Background

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN Volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity, as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity. UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany with an office in New York and has five regional offices in Amman, Bangkok, Dakar, Nairobi and Panama.
The Volunteer Advisory Services Section (VASS) enhances UNV’s proactive capacity to mainstream volunteerism into peace and development initiatives based on the vision of a global knowledge and policy hub on volunteerism. VASS leads the implementation of United Nations General Assembly resolution (A/RES/70/129) “Integrating volunteering into peace and development: the plan of action for the next decade and beyond” (hereinafter the Plan of Action) in close collaboration and coordination with the Regional Offices and hosts the Plan of Action Secretariat.
The Plan of Action takes a three-tier approach at the national, regional and global level to promote volunteerism as an accelerating factor to help achieve sustainable development through multi-stakeholder engagement ranging from governments and civil society to the private sector and academia. 2018 focused on supporting UN Member States to conduct a national situation analysis (NSA) on volunteering. This will be compiled and synthesized in five regional reports to be presented and discussed in regional stakeholder consultations in 2019. Finally, global discussion through a global technical meeting on volunteering will be organized in 2020.
For more information on UNV and the Plan of Action, please visit the website at www.unv.org and www.unv.org/planofaction.

Duties and Responsibilities

Main objectives, responsibilities and description of the proposed analytical work
Under the overall guidance by the Plan of Action Coordinator and in close collaboration with the relevant colleagues at UNV Regional Offices, the consultant will draft five regional synthesis reports on volunteering in line with UNDP editorial guidelines. The synthesis will be done based on the national situation analyses conducted by some 35 UN Member States in 2018 and inputs and evidence on volunteering available to date at UNV. The scope of the latter will be jointly reviewed and agreed between UNV (HQ and Regional Offices) and the consultant. Macro-level content analysis is currently being carried out by the UNV Regional Offices to feed into the draft report structure that exist, and all the key content per region will be provided to the consultant writer who will support developing key messages in each region.
The respective reports will form the basis of an outline of five regional stakeholder consultations to take place between February and April 2019 in i) Africa (date TBC in February); ii) Europe and Central Asia (21-22 March); iii) Asia and the Pacific (27-29 March); iv) Arab States (16-18 April)and v) Latin America and the Caribbean (22-26 April).

The total length of each report is expected to be between 20 and 30 pages, including the cover page, acknowledgement, table of content and references with approximately 10-15 pages of analytical narrative. The reports will be written in English by the consultant and will also be published in five other UN official languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.

Key deliverables

Key deliverable 1. Finalization of the work plan and the sequencing of report production:  The consultant will work closely with the Plan of Action Secretariat and the UNV Regional Offices to specify each chapter’s main and supporting messages and to finalize  on the structure, coherence and length of each chapter, ensuring that the messages are clear and prominent and that the storyline is logical and engaging. The consultant and the Plan of Action Secretariat will agree on a plan for structural and substantive edits and identify gaps and refinements for all the content, including text, figures, tables and boxes.

Key deliverable 2. Submission of initial drafts with staggered deadlines for each of the five reports: Based on the plan agreed, produce five regional synthesis reports on volunteering with a view to ensuring: clarity and continuity of the argument and focus of the reports; a logical and engaging storyline; clarity of structure; internal consistency, both intellectual and stylistic; balance; length; general readability and accessibility to a broad readership worldwide, bearing in mind that the target audience is both UN and non-UN partners. The focus is to highlight regional trends clearly and substantively based on the contextualization, while ensuring overall consistency across five reports.

Key deliverable 3. Finalization of the reports prior to each regional consultation planned: Reflect the feedback and inputs gathered from UNV accordingly and conduct final edits in order to make a final submission.
Description of Responsibilities (scope of the work)
 Deliverable Deadline:

1. Inception plan agreed based on the National Situation Analyses (NSAs) received, bilateral discussions with the UNV Regional Offices and desk review of other evidence materials available on volunteerism 21 December 2018
2. Agreement on the sequencing of report production, including the main contextualized themes and key messaging for the five reports 28 December 2018
3. Submission of the three draft regional synthesis reports (Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific) – subject to further review as required 31 January 2019
4. Review by a UNV internal review group (to be established) 15 February 2019
5. Submission of the remaining two draft regional synthesis reports 22 February 2019
6. Submission of the final draft of the first three reports 28 February 2019
7. Review of the remaining two draft reports by UNV internal review group  8 March 2019
8. Submission of the final draft of the remaining two reports 15 March 2019

Competencies

Proven track record in writing and editing skills

• Synthesizing & analysis skills
• Ability to quickly grasp the topic, contextualize and solicit and reflect inputs gathered
• Ability to work independently and remotely, meeting tight deadlines as required
• Knowledge of volunteerism including UN resolutions, reports and other key milestones
• Communication, coordination and knowledge of management skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s and above) in social or political science, communications or a related field.
Experience:

• At least 10 years’ relevant experience in synthesizing and drafting in English
• Experience in writing/editing publications on peace and development topics, preferably on a topic related to volunteerism
• Familiarity with UNDP Editorial Policy is preferred

Language requirement: Excellent command of English, particularly written; other UN languages an asset.

How to apply:

Applicants have to provide a technical and financial proposal. 

The technical proposal shall describe the methodology and the approach how to fulfill the required deliverables as well as outline the major components of its implementation.
The financial proposal shall consist of all-inclusive lump sum for the whole duration of the contract period, which shall include the consultancy fee, costs of living, costs for insurance, etc. The financial proposal shall contain a breakdown of these costs and indicate the number of off-days the consultant wants to take during the contract period (if any).
The lump sum/contract price is fixed regardless of subsequent changes in the cost components.

Criteria for Selection of the Best offer:

The selection of the best offer will be based on the combined scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted – 70%  and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30%.

Key selection criteria are;

At least 10 years’ relevant experience in drafting reports, including synthesis reports,  in international peace and development; knowledge of the topic of volunteerism a strong asset (35%)
• Experience in analyzing and synthesizing data and research (20%)
• Demonstrated experience in writing and editing reports (15%)

Qualified candidates must apply online via the UNDP Jobshop. Interested candidates are advised to carefully review this ToR and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described above.

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

1. Cover letter, explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
2. A proposal,  with a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work
3. Writing sample: 1 file of an analytical report, which has synthesized and used data and/or research
4.  Financial proposal - Use the Confirmation of Interest (COI) form; Link to template:  https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default
5. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references we can contact, minimum name, title, company and email.

Please make sure you provide all requested materials. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

All documents should be scanned and attached into one PDF format document.

 Queries should be sent to  : procurement@unv.org, att Marc Wharton clearly marking

Terms and conditions; http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf

as well as as contract samples can be found at this link: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/procurement/business/how-we-buy.html

Qualified women and members of social minorities are encouraged to apply. Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are only able to inform the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.