Background

BACKGROUND

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation.

The Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering

In 2015 the UN General Assembly endorsed a Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda, most recently re-confirmed under General Assembly Resolution 73/140 in December 2018.  Under this process, UN Member States, Private Sector, Civil Society, Academia and Stakeholders are working together to collate and share knowledge on volunteering for the SDGs.  A Global Technical Meeting (GTM2020) will be held in July 2020 at the High-level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in New York, to present regional and country experiences on partnerships with volunteers under the 2030 Agenda. UNV hosts the Secretariat of the Plan of Action to integrate volunteering into 2030 agenda and beyond (Plan of Action), co-leading the initiative with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The Plan of Action seeks to develop strategies, tools, generate data and evidence with the objective to advance the proposition that when deliberately planned and applied, volunteering can become a powerful means for implementing development plans, including the 2030 Agenda.

‘Next generation’ volunteering support

The world is facing complex global peace, development and humanitarian challenges that require solutions driven by national ownership and leadership. In the context of the 2030 Agenda and the universality and inter-relatedness of the SDGs, a government has to ensure a whole-of-society and whole-of-government approach to tackling global challenges, inclusive of those who volunteer and support volunteering.

Volunteering itself is changing and evolving all the time. The changing nature of work and technology are in many parts of the world playing a crucial role in shaping the world we live in and may free up more time for individuals to volunteer in new forms. While informal and community volunteering continues to prevail, online volunteering is crowdsourcing new skills and micro-volunteering is promoting new forms of engagement. Meanwhile, volunteering in increasingly challenging environments raises concerns about the effective management, safety, security and well-being of volunteers.

To date, an enabling environment for volunteering has focused on a number of key pillars. Firstly, laws and policies setting out the scope for volunteer work. Secondly, governments, civil society organizations and corporates have worked to directly create (formal) volunteering opportunities through schemes and programmes, including online platforms. Thirdly, actors have worked to develop support for volunteering within societies through demonstrating impact, influencing attitudes and raising awareness.

In this context, workstream 3 of the Plan of Action on the next generation volunteering support will provide Member States and other volunteering stakeholders with enabling environment blueprints which can be contextualized to their environment.  The next generation volunteering support blueprints will be developed by IFRC, UNV through selected UNDP Accelerator and Innovation labs and IAVE. The blueprints will be designed and developed through innovation, future and foresight processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will report to the Plan of Action Coordinator at UNV with day-to-day discussions on the scope and content with IFRC, Geneva and work in close conjunction with the task team for workstream 3 including IAVE, European Volunteer Centre (CEV) and Volunteer Groups Alliance (VGA) of the Plan of Action. The consultant will be responsible to produce a future-thinking and context-based blueprint on humanitarian volunteering that could be used to create an enabling environment for the 21st century. The consultant will help guide the coordination of the work on the design and production of 3 other blueprints (on climate change, future of work and inequality by UNDP Innovation lab and IAVE) and lead the design of and conduct a session “into the future” during the global technical meeting on volunteering (GTM) in July 2020, under IFRC’s guidance

Description of deliverables and due dates

Competencies

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards, and those of the partner organizations,

• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP/UNV, and partner organizations,

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

  Functional Competencies:

• Strong research, conceptualization, analysis and writing skills in relation to volunteering and civic engagement;

• Strong understanding and practical application of futures and strategic foresight methodology processes;

• Ability to work independently but remain focused on the assignment and timeline management;

• Willingness to develop/adapt processes and procedures to meet UNDP standards;

• Experience in development of strategies and manuals;

  Management and Leadership:

• Focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback,

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude,

• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Master’s degree in social sciences, development studies, international development, or related field.

Experience:

1. At least 10 years’ experience working on volunteering in the humanitarian or development sector is required
2. At least 3 years’ experience in designing innovation and futures methodologies across global humanitarian or development organizations
3. Proven expertise in undertaking policy/strategic foresight across diverse geographies, contexts with proven strategic outcomes for transformational change
4. Demonstrates practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary humanitarian and development trends

Language requirement: Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, knowledge of other UN languages is an advantage.

Criteria for Selection of the Best offer:

The selection of the best offer will be based on the combined scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted – 70% , and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30%.

Key selection criteria are

• Proposed approach and methodology for the assignment (25%)
• Experience working on futures and foresights related to volunteering in the humanitarian sector (20%)
• Experience in field of innovation in volunteering with international organisations such as IFRC, UNV or others (25%)
• Financial proposal (30%)

Applicants have to provide a technical and financial proposal. 

The technical proposal shall describe the methodology and the approach how to fulfill the required deliverables as well as outline the major components of its implementation.

The financial proposal shall consist of all-inclusive lump sum for the whole duration of the contract period, which shall include the consultancy fee, costs of living, costs for insurance, and cost of travel to and from the duty station. The financial proposal shall contain a breakdown of these costs and indicate the number of off-days the consultant wants to take during the contract period (if any).
The lump sum/contract price is fixed regardless of subsequent changes in the cost components.

Criteria for Selection of the Best offer:

The selection of the best offer will be based on the combined scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted – 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30%.

Qualified candidates must apply online via the UNDP Jobshop. Interested candidates are advised to carefully review these terms of reference and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described above.

Applications should contain:
a) Cover Letter, including a summary of your experience and expertise and why you are the most suitable for the job
b) Technical proposal: The technical proposal shall describe the methodology and the approach how to fulfill the required deliverables, ideas you may already have from reviewing our previous Annual Reports online, as well as outline the major components of its implementation. It should be justified by referencing previous experiences.
c). Samples of previous work (where applicable): Indicate type of samples required
d). Financial Proposal using the duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability (COI) Link to COI template; https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default

Your Financial Proposal must indicate the 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 UNV 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 UNV
e) Personal CV or P11, 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;
Please paste the cover letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application and ensure you have provided all requested materials. All supporting documents should be scanned and attached into one PDF format document. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Queries should be sent to:procurement@unv.org, att Marc Wharton clearly marking – 0094551: Consultant- Development of Blueprints
Terms and conditions, as well as contract samples can be found at this link:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf
as well as contract samples can be found at this link:http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/procurement/business/how-we-buy.html

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

Please make sure you provide all requested materials. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Applications sent by email will not be considered. Applications without the fully completed Confirmation of Interest Form, including financial costs will not be considered.

Note: UNDP/UNV reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this procurement notice. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP/UNV with similar terms of reference, experience and educational requirements.