As a trusted multilateral partner serving 177 countries and territories around the world, UNDP is uniquely positioned to help advocate for change, connect countries to the knowledge and resources they need to develop and to coordinate efforts of the United Nations at the country level.

In order to fulfil UNDP’s mandate and advance youth empowerment, UNDP launched at the end of 2014 its first Youth Strategy, aligned with UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017. In July 2016, UNDP approved the Youth Global Programme for Sustainable Development and Peace (“Youth-GPS”) for 2016-2020, aimed at boosting the implementation of UNDP’s Youth Strategy 2014-2017, and at sharpening the organization’s focus and corporate response to the challenges young people face worldwide across three priority thematic areas: enhanced youth civic engagement and participation in decision making and political processes and institutions; increased economic empowerment of youth; and strengthened youth engagement in resilience-building and peace-building. A key priority for the project will be to deploy systematic and coordinated action to support the role of young people as active agents of change and partners in SDG implementation, monitoring and accountability as well as the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace and security (2015) and related international agreements. The project also aims to strengthen UNDP’s overall accountability and commitment to youth. As such, the project leverages UNDP’s distinctive added value within the multi-lateral system, its strong partnerships with UN and external partners on youth issues and its strength as a decentralized operational organization in order to effectively foster youth empowerment and to advance the role of young people as positive agents of change and partners for sustainable development and peace.

As the co-chair of the 2250 task force on Youth, Peace and Security programming and fundraising and an active member of the Working Group on Youth Participation in Peacebuilding of the Inter-Agency Network for Youth Development (IANYD), and as a follow-up to the Global meeting organised at the Oslo Governance Centre in March 2016, UNDP is proposing to host, coordinate and facilitate with partners an updated and expanded Youth4Peace Portal (originally developed by UNDP to serve the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security hosted in Amman in 2015). This revamped and expanded portal will respond to a growing need amongst partners, and contribute to the ongoing consolidation and visibility of the Youth, Peace and Security global agenda and the work of the broader Inter-Agency Working Group, through the provision of a one-stop-online-shop for this field. It will provide users and partners with access to relevant and timely information and knowledge on youth, peace and security and act as a virtual meeting place for those striving to collaboratively support and enhance the participation of young people in peacebuilding. It will seek to serve the needs of decision-makers, development practitioners, young peacebuilders, researchers and other stakeholders interested in promoting and supporting young people’s participation in peacebuilding by supporting the process of generating, accessing and sharing knowledge. The portal will also help members to share existing resources, expand their networks, launch social media campaigns, collaborate and stay up to date on recent developments and events. Last but not least, the knowledge portal will play a crucial role in convening online consultations and discussions, which will feed into the progress study on the positive contributions of young people mandated by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2250 (2015), as well as in disseminating the study and related materials. UNDP is looking to recruit an international consultant who will lead and facilitate the Youth4Peace portal and coordinate related communications, learning, knowledge and advocacy activities on youth to continue to position UNDP.

Scope of Work: Under the direct supervision of UNDP’s Youth Policy Specialist, the consultant will be responsible for the following:

Oversee the development of the Youth4Peace portal, including but not limited to:

• Consultation with partners for the finalisation of Concept Note, portal site map, identification of initial content, etc.; as well as the development of ToRs and procurement process for developers.
• Develop the Youth4Peace Beta Portal to:

• Offer a global forum of knowledge and resources on young people’s participation in peacebuilding, linking an array of stakeholders in discussions designed to advance the positive contribution of young people to peacebuilding by generating new – and sharing existing – knowledge.
• Equip young women and young men, practitioners, policy makers, academics, etc., at the grassroots, national, regional and international levels with tools and resources that can be used to inform and support efforts to enhance youth participation in peacebuilding.
• Provide a common platform for the coordination of advocacy efforts in order to raise awareness, provide targeted information, increase the visibility of the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda, and further promote a culture of collaboration and partnerships.

• Liaise with developers for the design, testing and finalisation of the platform, including migration of existing content from current site, and populate the portal with relevant content.

Coordinate and Facilitate Youth4Peace activities:

• Serve as Secretariat for Youth4Peace Steering committee.
• Ensure regular and timely updates on the Youth4Peace Portal.
• Coordinate Youth4Peace consultations, including those which will feed into the drafting process of the progress study requested by S/RES/2250 and other relevant consultations such as, for example, youth-led solutions in PVE and linkages between S/RES/2250 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Support the Youth4Peace Ambassadors’ Initiatives.
• Capture innovations and emerging trends related to Youth4Peace and undertake research on related issues, as required.

