Background

Background and rationale

In Guinea Bissau, there has been an existing national volunteer’s scheme since 2007. The latter needs to be supported to be able to fully undertake its mission to raise awareness of volunteering, recruitment, training and volunteer placement throughout the country to support joint efforts to achieve sustainable development goals [SDGs]. The project “Enhancing capacities of the National Volunteer Committee of Guinea Bissau for inclusive citizenship, peace and sustainable development” is implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) from 1st April 2018 until 31st Dec 2020.  

The main objective of the project is to create conducive enabling environment to the equitable engagement of young girls and boys in peacebuilding and achieving sustainable development goals activities in Guinea Bissau. There are three specific objectives:

•  A legal framework regulating the exercise of voluntary service for all in Guinea Bissau is developed and promulgated;
• The organizational capacities of the National Volunteer Committee are strengthened. This facilitates better youth training to develop its future employability;
• Young people are made aware of volunteering as a tool and vehicle for achieving sustainable development objectives.

At the end of the three-year program, a law regulating voluntary service will be implemented in Guinea Bissau. The National Volunteer Committee will be better structured, equipped and deployed throughout the national territory. The impact of voluntary action on the attainment of the SDGs, will be better measured and knowledge on volunteering contribution to sustainable development will be shared among the public.

The project will create a unique opportunity to involve youth in development activities at community and national level. Involvement of young people (girls and boys) who will acquire new skills and knowledge will facilitate youth’s future employability while equipping them to be better resilient and support the development process of their country. A virtuous circle will be created, and more young people will engage in volunteering.

The Government of Guinea Bissau, through the Ministry of Youth and Employment, will support the establishment of a legal frameworks on volunteerism. These frameworks will be a sustainable mechanism for the creation of volunteer placements that support skills development and employability.

Objective of the assignment

The objective of this assignment is to develop the draft bill on volunteerism in Guinea Bissau.

• Analyze the legal and regulatory provisions in Guinea-Bissau and propose a legal framework for the exercise of voluntary service in Guinea-Bissau;
•  Propose a status of volunteers on basis of current best practices in other African countries;
• Identify solutions in the preamble to the bill to encourage private sector involvement in the financing of voluntary activities through existing schemes such as Corporate Social Responsibility or any other scheme to be proposed;
• Identify, in the preamble, innovative and sustainable sources of funding for the programme that guarantee its organizational and financial sustainability;
• Identify, in the preamble to the bill, ideas for reinvention (re-imagining) of volunteerism and voluntary action as an accelerator for SDGs achieving, Agenda 2030;
• Analyze constraints, risk and success factors which could influence the bill's adoption process.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

International consultant

The international consultant will work in close collaboration with the national consultant and implementing partners. The consultant will work under the management of the Senior Technical Advisor with the overall supervision of the Head of Governance Cluster of UNDP. The consultant is expected to perform the following activities:

• Collect, review and analyze legal texts and studies relating to volunteering in Guinea-Bissau;
• Consult key stakeholders of the National Volunteering Program to better understand the project, including its design process, implementation aspects and expected results;
• Organize and lead a methodological orientation workshop with key actors and project partners;
• Write the draft bill, in Portuguese, on the volunteerism in Guinea Bissau;
• Organize a debriefing session, in Portuguese, to present interim report and draft bill for comments by the key stakeholders;
• Draft a final report and the bill, taking into account relevant comments from the debriefing, as appropriate.

National Consultant

• The national consultant will work under the supervision of an international consultant. He will perform the following activities:
• Contribute to the collect, review and analyze legal texts and studies relating to volunteering in Guinea-Bissau;
• Facilitate consult key stakeholders of the National Volunteering Program to better understand the project, including its design process, implementation aspects and expected results;
• Contribute to organize and lead a methodological orientation workshop with key actors and project partners;
• Participate to write the draft bill, in Portuguese, on the volunteerism in Guinea Bissau;
• Contribute to organize a debriefing session, in Portuguese, to present interim report and draft bill for comments by the key stakeholders;
• Participate to draft a final report.

Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected:

• An inception report to be provided after 3 days of work including methodology and actors list to meet;
• A draft report including the bill to submit on the 4th week of the assignment; 
• A final report and the bill, considering relevant comments from stakeholders no later than one (1) week after the debriefing session. 

5. Duration of the assignment

The assignment must be conducted during 30 working days, no including validation times.

Suggested agenda (subject to possible evolutions):

Activities Number of days (indicative) Place

• Documentary research and methodology development 3 days           
• Discussion of methodology with stakeholders 1   Bissau
• Meeting with key actors 6 days Bissau
• Analysis of collected data and validation of reports 5 Bissau
• Drafting the bill 7 days Bissau
• Debriefing session 1 days Bissau
• Final report and the bill 7 days Bissau
• Total     30         

Competencies

International consultant

Strong capacity in supporting or advising volunteer organizations;

•  Strong knowledge on development projects or programs at strategic level with government or civil society, preferably West-African context;
• Excellent capacity writing, research, analysis and presentation skills;
• Ability to produce high quality reports in a timely;
• Strong negotiating, relational and communication skills;
• Ability to work as a team in a multicultural environment.

National consultant

Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;

•  Ability to plan and organize his/her work, efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills;
• Ability to receive/integrate feedback in a timely;
• Ability to work in a team under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

International consultant:

Master’s degree in law, international development and/or other relevant social sciences.

Experience:

• Proven at least 7 years of experience in strategic development projects/programs with government or civil society preferably West-African context;
• Proven experience in supporting or advising volunteer organizations, preferably in Africa;
• Proven experience in supporting the establishment of legal frameworks for volunteering activities;
• Proven experience as a consultant on legal and development issues;
• Knowledge and demonstrable experience of United Nations system is an asset;
• Knowledge of Guinea-Bissau general country context is strongly desirable.

Language:

• Proficiency in Portuguese and French is mandatory;
• Proficiency in Bissau-Guinean Creole constitutes an advantage.

National consultant:

1. Bachelor's degree in law, international development and/or other relevant social sciences.

Experience:

• Proven at least 5 years of experience in projects/programs with government or civil society preferably youth employability;
• Proven experience in supporting or advising civil society organizations;
• Proven experience as a consultant on legal or development issues;
• Knowledge or experience on volunteering and its various events;
• Knowledge and demonstrable experience of United Nations system is an asset.

Language:

• Proficiency in Portuguese is mandatory;
• Proficiency in French or English constitutes an advantage.

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATION:

Required documents:

• A cover letter explaining interest and motivation for this assignment;
• A brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the tasks, describing the tools and work plan proposed for this assignment;
• A financial proposal showing only the following value in dollars: daily fees.
• A personal CV including past experiences in similar projects and at least 3 professional references.

Lump sum contracts: The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel: All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal, except the inside travel to the city of Bafata for which the transportation will be covered by the UNIOGBIS (excluding possible accommodation/catering fees). This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Individual Consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• 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;
• Technical Criteria weight – 70 points;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points would be considered for the

Financial Evaluation.

Evaluation criteria:

• Education background - 10 points;
• Experience as defined in the ToR - 20 points;
• Competences as defined in the ToR - 10 points;
• Understating of the ToR - 15 points;
• Methodology and overall approach - 25 points;
• Overall quality of the proposal (comprehensiveness, structure, language and clarity) - 20 points.

Female applications are much encouraged.

NB. This vacancy is to recruit 2 consultants: 1 National Consultant & 1 International Consultant. The international consultant will be leading this project.

Terms of reference in word format can be found on this link: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=69259