Background

Guided by the UNDP Strategic Plan 2018-2021 and in the context of a very dynamic and changing economic and political environment in the Asia Pacific region, where impressive GDP and income growth is not always translated into equal and inclusive distribution of benefits. UNDP Prosperity Unit is targeting those marginalized groups of people caught at the other end of the spectrum of growing and deepening inequality. In this challenging development environment, it is imperative to better understand the complexities of diverse livelihoods challenges, to design better and informed interventions, integrated solutions, and develop policies, that can effectively target the marginalized groups of people at the risk of being left behind, as the Asia Pacific region moves dramatically forward.

In context of above, UNDP is looking to hire a consultant to help map and develop emerging innovative livelihoods approaches, as well as funding gaps and opportunities, to inform targeted project formulation, including the preparation of concepts notes. The approach will address regional development-humanitarian challenges and identify marketable and integrated proposals that can address livelihoods-specific challenges through innovative and evidence-based approaches. The research and project formulation will specifically seek to position UNDPs livelihoods efforts on the context of economic recovery in post- crisis and post- conflict setting, targeting migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, firmly acknowledging the need to define new concepts and approaches to overcome new challenges.

Furthermore, and in line, with the UNDPs resource mobilization strategy, efforts will focus on exploring mobilization of non-traditional donor and partnership opportunities towards the SDG 2030 agenda, supporting the process of deepening and broadening its project scope and donor base.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The consultancy will entail three interlinked components; i) mapping ongoing and innovative livelihoods engagements across the UNDP target groups and beyond with the objective of designing innovative and integrated niche livelihoods solutions. ii) the research will map the existing and emerging funding and partnership space to identify new potential funding streams linked to new conceptual and niche approaches. Finally, iii) based on the identified livelihood concepts, matched with emerging funding and partnership opportunities, the consultancy will support the development of project proposals that can be piloted for resource mobilization in the beginning of 2020.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Output 1: Mapping new and innovative concepts for livelihoods approaches: Mapping scope, trends and challenges across the current livelihood space in the Asia/Pacific region and beyond, identifying innovative methodologies, niche clusters of project ideas, target beneficiaries outside the mainstream and new intervention typologies.

Deliverables:

· Develop and compile a detailed overview of emerging livelihoods approaches and methodologies in the context of economic recovery and in post-crisis and post-conflict setting, targeting migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons.

· Highlight key emerging concepts and approaches that present niche opportunities for supporting marginalized groups, as well as existing funding gaps.

Output 2: Identifying emerging funding opportunities: This phase of the assignment will focus specifically on identifying funding opportunities from donors, private sector and foundations for current and new UNDP Livelihoods projects in the Asia Pacific region. The resource mobilization part of the assignment will entail the identification and detailed review of partnership opportunities across traditional and non-traditional (including private sector) in the region, identifying potential and emerging funding streams, including regional private sector entities (with presence in more than one country in the region). The focus of this exercise will be on identification of partnership funding and opportunities for innovative thematic areas identified under Stage 1, under UNDPs livelihood mandate.Deliverables: The review will entail a detailed and evidence-based report covering the following elements.

1. A comprehensive donor landscape analysis (traditional bilateral donors as well as the private sector and foundations) in relation to support to livelihoods and economic recovery engagements in Asia Pacific region, with a specific focus on migration, refugees and internally displaced persons, and inequality in development and post-crisis/conflict settings.

2. Identification of potential funding streams for financing project activities, linked to the emerging innovative livelihood solutions and policies identified in stage 1 above:

• Track record of partnership with UN organisations
• Track record of livelihoods and economic recovery related CSR/philanthropic work undertaken by the company
• Relevance of work to UNDPs livelihoods and economic recovery mandate
• Potential entry points and contacts
• A detailed report covering all the elements

Output 3: Designing a portfolio of pilot project proposals: Based on output 1 & 2, design project proposals that are both innovative and fundable for piloting in Q1 2020.

Deliverables:

Based on deliverable 1 & 2, develop pilot project proposals that reflect niche approaches and targeting marginalized groups with funding gap challenges, while linking funding opportunities identified through the donor mapping exercise.

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will commence the assignment in overall supervision and oversight by the regional advisor of Recovery Solutions, Livelihoods & Human Mobility, in all aspects of the activities that s/he will be involved in.  The consultant will also work closely and in consultation and collaboration with management and staff of selected country offices/team of UNDP.

Duration of the Work

1 November 2019 – 31 March 2020 (up to 80 days)

Duty Station

Bangkok, Thailand with no Travel. Telecommunication with country office and relevant counterparts in Asia and Pacific is required.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies: 

• Capacity to work well in a multicultural and multinational setting;
• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Technical Competencies

• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings;
• Excellent analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high-quality knowledge and advocacy materials;
• Must be detail-oriented and able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously;
• Ability to work under pressure while meeting strict deadlines;
• Excellent knowledge of all Microsoft Office applications.
• Excellent writing skills;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Excellent English proficiency.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in International development, Humanities or a related field.  A first level university degree may be acceptable if accompanied by additional 2 years of relevant experience.

??Experience

• At least 7 years of related professional experience in resource mobilization or communications and/or programme design and management;
• Knowledge/experience of undertaking a donor landscape analysis;
• Demonstrated experience with livelihoods concepts and experience in the context of economic recovery in post-crisis and post-conflict setting, targeting migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons;
• Working experience within the United Nations or similar organization is highly recommended.  An understanding of the nature of the documents and content associated with complex UN and donor relationships is also highly desirable in order to deliver focused technical documentation;
• Work experience and an understanding of the Asia Pacific environment (political, social –cultural and economic).

Language requirements

• Strong writing skill in English is a must – with a combination of technical writing and conversational/web-style writing.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

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.  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)

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (49% of the total desk review of 70 points) would be considered for and Financial Evaluation respectively.

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.
• Written works/ sample of works / portfolio as related to the TOR for technical evaluation.

**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=59808