in organizations and/or companies, required;
• Experience in planning, organizing, and managing resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals, required;
• Experience of working both at HQ and CO levels will be an advantage. 
• Proven expertise in workshop facilitation is required.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset

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.

• If daily fee: The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included).
• If lumpsum: The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around the specific and measurable deliverables of the TOR. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR, and deliverables accepted and certified by the technical manager. 
• 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: Professional work experience in developing country contexts, leading design on integrated service provision or change management, including work on policy and innovation;  (Weight : 20%; Maximum points: 20 points)
• Criteria 2: Proven expertise in strategy development; systems thinking and elaboration; project development (Weight: 20%; Maximum points: 20 points) 
• Criteria 3: Proven expertise in facilitation of stakeholder workshops, especially at senior level, on change management. (Weight: 15%; Maximum points: 15 points)
• ?Criteria 4: Strong knowledge of policy innovation and of measuring the impact of policy; (Weight: 15%; Maximum points: 15 Points)

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 Head, SDG Integration, a.i., BPPS/HQ/UNDP and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

• If daily fee: 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.
• If lumpsum: Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified above and 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.