Background

The ABADEI program aims to deepen community resilience by enabling the immediate rehabilitation of small-scale critical infrastructure for essential needs (economic and social), local markets and livelihood opportunities that are under threat, due to crisis, disaster, and economic collapse. The “Protection of community-based livelihoods and local economic activities in Afghanistan, targeting women-led/managed MSMEs” project aims to provide emergency support to micro-enterprises and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially women-owned informal and formal businesses, to create employment opportunities for women enhancing resilience at the grassroots level. This project will support the livelihood component of the ABADEI programme with a focus on informal and formal businesses, targeting women owned and managed MSMEs.

The project is looking to procure the services of an individual who will facilitate organizing a mission for the Gulf countries by the Resident Representative Afghanistan and further coordinating for the participation of the SMEs during the mission and support MSMEs with business advisory.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be providing the following inputs.

• Coordinate and arrange all logistical aspects of the Gulf Mission in Abu Dhabi (e.g., agenda, invitations, venue, catering, etc.).
• Liaising with UNDP focal person and other stakeholders to ensure that invitations are coordinated with UNDP focal point and dispatched promptly, and necessary follow-up actions are taken to maintain the list of participants;.
• Liaise with the UNDP Communications Offices and UN RC focal point for all public relations-related aspects of the event;
• Liaise with the UN RC Protocols department and security office to ensure the necessary protocols are in place;.
• Liaise with necessary parties concerning the exhibition. (i.e., Afghan Businesswomen);
• Closely monitor the p progress and report to the event focal point regularly of all matters including any bottlenecks;
• Undertake other relevant tasks that UNDP CO Afghanistan focal person may assign;
• Provide practical and productive business advice to women-led/managed MSMEs to help increase competitiveness and raise the productivity levels of businesses in the western region of Afghanistan;
• Contextualized and advice in the current scenario to assist women entrepreneurs in developing new market linkages and creating new leads to increase sales while promoting indigenous products of Afghanistan.

There are three deliverables under the assignment, see table below for details. Each deliverable will be dependent on the activities  

?Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be deliverable-based and made on receipt of the specific milestone reports indicated above, as per UNDP procurement formats for individual consultants duly approved by the UNDP focal point that all the deliverables were achieved as per the TOR requirement. 

?WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

• The SME advisor and Event Manager / Coordinator will be under the direct supervision of UNDP Focal Point and will coordinate all aspects of the preparation of the event. The general duties and responsibilities of the SME advisor and Event Coordinator will include the following expected/outputs/deliverables for the services:

Duration of the Work:

The assignment will be for a total period of 25 working days spread over a period of two months. The consultant is expected to start the work effective 20 May.

Duty Station:

The duty station for the consultant shall be Abu-Dhabi, UAE. The Event Manager/Contractor will be based in Dubai and report regularly to UNDP focal point during the working hours.

Competencies

• Proven experience and expert knowledge in organizing events;
• Ability to plan and implement events;
• Expert level facilitation skills;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills in English;
• Experience in working in a diplomatic environment/UN Missions.

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS, COMPETENCIES 

Academic qualifications:

The consultant shall have Bachelor degree in Business Administration or Master’s degree  in International Business Administration

Experience:

• With bachelor’s degree five years of experience with master degree minimum of 2 years of relevant work experience is required;
• Prior experience in supporting a UN agency in organizing a large-scale, public event;
• Knowledge of organizing events with national and international organization;
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills; Exceptional organizational and managerial skills;
• Ability to work under pressure;
• Ability to work independently as well as in a team;

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of Arabic language will be an asset.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

The individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• 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.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

1. Criteria 1:  Technical Proposal and Methodology and a Brief note on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan -25 points.
2. Criteria 2: Level of proven experience in the private sector and event management; knowledge of SMEs– 15 points                                 
3. Criteria 3: Strong management skills. – 10 points
4. Criteria 4: Experience working with the UN and with multi-stakeholders: governments, NGOs, the UN/ multilateral/bilateral institutions and donor entities on events; - 10 points
5. Criteria No.5- Educational qualification- 10 Points

Financial Evaluation (30%):

1. 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

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The consultant shall submit a price proposal as below:

The consultant will be required to submit a Financial Proposal on the prescribed form as attached with the TOR as Annex-2 

• Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a lumpsum fee, with a breakdown of daily fees for 25 working days, inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance).
• Payment schedule - Payments shall be done upon verification of completion of specific deliverables, upon approval by the consultant supervisor.
• Travel arrangement: The consultant will work from Abu-Dhabi in the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed between UNDP and Individual, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket including applicable DSA as admissible under UNDP DSA policy. Should the Individual wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources
• DSA/Living Allowance – The consultant is  expected to spent 4 day in the following cities (Abud Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait city, and Jeddah). The consultant shall stay in mentioned countries over duration of the contract and shall be separately paid the Living allowance/DSA as per applicable UNDP rate for stay in above mentioned four countries Deductions from DSA shall be made as per applicable UNDP policy when accommodation and other facilities are provided by UNDP. An estimated provision in this regard shall be included in the contract. The consultant need not quote for DSA in Financial Proposal.

Note: The consultant needs to arrange his/her own laptop through the entire duration of assignment. 

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested national Consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Personal CV or 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.
• Technical Proposal (can be attached with CV or response can be provided to mandatory question on jobs site):
  1. Technical Proposal and Methodology and a Brief note on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan
• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);
• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).