Background

UNDP’s Nature, Climate and Energy (NCE) team works with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate natural capital, environment and climate concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies; support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements; and implement the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming on environment, climate change, and energy.

This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests, Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems, Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Renewable and Modern Energy; Extractive Industries, Chemicals and Waste Management, and Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy and SCP approaches. This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.

In addition to UNDP’s bilateral partnerships on natural capital, environment and climate, UNDP is an accredited multilateral implementing agency of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Multilateral Fund (MLF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which includes the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund (GEF Trust Fund), the Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund (NPIF), the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF). As part of UNDP’s partnership with these vertical funds, UNDP provides countries with specialized integrated technical services for eligibility assessment, programme formulation, capacity development, policy advice, technical assistance, training and technology transfer, mobilization of co-financing, implementation oversight, results management and evaluation, performance-based payments and knowledge management services.

To increase brand recognition among internal and external stakeholders, the NCE team is looking to engage a writer to create a visual identity based on UNDP’s corporate brand guidelines for a consistent and professional look. The selected candidate is expected to translate the visual identity into a number of products.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

Visibility for UNDP’s Nature, Climate and Energy portfolio’s programme of work and policy positions through vibrant storytelling and expert editing of text products.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Writer will produce compelling and innovative stories, messages, other written and multimedia content to engage the public on issues relevant to the UNDP NCE portfolio’s mandate and advocacy goals.

Under the supervision of the Global Lead for Nature, Climate, and Energy and NCE communications team, the consultant will perform the following duties including but not limited to: 

• Liaison with campaign and policy focal points to source and develop story ideas across the Nature, Climate and Energy portfolio;
• Research and draft stories, interactive texts, message pyramids, blogs, op-eds, short-film scripts for UNDP and partner websites to support the portfolio’s policy positions and advocacy goals;
• Contribute to and expand on the content plan for Nature, Climate and Energy-related stories and multimedia content;
• Prepare an NCE ‘storymap’ to schedule a pipeline of stories and written content from start of consultancy to end 2021;
• Revise draft stories based on editorial feedback from NCE communications team and UNDP’s Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA);
• Edit text products to meet standards for publication on UNDP website and external placements.

Timeline

• First briefing/brainstorm as soon as possible after start date, anticipated by 14 January 2021

• First draft of proposed storymap, anticipated by January 21, 2021
• Final proposed storymap: anticipated by January 28, 2021
• First story published on UNDP platforms: anticipated by February 04, 2021
• Regular cadence of stories published on an ongoing basis until end contract, at a minimum of 4-6 pieces of content per month.

   Year 1 Outputs and Schedule of Payment

Information on Working Arrangements:

• The Consultant will be home-based;
• The Consultant will report to and be supervised by the Global Lead of the NCE and work closely with the NCE communications team;
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own working station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, assignment specific software, etc.) and must have access to a reliable internet connection;
• The contractor must be available for online meetings with UNDP as required;
• UNDP will provide a briefing and is available for follow-up questions and discussions;
• UNDP will be responsible for editorial oversight and for approval of final versions of products;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the consultant is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones;
• Payments will be made upon submission of a detailed time sheet and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the Supervisor on days worked (with a “day” calculated as 8 hours of work) and outputs delivered.

Competencies

Corporate

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism.

Technical

• Experience in producing strategic and professional written products;
• Experience in creating compelling stories for online and social media;
• Experience in developing compelling written content in a variety of formats for a variety of channels;
• Experience in producing written content to a demonstrably publishable and high standard of quality.

Functional

• Able to communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner;

• Capable of working in a high- pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;

• Pays high attention to detail;
• Exercises the highest level of responsibility and be able to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication or related field; Master´s Degree desirable. (Max 10 points).

Experience

• Minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in Journalism, Public information, communication, or related field (Max 10 points);
• Demonstrated experience in developing high-quality webstories or blogposts in English.  Please provide links to 2 samples of previous work in your application (Max 10 points);
• Demonstrable experience in creating a versatile range of compelling written content in English. Please provide links to 2 samples of previous work in your application (Max 10 points);
• Experience working with multilateral organizations, UN system and/or familiarity with the subject areas of nature, climate, energy and development is an asset (Max 5 Points).

Language

• Excellent oral and written communication in English. (Pass/fail).

Evaluation method:

• Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated;
• Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method where the qualifications will be weighted at 70% and the financial offer will be weighted at 30%;
• The technical criteria (education, experience, language [max. 45 points] and interview [max. 30 points]) will be based on a maximum 75 points;
• Only the top 3 candidates that have achieved a minimum of 31.5 from the review of the education, experience and language will be considered for the interview; 
• Candidates obtaining 21 points or higher on the interview will be deemed technically qualified and considered for financial evaluation;
• Financial score (max 100 points) shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified;
• The financial proposal shall specify an all-inclusive daily fee. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal must additionally include a breakdown of this daily fee (including all foreseeable expenses to carry out the assignment);
• Financial Proposal must be submitted as a separate file encrypted with a password. None of the financial proposal data can be disclosed in other documents of the submission. UNDP shall request password for opening the Financial Proposal only from the Proposers who pass the Technical assessment;
• Applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score and has accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.

Documentation to be submitted:

• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed UNDP Personal History form (P11) and/or CV including Education/Qualification, Professional Certification, Employment Records /Experience;
• Applicants must provide links to 2 samples demonstrating experience in developing high-quality web stories or blogposts in English;
• Applicants must provide links to 2 samples demonstrating experience in creating a versatile range of compelling written content in English;
• Applicants must submit a duly completed and signed Annex II Offeror´s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment to be downloaded from the UNDP procurement site.  This document must be password protected.
• DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR PRICE IN THE LINE ITEMS WHEN COMPLETING THE FIELDS IN ETENDERING. YOU MUST PUT PRICE AS “1” IN THE LINE ITEMS AND PROVIDE THE FINANCIAL PROPOSAL AS PASSWORD PROTECTED ATTACHMENT.

NOTE:

YOUR APPLICATION MUST BE SUBMITED THROUGH UNDP eTENDERING SYSTEM 

Link: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73444

The system allow you to upload more than one documents, ensure the name of the files (attachments) and the text entered in the “Attachment Description” field can only contain up to 60 characters, and cannot contain special characters or letters from any other alphabet other than the English one and not upload files or zip folders exceeding 50MB.

Links 

UNDP Personal History form (P11) required of all applicants: P11.

General Conditions of Contract for the ICs: GTC.