Background

UNDP operates in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, to reduce inequalities and to increase sustainability. We help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The United Nations Secretary-General has made youth a priority and launched “Youth 2030”, the first United Nations Youth Strategy. UNDP promotes and supports youth empowerment for sustainable development and peace, in line with the recognition of young people as positive and critical agents of change in Agenda 2030 and the youth, peace and security resolutions. UNDP aims to systematically foster youth empowerment and sharpen the organization’s focus and corporate response to the challenges young people in all their diversity face worldwide.

In response to the increased demand for youth expertise across all thematic areas and in the context of the support to the implementation of Agenda 2030 and other internationally agreed outcomes, and given the critical importance of both addressing youth specific needs and support young people’s role in COVID-19 response and recovery, UNDP is establishing a new pool of pre-vetted Youth experts. This pool of experts will support UNDP’s work with and for young people at all levels (global, regional, country). Itis meant to be maintained to provide a continued pool of expertise to promote and support youth civic engagement and participation in decision-making and governance, youth economic empowerment, youth participation in resilience- and peace-building, and youth empowerment in the context of COVID-19, focusing on supporting implementation of actions and delivering results on the ground.

The Global Policy Network Experts Roster for Rapid Response (ExpRes ONE Roster) is a recruitment and deployment mechanism which maintains pre-vetted consultants on a roster and offers the ability to contract them quickly for support. The primary purpose of this roster has been to deploy crisis prevention and recovery technical experts to UNDP country offices on short notice. It currently provides pre-selected and technically vetted consultants across 21+ profiles and 79 sub-profiles to support the work UNDP and partner agencies accomplish in the area of crisis prevention, response and recovery. The GPN/Experts Roster for Rapid Response has evolved into a recruitment and deployment mechanism which maintains technically vetted consultants across all technical areas supported by the Global Policy Network of UNDP. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to join UNDP’s GPN ExpRes ONE Roster under the Youth profile and may be considered for future similar assignments with UNDP. Retention in the Roster of selected experts will be contingent on continuous delivery of satisfactory services.

Duties and Responsibilities

To support UNDP’s work with youth and on youth empowerment for sustainable development and peace, UNDP has identified the following 5 thematic lines of support, aligned with the UN Youth Strategy priority areas:

  1. Youth mainstreaming and young people’s inclusive engagement, participation and advocacy in SDG integration, implementation, monitoring and accountability;
  2. Youth and quality education and health;
  3. Youth economic empowerment through decent jobs, digital skills and innovation;
  4. Youth, human rights, civic engagement, political participation, meaningful engagement in governance;
  5. Youth in resilience-building, peacebuilding and humanitarian action.

Applicants can apply to one or more options from the above expert list. Successful applicants will join the UNDP’s roster of experts and be contacted based on arising country needs.

Competencies

Corporate competencies

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • 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 favoritism.
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies

  • Strategic vision, strong technical and analytical capabilities on youth empowerment for sustainable development and peace;
  • Strong knowledge of UN’s and UNDP’s priorities on youth;
  • Field experience with UNDP/UN an asset;
  • Experience as young activist, human rights defender, social entrepreneur, peacebuilder, educator, trainer, grassroots youth worker, an asset;
  • Solid understanding of contemporary development challenges for youth;
  • Commitment to youth meaningful participation and empowerment;
  • Strong research, reporting, communications and writing abilities;
  • Ability to work independently, lead and work in a team, lead the development of synergies, partnership-building, resource-mobilization and establish effective working relations with government counterparts, donors, NGOs and other development partners;
  • Experience developing, leading, coordinating, managing youth projects and programmes
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills, resourcefulness, initiative, maturity of judgment, tact, and negotiating skills, and the ability to cope with situations which may pose conflict;
  • Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
  • Ability to accommodate additional demands on short notice;
  • Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
  • Ability to manage heavy workload and solve complex problems with minimum supervision.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in a development related field (Economics, Public or Business Administration, Political Science or other Social Sciences) or equivalent

Work experience:

  • 5+ years of relevant professional experience, including 2 years of experience managing youth-related programmes;
  • Field experience with UNDP or other development organizations in crisis settings is an asset.

Languages:

Fluency in English. Written and spoken knowledge of an additional UN language is highly desirable.
 

Thematic area for which you would like to apply (candidates to be able to select from the options below):

  • Youth mainstreaming and young people’s inclusive engagement, participation and advocacy in SDG integration, implementation, monitoring and accountability
  • Youth quality education and health
  • Youth economic empowerment through decent jobs, digital skills and innovation
  • Youth, human rights, civic engagement, political participation, meaningful engagement in governance
  • Youth in resilience-building, peacebuilding and humanitarian action

Additional thematic work experience:

1. Youth mainstreaming and young people’s inclusive engagement, participation and advocacy in SDG integration, implementation, monitoring and accountability:

  • Experience with youth mainstreaming tools and structures, youth engagement platforms
  • Ability to support the establishment, operationalization and maintenance of youth spaces and the convening of meaningful dialogues with youth
  • Experience developing and supporting leadership, training and capacity-building on with, for and on youth
  • Ability to develop and support youth-inclusive data tools and knowledge platforms
  • Experience with youth mainstreaming in country-level situation analysis (Cooperation Framework, Common Country Assessments, national development frameworks, UNDP country programme documents, etc.)
  • Experience contributing to and supporting a youth research agenda
  • Experience convening and supporting multi-stakeholder innovation labs with and led by youth.
  • Experience with the development and use of youth financial investment tools
  • Ability to develop youth-inclusive and result-based communication tools
  • Experience with young people as implementers in programmes and projects
  • Experience designing, implementing, monitoring and strengthening UN joint programmes on youth (eg. Experience with initiatives funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund)
  • Experience with youth engagement in SDG mechanisms and processes, including SDG integration missions, programmes and projects.
  • Ability to promote principles of responsive youth development, youth meaningful engagement and participation and youth empowerment in institutions and the future of multilateralism
  • Ability to develop innovative channels for youth engagement
  • Experience with youth markers to track progress and investments on youth
  • Ability to mainstream youth in management compacts and to articulate youth-related commitments
  • Ability to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on youth.

2. Youth quality education and health:

  • Ability to engage on the issue of access to quality education
  • Ability to support the development and delivery of inclusive education for young people;
  • Experience with the promotion of non-formal education and peer-to-peer learning
  • Ability to support youth-inclusive health services and healthy environments; experience supporting youth-friendly COVID-19 health responses; mental health services; sexual and reproductive health and rights; youth and non-communicable diseases; youth and HIV; youth, health and climate.

3. Youth economic empowerment through decent jobs, digital skills and innovation:

  • Ability to support enabling environment for economic empowerment; youth entrepreneurship, decent jobs for youth, employment; school-to-work transition; employment ecosystems; youth rights at work; social protection; public-private partnerships; access to services and productive assets; digital skills, technology, innovation; just transition to low-carbon and green economy; renewable energy, nature-based solutions.
  • Experience with economic empowerment of young migrants, displaced youth and young refugees.
  • Experience specifically with youth initiatives tackling inequalities and with socio-economic empowerment of young people in the context of COVID-19 response/recovery an asset.

4. Youth, human rights, civic engagement, political participation, meaningful engagement in governance:

  • Ability to support the protection and promotion of young people’s human rights (advocacy, policy development and programming to safeguard the human rights of young people and prevent and address human rights violations experienced by young people, ensuring a focus on young people experiencing intersecting forms of discrimination and abuse, as well as young people’s access to justice).
  • Ability to promote a deeper understanding of youth-specific barriers and challenges young people face in accessing their human rights; supporting human rights education, youth-led advocacy and actions and supporting human rights, women’s empowerment and gender equality mainstreaming
  • Ability to promote the young people’s participation in political and public affairs and their ability to advance peaceful, just and inclusive societies (civic engagement, decision-making, constitution-making, parliaments, electoral cycle support, core government functions, local level governance, accountability, anti-corruption, digital governance, informed societies/media, disabilities, next generation governance).

5. Youth in resilience-building, peacebuilding and humanitarian action:

  • Ability to promote and support young people’s positive contribution to peace and security, prevention of violence, disaster risk reduction, climate action, humanitarian action.
  • Ability to advance youth participation in formal peace processes, and the promotion of youth-inclusive and youth-led safe public spaces;
  • Ability to strengthen youth, peace and security coalitions and to development local, national, regional roadmaps to support the implementation of Resolution 2250 (2015) and 2419 (2018) on youth, peace and security;
  • Ability to support the role of youth in mediation and social cohesion;
  • Support capacity-building of governments, youth organizations and other stakeholders on youth, peace and security;
  • Ability to expand opportunities for youth by promoting a culture of peace, intercultural and interreligious dialogue to prevent conflict; promote and support youth solutions to prevent violent extremism; supporting positive and counter-narratives to messages of violence;
  • Ability to support and promote youth agency and youth leadership in climate action;
  • Ability to protect and support young people in humanitarian action.

Recommended presentation of the offer:

Application is a two-step process:

STEP 1 – Technical offer

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain the TWO following documents, ALL IN ONE FILE:

  • DOCUMENT 1: Personal CV or 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.
  • DOCUMENT 2: Brief description of why the individual considers her/himself suitable for the assignment. Please submit this information in the same file as Document 1.
  • All the information requested above must be submitted in the same file. Candidates who fail to submit all the information requested above will be disqualified.
  • Please do not include your financial proposal at this stage. Only shortlisted candidates (technically qualified) will be invited to submit a financial proposal.

STEP 2 - Financial Proposal

After review of applications, technically qualified candidates will be contacted by UNDP and requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

  • The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee.
  • The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
  • In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should 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.
  • Shortlisted candidates will be asked to submit a financial proposal. UNDP will provide candidates with the financial proposal template.
  • If the 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 a 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.
  • The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to responsive and qualified candidates.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

  • Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of “a daily fee” in USD.
  • Payment will be made upon submission of a certificate of payment request, at a schedule agreed based on deliverables, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.
  • Any official mission travel expenses will be duly paid for directly by UNDP and should not be included in the price proposal.
  • Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.
  • Qualified women are encouraged to apply.

Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Review of technical criteria as evident in the submitted application:

  • Criterion 1. Relevant professional experience: 35 points
  • Criterion 2. Research and policy development experience on youth empowerment issues: 30 points
  • Criterion 3. Field experience with UNDP or other development organizations in crisis settings is advantageous: 20 points
  • Criterion 4. Fluency in English with excellent drafting skills: 10 points
  • Criterion 5. Written and spoken knowledge of an additional UN language is desirable: 5 points
  • Criterion 6. Interview: 100 points.

Note:

 

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.