Background

The 2019 Peer-to-Peer (P2P) review in Afghanistan aimed to identify effective ways to strengthen the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan. The P2P review led to the drafting of a Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) Compact in mid-2019 as follow-up to the recommendations from the mission. The HCT Compact aims to reinforce collective accountability to people in need in Afghanistan by focusing on a number of cross-cutting areas.

The Field Support Unit (FSU) is an Inter-Agency common service mechanism created to help address some of the key cross-cutting concerns and commitments outlined in the HCT Compact. As such, the Unit is directly accountable to the HCT and also collaborates closely with OCHA and relevant coordination forums, including the ICCT.  The Unit consists of a dedicated multi-disciplinary team of roving senior experts funded through contributions from multiple UN agencies and donors. Areas of expertise include Accountability to Affected People (AAP), Protection of Civilians (POC), Area-Based Response, and the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN).

In collaboration with UNDP and humanitarian, development and peacebuilding partners, the FSU, through a senior HDPN advisor, aims to define what a more systematic, predictable and evidence-based operationalization of the HDPN would entail by producing a clear and concise policy and, more importantly, a roll-out strategy to operationalise the HDPN.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

The Field Support Unit requires an Operationalisation Advisor with previous experience in HDPN in Afghanistan to support the Senior HDPN Advisor to do the following:

1. Build an inclusive and effective consultation process to produce a policy paper on the operationalization of the HDPN in Afghanistan. The policy paper will be presented to the HCT for their endorsement in the spring.  The main objective of the consultant is to assist the FSU identify and liaise with key actors from both national and sub-national government structures, and across the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors in Afghanistan - both in Kabul and the regions.
2. Design the operationalization of the HDPN policy. Based on recent previous experience and existing networks in Afghanistan, the consultant will facilitate a process of ‘visioning’ and ‘consensus building’ on what the operationalization of the HDPN in Afghanistan would look like, what it would take and how it could be implemented.

Main tasks and deliverables

Help identify and liaise with key informants in Afghanistan:

• Identify and compile a list of potential key informants in Afghanistan.
• Liaise with key informants.
• Participate in and/or conduct a number of interviews with key informants. This could potentially include helping organize and manage remote panel discussions with a number of key informants to workshop ideas and approaches.

Deliverables: List of key informants in Afghanistan; notes on relevant interviews and analysis of inputs; remote panel discussions (number of panels TBC).

Development of consultation tools: Support the preparation of interview questions for different stakeholders to make sure the FSU can accurately extrapolate ideas, build consensus and reach conclusions.

Deliverables: Standard questionnaires.

Support the drafting of the policy paper and revision processes, as required.

Deliverables: Policy paper on the operationalisation of the HDPN.

Co-design the operationalization of the HDPN policy: Based on previous experience and existing networks in Afghanistan, help design the operationalisation process of the HDNP policy, with a clear focus on realistic coordination structures, feasible planning and programming processes and access to funding.

Deliverables: Roll-out strategy for the policy on the operationalisation of the HDPN.

Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be made upon receipt of a timesheet not to exceed 22 working days per month. Upon the receipt of each deliverable, the consultant will submit a brief report outlining the process taken.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Institutional Arrangements:

Under the direct administrative supervision of the Team Leader - Field Support Unit, the International Consultant will work closely with a wide range of actors including UN agencies and NGOs.

Duration of the Work:

Performance of the work under this contract shall be completed by 30 June 2021 (with maximum of 30 working days) after signing the contract. The target date for the start of the works will be 10 January 2021.

Duty Station

Home-based

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Required Competencies

• Team building
• Managing relationships across sectors
• Self-awareness
• Interpersonal skills
• Stress tolerance
• Planning and organizing
• Proactive problem solving
• Operational decision-making

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERTISE & EXPERIENCE 

Education:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field of social sciences such as peace, conflict, development studies, international relations, is required.

EXPERIENCE: 

• Previous experience working in a similar role in Afghanistan is desirable.
• Broad network and knowledge of humanitarian and development partners in Afghanistan is desirable.
• Minimum of 7 years’ experience in humanitarian preparedness, risk reduction and response or relevant fields.
• Experience in programme design, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, including SPHERE standards, gender, donor relations and protection considerations.
• Experience in scale-up emergency response.

Other skills:

• Excellent coordination, presentation and networking skills. 
• High level of writing and communication skills. 
• Language skills: Excellent command of English.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.  The consultant shall then submit a price proposal when requested by UNDP, in accordance with the below:

• Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee. The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 30 working days.
• DSA/Living Allowance – N/A
• Accommodation – Consultancy is home-based
• Travel & Visa – N/A

The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payment under the contract shall be made on submission of the deliverables and/or the acceptance of a certified timesheet.

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:

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.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points out of 100 (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Proposal (30 marks) 

• Technical Approach & Methodology (20 marks) – This explains the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach;
• Work Plan (10 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (40 marks) [evaluation of CVs for shortlisting]

• General Qualification (15 marks);
• Experience relevant to the assignment (25 marks).

Documents to be included when submitting proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Personal CV, indicating all experience from similar projects.

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable candidate for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

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

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);

• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).

Incomplete application will not be considered, it will be disqualified automatically