Background

UNDP Seoul Policy Centre for Global Development Partnerships (USPC) 

For more than 40 years (1963-2009), UNDP worked with the people and the government of the Republic of Korea, delivering 270 projects in 20 areas mirroring the Republic of Korea’s development path. UNDP closed Korea’s country office in 2009, as the country joined the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), affirming Korea’s status as a highly developed country and a significant contributor of development aid. In this context, UNDP Seoul Policy Centre (USPC) was established in 2011 with the objective of brokering new partnerships between the Republic of Korea and the developing world through UNDP networks. USPC is co-funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and UNDP. 

Mandate: As per the Agreement between UNDP and the Government of Korea, the Centre has the following functions:

·         To serve as immediate interface with the ROK Government on all aspects relating to the evolving Republic of Korea-UNDP partnership;

·         To serve as knowledge centre for comparative experiences and approaches of new development partners in reducing poverty and achieving sustainable human development;

·         To facilitate and promote learning, networking, policy dialogue and consultation among new development partners and to contribute to capacity development in developing countries.

Organization of work: The Centre is currently operating under its third three-year (2017-2019) Work Programme and Budget and annual work plans. The work of the Centre is organized under four headlines: Global issues; Development Solutions Partnerships; Policy Analysis and Research; and cross cutting issues including Gender and Communications & Outreach.

Steering Committee: A Steering Committee co-chaired by UNDP, represented by the Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (MOFA), represented by the Director-General for Development Cooperation, was established in 2014 with the task of providing strategic policy guidance to assist in the efficient functioning of the USPC. The Steering Committee meets annually.

Staffing: As of August 2019, the Centre has a total staff of seven, comprising of the Director, three international policy specialists (P4), one national communications and partnership specialist (NOC), one national programme analyst (NOB), and two operations staff (G4 and G6). The Center also has consultants working on specific deliverables under the guidance of programme staff. Each semester four to five Korean and international interns are recruited.

Funding and budget: The Centre is co-funded by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNDP through a cost-sharing agreement. So far the ratio has been approximately 80:20 with MOFA funding all staff, except the Director, and 95% of the programme and operations budgets. With the Centre now fully staffed, the annual budget is around $2.4 million.

Under the current three-year programme, the work of the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre is organized under four headlines:

(1) Global Issues

The Centre cooperates with partners on the implementation of the post-Busan Global Partnership on Effective Development Cooperation. This includes contributions to the annual training of partner country officials organized by KOICA and the bi-annual Busan Global Partnership Workshop organized by MOFA. In the latter, the Centre leads the organization of the session on South/South cooperation and development cooperation. From mid-2015 the Centre is also contributing to UNDP’s global work on green economy and natural resources, including the Partnership on Action on Green Economy (PAGE) with UNEP, ILO, UNIDO and UNITAR.

(2) Development Solutions Partnerships (DSPs)

Development Solutions Partnerships (DSPs) are the core element of UNDP’s programme, reflecting USPC’s role of knowledge-sharing of Korea’s innovative and effective policies based on Korea’s know-how from its own development experience. DSP is essentially USPC’s unique modality of providing country-support (through a combination of seed funding and policy advisory services to UNDP Country Offices and their national partners) aimed at innovating policy reforms for achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched in 2015, DSP utilizes the technical expertise and policy know-how of Korean experts as a reference point, and brokers peer-to-peer knowledge sharing between Korea and partner countries as a means of generating interest and political will for policy reforms. Noting one-off country exchanges often fail to produce concrete results at the country level, DSP has been engineered by USPC in late 2014 as its own implementation modality for systematic, cost-effective, and innovative development cooperation. To date, the Centre under the DSP programme has implemented 24 collaborative projects with 21 countries in the areas of governance, gender, and environment. The programme supports developing countries (selected on a competitive basis through the Call for Proposals) to benchmark, localize, and institutionalize Korea’s tested-and-proven policy tools in country-specific ways that help the country’s SDG implementation in several areas, such as governance, public infrastructure, gender and gender-based violence, and environment (i.e. SDG 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16).

Detailed description of the DSP programme is in the box below.

       (3) Policy Analysis and Research

The Centre initiates policy analysis as part of the wider UNDP research agenda and the themes outlined for all the UNDP policy centres. In the case of the Seoul Centre, this policy analysis and research links up with Korea’s development experiences and may also contribute to building a Development Solutions Partnership in a specific area. Several research initiatives conducted by the Centre were directly linked to the DSPs Others were ad hoc policy research initiatives in the areas such as humanitarian development nexus and the fourth industrial revolution and its impact on the labor market.  

     (4) Cross- cutting issues including:

• Gender

USPC implements gender-specific initiatives through its DSP programme on gender-based violence (GBV). It also mainstreams gender into all of its programmes. Staffing has been also finalized in consideration of the gender-balance at the Center (4 males and 3 females).    

• Communications and outreach

Strategic communications and partnerships provide integral support to achieve higher visibility, recognition and relevance across all aspects of the work of USPC/UNDP and its linkage with the global development agenda. It highlighted USPC’s role of knowledge-sharing of Korea’s innovative and effective policies based on Korea’s expertise and lessons learned from its own development experience. The audience of USPC communications & outreach include both Korean citizens as well as UNDP and its external networks. We do proactive public information work via increased media outreach, social media presence, and website and knowledge management of the DSP-related and research publications. Knowledge products, along with corporate publications such as the Human Development Report, were promoted through the convening of practical policy dialogues among international and Korean civil society, private sector, academia and students on topics ranging from technological change and entrepreneurship and gender equality, to conflict prevention and the HDP nexus. The Centre’s reach to broader audiences, as well as their engagement in the programmatic work, have been bolstered through a number of advocacy and outreach initiatives for SDG awareness in and outside of Korea. Engagement of the private sector in the Centre’s global development work was initiated, for example, through collaboration with corporations and SMEs, and support to young innovative SDGs-oriented Korean start-ups.

BOX: Description of the DSP Programme    

The Centre’s DSP work is organically linked with UNDP’s role as highlighted in the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan: to be a knowledge broker, a capacity developer, and a partnership facilitator to address shared challenges and solutions that go beyond national policy-making. The work is also fully in line with key elements of the Strategic Plan, which recognizes triangular cooperation as an essential instrument to support implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Since 2015, the Centre has been pioneering the role as a “node” for innovating systematic triangular development cooperation as a means of providing country-context support to the achievement of SDGs. This is in line with UNDP corporate strategies and the spirit of the Global Policy Network – by bringing together partners to seek concrete and practical solutions through provision of top-notch policy advisory services and rapid deployment of relevant experts.

DSP Overview

 How DSP work in practice 

By combining UNDP’s substantive expertise and partnerships with Korea’s know-how, DSP provides practical policy tools and seed funding resources for UNDP Country Offices (CO) – USD 50-100k depending on their potential as well as performance. As a ‘knowledge translator’ and project supporter, USPC works with Korean partners and developing countries for at least 2 years, implementing a strategic sequence of activities that support the partners to benchmark, adapt, localize and institutionalize relevant policy tools. In each partner country, DSP activities are undertaken as part of, or in conjunction with, relevant projects in the respective UNDP Country Office. As a result, existing partnerships, project resources, and expertise of the CO collaborate with the support of USPC and Korean partners.  

This modality then enables UNDP’s partner governments to undertake strategic initiatives to address their specific SDG-related challenges (e.g. lack of efficiency and transparency in public construction management or weak institutional capacity to support victims of gender-based violence) by applying the most relevant elements from Korea’s policy tools.  To be clear, USPC’s DSP work is neither about promoting Korea’s achievements nor about sharing general lessons from Korea’s development experiences. USPC identifies and documents Korea’s tested-and-proven policy tools of high impact, and brokers programmatic partnerships whereby inspiration and technical know-how from Korean experts working on the identified policy tools are systematically shared with partner countries. Such exchange of knowledge and experience works because of the genuine interest in partner countries towards learning from Korea’s concrete policy experience and strengthening partnerships between the countries and institutions.  

Capitalizing on this genuine interest and partnerships between the two countries, USPC together with COs acts as a trusted development partner and bridge that can then help translate the inspiration into real action through sustained engagement and support.  UNDP COs take about 2 years in total to work with their local partners to enable the adaptation and institutionalization of the policy initiative through the DSPs. During this process, USPC continues to provide management support, financial resources, and policy advisory services.  Not all initiatives are scaled up after the 2-year period. Even after rigorous policy consultations and sharing of detailed policy option papers, some countries do not see the full institutionalization of the new policy and/or system due to political challenges or lack of resources mobilized from the CO and the government. Nevertheless, USPC’s DSP programme has to date demonstrated its usefulness and impact, evident by the ever- increasing interest and demand from countries seen through the number of proposals USPC receives each year.   

 Typical Sequence of Activities (to be adjusted for each project)

(1)          Competitive selection of partner countries through the Call for Expressions of Interest (once a year)

(2)          Series of teleconferences for finalization of country work plan

(3)          High-level Webinar to formally launch partnership between the two countries through the DSP programme (usually involving Minister/Director General-level officials in Korea and partner countries); present introductory information on each other’s policy context and institutional background

(4)          Follow-up partner consultations and workshops in the partner country to prepare for a study mission

(5)          Week-long intensive study mission in Korea for in-depth learning and policy dialogues (usually involving Minister/Director General-level officials as the Head of Delegation)

(6)          Follow-up discussion with Korea through a technical webinar, including an intensive Q&A on the policy tool with Korean experts 

(7)          Follow-up consultations and series of meetings for localization and adoption of the policy tool(s) in the partner country

(8)          Policy advisory mission of Korean and USPC practitioners to the partner country for high-level policy dialogue and training of officials and practitioners

(9)          Series of local activities for institutionalization of the policy tool(s) with ongoing advisory support from USPC and Korean partners

Duties and Responsibilities

Duty Station1)      Purpose

The centre is at the final year of the triennial cycle and will be launching the next programme (2020-2022). The evaluation should review DSP projects that have been implemented between 2015 and 2019. However, in the three thematic areas of DSPs to date—anti-corruption, GBV, and environment—there are projects with different project stages and levels of maturity, as the programme cycle differs from one to another depending on the date of the Call for Expressions of Interests for each thematic DSP. In this context, the current evaluation is different from a standard project evaluation in that there are few projects within the programme that have ended while some have only recently started.

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

• Assess the overall effectiveness of the DSPs as a modality for knowledge sharing and country-support of the UNDP Seoul Policy Center
• Assess the strategic value of USPC as a knowledge broker and country-support programme coordinator
• Capture the expectations, needs, and priorities from programme partners for USPC’s DSP programme and for USPC
• Evaluate the value & effectiveness of the main components of the DSP implementation (seed funding, study & advisory missions, webinars, resource books, etc.)
• Capture & assess the value/results of DSP both from the perspective of developing country partners and of Korean partners
• Identify shortcomings, key challenges, and their underlying causes in programme design and implementation
• Document best practices that can be shared with COs and partners as a reference for effective knowledge-sharing & country support programme
• Identify main characteristics of the results of past and ongoing DSPs; and recommend key indicators to effectively capture results & successes of DSPs in the future
• Provide key lessons learnt and recommendations for improving the DSP programme for USPC’s next triennial programme (2020-2022), in terms of the following, but not limited to:
  • Selection of strategic topics & partner countries
  • Key needs/priorities/expectations demands from the partner countries for DSP
  • Main components of the DSPs (seed funding, study & advisory missions, webinars, resource books, etc.)
  • Measures to be undertaken by different groups of programme partners (i.e. USPC, UNDP COs and their national partners, and Korean knowledge-contributing partners) for enhanced programme design, implementation and sustainability of results
  • Options for DSPs graduation & effective exit strategy

2)      Scope

The evaluation should engage substantive discussions with all the partners of the programme namely:

• USPC; its management and staff related to DSP implementation.
• UNDP Country Offices and Their national partners in DSP programme (Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Albania, Kosovo, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Mongolia, Ghana, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Timor-Leste.
•  
• Korean DSP partners (i.e. Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea Environment Corporation and the Ministry of Environment, Korea Energy Agency, Korean National Police University, National Institute of Forest Science Korea Forest Service, and Seoul Sunflower Center)
• Donors (i.e. Korean Ministry of Foreign Affair and K-Eco and the Korea Energy Agency).

3)      Key criteria

• Relevance
  • Relevance for partners: To what extent the DSPs and their related activities respond to the interests and needs of Korean (particularly donor and knowledge-contributing partners) as well as international partners (i.e. CO programme/partnership programmes & national government policy priorities)?
  • Relevance within the corporate strategies and signature solutions: To what extent the DSPs and their related activities contribute to the SDGs and corporate outcomes/outputs?
  • Relevance within USPC’s mandate as agreed with the donor: To what extent the DSPs and their related activities align with USPC’s mandate?

