Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a global organization with 18,000 staff working in approximately 170 offices globally. UNDP works in development and crisis settings with the aim to achieve the eradication of poverty, reduction of inequalities and exclusion, and sustained development results. Coming together under the new framework of the Global Policy Network (GPN), the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and Crisis Bureau (CB) sit at the core of UNDP’s global policy, programming, and knowledge capacities.

The current revitalization of these functions aims to better capture UNDP’s knowledge, innovations, good practices and lessons learned from country, regional and global experience, drawing from a network of internal and external expertise, in order to address complex problems. To this end, UNDP has recently re-established its global Communities of Practice (CoPs), of which UNDP has a rich history, to promote and support knowledge flows within and across the GPN areas of work and enrich UNDP’s global policy and programme functions. The new model of the CoPs has a more inclusive, flexible approach taking advantage of existing networks, both internal and external to UNDP, to build inclusive communities around UNDP’s main thematic areas of work. Powered by a powerful community engagement platform, SparkBlue the CoPs are now able to easily conduct internal and external engagements.

One of the key thematic area the CoP structure aligns to is focused on the topics of Gender. The CoP on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women encourages members to engage with global gender experts, join discussions and debates, find cutting-edge solutions and access networks and knowledge. The UNDP Corporate Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2021 outlines in detail how the Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.  The Strategy sets out institutional arrangements which are aimed at ensuring oversight, commitment and leadership to achieve gender equality both within the organization and in the work of the organization. As part of this process, UNDP is committed to building a global, dynamic and professional CoP dedicated to promoting and mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Facilitator will report to the Policy Specialist: Community and Network Management in the Knowledge Management team, and will work closely with colleagues in the Gender team in the GPN.

Duties and Responsibilities

The CoP Facilitator plays an important role in fostering strong substantive engagement within and across the CoP, supporting content curation, quality assurance, and providing substantive advice and feedback loops.

Recognizing that each CoP member has unique needs and comfort levels related to participation, the facilitator will promote and offer a variety of opportunities and approaches for engagement. For all tasks of this assignment, the Consultant will need to demonstrate substantive knowledge of gender equality and the empowerment of women, feminist approaches to development and strong familiarity with gender equality as a cross-cutting theme in the Sustainable Development Goals. The main areas of responsibilities are:

Foster engagement among CoP members:

• Manage content on CoP platform (SparkBlue) including by facilitating timely, focused, targeted and crosscutting e-discussions and on/offline events;
• Engage with Thematic Advisors who lead on relevant practices under the CoP’s purview and are accountable for their respective CoP;
• Engage in continual “behind the scenes” work of connecting practitioners, flagging experts to come in where necessary, and supporting development of queries and discussion topics for members;
• Support the development and implementation of relevant webinars and in person events, including content management and digital technical support;
• Manage a “direct connect” service via email/chat for CoP members who prefer reaching out with questions via social networks; thus, enabling small networks of practitioners and peer assists;
• Help to enable knowledge management quality assurance processes, including assessment of impact of knowledge work and ensuring relevant learning resources, best practices and toolkits are readily available with the country offices as clients;
• Liaise with Thematic Advisors and Global Gender Team for close coordination on identifying and amplifying relevant learning sessions, knowledge sharing opportunities and creating/circulating an engagement calendar.

Scan the internal and external environment for relevant content for the CoP members:

• Interface with and draw from existing internal and external networks focused on a range of related topics, such as feminist think tanks and women’s organizations;
• Detect and capture any relevant issues from one or more networks that could be elevated as an inter-practice discussion on any of the other CoPs;
• Reach out to all the CoP members through digestible, targeted email updates (“Community Snapshots”) to bring the most pertinent updates and opportunities for engagement to the attention of the CoP members, including, relevant discussions, queries, cross-cutting consultations, virtual workshops, webinars, events;
• Continually update relevant information on a curated, easy to use, central web portal (on SparkBlue);

Produce knowledge products related to community engagement and integrate the CoP into corporate processes:

• Prepare relevant digital knowledge products pulling from the CoP members’ knowledge, experience and engagements including e-discussion summaries, FAQs, lessons learned overviews, guidance documents and case studies, for reference and use by the community members and beyond;
• Connect the CoP and its members to corporate systems and processes, such as capacity mapping exercises, individual and group learning opportunities, and lessons learned capture and reuse from programmes and projects, in order to ensure the CoPs are not stand-alone discussion forums, but are learning from and informing programmes and processes across the organization.

III. EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES 

Based on the detailed list of tasks outlined in the scope of the work section, the consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

1. Organize and facilitate e-discussions and/or offline events at least once a month;
2. Detect and capture at least 3 relevant issues from one or more networks that could be elevated as inter-practice discussions;
3. Develop knowledge products related to the needs of the CoP;
4. Prepare and send Community Snapshot messages to CoP members for the duration of the contract;
5. Continually update relevant information on a curated, easy to use, central web portal (on SparkBlue);
6. Contribute to weekly meetings with network of CoP Facilitators;
7. Prepare reviews of the CoP functioning.

