Background

It is part of UNDP’s duty of care as an employer to ensure that all our personnel work in a safe and healthy environment that contributes to their self-fulfillment and protects their dignity. As the organization is increasingly operating in highly complex and at times high-risk environments, it is UNDP’s responsibility to protect its personnel and care for their wellbeing.

To fulfill our duty of care towards our employees during the COVID19 pandemic and acknowledging the unprecedented psychosocial hardship our staff has been experiencing in 2020, and that is likely to continue in 2021,  UNDP is providing additional psychosocial support in form of written material and bespoke psychosocial support sessions to staff and their families, and for supervisors.

Additionally, the re-emergence of protracted conflicts and delicate socio-political situation in some Russian-speaking countries requires additional support to enable staff to stay and deliver in difficult circumstances and despite high stress levels.

Objective:

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will deliver remote psychosocial support to UNDP, with a particular attention to Russian-speaking countries, in the form of webinars, bespoke support sessions, and written communication.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

The Office of Human Resources is searching for a consultant to provide remote psychosocial support in the form of written material, webinars and group psychosocial support sessions in English and Russian, in particular for Russian-speaking country offices.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

• A. Design and deliver virtual webinars for UNDP personnel in Russian or English on topics related to psychosocial and emotional health the sessions will be followed by a Q&A session.

• B. Design and deliver bespoke psychosocial support sessions for Russian-speaking country offices (in Russian)

• c. Review feedback from participants and prepare reports on psychosocial risks and issues identified in the areas/countries covered (in English)

• D. Prepare written material on psychosocial issues of interest for UNDP personnel in English and Russian, including material for the Wellbeing App and the intranet wellbeing site.

• E. Prepare evidence-based content for the monthly wellbeing newsletter, as required.

Competencies

• Teamwork
• Client Orientation
• Building Trust
• Sets priorities, produces quality outputs, meets deadlines, and manages time efficiently,
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view;
• Pays attention to detail;
• Good analytical skills in gathering and consolidating research for practical implementation;
• Outgoing and proactive with a goal-oriented mind-set;
• Effective communication skills when working individually and in a team-setting;
• Good in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Experience in using the Microsoft Office software packages;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Psychology is required or Counselling or related topics. PhD preferred.

Experience:

• At least 2 years’ Experience designing and facilitating online sessions/courses on stress/wellbeing is required.

• Excellent writing skills in English and Russian required.

• Excellent computer skills required

• Experience in academic writing, as well as divulging and promoting topics related to wellbeing/psychology/health is an asset.

• Previous UN experience is desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

• Fluency in written and spoken Russian is required.

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offeror considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
• Link to writing samples

Shortlisted candidates will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
• 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; (excluding mission travel); 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.

• This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel.

• 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.

• 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 shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (700 points):

• Criteria 1. Demonstrable Experience designing and facilitating online sessions/courses on stress/wellbeing Maximum Points: 200;

• Criteria 2. Demonstrable Experience in academic writing, as well as divulging and promoting topics related to wellbeing/psychology/health   Maximum Points: 200.

• Criteria 3. Other UN Languages preferably Russian. Maximum Points: 200; and
• Criteria 4 Interviews  Maximum Points: 100.

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top four shortlisted candidates for interview. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (490 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (700 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (300 points)

• 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

• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

• z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of HR Specialist/BMS/OHR and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.

• Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified above and deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.

• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.