• Effectiveness
  • To what extent the DSPs’ intended results have been achieved for programme partners, or the extent to which progress towards outputs has been achieved for DSP partner countries as well as for the Korean partners?  
  • How effective was the modality of DSP implementation?
  • How effective were the main components of the programme implementation (seed funding, study & advisory missions, webinars, resource books, etc.)
  • To what extent has USPC and/or COs been able to form and maintain partnerships with different stakeholders such as civil society organizations to leverage results?

• Efficiency
  • How the project funds were effectively utilized and channelled in terms of cost-effectiveness?
  • To what extent has the DSPs increased the synergies between the programmes of UNDP COs and partners?

• Ownership and Sustainability
  • To what extent the project activities have been owned by the programme partners, particularly by the national government partners in DSP countries?
  • How has the DSP contributed to building the partners’ capacity?
  • What is the likelihood that the benefits that resulted from the DSPs will continue at national and subnational levels in the partner countries?

1.      Methodology

The evaluation of the DSPs will be carried out in accordance with the UN Evaluation Group Norms and Standards or Evaluation and Ethical Standards as well as OECD/DAC Evaluation Principles and Guidelines. The evaluation will involve both qualitative and quantitative methods.

• Document review of all relevant documentation. This would include a review of inter alia
  • DSP Call for Expressions of Interest & Programme Document (contribution agreement or similar)
  • Policy Resource Books & Briefs (produced by USPC & partners)
  • Other DSP-related USPC publications (e.g. knowledge products, think pieces, and brochures)
  • Expressions of interest, project reports, and workplans
  • Outputs (i.e. nationally-adapted policy tools & public service mechanisms, nationally produced resource/guide books, training programmes, capacity building workshops, policy consultations, policy options papers, feasibility studies, etc.) produced by partner countries
  • Minutes of the Steering Committee meetings
• Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders including MOFA, key substantive Korean counterparts, UNDP COs, representatives of national partners in partner countries. General interview guide is provided in the Annex. Korean stakeholder should be interviewed in-person in Korea; while international partners/stakeholders should be interviewed via skype.
  • All interviews should be undertaken in full confidence and anonymity. The final evaluation report should not assign specific comments to individuals.
• Surveys (questionnaires) for key programme partners (to be combined with the semi-structured interviews); designed questionnaires should be developed specifically for each target group--such as donor(s), knowledge-contributing partners in Korea; UNDP HQ, global and regional teams; and UNDP CO and their national partners.
• The evaluator is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach that ensures close engagement with the evaluation managers and partners

The final methodological approach including interview schedule, partner visits and data to be used in the evaluation should be clearly outlined in the inception report and be fully discussed and agreed between UNDP, stakeholders and the evaluators based on the inception report.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The following evaluation products are expected for:

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will report to the USPC Evaluation Management Group, consisting of SPC Director and senior programme staff. National Programme Analyst of USPC will provide support to engagements with Korean partners.

Duration of the Work

1 October – 31 December 2019 (Up to 40 working days).

Duty Station

Home-based & Seoul, ROK (with no other international travels)

Competencies

·         Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;

·         Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;

·         Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

·         Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

·         Functional Competencies:

·         Good knowledge of resource efficiency and circular economy concepts, the concept of sustainability and sustainable development in the region and developing countries;

·         Ability to quickly grasp and synthesize inputs from a range of disciplines related to resource efficiency and circular economy concepts;

·         Ability to advocate and provide technical advice on the relevant sector/theme;

·         Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision;

·         Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;

·         Sensitivity to and responsiveness to all partners, respectful and helpful relations with all UN/UNDP staff;

·         Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;

·         Remains calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure;

·         Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage.

·         Ability to perform tasks in timely manner and under pressure, to tight deadlines.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

At least a master’s degree in Public Policy, International Development, Development Economics/Planning, Economic, Public Administration, and Management and in any other related university degree

Experience

•         Extensive expertise, knowledge, and experience in the field of evaluation of development programmes;

•         At least 7 years of experience in working with international organizations and donors;

•         Experience of programme formulation, monitoring and evaluation

Language requirement 

·         Fluency in English. Fluency in Korean would be an asset; and

·         Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contract will be based on Lump Sum

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent. 

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%) *and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation

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

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

·         Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.

·         Personal CV 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.

·         Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultant must quote price in U.S. Dollar that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

·         Working sample(s) that demonstrate the candidate’s experience in programme evaluation.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.

To download related documents and templates, please click the link below:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=58905