Background

Under the principle of Leaving No One Behind (LNOB), Inclusive Development and Growth (IDG) portfolio of UNDP Malaysia is committed to support the Government of Malaysia in achieving the 11th Malaysia Plan’s (11MP) and to prioritize strategies towards raising the income and wealth of B40 households; addressing the increasing cost of living; and enhancing the delivery system of B40 households programmes by streamlining support to B40 households and complementing the Poverty Line Income (PLI) measurement with the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as well as supporting inter-related strategies aimed at improving the quality of education and productivity in order to raise the income and wealth of B40 households.  As vulnerabilities of households have assumed multi-dimensional characteristics, the programme goes beyond absolute income thresholds with a targeted focus and prioritization on the B40 households, alongside spatial dimensions, inter and intra-ethnic distinctions (notably indigenous communities in Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia), women and other vulnerable communities, including undocumented communities.

Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, UNDP Malaysia work in partnership with the government agencies to support in high-level policy development, technical expertise, capacity building as well as collaboration across public and private sectors.  Independent County Programme Evaluation (ICPE) has provided some broad recommendation on the Programme and IDG shall be shaped in the new CPD 2021-2025.

Under the B40 Action Plan project, through UNDP’s partnership with the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), a proof-of-concept experiment was piloted to test citizen-centric approach that may improve the B40 experiences and access to available government services. Away from the conventional means of 

UNDP doing things which primarily focus on high-level engagement with the Government of Malaysia, the experiment charted a new opportunity for UNDP to engage directly with the leaders and communities at the grassroots level.

The citizen-centric approach was proposed as one of the key recommendations from the B40 Action Plan formulated through bottom-up consultative process with the B40 communities in 2016. The approach was inspired by private sector’s success with the Customer Journey Approach as a business strategy to make products and services widespread and easily accessible to its customers. Piloted in three states, the approach aims to test if a facilitative case management using existing social structure can improve the citizen’s experiences and access to available government.     

Throughout the pilot implementation, the experiment unpack many essential insights and lesson learned useful for both programmatic and policy development. UNDP Malaysia is seeking a consultant who is able to undertake a rapid review exercise to extract best practice and lesson learns of the B40 Action Plan project and generally the IDG portfolio. Under the guidance of the Assistant Resident Representative (ARR) Programme, the consultant will conduct desk review, undertake information analysis, and contribute to the documentation of lesson learned as well as best practices from the pilot.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work, Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the ARR Programme (or the appointed personnel), consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Conduct desk review of available reference material (e.g. IDG Portfolio list of projects, IDG portfolio project documents, B40 Action Plan 2016, scoping document, interim reports, final reports, mid-year programme report (MYPR), annual programme report (APR), ICPE Report, strategy papers developed in the past 2 years, Country Programme Document 2021-2025, United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) )
• Undertake interviews with key government counterparts of B40 project and other projects under IDG portfolio, and potentially to interview with selected beneficiaries of B40 projects
• Extract best practice and lesson learns from the IDG portfolio and its projects.  Focus shall be given on
  • Extend of policy inputs provided by the projects (what worked, what has not)
  • Identify strong points and gaps
  • Coherency of inter-projects under the portfolio and their alignment with 11MP, 11MP MTR, Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 under the portfolio
  • Identify missed opportunities for IDG portfolio
• Recommend next-gen IDG portfolio including the B40 projects that is fit for CPD 2021-2025
• Analysis of the B40 pilot projects and the progress towards anticipated results
• Identify potential policy papers, strategic insights that can be produced from the projects
• Discussion with ARR Programme, IDG Programme Manager
• Interviews relevant project personnel hired for the projects, including pilot projects
• Meeting with selected implementing partners in validating issues where necessary
• Be responsible for following up on individual work schedules (e.g., scheduling and conduct of required interviews)
• Submit draft report and present draft analysis
• Finalize the draft report based on comments
• Provide clarifications and/or additional information in response to comments received from the UNDP country office 

Timeline and Deliverables

The consultant is required to submit report to designated UNDP staff as per timeline below:

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The Individual Consultant shall submit a financial proposal based on an all-inclusive daily fee in local currency. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis (or as agreed in the TOR) based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period. The daily fee proposed shall remain the same irrespective of any extension.

The estimated maximum number of workdays for the duration of the consultancy is as follows:

Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Strong analytical skills, including ability to rapidly analyze and integrate diverse information with a discerning sense for quality of data; and
• Good mastery of information technology required for organized presentation of information.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to maintain confidentiality;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Proven organizational skills and ability to handle a large volume of work; and
• Strong oral and written communication skills

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling UN values and ethical standards, including UNEG norms;
• Acts as a team player and exercises diplomacy, tact and politeness; and
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or higher in economics, public policy, public administration, development studies, social science, with specialization and/or experience in upper middle-income country development context

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of work experience;
• Substantive technical knowledge of inclusive development and growth, B40
• Familiarity with the work of the United Nations and UNDP will be an advantage; and
• Familiarity with Malaysia developmental context will be an asset.

Language

• Good written and spoken English and Bahasa Malaysia.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Document 1 : Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability at  http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Letter%20of%20Interest%20_Annex%201.docx?download;
2. Document 2: Technical Proposal: A short cover letter (maximum 2 pages) how candidate’s qualification and experience in rapid evaluation makes them suitable for the work and can lead towards the successful deliverable of this consultancy within the required timeframe; and 
3. Document 3: Financial Proposal at https://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Financial Proposal Template (Daily Fee) - MYR.doc .All inclusive and takes into account various expenses the candidate expects to incur during the contract, including:
   • The daily professional fee;
   • The cost of travel from the home base to the duty station (UNDP Office, Putrajaya) and vice versa;
   • Communications, utilities and consumables; and
   • Life, health and any other insurance.
4. Document 4: Personal CV or P11 including areas of expertise and past experiences in similar projects and at least three (3) references at http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/P11%20for%20SC%20&%20IC.doc?download
5. Document 5: List and summarise at least 3 samples of related evaluation or analysis work previously involved. 
6. Please submit this information in one file as Document 1, 2, 3,4  and 5.The system will only accept one attachment , please merge all documents and submit as one file.
7. Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
8. Candidates who fail to submit all the information requested above will be disqualified.

How to Apply:

• Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template?and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
• Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions (refer to below link);
• Click the ‘apply’ icon and complete what is required;
• Scan all documents into 1 pdf folder and then upload;
• For clarification question, please email to procurement.my@undp.org. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put "MyIC/2021/001"as the subject matter.

General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

• The General Terms & Conditions?for Individual contract is available at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/General%20Conditions%20of%20Contract%20for%20IC.pdf?download

Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNDP and a Company/institution, according to which, the latter? ? makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments

• The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement%20_%20Terms%20&%20Conditions.pdf?download? 

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Only short-listed candidates may be contacted, and successful candidates will be notified.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Only candidates which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated, Individual Consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Combined Scoring method:

The award of the contract shall be made to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%).

• The technical criteria consist of qualification review (education, experience, language) [max. 100 points]
• A financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated as the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment will be based on a maximum 30 points.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Education – Max 20 points;
• Criteria 2: Working experience – Max 40 points
• Criteria 3: Analytical, research and writing abilities – Max 35 points
• Criteria 4: Excellent command of English and Bahasa – Max 5 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points for technical criteria (approx. 70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

For those passing the technical evaluation above, offers will be evaluated per the Combined Scoring method:

            a)  Technical evaluation (70%)

            b)  Financial evaluation (30%)

The application receiving the Highest Combined Score will be awarded the contract.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, aboriginal groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.