Antecedentes

The global development challenges have become increasingly interrelated, requiring us to take interdisciplinary approaches and seek non-linear solutions. Important development trends like urbanization, climate change, and inequality pose significant challenges on our path to achieve the 2030 agenda of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These transformations happening against the background of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are questioning our traditional approaches to development design and delivery.  The innovation brought by 4IR has unveiled the huge potential and opportunities to transform the economies, societal and governance structures and boost our ability to make 2030 Agenda reality. However, concerns and uncertainties abound regarding the impact of the emergence and penetration of AI, automation, and other technologies on labor market, the nature of work, inequality, economic and political structures, growth models, and how public institutions serve people. Though the scope and scale of these concerns are way beyond the purview of any single entity, the innovative and actionable responses could be generated with collective efforts from governments, international organizations, private sector, civic society, academia/think tanks, and other partners.

Following several years of implementing innovative approaches in development, UNDP in Asia Pacific has managed to significantly diversify its partner base, develop new skill sets and harness new resources. And as an important development actor, UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (RBAP) strives to support countries to design effective solutions to tackle complex development challenges and accelerate action on the progress towards achieving the SDGs, through collaborations with changemakers and other stakeholders in the ecosystem to strengthen the network of knowledge, experience, resources and capacities.

Given the context of development challenges and new opportunities in 4IR, the UNDP RBAP decided to establish the Regional Innovation Center (RIC) in Bangkok, Thailand, to spearhead institutionalization of the new way of doing development, provide a safe space to test development solutions through a series of policy experiments, and innovative culture that would help UNDP be on the front-foot in terms of spotting, understanding and integrating new development approaches into its work. Details of the Center are outlined in its initiative/project document. An international Innovation Consultant is required to support the establishment and operations of the UNDP RBAP‘s Regional Innovation Center (RIC) in Bangkok.

Deberes y responsabilidades

This consultancy will support UNDP RBAP especially UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and the UNDP Regional Innovation Center to enhance innovation-related work and expand our networks with strategic public and private partners.

Scope of Work

The international Innovation consultant will;

a) Provide market intelligence in Singapore for the future Regional Innovation Center

• Horizon scanning of the future trends in social and environmental development emerging in the age of Fourth Industrial Revolutions;
• Proactively explore and identify approaches Singapore government and other stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem take to harness opportunities and be fit to challenges stemming from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, urbanization, aging society, climate change, etc.;

 b) Partnership and resource mobilization for the Regional Innovation Center

• Map on the partners across the public and private sector in Singapore with versatile expertise relevant to RIC’s strategic development and helpful for strengthening the RIC’s capacity in service delivery;
• Identify partnership opportunities in Singapore, connect with them to develop the institutional partnership, and channel in external resource and capacity for the RIC, expanding the distributed network of RIC;
• Communicate and coordinate the partnership to maintain healthy relationship with partners;

 c) Capacity building and knowledge management

• Support identification of future skills required for the RIC and its clients, such as government, country offices, and partners, both for in-house development (RIC and regional innovation i-teams) and attraction through networking;
• Explore approaches the stakeholders in the system take to scale learning and knowledge sharing across their respective organizations;

 d) Operation of the Bangkok Regional Innovation Center

• Support organization of the co-design workshop of the RIC in November 2018;
• Support and implement the activities related to the launch of the RIC based on the details outlined in the initiative/project document.
• Liaison to support coordination between the Bangkok Regional Innovation Center and Singapore Global Center for “Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development

Duration of the Work:

The duration of assignment will be from 8 November 2018 – 8 February 2019 (approximately 66 working days across 3 months)

Duty Station:

The assignment will be full time and home-based with frequent presence at the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub office. Frequent remote communication (i.e. teleconference, video conference or email communication) for work progress update is required. Travel will be arrange by UNDP or the consultant based on UNDP’s travel rules and regulations.

Expected places of travel: Bangkok, Thailand and travel to Asia-Pacific countries

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

In line with the scope of work above and the project work plan defined in the project document of the Regional Innovation Center, this assignment’s deliverables are:

Institutional Arrangement

Under the overall guidance of the Chief of RPPS, the international Innovation consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Regional Innovation Specialist in close collaboration with the Innovation solution team of UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub.

Review Time Required

The review and approval of payments will be made by the assigned supervisor(s) within 7 days.

Consultant Presence Required On Duty Station/UNDP Premises:  PARTIAL                 

Competencias

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

 Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Engineer, Business Administration, Social Science or other related fields.

Work Experience:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in the field of innovation or development or capacity development.
• Ability to build and maintain strategic partnerships both public and private sectors is required.
• Good understanding of innovation and its implication to development environment is required.
• Experience in programme and/or project development and implementation is an asset;
• Experience in Asia-Pacific region, especially working experience in Singapore is an asset.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal, excellent report writing and organisational skills is required;
• