Empleos en el PNUD - 101156- Consultancy to implement the Innovative Challenge

Consultancy to implement the Innovative Challenge of the Acceleration of E-commerce and SMEs Digitalization Transformation – Re-Advertised (International Consultant Residence in Cambodia)

Localidad :

Phnom Penh, Camboya

Tipo de contrato :

Individual Contract

Fecha de comienzo del contrato :

27-Aug-2021

Fecha límite de postulación :

23-Aug-21 (Medianoche Nueva York, Estados Unidos)

Nivel de puesto :

International Consultant

Duración del contrato inicial :

80 working days

Idiomas requeridos :

Inglés

Duración esperada del puesto :

August 2021 to May 2022

El PNUD está comprometido con lograr la diversidad de su personal en términos de género, nacionalidad y cultura. Se alienta por igual a las personas que pertenecen a grupos minoritarios, a pueblos indígenas o que tienen alguna discapacidad a presentar su candidatura. Todas las solicitudes se tratarán con la mayor confidencialidad. UNDP no tolera la explotación y el abuso sexual, ningún tipo de acoso, incluido el acoso sexual, ni la discriminación. Por lo tanto, todos los candidatos seleccionados serán sometidos a una rigurosa verificación de referencias y antecedentes.

Antecedentes

The Royal Government of Cambodia has undertaken a series of broad-based reforms aimed at strengthening and diversifying the productive sector base and achieving economic/trade-related competitiveness growth. These strategic objectives are enshrined in the national development agenda, articulated by the Rectangular strategy IV, the National Strategy Development Plan (2019-2023), the Cambodia Trade Integration Strategy Update (2019-2023), and the Cambodia e-commerce strategy which has been launched in November 2020. A common thread running through these policy instruments is the recognition of E-commerce as a driver of private sector growth, both from a domestic-market and international trade perspective.

The potential for e-commerce development is significant in Cambodia, promising to diversify the economy, provide new jobs, and increase financial inclusion, as well as contributing to improved lives and livelihoods. Cambodia has considerable advantages that could be leveraged to create ICT jobs and benefit the national economy. Yet E-commerce is relatively undeveloped compared to Cambodia’s neighbors and has not yet contributed to export diversification despite its potential in particular for agricultural commodities, handicrafts, and garments.

Some important considerations have been noticeably constrained the future growth in this sector, though. SMEs, in general, face a lot of challenges ranging from the lack of proper status, high transaction costs, to uncertainty related to incentives and regulations, and particularly e-commerce firms, IT start-ups and other segments in newly emerging areas. Remarkably, access to finance is reportedly the most burdensome and challenging for SMEs to find in the formal lending sector.

In this context, UNDP in collaboration with co-financing support from the Ministry of Commerce, Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and Khmer Enterprise jointly implementing a key components of Cambodia’s e-commerce acceleration project (Go4eCam) that aims to boost domestic and international opportunities for small and medium enterprises through a digital platform. Under this component, there are two initiatives: the MSMEs Incubation on Digitalisation Programme and the Innovation Challenge Programme. The Incubation programme focuses on improving the basic functionalities and capabilities of MSMEs in their entrepreneurship to uptake the e-commerce solution to sell online domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, the Innovation Challenge will offer 70 awards, with a maximum prize of up to USD 5,000 per awardee, through the Innovation Challenge modality aiming at helping those MSMEs with no and little access to formal lending and to demonstrate the benefits the SMEs could gain by going digital and by doing so, they could reach out to wider markets and clientele.

To take these initiatives forward, UNDP is currently seeking an International Consultant to provide further technical support to the existing service providers of the two programmes.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Through close coordination with UNDP’s Technical Coordinator, the successfully selected consultant will be leading an Innovation Challenge initiative and working alongside with a UNDP’s recruited National Consultant in developing and implementing this initiative adopting to UNDP Innovation Challenge modality, following a sequence of but not limited to the main activities as below,

With support from a National Consultant, lead the execution of innovative challenge following the agreed workplan, including but not limited to,

