Antecedentes
In the aftermath of a major national crisis, effective coordination, quick disbursements and the accurate accounting of large volumes of external aid is crucial. Enormous amounts of funding and assistance begin to flow to the hardest hit communities within days of a crisis. National or local government systems may not be able to cope with the management and coordination of aid under these circumstances, particularly if they have been adversely affected by the catastrophe.
The inability to adequately manage, coordinate, track and account for aid in a post-crisis or conflict contexts can grossly undermine humanitarian, relief and recovery efforts. When assisting government institutions in delivering aid during and in the wake of a crisis, UNDP’s objective is to promptly reinforce national and local government institutions and systems to operate throughout the crisis and to strengthen their capacities to respond more effectively to future ones.
Based on its experience in comprehensive crisis recovery and aid management, as well as the trust established between Country Offices and governments through collaboration before a conflict or disaster, UNDP can be a strong partner for strengthening national crisis-response capacities in a crisis and post-crisis environment. To this end, UNDP is developing a Guidance Note that provides staff members with practical advice, ideas, insights and options in relation to how UNDP may manage aid in the aftermath of a major disaster or conflict, based on experience from recently supported countries.
Based on the New Deal, the principles of Transparency, Risk-sharing, Strengthening Capacities and Timely and Predictable Aid are relevant. Regardless of crisis, the transparent use of aid and monitoring overall resource flows strengthens the ability of governments to remain engaged with donors and aid management. Context-specific, joint government-donor risk-mitigation strategies also help to bridge the humanitarian-development-peace divide in times of crisis/conflict/disaster. All of these initiatives, channeled through relevant national authorities, will serve to strengthen capacities for long-term sustainability. Finally, timely and predictable aid will improve the speed and flexibility of aid when it counts the most, during and in the aftermath of crisis.
The Guidance Note can be used by Country Offices to:
- Provide feasible options to governments about aid management during crisis and in the wake of a crisis and to share with them lessons learned from other post-disaster and post-conflict situations;
- Assist the government in establishing or strengthening aid management in the immediate wake of a crisis;
- Draft the initial phase of a long-term (i.e. 3-5 year) programme on aid management to be launched by national authorities following a crisis to systematically increase capacities to coordinate and manage aid effectively;
- Respond comprehensively to wider challenges in the immediate post-crisis period, in line with other UNDP guidance.
The Guidance Note will be a component of UNDP’s Crisis Response Package on the Restoration of Core Government Functions – an integrated set of tools to deliver faster and more consistently in the aftermath of a crisis. Following a validation workshop on the Crisis Response Package, Country Offices requested the Guidance Note contain practical examples of aid management done well in post-conflict settings.
Objective of the Consultancy
The objective of this consultancy is to support the finalization of the Guidance Note on Aid Management in Crisis Settings by (i) undertaking a mapping exercise of UNDP’s experience in post-conflict aid management and (ii) developing relevant case studies based on the mapping. This assignment will bolster the Guidance Note with practical examples that UNDP Country Offices can draw on in future post-conflict response.
Deberes y responsabilidades
Output and Approach
The consultant will produce two outputs:
- A mapping of approximately 10 cases of UNDP support to aid management in conflict settings (0.5 – 1 page each).
- Development of 3 mini case studies based on the mapping (3-5 pages each) that demonstrate the varying challenges, as well as successful approaches by UNDP and development partners to aid management in conflict settings.
The consultant will work with focal points in UNDP’s Responsive and Accountable Institutions Team to agree on the country examples for the mapping and make a decision on which to develop into more detailed case studies.
- Brief inception report detailing the sources for the mapping and criteria for selection of case studies;
- Brief description of country examples to be included in the mapping, based on discussions with UNDP;
- Draft mapping of approximately 10 country examples of UNDP support to aid management in conflict settings;
- Finalized mapping of approximately 10 country examples of UNDP support to aid management in conflict settings, with UNDP comments integrated;
- Three draft case studies (3-5 pages each) of UNDP support to aid management in conflict settings;
- Finalized case studies of UNDP support to aid management in conflict settings.
Competencias
Corporate:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
Functional:
- Ability to meet deadlines and plan the work according to priorities;
- Demonstrable analytical and writing skills;
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
Habilidades y experiencia requeridas
Minimum Requirements and Qualifications
Education:
- Postgraduate degree in public administration, public policy, development studies, political science, economics, international relations or related field.
Experience:
- Minimum 5 years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Relevant experience with the UN and/or governance issues in crisis countries;
- Global development effectiveness agenda, with knowledge of principles of aid coordination;
- Experience with core functions of government, particularly national aid management architecture, in post-conflict environments.
- Knowledge of UNDP’s architecture, strategies, approaches, policy development and/or programming activities – particularly in crisis settings;
- Strong research background and proven analytical, research and synthesizing skills;
- Relevant experience with the UN and/or governance issues in crisis countries;
- Proven experience developing case studies is an asset.
Language(s):
- Fluency in English, both oral and written, is required.
- Proficiency in other UN working languages, such as French or Spanish, is desirable.
Application Procedure
The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one pdf file):
- Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
- 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. The P11 template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc . A completed P11 Form will be required at the time a selected applicant signs an Individual Contract (IC) or their employer, if employed by an institituon, signs a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) for work associated with this assignment.
- Brief description of why the individual considers themselves most suitable for the assignment, including links to similar type of knowledge products or strategies.
- A brief writing sample that demonstrates the candidate’s analytical and communication skills.
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 should specify an all-inclusive daily fee times 30 days.
- 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; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; 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 the consultant expects their employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing them 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.
Upon request, the Financial Proposal is to be e-mailed as per the instruction in the separate e-mail that will be sent to shortlisted candidates only.
Travel
- No travel is forecast under this consultancy
Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:
- Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of “a daily fee” in USD.
- Payment will be made upon submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:
Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates (those that score at least 49 out of total 70 obtainable scores). The technical evaluation may also include interviews with shortlisted candidate(s).
The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based on a Combined Scoring method – where the technical evaluation (desk review and interview) will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%. The 70% rating shall be based on how well the Offer or meets the minimum qualifications/competencies described above.
Evaluation Criteria:
The technical evaluation will be based on the following criteria with the corresponding points (out of a total 70 points):
- • Relevant educational background. 10 points
- Minimum 5 years’ professional experience in one or more of the following areas: 20 points
- Relevant experience with the UN and/or governance issues in crisis countries.
- Global development effectiveness agenda, with knowledge of principles of aid coordination
- Experience with core functions of government, particularly national aid management architecture, in post-conflict environments.
- Knowledge of UNDP’s architecture, strategies, approaches, policy development and/or programming activities – particularly in crisis settings. 20 points
- Strong research background and proven analytical, research and synthesizing skills. 10 points
- Proven experience developing case studies is an asset. 10 points
Financial Evaluation
Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):
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
References:
UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here: