Background

The Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI) is a global partnership composed of 19 UN and non-UN organizations that works towards strengthening countries’ capacities to pursue integrated and coherent solutions to reduce disaster and climate risks to achieve the 2030 agenda and its commitment to leave no one behind.

By pooling its member agencies’ resources, expertise and knowledge, the CADRI Partnership promotes the effectiveness of the UN System to optimally use its assets and expertise. Over the past decade, the CADRI Partnership has been active in supporting capacity development in disaster risk reduction (DRR), including preparedness for response, in 30 countries. More specifically, the CADRI Partnership facilitated the development of national plans guiding implementation of DRR priorities in 16 countries, contributed to enhanced skills and awareness of DRR in all countries supported, and facilitated preparedness planning and development of contingency plans in 5 countries. As of 2019, the CADRI Partnership is launching an expanded package of services that extends the thematic area of DRR to include climate change adaptation (CCA), integrates conflict-sensitivity and gender-responsiveness, and tailors these services to the local level.

The CADRI Partnership is implemented through an inter-agency Joint Programme with UNDP designated as Managing Agent. The CADRI Partnership Secretariat is based in Geneva with regional coordination mechanisms in six regions. 2019 is the first year of implementation of the Joint Programme which entails significant workload in support of the development of the new offer of services, new tools, new delivery modalities, as well as additional reporting requirements to partner agencies. Concurrently the CADRI Partnership is scaling up its services in the regions to respond to increasing country demand for capacity development support.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of this assignment is to contribute to the implementation of the new programmatic phase of CADRI 2019-2023.

The consultant will perform the following duties and responsibilities:

Support CADRI Programme Management

• Prepare three (3) CADRI Partners PAG meetings, PPT & note taking & minutes;
• Prepare one (1) CADRI Partners Board meeting, PPT & note taking & minutes;
• Three quarterly progress reports & annual report prepared for submission to CADRI Executive Agencies (June, October, December);
• Prepare monthly country updates for the PAG (June –December);
• Support timely reporting of progress towards outputs (including issue log & risk log);
• Monitor the implementation of CADRI quarterly workplan working closely with CADRI administrative and finance assistant to keep track of procurement processes and support long listing / short listing of applicants as required.

Support CADRI engagement at the 2019 Global Platform (GP) for DRR (13-17 may)

• Support the CADRI side event on National Strategy Development with note taking;
• Note taking at CADRI Partners breakfast;
• Note taking & follow up for 15 bilateral meetings with Members States delegations.

Organization of country / regional missions

• Liaising with Resident Coordinator Office on mission scheduling (capacity assessment or prioritization);
• Drafting of mission reports (interviewing, transcription of interviews, consolidation of agencies inputs) when required;
• Three (3) regional refresher workshops (PPT, note taking, workshop reports).

Support the development of CADRI tools

• Background research in support of the development of the south-south cooperation mechanism;
• Updating of the referral service tool.

Support the revamping of the CADRI website working closely with communication team:

• Develop website content;
• Develop communication products as required based on country reports.

Support other initiatives related to CADRI portfolio

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will be part of the CADRI Secretariat based in Geneva, hosted at OCHA Palais des Nations, and report to the CADRI Coordinator, working closely with the CADRI Programme Specialist, the CADRI Communication team and the Lead Consultants for the development of the south-south mechanism and the Risk Information system.

Duration of the Work: The expected duration of the assignment is 140 working days between 13 May 2019 and 20 December 2019.

Duty Station: CADRI Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland with travel to support CADRI country / regional engagement as required.

Schedule of Payments: The consultant will be paid a monthly lump sum amount.

Competencies

Communication

• Excellent communication and presentation skills;
• Excellent drafting skills in English;
• Strong analytical skills, and a proven ability to process large amount of information.

Teamwork

• Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to work in teams;
• Initiative taking and ability to work with minimum supervision;
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment.

Technical Competencies

• Sound computer skills;
• Proficient knowledge of MS Office applications such as Word and Excel.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic background

• Master’s degree or equivalent in communication, journalism, international relations, development studies, international law, environment, disaster management.

Experience

• Minimum of 1 year of professional experience in international development organizations, international or national NGOs, and/or bilateral development agencies;
• Experience in developing analytical content (reports, essays) and communications products;
• Experience in supporting the organization of large scale conferences, stakeholder meetings;
• Knowledge / previous experience working in UN inter-agency setting in Geneva an asset;
• Exposure to working in developing country settings an advantage;

Languages

• Proficiency in English, both written and oral, is required;
• Knowledge of another UN official language (French, Spanish, Arabic) is desired.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

The following documents should be submitted:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP; http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780 
2. Personal CV or P11 http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc, indicating all your past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) references;
3. Brief description of why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment;
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The term ‘all-inclusive fee’ implies that all costs (professional fees, transport related expenses, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.). If you are employed by an organization/company/institution, and you expect your employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing you to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), you must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. The interested candidates should provide their financial proposal on all-inclusive total lump sum for requested services with detailed breakdown. One-time payment shall be made to the consultant against the submitted final deliverables and a fully completed and duly authorized Certification of Payment Form.

IMPORTANT: The application is a separate two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applicants.

Step 1: Interested candidates must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP Job Site (Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded therefore please include all documents in one file)

• Personal CV or History Form (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 (the template can be downloaded from this link: www.sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc);
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable candidate for the assignment. Indicate available start date;
• Do not upload your financial proposal to the website.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal. Applicants are requested to submit their financial proposals in US Dollars by an email to Mahmood Zahir mahmood.zahir@undp.org, using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780. The proposals should be sent via an email with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal – 84694 - Junior Support Consultant – CADRI Partnership” by the deadline of this vacancy.

NOTE: Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Candidates will be evaluated using a combined scoring method with the qualifications and methodology weighted at 70% and the price offer weighted at 30%.  Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49% (out of 70%) points on the technical qualifications part will be considered for the Financial Evaluation. The candidates will be required to provide three references which may be contacted to ascertain the skills and qualifications of the candidates.

Criteria for evaluation of qualifications (70 points maximum):

• Master’s degree or equivalent in communication, journalism, international relations, development studies, international law, environment, disaster management (Max. 10 points);
• Professional experience in international development organizations, international or national NGOs, and/or bilateral development agencies (Max. 15 points);
• Experience in developing analytical content and communication products (Max. 15 points);
• Experience in supporting the organization of large-scale conferences (Max. 10 points);
• Knowledge / previous experience working in UN Inter-agency settings in Geneva an asset (Max. 10 points);
• Exposure to working in developing country settings an advantage (Max 10 points).

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):

• 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;