Background
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the support of IMPACT Initiatives has developed the Household and Building Damage Assessment (HBDA) toolkit to facilitate the assessment of buildings and infrastructure affected by crises, as well as assess a series of basic socio-economic indicators in Health, Food Security, Education, and WASH at the household level. The HBDA allows prompt collection of digital and georeferenced data on damages in order to inform government prioritization for recovery planning.
Based on the past experiences of UNDP implementing Household Building Damage Assessment, (HBDA) implemented in natural disasters contexts in the Caribbean and in Albania, UNDP and Impact developed a digital assessment toolbox to serve in diverse contexts.
The rapid geographic and demographic spread of the COVID 19 worldwide is causing a ripple effect on health and economic systems that include trade restrictions, limited mobility of people and goods, slowdown in production in those countries where the virus has a high incidence. Assessments of socio-economic impact of the COVID are thus important for governments to identify urgent and medium to long-term measures to mitigate the impact and support recovery.
UNDP is adapting the HBDA toolkit to be used to run digital assessments on socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on households and micro and small enterprises. The adaptation has produced a digital Socio-economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) tool. Similarly to the HBDA, the SEIA tool uses KoboToolbox, an open source for digital data collection, and Microsoft Power BI to analyze and visualize the data from the assessment. The SEIA uses also Microsoft Teams and other MS Office Products such us (MS Excel) for logistics, operations and team management.
This assessment will be implemented in multiple UNDP country offices in close coordination with national and international partners. It is likely that digital SEIA will reach a regional and global coverage, giving a unique experience to the experts to work a large-scale implementation and help to understand the impact of COVID-19.
UNDP has set up a Remote Support Unit (RSU) with multidisciplinary experts that can provide remote technical support to UNDP country offices and partners in setting up and implementing digital SEIA. The RSU will include experts on economics, statistics, information management, digital data collection tools (e.g. Kobo toolbox), data analysis and visualization, assessment design, GIS, among others. The RSU is coordinated by the Crisis Bureau and will have team members working from home
Duties and Responsibilities
- Scope of Work, Responsibilities and Description of The Proposed Work
The Senior Economist-Team Lead will integrate the RSU with various functions and will lead the work of small team of Economists and statisticians. He will lead the methodological work on the digital SEIA toolkit as well as to assist UNDP country offices and partners with technical support required to the design and implementation of the SEIA at country level. This includes designing selection of key indicators, sampling methodology, secondary data review and analysis, primary data analysis, etc.
The Senior economist also explores and lead the drafting of reports that make use of non-conventional data sources (Earth observation, social media listening, etc.) as components of the digital-SEIA offer with a view to bring supplementary analytical insights to the SEIAs.
The Senior economist will lead the work of the economists/statisticians team who will perform the following tasks in close collaboration with RSU team members (e.g. information management officers, data scientists, etc.) the Crisis Bureau Country Support Management Team members, and relevant UNDP thematic experts at country, regional, headquarters level (e.g. private sector, livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, poverty and social protection, governance, etc.):
Rollout the digital SEIA for COVID 19
- Update digital SEIA guidelines and training material with focus on methodology, limitations, and secondary data review/analysis, primary data analysis, among others;
- Review the essential indicators for standardization of data collected through digital SEIAs (household and MSMEs);
- Link to other UNDP sector, macro assessment tools (e.g. PDNA, RPBA, etc.) on offer and ensure effective integration of digital SEIA, ensure fruitful collaboration with relevant UNDP experts leading on the implementation of those tools;
- Apply relevant HH and MSMEs indicators to the Household and Building Damage Assessment (HBDA) toolkit and inform relevant methodological upgrades of the toolkit.
Country (and regional) support on digital SEIAs:
- Set assessment objectives and strategy;
- Provide guidance on baseline information and data sources of information;
- Secondary data review including the use of innovative data sources/information (e.g. big data, satellite imagery, etc.)
- Support contextualization of the HH questionnaire and give guidance on how the surveys can be run in countries;
- Define the sampling frame and provide sampling options;
- Prepare a template for a draft report format and presentation in close collaboration with the Information Management expert;
- Closely coordinate with and support UNDP Regional Economists.
Consolidation of digital SEIAs data and information:
- Lead the consolidation of country level digital SEIAs data and information for regional and global reporting and integration with data and information from other types of SEIAs led by UNDP at country and regional level;
- Lead the analysis, comparison and aggregation of data and other relevant information (e.g. from reports) from country level digital SEIAs at regional and global level;
- Develop a user-friendly report and presentation format for regional and global data from digital SEIAs in close in close collaboration with the Information Management expert;
- Lead the preparation and delivery of the regional and global report and presentation in close collaboration with the Crisis Bureau;
- Any other tasks deemed relevant by the Crisis Bureau to implement digital SEIAs
Expected deliverables
The following deliverables are needed:
- A revised guidance material on digital SEIA and updated HBDA guidance
- A revised training module on digital SEIA
- A revised HH level and MSMEs questionnaire with minimum standard indicators to be collected in all digital SEIAs
- Technical advisory services to COs carrying out digital SEIAs as per the tasks above
- Templates for country level and global level digital SEIAs reports and presentations (e.g. power point)
- Consolidation of regional and global data and other info from country level digital SEIAs
- Report and presentation (e.g. power point) based on the aggregation of regional and global data from country level digital SEIAs
- Development of country factsheets covering the main humanitarian developments, socio-demographic, economic and environmental indicators.
- Development of a report and associated database reviewing the main SEIAs conducted worldwide
- Reports on the use of Satellite imagery for social media listening for SDG monitoring
- Delivery of methodological webinars over the various components of survey design, implementation, and analysis, as well as application of data science techniques applied to survey data
- Methodological reports on the integration of the digital SEIA into PDNAs and RPBAs
Lead and coordinate the Economists/Statisticians team in the performance of its function and for the drafting of reports that make use of non-conventional data sources to bring supplementary analytical insights to the SEIAs
Competencies
Professionalism:
Ability to plan own work and manage conflicting priorities. Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.
Communication:
Speaks and writes clearly and effectively and demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
Teamwork:
Works collaboratively with UN colleagues and partners to achieve deliverables for assessment.
Planning& Organizing:
Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed work deliverables for the assignment; identifies priority activities and allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; uses time efficiently.
Accountability:
Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honours commitments; delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules.
Technical Competencies
Proven experience of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis for research and applied work necessary, experience in international development projects an asset;
Excellent command on data analysis and visualization software and other digital tools, with a focus on socio-economic analysis, strong command of innovative analytical tools, for example of big data and other digital data sources an asset;
Sound knowledge of socio-economic policy measures in developing countries context required, knowledge of specific measures for crisis recovery an asset;
Managerial Competencies
Leadership:
Establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions.
Working with multiple partners:
Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment and cultivate productive relationships with Government and other partners
Required Skills and Experience
I Academic Qualifications:
- Education: At least advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) on development studies /economics/ social science required
II. Years of experience:
- A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in academia and in the field of research, statistics, analytical writing on conducting microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis and human impact analysis required
- Knowledge of the United Nations System and the Agenda 2030 in regard to its goals, targets and global indicators framework for the SDGs is desirable,
- Experience on macro-economic modeling, poverty economics, energy economics, water and sanitation or vulnerability assessments is required.
- Knowledge of data science and machine learning techniques is desirable
- Knowledge of statistical software packages and languages such as Stata, EViews, R, Python is highly desirable
III. Language:
Fluency in written and spoken English is required; Knowledge of other UN languages is an advantage (especially Spanish, French and/or Arabic).
EVALUATION METHOD
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 a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
* Technical Criteria: weight 70% (desk review)
* Financial Criteria weight 30%
Technical Evaluation (700 points, Weight 70%)
All applicants will be initially screened against the minimum qualification requirements as specified above.
Responsive candidates will then be further evaluated against the following criteria:
DESK REVIEW OF TECHNICAL CRITERIA AS EVIDENT IN THE SUBMITTED APPLICATION:
- Criterion 1. Relevance of the experience in academia and in the field of research, statistics, analytical writing on conducting microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis and/or human impact analysis (Maximum of 300 points)
Scoring method: (7-8 years’ experience up to 200 points (up to 160 if the expertise only focuses on micro/macroeconomics OR human impact, up to 200 points if the expertise is relevant for both micro/macroeconomics AND human impact analysis), 9 years’ experience and above up to 300 points (up to 220 if the expertise only focuses on micro/macroeconomics OR human impact, up to 300 points if the expertise is relevant for both micro/macroeconomics AND human impact analysis),
- Criterion 2. Relevance of the experience on macro-economic modeling, poverty economics, energy economics, water and sanitation or vulnerability (Maximum of 200 points)(1-3 years experience up to 100 points, 4-6 years of experience up to 170 points; and 7 years and above up to 200 points)
- Criterion 3. Knowledge of the United Nations System and the Agenda 2030 in regard to its goals, targets and global indicators framework for the SDGS (Maximum of 100 points)
- Criterion 4. Fluency (written and spoken) in an additional relevant language (Spanish, French, Arabic) Maximum 100 points (one additional language 35 points, two additional relevant languages, 70 points, 3 additional relevant languages 100 points).
Only those candidates who obtain a total technical score of 490 points and above on the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation and will asked to submit a financial proposal
Financial evaluation (300 points, Weight 30%)
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
For the General Conditions of contracts for the Services of Individual Contractors, see http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.
Note: only shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit a financial proposal. Please do not include your financial proposal in your technical application package.
- The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee, 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.
- In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should 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.
- 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.
Application Procedure
The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file)
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 reference
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 contract with UNDP.
Institutional arrangement
The Senior economist- Team Lead will report to the Programme Specialist in the Country Support Management Team (CSMT), Crisis Bureau UNDP.
Payment modality
- 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 manager. Payments to the consultant will be based on the all-inclusive home-based professional daily fee .
- The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily