Background
The Government of India is firmly committed to the achievement of the SDGs and to this end the Government has launched a series of national programmes and legislation aimed at promoting enterprises and skilling under the banner ‘together with all, development for all’. These include ‘Skill India’, achieve greater financial inclusion, resilient agricultural productivity, rural employment, the construction of millions of new houses for the poor by 2019, and nurturing innovation through ‘Startup India’, among many other national development flagships and missions. Through these programmes, impressive strides are being made towards poverty reduction and economic inclusion.
However, India’s growing prosperity is not benefitting everyone with some groups and regions lagging behind more than others. Inequalities exist between Indian states with seven ‘low-income states’ that account for 45 per cent of India’s population and 62 per cent of the country’s poor and a poverty rate that is twice that of the rest of the country. In parallel, the rapid urbanization further acerbates social divisions. More work is needed across the country to promote an equal access to economic livelihoods and strengthen social inclusion among groups, castes and gender in rural and urban areas. Against this backdrop, UNDP’s in its new Country Programme 2018-22 will focus on supporting the Government in the areas of inclusive growth, employment, livelihoods and housing to support the GOI in identifying innovative and comprehensive human development solutions responding to the country’s needs.
UNDP, under its inclusive growth portfolio conceptualized “Project Disha: Creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in India”, an initiative funded by IKEA Foundation, in the context of a unique set of development challenges and opportunities underlying India’s growth and human development trajectory. These included low transmittal of India’s high growth rates into jobs and enterprise opportunities for the masses, abysmally low and declining FLFPR, and the paradox of soaring youth unemployment in the face of proliferation of government-funded skill development programmes as well as shortages in the availability of skilled workforce reported by India’s growing business sector. Disha project was rolled out across 5 main geographic areas (Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana) through 2015–19 in a ‘proof-of-concept’ mode. Its ambitious scope included:
- Provision of one million women with marketable skills and livelihood opportunities,
- Developing innovative and scalable public-private partnership models
- Establishing a continuum connecting education to skills, jobs and growth
UNDP has been partnering private sector organizations and foundations like Larsen & Toubro Public Charitable Trust, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, HSBC CSR etc. to continue working on the cause of women economic empowerment and livelihoods promotion among poor, marginalize community.
With the demonstrated positive outcomes of the project focused on livelihoods, employability, market access etc., UNDP, under its Inclusive Growth portfolio , is currently in the process of developing large scale proposals in the areas of economic and inclusive growth to International Foundations, Private Sector Corporations, relevant departments of Governments at state and national level. The indicative thematic fields are
- Skills & Employments
- Rural Livelihoods & Value Chain (Farm & Non-Farm)
- Entrepreneurship Promotion
- Women Economic Empowerment
- Access to Finance
- Making Market Work for Poor
- Improving public systems for delivery of services
The proposal designs should aim at macro & meso level systems change initiatives in the economic growth and women empowerment area that would significantly improve economic outcomes and lives of significantly large number of people from low income and disadvantaged communities.
The proposed interventions would have a proactive strategic approach on addressing gender equity & inclusion as well as demonstrate the potential of large-scale change. The proposals would also have clearly articulated specific systems and people level outcomes that UNDP proposes to achieve through its proposal along with measurable process and impact indicators.
UNDP adopts a collaborative approach in all its work. These proposals will also demonstrate & clearly reflect UNDP’s strong ability to form collaborations and partnerships as well as raise funds for blended/co financing of the proposal.
UNDP is seeking to empanel 05 experienced and proven successful proposal writers for developing the proposals in above thematic areas.
The Consultant - Proposal Development, will work under the supervision of the Lead Inclusive Growth and in close collaboration with the inclusive growth team and will be tasked with the development of the concept note and the proposal both technical and financial.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work
Under the direct supervision of the Team Lead, Inclusive Growth, the Consultant- Proposal Development will undertake the following tasks:
- Determine proposal concept by studying call/ requests for proposal/Discussion with potential donors and field visits.
- Prepare concept note and proposal determining the concept, researching, writing and organizing ideas gathering and formatting information, writing drafts, and obtaining approvals.
- Clearly define the problem statement the proposal seeks to address, and the adverse impact of the problem on the lives of the disadvantaged people.
- Undertake desk review and research other prior & current efforts in this area, reasons for the inadequacy of these efforts in addressing the problem
- Synthesize UNDP’s work & experience in the systems change, economic growth and inclusive growth including through review of project & knowledge documents including midterm reviews and external evaluation reports.
- Clearly articulate the specific system in the economic growth ecosystem that UNDP seeks to improve and the strategy and approach to make that system shift and reasons that this approach will be successful. Also, establish the potential of the interventions in making large scale change
- Describe UNDP’s approach in building collaborations and partnerships (existing & future) for the project.
- Articulate specific systems and people level outcomes that UNDP proposes to achieve through its proposal along with measurable process and impact indicators.
- Prepare M&E framework for measuring project progress
- Describe the project sustainability.
- Establish UNDP’s strong foothold and competitive advantage in undertaking the project and ability to influence ecosystem for adoption of the proven model at scale
- Write proposal content, including executive summary, technical sections, management and staffing sections, risk assessment, etc.
- Synthesize raw content from various sources into a cohesive and comprehensive content in a detailed, factual and convincing manner.
- Review and edit sections drafted by other contributors.
- Develop the concept note and the proposal by assembling information including project nature, objectives/outcomes/deliverables, implementation, methods, timetable, staffing, budget, standards of performance, and evaluation.
- Write, revise, and edit drafts including executive summaries, conclusions, and organization credentials.
- Maintain quality results by using the given templates; following proposal-writing standards including readability, consistency, and tone; maintaining proposal support databases.
- Work with the communications teams for graphic designing and presentation of the proposal
- Meet concept not & proposal submission deadline by establishing priorities and target dates for information gathering, writing, review, approval, and transmittal.
- Ensure final submission document is of high quality and, compliant with the requirements and quality standards of UNDP and the donor regulations and instructions in the solicitation
Expected Deliverables:
- Concept Note (5-6 page)
- Detailed Proposal-technical & Financial
Expected Level of Effort & Duration of Assignments:
UNDP expects following level of effort
Concept Note: 5 Days
Detailed Proposal: 10 - 15 Days (depending on the requirement of field visits and stakeholder meeting)
Competencies
- Demonstratable Technical Expertise in two of the following thematic areas
- Skills & Employments
- Rural Livelihoods & Value Chain (Farm & Non-Farm)
- Entrepreneurship Promotion
- Women Economic Empowerment
- Access to Finance
- Making Market Work for Poor
- Improving public systems for delivery of services
- Proven demonstrable experience in writing large scale competitive proposals, evidenced by customer and donor feedback and proposal win rate;
- Excellent research and writing skills with proven technical writing skills and track record of creating compelling, clear, and succinct documents;
- Ability to structure arguments in a logical fashion and to balance technical rigor with simple explanations
- Proven ability to cultivate consensus, multitask, and be flexible and responsive to quickly changing demands;
- Strong analytical skills and ability to write about complex topics as well as understand, analyze and visualize data in easy to grasp ways
- Strongly detail oriented, with demonstrated organizational skills and ability to work under stringent proposal submission deadlines;
- Familiarity and/or expertise in M&E frameworks and methodologies
- Ability to work directly or remotely with the varied teams;
- Excellent communication and networking skills;
Required Skills and Experience
- Master’s degree or equivalent in Development Studies, Social Sciences, or closely related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience as a lead concepts & proposal designing and development in the development sector especially in the economic empowerment livelihoods, women empowerment & inclusive growth
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages. Presentation skills, Written communication Graphic design skills Technical documentation
- Fluency in English and working language of the duty station.
Desirable:
- Significant working experience in Government, Private Sector or relevant multilateral institutions;
- Sound knowledge of UNDP rules and regulations, policies, procedures and practices;
Evaluation Criteria:
Empanelment shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as Responsive to the requirement. Having received the highest scores out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria (per day consulting fee) specific to the solicitation. Financial proposal of international and national consultant would be evaluated separately.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation;
• Technical Criteria weight - 70%;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 %
Technical Criteria (70% of total evaluation)
- Minimum of 05 years of experience as a lead concepts & proposal designing and development in the development sector especially in the economic empowerment livelihoods, women empowerment. & inclusive growth – 10%
- Demonstratable Technical Expertise in two of the following thematic areas - Skills & Employments, Rural Livelihoods & Value Chain (Farm & Non-Farm), Entrepreneurship Promotion, Women Economic Empowerment, Access to Finance, Making Market Work for Poor or Improving public systems for delivery of services - 30%
- Proven demonstrable experience in writing large scale competitive proposals, evidenced by customer and donor feedback and proposal win rate - 20%
- Familiarity and/or expertise in M&E frameworks and methodologies - 10%
Financial Criteria: (30% of the total evaluation) based on the total all-inclusive lump sum amount for professional fee
Submission of Proposal
Financial Proposal:
Consultant should specify his/her per day consultancy fee. Please quote your professional fee only. Do not include travel costs in your financial quote as these will be reimbursed separately, as per actuals, subject to UNDP’s prevailing rules.
Documents to be submitted:
- Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual Contractor Assignment;
- Updated Curriculum Vitae;
- Sample of written work.
- A financial proposal indicating all-inclusive per day consultancy rate, excluding travel expenses. All Travel will be arranged and borne by UNDP following UNDP’s rules and regulations or will be reimbursed on submission of F10 on the most direct and economical route.
All the above documents should be clubbed in one pdf file before uploading as the system will accept only one attachment.
Notes:
- Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone etc. would not be reimbursed;
- Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual;
- Please note proposals without financial proposal will not be considered;
- All the documents should be clubbed in one file (pdf) for uploading;
- Consultants must bring his/her own computing equipment.
The following documents can be accessed by clicking the link:
General Conditions for Individual Contract-
http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india /docs/procurement/UNDP%20General%20Conditions%20for%20Individual%20Contracts.pdf
Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment, including Financial Proposal template-
UNDP strives to have a workforce which reflects diversity and gender balance, and applies an equal opportunities
approach. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. All selections are on merit.