Background

Since 2020, the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub for Asia-Pacific (BRH) in collaboration with ALC (a social innovation lab) supports a few UNDP Country Offices (CO) implement ‘Social Innovation Platforms’ (SIP) to strengthen Local governance, enhance social cohesion and accelerate the localization of the SDGs at the subnational level.

This work also helps UNDP comprehend the opportunities and challenges to develop platforms, codesign portfolios of interconnected development solutions and mobilize new public and private partnerships.

Building on encouraging results, UNDP wants to accelerate implementation of Social Innovation Platforms and build capacities to scale regionally and globally, including by codifying the SIP approach, developing tools to track progress, measure impact, and attract investments. 

In this context, the Local Governance team in BRH and in UNDP HQ seeks a Junior consultant to develop (with ALC) tools to codify SIP, monitor and communicate changes in perceptions, attitudes and wider systemic transformations generated by SIPs.

Objective:

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will, in close collaboration with team members, help develop materials and processes to monitor, analyze and communicate changes in perceptions, attitudes and wider systemic transformations that are generated by Social Innovation Platforms (SIP).

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will closely work with the BRH and ALC teams and in coordination with UNDP Regional and Central Bureaus, Country Offices and other external partners.

Help Codify SIP and Measure progress and impact:

• Help develop tools and processes to monitor and communicate changes of perceptions, attitudes and systemic transformations

• Organize trainings for COs to monitor, analyze and communicate results

• Assist the teams to codify and build capacities for SIP

   

Help Communicate results:

• Develop a BRH SIP microsite to communicate results and impact

• Draft and post communication products on the SIP microsite (i.e.: blogs, photo stories, short videos and other digital products)

• Conduct a preliminary analysis of the impact of SIP on local governance and socio-eco transformations at the local level

Expected outputs and deliverables:

The consultant is expected to work towards the following work plan, and timelines.

Competencies

• Demonstrates commitment to UN’s mission, vision and values;

• Demonstrates sound judgment, diplomacy and sensitivity to confidential matters;

• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;

• Innovative forward thinking, good coordination and organizational skills, teamwork.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s degree in development, public administration, international relations, business or any related fields; (Required)

Experience:

• Minimum 1 year of experience working on innovation, systems, and portfolio approaches (required)

• Experience working on communications, public administration, research or advocacy, preferably with development agencies, academics or public administrations ( Required)

• Knowledge of monitoring and communicating results ( Required)

• Excellent writing and editing skills, including developing web content (Required)

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset

Application Procedure

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

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer 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;

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around the specific and measurable deliverables of the TOR. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR, and deliverables accepted and certified by the technical manager.

• 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.

• 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 (no written test will be conducted).  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 working on innovation, systems and portfolio approaches Maximum Points: 150;

• Criteria 2. Relevance of work experience in development Maximum Points: 90;

• Criteria 3. Demonstrable Knowledge of monitoring and communicating results Weight = 25 %; Maximum Points: 175; and

• Criteria 4 Experience in working for/with UNDP and/or other international organizations, Maximum Points: 75

• Interview: Weight = 30%; Maximum Points: 210.

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top four shortlisted candidates scoring a minimum of 70% (350) in criteria 1-5 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 (70 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 in close collaboration with UNDP regional and global teams, UNDP country offices and other key parties. He/she will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Regional Advisor on Local governance in BRH (primary supervisor) and to the Team Leader, Core Government Functions/Local Governance in UNDP HQ (secondary supervisor. The Regional Advisor on Local governance in BRH (primary supervisor) will be responsible for certifying payments of deliverables specified above.

UNDP will have the following responsibilities: (i) Provide relevant documents and contacts; (ii) Discuss and agree on the methodologies of the assignment; and (iii) Monitor and evaluate the progress of the assignment. The contract and payments will be output -based and assessed by the Local Governance team in Bangkok and New York.

The present ToR may be subject to modification, without changing the overall objective and the scope of work, on the basis of mutual consultations. UNDP will hold the copyright of the assignment deliverables.

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

Payment modality

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.