Background

UNDP Thailand works with the Royal Thai Government, civil society, national partners and the private sector to help find solutions to persistent development challenges. UNDP in Thailand provides technical expertise and policy advice to enhance the government’s ability to deliver public services to the population in an efficient and accountable manner, to consolidate a participatory democracy and create an enabling environment for inclusive growth and sustainable use of natural resources.

UNDP Thailand is looking for a national consultant – Programme Management Support to provide support in programme management of Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy Team of UNDP Thailand. The national consultant is expected to involve in administrative and substantive components of the programme covering several initiatives such as promoting gender equality, sustaining social cohesion in the southern border provinces, reducing corruption in public sector, and empowering youth and women. The consultant will work closely with Programme Specialist/Team Leader and project staff.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment:

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist/Team Leader and the overall guidance of Deputy Resident Representative, the consultant is expected to provide effective delivery of the Country Office (CO) programme by entering and managing data and supporting programme implementation consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the operations, programme and projects’ staff in the CO and UNDP HQs as required for resolving complex finance-related issues and exchange of information.

Objective of this assignment

This assignment’s objectives are to provide programmatic, procurement, administrative along with travel support to the Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy team. The Programme Management Support Consultant will also assist the preparation of National events, workshops and other meetings as required.

Scope of work:

The Programme Management Support Consultant will be working closely with the Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy team of UNDP Thailand with main responsibilities as follows:

1) Provide Programme Management Support, focusing on achievement of the following:

• Assist the Programme Specialist in overseeing the project’s administration in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) as well as internal memos;
• Maintain overview of project level monitoring systems, tools and approaches and ensure compliance with UNDP´s corporate policies and conformity CO approaches;
• Assist in monitoring and perform quality control on project implementation to ensure compliance with UNDP rules and procedures and the project document; and
• Assist in assurance tasks specific to the different stages of the UNDP programme and project management cycle as per standard procedure.

2) Support effective programmatic assurance activities, with the focus on achievement of the following:

• Assist in monitoring timely implementation of planned activities, assess the progress toward and the achievement of planned targets in accordance with Annual Work Plan (AWP);

• Assist in organizing the M&E training for Project Managers;
• Assist in enhancement of AWP quality and project revisions, ensure that activities, targets and benchmarks have been formulated according to standard procedure and meet the programmatic standards and agreements with the partners;

• Coordinate inputs for Mid-Term Review of the project and finalise documentation, such as Term of References (ToRs), work plans and time plans for evaluators and auditors. Coordinate with the project team for organization;
• Follow-up on, and implementation of recommendations resulting from evaluations;
• Support Project Teams, when necessary, to ensure that project management responsibilities are met.

3) Support effective operational oversight and project implementation oversight activities, focusing on the achievement of the following:

• Support compliance of project governance activities such as Project Board and Technical Working Group meetings in accordance with an established calendar, and that the project and the CO ensure a timely and adequate follow-up on the recommendations coming from the different governance bodies;
• Ensure that project functions are sufficiently resourced, develops, formulates and reviews/revises Job Description and ToRs project positions, tracks and monitors recruitment processes ensuring timely actions in recruitment;
• Manage filing of project documentation, ensure that UNDP corporate systems are kept updated and that relevant documents are accessible through the UNDP public website, and internal filing system
• Prepare Team and Project expenditure records, and support the team on budget management, and review and monitoring of project budget; Assist the team to proceed with contract requests (Individual Contracts, Institutional Contracts, Contract for Professional Services, LTAs) and processing;
• Support to resource mobilization and consolidate the data from multiple Atlas financial reports, included expenditures and commitments monitoring and tracking;

Overall logistical and administrative (including finance) aspects of the workshop, ensuring that the substantive and logistical planning for the workshop are well-managed and complementary, leading to the orderly and successful conduct of the DGSA workshops

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

• Bi-weekly accomplishment report against the 3 specific tasks;
• Budget revision for 2019 and budget planning for 2020;
• Document filing system established;
• Administrative and financial document and meeting for new projects under DGSA developed and organized;
• Standardized Annual Work Plan.

Institutional Arrangement:

The consultant will work under the guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist/Team Leader, Democratic Governance and Social Advocacy Team.  On regular basis, the consultant will work closely with Project Teams to ensure corporate compliance and effectiveness. The consultant will coordinate with staff member of the UNDP Thailand Country Office team and is expected to join the staff meetings regularly.

Duration of the Assignment:

Maximum 70 working days during 6 December 2019 to 5 March 2020.

Duty Station:

Bangkok-Based at UNDP Thailand Country Office. Domestic travel is anticipated and shall be agreed before travel

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, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:   

• University Degree in Business or Public Administration, Economics, Political Science and Social Sciences, specialized certification in Accounting and Finance is an asset;

Competencies and Experience: 

• At least 3 years of experience in providing administrative and management support to project/programme design and implementation including financial management and reporting, human resources, procurement and communications;
• Experience organising and/or providing administrative support to workshops and/or training activities at the national or international level;
•                Experience in handling web-based ERP/management systems (preferrably PeopleSoft i.e. ATLAS) is required
• Experience working with UNDP and/or UN system is an asset

Language Requirements:  Fluency in English and Thai

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must send a financial proposal 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. Travel costs shall be at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP Living Allowance rates.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

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 proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

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

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

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:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.

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

ANNEXES

Annex I- General Condition of Contract

Annex II - TOR_Programme Management Support Consultant

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at :http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=60995