Background

UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, reduction of inequalities and building of resilience to crises, shocks and disaster/climate risks to safeguard development. UNDP helps countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and access cutting edge technical and advisory support to build resilience. UNDP’s policy work is carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, and forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy.

Recognizing the imperatives brought about by rapidly evolving development and risk management landscape, emerging needs and priorities and cross-cutting  nature of their interface, UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) works across a wide range of knowledge domains and thematic areas to support countries and communities identify contextual development solutions, in support of the signature solutions and development outcomes envisioned in the Strategic Plan (2018-2021). The GPN also aims to provide rapid and integrated support to UNDP country offices, combining policy advice, technical expertise, financial resources, agile tools and procedures, and partnerships.

Within the GPN, the Crisis Bureau (CB) guides UNDP’s corporate crisis-related strategies and vision for crisis prevention, response and recovery. The Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery for Building Resilience Team (DRT) within the Crisis Bureau supports the implementation of the Sendai Framework for DRR (2015-2030). One of the key focus areas under DRT’s strategy and its technical, policy and programmatic support to countries relates to strengthening disaster and climate risk governance systems, capacities and processes from national to local level.

The Deputy Secretary-General tasked the Climate Principals to develop the UN Common Guidance on Helping Build Resilient Societies (short UN Resilience Guidance) for approval by the UNSDG, with UNDP as the lead entity. The UN Climate Principals then established an UN inter-agency drafting team to guide the drafting process which was facilitated by the DRT/CB. The drafting team comprised of technical leads appointed at the level of Senior Director, supported by a core group of senior technical specialists.  To-date the Guidance has been endorsed by the drafting team’s 18 UN agency and is about to be submitted to the UN Deputy SG and UNSDG for approval.

The Guidance provides a future-oriented and UN-wide guidance on building resilience for delivering the 2030 Agenda that is embedded in the UN Reform and the UN Secretary General’s Prevention Agenda. It fosters a common understanding of resilience that is based on shared principles and offers operational and practical guidance for the UN system and its partners across the UN’s pillars on development, human rights and peace and security. As such, it is a key resource for Resident and Humanitarian Coordinators, as well as Heads and Deputy Heads of UN entities and strategic planners, in the context of the new generation of country teams in mission and non-mission settings. It is a particularly useful guidance for all UN technical experts on how to practically build resilience in support of the sustainable development goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the assignment is to develop a training package on the UN Resilience Guidance for UN agencies, including UNDP, and partners. It will target heads of agencies, senior management, and technical experts from UN and partners who are supporting programme development/implementation, and policy setting at country level. The training package is also of value to regional and HQ based senior and technical staff in backstopping country level resilience building efforts.  

Scope of work

The assignment consists of developing a training package on the UN Resilience Guidance with a focus on how to integrate resilience building into UN programming frameworks and actions.  The training modules will support the socialization and dissemination of the Guidance among UN agencies and partners. The package will consist of 2 courses, that will be carrying the same core messages. The first course will be a half-a-day training for awareness raising purposes of UN Senior Management and Heads of Missions at regional and country level. The second course will be a 2-day training for UN technical experts and partners from a large variety of thematic areas across development, human rights, peace and security.

Both training courses will be articulated around the chapters of the UN Resilience Guidance, including the following:

• Why Resilience Matters?
• What is Resilience?
• How to Build Resilience Together?
• Partnering, Coordinating and Financing for Building Resilience
• The Way Forward

The 2-day training module will specifically emphasize on the ‘How to’ chapter, while the half-day training will focus more on the strategic aspects of resilience building.

As regards style and training methodology, the courses should be designed in a manner that is consistent with what the UN offers in support of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and related content (access to these will be provided).

Content design and development

The vendor will develop the instructional design, session plans/storyboards, and undertake production of the training package. In doing so, the vendor should consider the following aspects:

• From the UN Resilience Guidance and references, identify and gather relevant content and to instructionally design the content into storyboards to meet the agreed learning requirements. Each module shall contain session overview, learning objectives, key messages, detailed session structure and outline, including content and participatory exercises, session timelines, and resources. Concrete successful cases/examples as well as cases/examples of barriers should be included. The training approach should be creative, participatory and reflective.
• Based on conversations with UNDP, present three (3) distinct user interface designs for the modules. Each should demonstrate an example of a welcome/ main navigation screen and one or two examples of how content (sample content is fine) would be presented to a participant. These designs should include color pallets, header and footer sections, navigational and menu buttons, and branding.
• The developer and UNDP will agree on a representative validation of the design based on 20-25% of a module’s content which will then be developed into a functional prototype.  The intent of this step is to validate both the interface and instructional design approaches. This will ensure the product(s) have:
  • An overall design plan and architecture;
  • A consistent look and feel;
  • A common and apparent navigation strategy;
  • Activity-related scenarios, critical incident cases, and interactive exercises;
  • Required visuals – flow charts/decision trees/sketches/interactive image maps, etc;
  • A creative use of vector and pixel-based images to amplify or supplement the learning content, and which reflect the UN’s cultural diversity;
  • Additional reading resources and links as required by the UNDP and UN agencies.
• The Training package will be mainly used in digital form, but it also needs to be easily printed\in full or as single modules.
• While the language and terminology should follow the UN Resilience Guidance, it should also be user-friendly for a large range of audience profiles with different technical backgrounds.
• The Training package should include references or list(s) of useful resources such as documents, videos, images, case studies, links etc., as presented in the Guidance.
• Particularly attention should be given to gender and cultural diversity in imagery and content.  It is recommended that any proposed images be vetted with the UN prior to development.  “Placeholder” images in storyboards can be used, but still should suggest cultural diversity and gender parity.
• Any identified deficiencies in the selected design identified during the prototype review process will be corrected by the developer and approved and accepted by UNDP.
• Upon approval and acceptance of each module storyboard, the developer will develop the content and deliver what will be deemed an Alpha version of the module (based on the approved functional prototype).
• UNDP will conduct a review of each Alpha module and provide an itemized (and consolidated, if reviewed by committee) list of revisions.  These revisions should address major functional or presentational issues and are not intended to re-write large sections of content. However, it should be accepted that some percentage of textual revisions (up to 15% of total finished content) should be planned for by the developer.
• The developer will be responsible for addressing each of the identified corrections/revisions, discussing any apparent difficulties with UNDP to reach an agreed solution, and then implementing the necessary changes into each module.  This version, when completed, will be considered the Beta version for final delivery.
• UNDP will validate that all identified revisions that have been implemented to ensure and that they are acceptable. 
• If additional changes are required beyond those identified during the Alpha review, these must be identified and communicated in writing to the developer.  The developer will review the changes and determine whether they can be made under the existing work order or if additional resources will be required.
• The developer is expected to perform functional management of the project through the development stages, coordinating and expediting as necessary, to the timely completion of the project. Calls and meetings between UNDP and the developer will be scheduled in the workplan and timetable to monitor and support the advancement of the work.

 Key deliverables

• An implementation Plan of the assignment for review and approval by UNDP (17-20 Dec);
• Draft module storyboard/session plans for the half-day and 2-day training courses for review and approval by UNDP (20 Dec – 10 Jan);
• Alpha versions of the half-day and 2-day training courses (10–30 Jan);
• Finalized and fully functional training package for the half -day and 2-day training courses on the UN Common Guidance on Helping Build Resilient Societies (30 Jan - 17 Feb).

Management Arrangements

The assignment will be implemented under short-term consultancy arrangements with clearly identified work plan, tasks, responsibilities and deliverables to be achieved by 17 Feb 2021 (starting on 17 December). The assignment will be implemented under the guidance and direct supervision of the global DRR Team Lead, and overall leadership of the Head of the DRT. The consultant will be responsible for providing his/her own laptop. Payments will be made against satisfactory completion of deliverables as per the above. The payment will be based upon the certification and acceptance of the outputs of the relevant approval officer.

The assignment will be home-based and does not envisage any travel. However, depending on the need, any travel outside the regular place of stay (home/office), if required, would be paid for separately and should not be included in the consultant’s fees.

Competencies

• Advanced level of instructional, analytical, and creativity skills to present materials to the targeted audience;
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to present and collaborate with clients;
• Experience in coordinating consultative processes;
• Good understanding of resilience building, risk management or related fields is highly desired. Working experience in resilience building and/or development work at international level is an asset;
• Experience in working for the UN system is an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Qualifications

• Master's degree in Business Administration, International Relations, Economic Development, Development Studies, Social Science, International Development, Political Science, International Relations or any other relevant field. A first-level university degree in combination with a minimum of 2 years of additional qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Certificates or Bachelor’s Degree in instructional design, education, training, and development of communication products is highly desired;
• At least 8 years of track record in developing various types of training materials, including face-to-face and e-learning;

Language

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge in French and/or Spanish is desirable.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

The following documents should be submitted:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP; http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780 
2. Personal CV or P11 http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc, indicating all your past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) references;
3. Brief description of why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment;
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The term ‘all-inclusive fee’ implies that all costs (e.g. living expenses, fees, health insurance, vaccination costs, visa costs, travel to duty station costs, taxes and social security and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). If you are employed by an organization/company/institution, and you expect your employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing you to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), you must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. The interested candidates should provide their financial proposal on all-inclusive total lump sum for requested services with detailed breakdown.

IMPORTANT: The application is a separate two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applicants.

Step 1: Interested candidates must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP Job Site (Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded therefore please include all documents in one file)

• Personal CV or History Form (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 references (the template can be downloaded from this link: www.sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc).
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable candidate for the assignment. Indicate available start date.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal. Applicants are requested to submit their financial proposals in US Dollars by an email to Mahmood Zahir mahmood.zahir@undp.org, using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780. The proposals should be sent via an email with the following subject heading: “95634 - Development of Training Modules for UN Resilience Guidance” by the deadline of this vacancy.

NOTE: Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Candidates will be evaluated using a combined scoring method with the qualifications and methodology weighted at 70% and the price offer weighted at 30%.  Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49% (out of 70%) points on the technical qualifications part will be considered for the Financial Evaluation. The candidates will be required to provide three references which may be contacted to ascertain the skills and qualifications of the candidates.

Criteria for evaluation of qualifications (70 points maximum): Review of CVs against the below mentioned criteria:

1. Education as per the above (5 points academic; 5 points for degree in instructional design, education and training etc.)
2. At least 8 years of track record in developing various types of training materials, including face-to-face and e-learning (20 points)
3. Experience with instructional, analytical, and creativity approaches to present materials to the targeted audience (15 points)
4. Understanding and or working experience with resilience building, risk management or related fields (10 points)
5. Experience in coordinating consultative processes, preferably for the UN system (10 points)
6. Fluency in English; knowledge in French and/or Spanish is desirable (5 points)

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum): 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.

(e.g. living expenses, fees, health insurance, vaccination costs, visa costs, travel to duty station costs, taxes and social security and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services).

Annexes to the TOR

Annex 1 - IC Contract Template

Annex 2 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 3 – RLA Template