Historique

Bangladesh was a global leader in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and shaping the discourse for the Post 2015 development, resilience, urban poverty reduction and social protection agendas. In the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, UNDP Bangladesh (UNDP) looks to continue to act on its portfolio of programs to achieve the national objectives of Bangladesh and eliminate poverty. It has originated many of the most exciting and innovative solutions to development challenges. UNDP’s mission is to help create open and inclusive civic spaces, within which the government and people are empowered to realize national development goals and fully engage in global sustainable development efforts.

In the area of improved governance, UNDP is partnering with the Government of Bangladesh in significant ways, particularly in improved institutional development in social protection and aid effectiveness. Specifically, Social Protection Policy Support (SPPS) Programme, through expert, evidence-based support, is working with the government to reconfigure the current social security system so that economic growth is achieved in a more inclusive manner, with economic opportunities reaching the rural and urban poor and the protection of vulnerable groups against shocks. The programme is supporting the government in two areas namely governance of social protection and strengthening of systems. This work includes enacting a national Single Registry Management Information System to improve social protection delivery, improving upon the country’s Grievance Redress System to ensure accountability and transparency, develop holistic Monitoring & Evaluation approaches to measuring social protection outcomes, strengthening Government to Person (G2P) delivery of social protection cash benefits, and work to streamline and consolidate the current social security programme portfolio.

Recognizing that a coherent and effective social protection system is central to Bangladesh’s future economic and social development, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has committed itself to a process of reviewing its social protection portfolio and therefore developed a comprehensive social security strategy. The Cabinet Division took the lead role to take forward developing a national strategy and gave responsibility to the General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission to lead the process of formulating a National Social Security Strategy (NSSS), which is overseen by an inter-ministerial committee, widely called Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) for Social Safety Net Programmes, convened by the Cabinet Division. This process has yielded a strategy that has been approved by the Cabinet.

The NSSS was approved in mid-2015 and on-going reforms have been taking place since. One of the major challenges is the urbanization of the country and changing demographics, and this relates to the overall social security system of Bangladesh: what is the current state of social security programmes in relation to the urban poor; who is being included and excluded; what resources are available, and is this sufficient; how can improvements be made?

Therefore, this diagnostic study will try to explore how existing social institutions in relation to social protection can best utilized to benefit the urban poor in Bangladesh, which, in turn, can contribute to the development of a national social security urban policy for social protection. The overall approach of the consultancy will be participatory. The consultant will work with relevant GoB and other stakeholders, including NGOs and civil society groups, where applicable. This will include:

• Collecting and reviewing key documents and papers relevant for the National Social Security Strategy in the development of an urban policy;
• Consultations with relevant stakeholders within and outside GoB; civil society and in particular Development Partners etc.;
• Analysing how power structures and structural barrier imbedded in social institutions impact the urban needs of the power and their access to, or lack of, accessing social security programmes, and what it would take to overcome these and create an enabling environment that contributes to an improvement in urban social security programmes;
• Coming up with recommendations informing the development of an urban policy to guide implementation of the National Social Security Strategy in relation to the needs of the urban poor.

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the SPPS Project Manager and the National Project Director and be directly responsible for the delivery of the below specified outputs.

Objective:

The broader objective of the assignment is to undertake urban diagnostics analysis that will inform and pave the way for an urban policy for implementation of the National Social Security Strategy in relation to the social security needs of the urban poor, a policy that would include measures to promote and facilitate urban participation in social protection, and an examination of concerns as well as structural causes of urban inequality and its relationship to the overall social security system, including a comparative analysis of urban vs rural access to social security programmes.

Specific areas to be covered by the diagnostics include:

• Identification of discriminatory social norms and behaviours and other structural barriers that impede the urban poor’s access to and benefits from social protection programmes in Bangladesh;
• Exploring how entrenched social norms and behaviours in Bangladesh can be transformed through urban-responsive social protection policies and interventions; identification of good social protection practices that can leverage the urban poor’s empowerment;
• Identification of government and non-government agencies in Bangladesh, including community-based organisations that can be engaged to tackle discriminatory social norms and behaviours through social protection; 
• Identification and analysis of strategic urban interests as relevant for the Bangladesh National Social Security Strategy.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Scope of work:

Under this assignment, the consultant will work to achieve the following tasks:

1 Diagnostic Studies (indicative names):

• 1) Urban Diagnostics for Urban Poverty and the Social Security Needs
• Research must:
  • have a current and relevant, academically published lead author;
  • be a minimum of 20 pages of length;
  • identify key factors contributing to the topic of discussion, relevant actors, current state of affairs in relation to the topic, and contextual analysis;
  • be evidence-based, including fully sourced with citations;
  • where applicable, make use of proper statistical methods;
  • engage a local Bangladesh team member (if not the lead author);
  • undergo an independent peer review (outside author’s team).