IV. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

• The IC will report to the Policy Specialist: Community and Network Management in the Knowledge Management team, and will work closely with colleagues in the Gender team in the GPN;
•  The consultant will deliver the outputs within the period from 1 August 2020 to 31 March 2021
•  Duty station for the position is New York with possible travel to field locations (field travel to be covered by UNDP). 
• The consultant will be required to report to work on a full-time daily basis (7 hours) for five days per week.
• The consultant is expected to use her/his own computer.
• 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 Supervisor;
• Payments to the consultant will be based on the all-inclusive home-based professional daily fee while telecommuting. Effective from the first day of deployment in New York City offices, payments to the consultant will be based on the all-inclusive office-based professional daily fee. Should the deployment not be carried out to adjust to potential recommendations made by New York authorities regarding COVID-19, the all-inclusive home-based professional daily fee will be considered during the entire assignment.
• The workweek will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily. While the telecommuting arrangements are in place, the consultant is expected to work during New York City business hours unless otherwise indicated by the Supervisor.

V. TRAVEL

• International travel may be required as part of this work;
• Any necessary missions must be approved in advance and in writing by the Supervisor;
• The BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
• The consultant is responsible for ensuring that s/he has the necessary vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
• The consultant is responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP;
• Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives, set forth under https://dss.un.org/dssweb/;  
• The consultant will be responsible for making his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies; 
• All travel expenses will be supported by the project travel fund and will be reimbursed as per UNDP rules and regulations upon submission of an F-10 claim form and supporting documents.  Costs for airfares, terminal expenses, and living allowances should not be included in financial proposal

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status;
• 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.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment understands the structure and hierarchy of UN/UNDP, process flows throughout the organization, products and services, their measures of effectiveness, and perceptions of clients;
• Excellent knowledge of development issues and internationally agreed development goals;

Working in Teams:

• Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork;
• Works collaboratively with colleagues inside UN/UNDP as well as its partners and other stakeholders to pursue common goals.
• Ability to work at ease in a multicultural setting.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Delivers verbal/written information in a timely, clear, organized and easily understood manner;
• Strong communication skills and the ability to listen and take direction and leadership from others.

Self-Management & Emotional Intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control, tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively.

Knowledge Sharing & Continuous Learning:

• Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge.

Functional competencies:

• Substantive knowledge of the Community of Practice (CoP) subject matter;
• Strong skills in networking, knowledge sharing, collaboration and facilitation online and in-person events;
• Experience in production, development and dissemination of knowledge and communication products;
• Good familiarity with social media, web content management and other online tools for collaboration, knowledge sharing and communication;
• Ability to engage collaboratively with partners (including other UN agencies), donors, and other development stakeholders;
• Excellent organizational skills and proven ability to deliver projects within assigned deadlines;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in International Development, Political Science, Social Sciences, or related area, required.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional working experience in gender equality and the empowerment of women for a development organization, required;
• At least 2 years of professional experience working on different aspects of communications such as media relations, content production, community of practice management and social media management, required;
• A minimum of 2 years working in knowledge management within an international organization, required;
• Proven experience organizing and managing online and in-person events, workshops, webinars, including developing presentations, desirable;
• Knowledge and/or working experience of the UN system, desirable;
• Proficiency and proven experience in the use of Microsoft Office suite (e.g. Word, Excel, Power Point) as well as Zoom and other digital platforms, required.
• Proven experience in the development infographics, online surveys, presentations, organization of webinars would be an asset;
• Proven work experience and knowledge of Dural platforms/tools is required.

Language:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English required.

Only the applicants who hold these qualifications will be shortlisted and contacted.

Application Procedure:

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experiences 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 into one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• In response to the announcement by the Governor of New York that all United Nations non-essential workforce must stay home in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19, the consultant is expected to telecommute (from the country of residence at the moment of application) until the situation allows for the deployment in New York HQ Offices. As such, shortlisted candidates will be asked to submit two different all-inclusive professional daily fees: home-based and office-based (based on a 7-hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
• Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal. 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; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; 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.
• Any unforeseeable travel agreed between UNDP and Individual Consultant, will be supported by the project travel fund and will be arranged according to UNDP entitlements and travel policy. Costs for airfares, terminal expenses, and living allowances should not be included in financial proposal.
• 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 weigh 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.
• Having accepted UNDP GTCs.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

The technical evaluation will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Criteria 1: Relevance of professional working experience (minimum of 5 years) in gender equality and the empowerment of women for a development organization; Maximum Points: 15;
• Criteria 2: Relevance of professional experience (minimum of 2 years) working on different aspects of communications such as media relations, content production, community of practice management and social media management required; Maximum 15 points;
• Criteria 3: Relevant working experience in knowledge management (minimum 2 years) within an international organization (Desirable)– Maximum Points: 10;
• Criteria 4: Experience organizing and managing online and in-person events, workshops, webinars, including developing presentations (desirable) – Maximum Points: 10;
• Criteria 5: Knowledge and/or working experience of the UN system (desirable) – Maximum points: 5;
• Criteria 6: Interview – Maximum points: 15.

Only the top three candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (38.5 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the CV technical criteria (Criteria 1-5) (55 points) shall be considered for the interview.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (10.5 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the interview (15 points, Criteria 6) 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

Both home-based and office-based all-inclusive professional daily fees will be considered during the financial assessment and will have an equal impact on the evaluation’s result. The most competitive financial proposal for each of the categories (home-based and office-based) will be awarded a total of 15 points.

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 a contract with UNDP.

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.