Work with UNDP communication team in close consultation with UNDP project team, MoC and KE to develop media campaign for the launch of the innovation challenge using appropriate communication channels including public discussions session, which optimally reaches the targeted audiences.
Technical support to the establishment of the programme committee (eligible/appraisal committees), in consultation with UNDP, MoC and KE, to provide overall oversight and strategic guidance throughout the process involving high-level stakeholders from UNDP, MoC, KE, private sector, development partners, other relevant government ministries, and business associations.
Coordinate and organize the Innovation Challenge committee meetings regularly to inform the committee about progress, any issue/challenges and seek for technical guidance and support.
Establish partnership building with different experts, key players in e-commerce ecosystem to provide support Innovation Challenge Awardees.
Organize and coordinate the relevant activities of the program (including application recruitment and selection, appraisal and grant award, committees pitching and public presentation),
Prepare a selection report documenting all the evaluation steps and scoring results to inform the Innovation Challenge committee to award the winners.
Organize series of follow-up sessions with the Awardees and coordinate with other experts as necessary to provide coaching supports to SMEs Awardees.
Provide regular update status of all activity progresses and challenges to UNDP
Monitor the progress of innovation challenges fund implementation by SMEs based on the signed agreement and ToR with regularly update to UNDP, MoC and KE teams.

2. Produce a written final report upon completion of each cohort of Innovative Challenge of the Acceleration of Ecommerce and SMEs formalization (max 10 pages), describing the methodology, key achievement, list of stakeholders involved in program, measurement against set KPIs, and the recommendation/suggestions/lessons learned that lead to improvement for the second cohort.

In parallel, the selected consultant will provide technical and advisory support to the UNDP’s Consulting Service Provider (Young Entrepreneurs Association of Cambodia) on the implementation of the MSMEs Incubation on Digitalisation Programme. Under close coordination with the UNDP’s Technical Coordinator, the consultant is to perform the following activities:

Provide technical advice on the design and implementation of the Incubation Programme by working closely with project donors (MoC and KE), service provider (YEAC) and UNDP team
Provide technical review and feedback on the training lesson plan of all 7 modules
Review (and suggest a revision where necessary) the incubation methodology, M&E metrics, and workplan of the MSMEs Incubation Phase II developed by YEAC
Review the concept note and respective communications materials for a Call for Application launching workshop of the Incubation Phase II
Review and feedback on the drafted eligible criteria, selection criteria and assessment score allocation in close coordination with UNDP team, MoC, KE and YEAC as a service provider for the Incubation Phase II
Perform technical review on the training lesson plans of the 7 modules for the Incubation Phase II based on experiences and lessons from the first cohort
Monitor and provided technical inputs and feedback on the implementation of training and mentoring to optimize the effectiveness

Interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=81880 for more detail information about term of references, instructions to offeror, and to download the documents to be submitted in the offer through online.

Competencias

Analytical skills, knowledge of e-commerce environment or ecosystem
Strong analytical mind and understanding of business-related requirements and constraints, with a focus on addressing them through training and capacity development measures
In-depth understanding of Cambodia’s digital / e-commerce environment, business rule and regulation in Cambodia
Ability to establish and maintain partnership and to work as a team with government partners, private sector, business association, and other relevant parties/development donors
Be able to communicate with different stakeholders
Ability to adapt to different circumstances and to changes in internal and external environments

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

Master’s degree in business administration, management, ecommerce, economic, or other related fields.

Experience:

Minimum 3 years of combined working experience on entrepreneurship training programme, innovation challenge programme, digitalization, and ecommerce and other related fields.
Proven experience in managing project activities and coordinating similar programs for new start-up or SMEs, events organization, communications management, and partnerships building with entrepreneurs and stakeholders.
Proven experience in providing or coordinating SMEs training and startup programme related to e-commerce SMEs
Prior experience working with and coordinating with UN agencies, Government institutions, private sector or NGOs on similar assignment is an asset.

Language Requirement:

Written and spoken English
Commend of Khmer language is an asset

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested individual offeror must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work

2. Financial proposal

3. Personal CV including experience in similar projects, list of publication written by Candidate and at least 3 references.

Interested Offerors are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email aphikovith.phin@undp.org and cc procurement.kh@undp.org . While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice