UNDP Jobs - 91204- Business Development Consultants (Roster of Consul

Business Development Consultants (Roster of Consultants)

Location :

Tbilisi, with travel to regions, GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

04-May-20 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Roster validity is up to three years

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The EU signed an Association Agreement (AA) with Georgia in June 2014. This aims to deepen political and economic relations between the parties and to gradually integrate Georgia into the EU’s internal market. This entails, as one element, creating a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between the EU and Georgia. Under Article 333 of the Association Agreement (Cooperation between the Parties in the field of agriculture and rural development), there is provision for ‘facilitating the mutual understanding of agricultural and rural development policies. This was the basis for the formulation of a the Ajara Rural Development Strategy (2016-2020) which benefits from funding under the European Neighborhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD).

Within the framework of the third phase of ENPARD (ENPARD III), UNDP Georgia is implementing the project “Improving Rural Development in Georgia” (IRDG), lasting until December 2022. Its main purpose is to promote economic diversification for achieving inclusive and sustainable growth and development and creating employment and livelihoods in rural Georgia.

In its eight target municipalities - Akhalkalaki, Borjomi, Dedoplistskaro, Kazbegi, Keda Khulo, Lagodekhi and Tetritskaro- IRDG will attempt to instill a process from exogenous on the path to endogenous municipal development, among others, by emphasizing its principle of portfolio-based interventions and identifying seedbeds of regional growth poles, smart specialization or clusters. It will then develop these in close cooperation with other actors. Innovative ideas and business model innovations will be included in the selection. To achieve this objective, direct financial support (matching grants) and incentives will be provided through the Agricultural and Rural Development Management Agency (ARDA) of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) and through other channels.

Grants for business diversification are 50%, from 20,000 GEL up to 170,000 GEL co-financing volume, and for renewable energy/energy efficiency investments in business also 50%, from GEL 2,500 to GEL 30,000. Special grants for innovative start-ups and young people can be 60% and 80% co-financing, from GEL 2,500 to GEL 40,000. The application process follows two stages: In the first stage, applicants must submit a business model (business model canvas by Osterwalder) about their idea, which will be continuously evaluated. If approved, they then must submit a full business plan, which will be evaluated quarterly on a competitive base. Residents from all parts of Georgia will be invited to participate in the matching grants scheme, as long as the impact is predominantly made in one or more of the eight targeted municipalities. The goal is to receive many proposals of good quality, especially from women, youth, disabled, IDPs and other minorities.

For the grant application process and for the efficient and effective use of grants, businesses will benefit much from additional business development services (BDS). Some of those will be provided through UNDP/IRDG. Especially women, youth, disabled and other minorities shall benefit.

Duties and Responsibilities

Consultants will provide advisory support to UNDP IRDG project, including Tbilisi and Ajara teams, partners and target groups. Reporting and working relationships will be specified at the time of contracting for a specific assignment.

When demand arises, pre-selected experts are called upon to provide demand-driven business development services (BDS), access to knowledge and technical expertise to UNDP project “Improving Rural Development in Georgia”. Applicants are expected to be able to provide one or more of the following services:

individual business consulting,
group consulting,
individual business coaching,
group business coaching,
training,
business mentoring

in:

technical fields, especially in rural businesses (non-farm and non-food sectors),
management fields, especially business planning, management and organization development,
business plan evaluation.

Additionally the consultants will be requested to:

facilitate business development processes and business services building especially in the fields of smart specialization, rural growth poles, business clusters, smart villages, rural-urban linkages.

Consultants will also provide strategic and operational advice or forward-looking capacity assessments and capacity development activities, assessments of BDS related monitoring and evaluation, engagement with public/private partners and stakeholders, community engagement and outreach including through social media, training, report drafting, peer review, and others. Consultants will perform their duties mostly in the municipalities and regions where IRDG is active (Akhalkalaki, Borjomi, Dedoplistskaro, Kazbegi, Keda Khulo, Lagodekhi and Tetritskaro), but may partially also work from home through e-mail, telephone and/or fax or in Tbilisi/Batumi. Consultants are expected to attend / conduct relevant meetings, presentations, workshops, and participate in panel discussions regarding policy dialogue at the country level, including stakeholder consultations, inception and validation meetings. Every assignment under the roster (valid up to three years) will be guided by a specific assignment clearly stipulating the nature and scope of work for each assignment, list of deliverables, timeframe and the outcome.

The work will be conducted according to the specific ToR and usually may include:

Provision of a workplan,
identification of entrepreneurs or start-ups who should and want to receive such services,
identification of the right service to be provided,
motivation of entrepreneurs and start-ups to (regularly, if applicable) participate in these services,
motivation of entrepreneurs and start-ups to contribute to the cost of those service provision through payment,
organization of the logistics for the implementation of the services,
delivery the said services,
follow-up on the implementation of recommendations or learnt skills,
evaluation the impact of services, and/or
provision of suggestions for continuous improvement of the services, and
reporting on the service provision.

Most of the services will be conducted in rural areas of Georgia. Upon request, some services may also be conducted remotely (virtually) via various means.

Contracting Arrangements:

Successful offerors will be included into UNDP IRDG for Area of Roster of Local Experts in Business Development Services for the period of 3 years. Inclusion into the roster does not necessarily mean that contract with UNDP is guaranteed. This will depend on forthcoming needs. During this period UNDP can regularly follow up with consultants.

Roster will be accessible to UNDP Georgia and its projects.

Where a request for services arises, the UNDP / IRDG Tbilisi and Ajara offices will share a specific Terms of Reference (TOR) outlining specific services, outputs and timeline for that assignment with consultant(s) matching the requested profile and consultants will be requested to provide a price offer. A consultant offering a best value for money will be contracted.

Payments:

Payments will be made as specified in the actual contract upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Competencies

Core competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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 favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Functional competencies:

Strong coaching and facilitation skills.
Good mentoring, training and consulting skills.
Strong interpersonal skills and communication skills, resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, tact, and negotiating skills, and the ability to cope with situations which may pose conflict;
Proven ability to work in a team, develop synergies and establish effective working relations with persons of different UN Agencies, government counterparts, donors and NGOs;
Strategic vision, strong technical and analytical capabilities and demonstrated ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor through technical leadership in a broad range of operational areas;
Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
Ability to handle effectively multiple tasks without compromising quality, team spirit and positive working relationships;
Strong analytical aptitude and effective interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.
Ability to solve complex problems with minimal supervision
Ability to work with small multi-disciplinary, multi-national teams to deliver quality products in high stress, short deadline situations.
Demonstrated ability to assess complex situations in order to screen succinctly and clearly critical issues and draw forward-looking conclusions
Ability and demonstrated capacity to work in rural and remote localities.
Shares knowledge and experience.
Is a motivator.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

At least Bachelor’s in economics, business administration, social sciences or other related discipline (minimum requirement: Bachelor's degree - 5 points). Master’s degree would be an asset.

Experience and skills:

Minimum proven record of
- at least 3 years in case of business group coaching, and/or
- at least 5 years in case of business consulting, training, mentoring, individual business coaching and/or business process facilitation.

(minimum requirement: 10 points; for additional years in the qualifying discipline (e.g., individual business consulting) - additional 5 points)

Minimum proven record of
- at least 3 completed processes for process facilitation related to business cooperation, and/or
- at least 20 successfully conducted individual business consultancies, and/or business group consultancies, and/or business training courses, and/or individual business coachings, and/or business group coachings, and/or business mentorings.

(minimum requirement: 10 points; for at least double the required amount in the qualifying discipline (e.g., individual business consulting) - additional 5 points).

Work experience in Georgian rural areas (minimum requirement: 10 points).
Practical business management, business finance or related work experience is an asset (per full year of experience 1 point, max - - 5 points)

Language requirements

Fluency in Georgian (both written and oral) and good command of English

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on technical evaluation. Maximum obtainable score is 100. Technical criteria composed of desk review (50 points), written sample (30 points), interview (20 points). Offerors who pass 70% of maximum obtainable scores of the desk review (i.e. obtain minimum 35 points) will be requested to provide written sample. Those offerors who pass 70% of maximum obtainable scores for written sample (i.e. obtain minimum 21 points) will be invited for the interview. Those offerors who pass 70% of maximum obtainable scores for interview (i.e. obtain minimum 14 points) will be considered as qualified offerors and will be requested to provide financial proposal and included in the roster of qualified consultants. Only those candidates who pass 70% threshold during each stage of the technical evaluation, will be invited for to submit their financial proposals.

Experts not meeting any of minimum technical qualification requirements will be automatically excluded from the list of candidates for further technical evaluation. Consultants passing the CV review will be invited to an interview which will be scored separately.

Financial Proposal:

Technically qualified offerors will be requested to provide their financial proposals – daily consultancy fee, (all-inclusive) which is bound to the period of 3 years (unless the consultant applies to the roster during its re-opening).