Background

UNCDF

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance and investment capital.  UNCDF focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia and the Pacific, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis.  It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development.  Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges.  UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

Established by the General Assembly in 1966 and with headquarters in New York, UNCDF is an autonomous UN organization affiliated with UNDP.

UN Brussels

The United Nations team brings together 26 specialised agencies, funds and programmes spanning the development, humanitarian and human rights work of the UN. The Director of the UN Office in Brussels is the representative of the UN Secretary-General to the European Union institutions. The team works to build understanding and support for UN system activities within the EU institutions and amongst a wider public in Europe.

UNCDF is one of the agencies present in Brussels and works closely with UNDP on various operational matters.

IT Unit within UN Brussels

The IT Unit within UN Brussels provides ICT services and technical support to the UNCDF Office currently (7 persons), Bureau Focal Points and 5 projects (47 persons), and leverages ICT resources to provide common ICT services and technical support to the 13 UN Agencies, (75 persons). These services are defined by client need and delivered in accordance with UNCDF’s best practices for implementing ICT services.

In view of meeting UNCDF`s and the its sister UN Agencies` and Projects` in Brussels own planned objectives, the IT Unit requires additional support to manage and implement the applications, technology upgrades (both hardware and software) and infrastructure, including events that support delivery of these services, with the aim of consolidating technology, improving and increasing service availability and reducing costs.

To attain the above objectives, the Office would need additional ICT Support in line with the UN’s target ICT Support ratio (1:35 Users).

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objectives of the assignment is to provide ICT support services to the UNCDF Office during the final phases (migration and stabilization) of the Cloud Computing/Office365 project; technical support to UN House Agencies on their own ICT Projects (migration to UMOJA, to the Cloud, including unified communication; and develop the UN House backbone. The services rendered to UNCDF and the UN House Agencies concerned will be within the framework of cost recovery agreements with the Agencies.

The ICT Assistant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the UN ICT Associate and will:

  • Coordinate with IT team and other service support providers to effectively resolve incidents and requests;
  • Add redundancy to our network backbone by investigating, configuring and implementing new hardware where required;
  • Manage the configuration and upgrade of our Internet Services;
  • Manage the installation, configuration and support of our Video Conferencing equipment across UN House;
  • Assist in the presentation of display materials;
  • Support  the final phase of the  Office 365 Project in its rollout of Social networking (Yammer) (3rd to 4th Quarter 2015);
  • Manage the consolidation of the UNDP data file structure and its migration to SharePoint;
  • Support the Agencies migration to the new ERP platform – UMOJA;
  • Investigate a backup strategy for our data storage at UN House;
  • Effective functioning of the platforms (final product);
  • Support agencies migration to Windows 8 and/or to Windows 10;
  • Manage the Hi-path PABX telephony system;
  • Help to accomplish administrative responsibilities (email creation, deletion, user orientation, create access code etc.) and provide TOR specifications for IT related procurement.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

  • Demonstrates commitment to UN’s mission, vision and values;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

  • Plans, prioritize and delivers tasks on time;
  • Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust data discrepancies;
  • Ability to present complex tasks in a clear and simple manner;
  • Participates effectively in a team-based, information sharing environment, collaborating with others;
  • Good knowledge of Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes and Symantec products, including Microsoft operating systems;
  • Solid communication and report writing skill;
  • Uses information and internet technology applications effectively as a tool and resource.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:     

  • Secondary education with specialized formal training on ICT systems Microsoft or Cisco Certification is an asset.

Experience:    

  • At least 2 years of relevant work experience in ICT Support services.

Language:   

  • Fluency in French and English.

Consulting fees, standard travel costs and living expenses

This is a local position. UNCDF will only accept standard fees based on the local market rates (Belgium) and the experience of the consultant. No travel is expected for the duration of this contract.

Application

Please refer to application date above. Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions.  The best proposal that will be awarded the contract shall be selected through the following method:

Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals as set out in the Request for Proposal. The weight distribution shall be 70% technical and 30% financial.

All applications must contain the following information in one word or PDF document combining the following:

Other considerations

Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a procurement notice for Individual Contractor must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly). Please note that in such case the company institution will be asked to issue a Reimbursable Loan Agreement.  Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.