• *All research is expected to be produced at an academic quality level, providing rigorous and well researched supporting evidence, sound and logical analysis, contextualized to Bangladesh, and be clear and concise in written format (jargon language and hyperbole phrasing are unacceptable). The author and support team for each research and diagnostic study must provide bibliographies and correct APA (or agreed upon formatting) formatting for all work

1 Urban Diagnostics for Urban Poverty and the Social Security Needs

 Assignment Details:

• 1 pre-assignment meeting with the SPPS project team to ensure that all parties are in specific agreement on the detailed diagnostic / research areas to be conducted.
• 1 methodology briefing meeting with the SPPS project team to approve planned activities.
  • concept note including work plan for the assignment, outlining consultant’s proposed building blocks, methodological approach, directions and activities with timelines of the urban diagnostics report
• Analysis of urban issues affecting the urban poor in Bangladesh, with an emphasis on Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna cities; and including structural barriers, resources availability, current state of affairs between the urban poor and the social security system, and pressing challenges facing the lives of urban poor citizens.
• At least 10 Key Informant Interviews with NSSS related GoB officials (to be selected by SPPS project and taking place in Dhaka only).
  • Consult with key stakeholders through individual or group discussions and suggest urban data required to inform the design of an NSSS urban policy and to track changes occurring from implementation of the policy; propose ways and means to capture such data; extract key data from statistical sources available
• Secondary literature review (at least 5 resources) that relate to and provide information on answering the research questions.
  • Review relevant background papers/documents including Government policy documents with relevance to the national social security system and programmes and various study reports. This review will in particular include an assessment of how urban aspects have been addressed and articulated in the approved National Social Security Strategy.
• Comparative, in-depth analysis of best international practices in terms of implementing and operating national urban social security programmes with a focus on examining at least 1 developed country and at least 2 developing countries that can be contextualized to Bangladesh.
• On the basis of accumulated knowledge conduct a urban-poor needs analysis and prepare recommendations for an NSSS urban policy.
• Prepare a draft report and present it in a roundtable with key stakeholders (to be organized by SPPS project team and take place in Dhaka)
• Prepare the final urban diagnostics report based on feedback from the roundtable presentation.
• Prepare a policy brief (tentatively four pages) for policy makers, on the major findings and recommendations of the report.

Expected outputs / deliverables:

The deliveries of this assignment include:

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The assignment will be supervised by the Project Manager of SPPS and the National Project Director.

Timeframe and Deliverables:

This specific assignment is expected to be carried out for 30 working days over a period of 1.5 months

Inputs:

UNDP Bangladesh will provide office space and transport / travel to field sites (Dhaka to within Bangladesh) when required.

Travel:

Under this assignment, the Consultant is required to meet with relevant key stakeholders in the development of all outputs and participate in key meetings and discussions related to the assignment, taking place in Dhaka.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Compétences

• Excellent communication, reporting, and professional writing skills;
• Critical thinking skills and ability to provide material supported by evidenced bases research;
• Ability to work with a multicultural environment and a multidisciplinary team
• Plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time and produces quality results to meet established goals;
• Demonstrated understanding of social protection themes and concepts;
• Willingness to travel to project site.

 Language Requirements:

• Perfect fluency in English (written, oral, and spoken); knowledge in Bengali an asset but not required

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education

• Minimum Masters in Social Protection and / or related fields indicatively including Public Health Engineering, Social Security Administration, International Development, Programme Evaluation, Global Health, Public Policy, Development Management.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years experience in social protection, or public policy, monitoring and evaluation, human rights issues, indigenous communities, rural vulnerable and marginalized communities, or public health, or a combination of the aforementioned;
• At least 5 years experience of working with UNDP / UN agencies or Donor, with senior level evaluations;
• Proven work experiences with policy formulation, design, and assessment related to vulnerable and marginalized communities in the South Asian Countries.
• At least 5 research / diagnostic / study outputs on development issues such as social protection, urban policy, demographics, and / or migration, or related areas.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation 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 marks.Only candidates obtaining a minimum 49% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Educational qualification (10 marks)
• Demonstrated experience in understanding research and planning in relation to policy outcomes (10 marks)
• Overall experience in the provision of services directly related to high level diagnostics work related to the national development of a developing country (30 Marks)
• Overall experience in the provision of services directly related examining policies of a national importance in fields such as urbanization, demographics, and social protection (20 marks)

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

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.

Financial Milestone:

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

1. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment and a methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
2. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
3. 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; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/ 
4. Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:

 http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.