The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a global organization with 17,000 staff working in approximately 170 offices globally towards supporting governments in developing strong policies, institutions and partnerships to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

UNDP's policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan.

In order to streamline its financial and investment engagement, UNDP launched the Finance Sector Hub, a finance and innovation platform, that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to support the mobilization and leveraging of resources for the SDGs and lead the implementation of the new UNDP private sector strategy and other initiatives. The Hub is an integral part of both the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), as well as part of the GPN.

The Finance Sector Hub team in Geneva works across a range of work relevant to financing and investment for the SDGs, with strong links to financial, private and institutional sectors across Europe. In particular, it leads on UNDP’s work in insurance and risk financing as well as delivers initiatives that target the ecosystems of investment actors across Europe.

UNDP’s Work on Insurance and Risk Financing

The collaboration between the insurance industry and the development sector has grown significantly over the last five years. Key initiatives, such as the Insurance Development Forum, InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, have evolved into significant policy and standard setting partnerships, bringing together countries, the development sector, and the private and mutual/cooperative sectors of industry. Increasingly, these partnerships are moving beyond policy to programming, with a strong focus on not only delivering insurance and risk financing solutions to countries and communities, but also on long-term transformational change of insurance markets.

UNDP’s growing work in this space has led to the creation of a flagship initiative on insurance and risk finance, and the creation of a dedicated facility for supporting UNDP Country Offices and country partners worldwide, within the newly created Finance Sector Hub. This work covers a range of critical areas where insurance and risk transfer solutions and collaboration with the industry can add significantly to achieving and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Covering inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, insurance investments, natural capital, health, SME development and more, UNDP will work towards developing and delivering insurance solutions together with countries and communities, as well as collaborating with partners to transform insurance markets through enhancing legislation, regulation and institutional capacity.

The Research Analyst is expected to support the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility through research and analysis on global and country-level insurance trends, social media content development and management, and project management support for the success of the overall Facility. 

The objective of this IC is to contribute to the work of the team with research, analysis and project management support.

The IC will be part of the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (I&RFF) within the Finance Sector Hub Team in Geneva under the direct supervision of the Special Advisor, Finance Sector Hub, and work closely with the global I&RFF team.

The IC is expected to perform the following duties and responsibilities:

• Support the Project Analyst to maintain and actively update the internal knowledge management database;

• Research, analyze and develop internal reports on critical development issues across insurance and private sector activities including insurance regulations and policies, inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, natural capital, innovative insurancelinked financing instruments and natural capital at both the international and country-level;

• Undertake preparatory and follow-up work for meetings and prepare documentation for records and support the management of the work by contributing to document management, retrieval and overall good practice;

• Support team efforts to manage communications and correspondence with key program stakeholders and colleagues in across and beyond UNDP;

• Manage and implement online and social media strategies of the I&RFF including Twitter, LinkedIn and other channels;

• Any other project related activities, as requested by the Special Advisor, Finance Sector Hub or Project Team

List of monthly deliverables (for January to December 2021):

• Contribute to developing and managing an internal knowledge management database for the Insurance and Risk Finance Facility

• Lead the research and writing for monthly internal reports on critical development issues across insurance and private sector activities including insurance regulations and policies, inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, natural capital, innovative insurance-linked financing instruments and natural capital at both the international and country-level, as requested by the IRFF team;

• Develop at least 5-10 social media posts per week of relevant risk finance topics

• Support the data analysis for each of the 10 country office diagnostic surveys and the subsequent diagnostic reports

• Support the development of monthly I&RFF newsletter

• Support with the launch of the I&RFF and other virtual or in-person events 

Corporate Competencies:

• Commitment to UNDP's mission, vision and values
• Sensitivity to cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age differences
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty
 

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to manage workload with minimum supervision and collaborate with a wide range of colleagues and partners across organizations, while meeting deadlines;
• Excellent interpersonal skills: being able to listen and collaborate with a wide range of players, being able to work independently, being pro-active and taking initiatives 

Academic qualifications:

• Advanced university degree (Master Degree or above) in finance, business administration, economics or other relevant disciplines is required.
 

Experience:

• Minimum 1 year of experience in impact investing, development finance, sustainable investing and/or insurance & risk finance is required,
• Strong computer skills including Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook), and experience with using online tools such as Sharepoint is required.
• Familiarity with the 2030 Agenda and how the private sector, specifically insurance and risk finance, can support the SDGs is highly desirable
• Practical experience in research, analysis and the preparation of internal reports is highly desirable
• Previous experience in the UN, World Bank or other multilateral agency on insurance and risk finance is considered an asset;
• Previous experience with social media and communication work for the UN is considered an asset
 

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English including excellent writing and editing skills is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset.

Application Procedure:

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

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using UNDP provided template (Annex I);
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience 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.
• Financial proposal. (Please see the details below and refer to Annex I)

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on an 8-hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21 days per month).
• 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; (excluding mission travel); 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. 

Evaluation process:

Applicants are reviewed based on the qualifications 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 weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.
 

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

• Criterion 1: Advanced university degree (Master Degree or above) in finance, business administration, economics or other relevant disciplines (Desk Review) Max. 10 points (Masters degree -8 pnts, Masters or above in finance/BA/econs or insurance related -10 pnts)

• Criterion 2: Fluency in written and spoken English (Desk Review) - Max. 2 points (fluent-2 pnts)

• Criterion 3: Fluency in other UN language (Desk Review) – Max.2 points (1 extra UN language -1 pnt, 2+ languages-2pnts)

• Criterion 4: Minimum 1 year experience in impact investing, development finance, sustainable investing and/or insurance and risk finance – Max 10 Points (8 points for 1 year, 9 points for 2 years, 10 points for 2 years+)

• Criterion 5: Strong computer skills including Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) and experience with using online tools such as Sharepoint (Desk Review) Max. 10 points (intermediate - 6 points, advanced-8 points, professional-10 points)

• Criterion 6: Previous experience in the UN, World Bank or other multilateral agency on insurance and risk finance (Desk review) Max. 8 points

• Criterion 7: Previous experience with social media and communication work for the UN (Desk review) – Max. 7 points

• Criterion 8: Familiarity with the 2030 Agenda and how the private sector, specifically insurance and risk finance, can support the SDGs (Interview) Max. 7 points

• Criterion 9: Practical experience in research, analysis and the preparation of internal reports (Interview) Max. 7 points

• Criterion 10: Flexibility, creativity and effective communication and ability to work with minimal supervision and deliver outputs under sometimes tight deadlines (Interview) Max 7 points
 

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education (Master’s Degree), language (fluency in English) and experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (34.3) of the maximum obtainable points for education, experience and language criteria (Criteria 1-7) shall be considered for the interview.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points, criteria) 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
 

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined score 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 Arrangements:
 

• The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Special Advisor, Finance Sector Hub and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above;
• The consultant will engage with other relevant UNDP staff as needed. Detailed work plans, including timeline, external organizations and individuals to engage and consult with will be developed at the beginning of the assignment;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop;
• Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
• The work week will be based on 40 hours/pw, i.e. on an 8 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.
 

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):
Annex 1-  UNDP template for Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability & Financial Proposal
Annex 2 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs
Annex 3 - IC Contract Template
Annex 4 – IC General Terms and Conditions
Annex 5 – RLA Template

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

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.

If you are experiencing difficulties with online job applications, please contact erecruit.helpdesk@undp.org.