• Support the organisation of Youth4Peace events including: supervising logistics, invitations, reviewing and compiling presentations, preparing background documents, managing all final reporting (including drafting the workshop executive summary and meeting reports).
• Support any other relevant tasks, as required.

Communications, Knowledge Management & Roster Coordination:

• Ensure relevant content is captured and shared regularly on appropriate internal / external platforms to enhance the visibility of Youth4Peace and UNDP’s work on youth.
• Lead UNDP’s Youth4Peace and youth-related social media campaigns and coordinate, as required, with BERA and other partners on upcoming campaigns.
• Facilitate the internal online UNDP network of youth practitioners on Youth4Peace and in the broader context of UNDP’s work on youth.
• Conduct regular reviews of existing and planned knowledge products on youth across UNDP, update and identify topics for new knowledge products based on gaps and needs from Country Offices.
• Ensure distribution and dissemination of relevant knowledge products; plan, develop and launch campaigns and roll-out strategies.
• Manage UNDP’s Youth Empowerment Roster; coordinate the next call for experts, on youth in peacebuilding.
• Produce/update briefing notes, concept notes, issue notes, fast facts and other internal UNDP and Youth4Peace knowledge and advocacy products to strengthen the community of learning and practice.
• Organize and support corporate learning events, particularly webinars.
• Support the preparation of technical progress and monitoring reports.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Consultant will report to the UNDP Youth Policy Specialist, based in UNDP HQ, New York.

Duration of the Work and Duty Station:

The expected duration of work is 6 months, full-time consultancy; the consultant is expected to start on 5 August 2016. The consultancy is home-based.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the UN system;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

Technical/Functional:

• Knowledge and understanding of governance and youth issues, with an emphasis on the provision of coordinated support and management of knowledge and advocacy initiatives;
• Ability to carry out research, to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Familiarity with UN SCR 2250 and the inter-agency working group on young people’s participation in peacebuilding.

Knowledge Management and Communications:

• Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• Ability to conduct advocacy, and to support the development of programme communications strategies for sharing good practices and successful strategies;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:

• Demonstrated ability to multitask under pressure and to meet strict deadlines;
• Great organizational skills and ability to work effectively in teams, delivering through and with others;
• Self-management, including conflict management/negotiating skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Political Science, Law, International Relations, International Development studies, or other relevant areas. A Bachelor’s Degree with an additional two years of relevant experience will also be acceptable.

Experience:

• Minimum of eight years of relevant experience (ten with Bachelor’s degree) in international cooperation for development, governance and peacebuilding;
• Solid experience in knowledge management, including the preparation of high-quality reports, drafting newsletters, managing online collaboration platforms, facilitating web-based portals and communities of practice. Familiarity with UNDP CMS, or other content management platforms highly desirable;
• Experience in communications and advocacy for development and peacebuilding, including the ability to develop content for online dissemination and the establishment and development of social networking platforms;
• Experience in conducting research, gathering and synthesizing information from a variety of sources to provide evidence and capture learning, and supporting the implementation of governance, human rights, education, post-conflict and youth-related activities at global and regional levels;
• Experience developing and maintaining rosters of experts required. Familiarity with the WIDE platform would be an asset;
• Previous work experience with the UN System required. Experience working with UNDP highly desirable;
• Proven experience of working remotely, including the ability to build constructive relationships with a wide variety of colleagues and partners.

Languages:

• Excellent writing and editing skills in English;
• Excellent command of a second UNDP working language (French or Spanish).

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications (all documents must be compiled into one file to be uploaded as part of the application):

• Proposal / Cover letter explaining why the candidate is the most suitable for the assignment;
• CV and P11 highlighting past experience in similar projects and contact details for three referees. The P11 form can be downloaded here.
• Financial Proposal with daily fee for completion of the assignment.

Selection procedure:

Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicant's qualifications and financial proposal. The award of the contract should 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.

Criteria

Technical Evaluation: 70% of total evaluation (maximum 70 points):

• Criteria A: Education (maximum 15 points);
• Criteria B: Experience (maximum 45 points);
• Criteria C: Language requirements (maximum 10 points).

Note: only the highest ranked candidates who have obtained a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the technical evaluation will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial Evaluation: 30% of total evaluation (maximum 30 points).