Background

Project Title

Strengthening PHL COVID-19 Response (00127818 / 00121742)

Background Information, Rationale, and Project Description

Governments and societies face a multitude of difficult and often complex challenges in making progress towards achieving the sustainable development (SDGs).  In a world characterized by rapidly evolving technologies, hyper-connectivity and changing socio-economic demographics, institutions need to provide accelerated and relevant responses to these challenges. Both public institutions and private organizations have difficulty keeping up with and adapting to 21st-Century challenges, and often find themselves in an ad hoc, reactive mode, leaving them unable to anticipate emerging issues and proactively propose solutions that mitigate risks and reduce inequality in society.

This is particularly true today as the whole world is battling the Covid19 pandemic by engaging in the largest behavioral science experiment: “flattening the curve.”  This has launched the Philippine government, the private sector, and civil society to prototype and test solutions on quarantine restrictions, data science and analytics, as well as design innovations that aim to stem the surge of infections, and provide the poor with much-needed social safety nets.  And while social distancing has been primarily prescribed to flatten the curve, this is close to impossible for millions of Filipino families who live in a cramped box in urban slums.  As the Covid19 pandemic has surfaced the deep-seated inequalities in the Philippine society, so is the need for a focused, proactive, and intentional approach to inclusivity in proposing innovative policy and solutions for a post-Covid19 future.

Given the wide range of innovations being proposed globally and within the Philippines, it is a good time to take stock, reflect, and learn from the emerging collective experience:

1. What policies and capabilities are needed to enable grassroots innovators to flourish and bridge them to the formality?
2. How will we effectively leverage big data, data science, and digital technology to deliver fast, efficient, and inclusive services to fragile and vulnerable communities? 
3. How do we ensure that post-Covid19 policies will support greener and more sustainable practices?
4. What are the needed innovative capabilities and approaches that have been effectively applied and how will all of these affect the future of innovation policy that ensures the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

To this end, the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) and the United Nations Development Program in the Philippines (UNDP) will jointly organize and deliver a series of webinars and online fora that will enlighten the abovementioned questions.  These lead to a high-level policy dialogue on inclusive innovation that seeks to review the current approaches on innovation in the Philippines – legislative, policy, institutional; explore the evolving regional and global experience with inclusive innovation; consider the covid-19 context, opportunities for sustainable and green futures, and strategic challenges and risks for adopting a more inclusive approach to innovation. Running in parallel to these high-level fora is the conduct of a policy research on inclusive innovation in the Philippines, backdropped by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The purpose of the policy research is to document, examine, and analyze the arguments related to these thematic challenges in order to provide policymakers with pragmatic, action-oriented recommendations to ensure that innovations are genuinely inclusive and sustainable.

Governance and Accountability

1. The Consultant shall be directly supervised by the UNDP Philippines Accelerator Lab (ALab) Head of Solutions Mapping. All outputs shall be submitted, and all communications shall be coursed or copied through, the three UNDP ALab Heads copy furnished the Senior Policy Advisor, Programme Associate, and Programme Assistant of the Impact Advisory Team.
2. The Head of Solutions Mapping may seek the advice of, or require the Consultant to coordinate with, UNDP officials and personnel who are part of the Reimagining Inclusive Innovation in the Post-Covid19 Philippines Technical Working Group, and others who shall be specified to the Consultant at the start of the contract.

Expected Duration of the Contract

The consultant will be hired for 30 working days spread in the period of four (4) months. The target start of work date is within November 2020 and the targeted end date is within March 2021.

Duty Station

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines, all work and travel of the Individual consultant shall be done within the guidelines and protocols set by the local and national government. Field work, trainings, meetings, and coordination shall be done in compliance with community quarantine policies.

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENT

1. The Contractor should send the financial proposal based on a lump-sum amount for the delivery of the outputs identified below. The total amount quoted shall be “all inclusive” (daily professional fee X number of working days, communications, transportation, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor should be factored into the final amount submitted in the proposal.
2. Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense, and upon award of contract, the Contractor must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration
3. The contract price will be fixed output-based price. Payments shall be made after satisfactory submission and acceptance of the specified outputs by the UNDP Philippines Accelerator Lab (ALab) Head of Solutions Mapping prior to release of payment.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP Philippines requires the services of an Inclusive Innovation International Consultant who shall provide the Inclusive Innovation applied research Framework & methodology, including coaching and mentorship to the Policy Writer and the Inclusive Innovation Research Team in designing and executing the Policy Research. 

1. Research Framework & Methodology

•  Provide an applied research framework and a collaborative methodology that builds from the UNDP-BRH commissioned NESTA study entitled “Emerging models on Inclusive Innovation: an ASEAN perspective”.

2.Coaching & Mentorship

• The Consultant will provide coaching, mentorship, and support to the Inclusive Innovation Research Team (IIRT), the joint technical working group of UNDP and DAP, in the conduct of the high-level webinar series and the parallel policy research.  Coaching / mentorship sessions between the Inclusive Innovation Consultant and the Policy Writer and/or the IIRT shall be done at least twice a month.
• Conduct at least two (2) online learning session on the Inclusive Innovation Framework to be participated by the IIRT and other UNDP staff.  Special focus of the session is on how the framework will guide the policy research design, the high-level public debate, and subsequent activities.

3. Overall Support & Participation to the High-Level Webinars and Other Events

• Provide over-all support and guidance to the IIRT in the conduct of the thematic high-level webinars and online fora, leading to the culminating Inclusive Innovation Summit in first quarter of 2021.
• Participate in the high-level webinars and provide the proper frame to the inclusive innovation conversation during the high-level forum on Reimagining Inclusive Innovation, and the culminating Inclusive Innovation Summit, where the Policy Research will be released.
• Work out loud to promote and establish thought leadership in Inclusive Innovation through the publishing of post-webinar blogs and social media posts.  The blog shall follow the UNDP guidelines on blogs and shall be primarily posted on the UNDP Philippines website, to be cross-posted in the author’s blog platform.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

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Competencies

Corporate 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

Functional and technical competencies

• Ability to work in a diverse and multi-cultural environment
• Self-motivated and ability to work under pressure and to meet strict and competing deadlines
• Displays analytical judgment and demonstrated ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Required Skills and Experience

Offers will be evaluated based on the combined scoring method :

• Technical qualifications = 70%
• Financial Proposal = 30%

For the evaluation of the Technical Proposal, the selection of the successful consultant must be based on the following qualifications (with the appropriate obtainable points)

The Consultant shall have the following minimum qualifications and a minimum passing score is 70 over 100 obtainable points. Only those who obtain the minimum passing score will be shortlisted:

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFER

Applications from qualified candidates will be reviewed by the UNDP evaluation committee. Assessment of best offer will be via Combined Scoring method—where the qualifications will be weighted 70%, and the financial proposal (price offer) will be weighted 30%.

RECOMMENDED PRESENTATION OF THE OFFER

Interested bidders must submit the following:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability, including the financial proposal, using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV indicating all past experiences from similar projects or requirements, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) references;
3. At least 2 published or unpublished research papers (in English) in the field of inclusive innovation policy, applied social innovation research, innovative policy making, and the like.  Each research work should indicate the abstract and the link to the published research.

Interested applicants to note that personal Medical/health insurance (to be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense) is mandatory for the issuance of contracts. Upon award of the contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during the contract duration.

The following templates / Annexes and IC General Terms & Conditions can be downloaded from?http://gofile.me/6xdJm/bE9TCw8fU:

• General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contract
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability
• P-11 form

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.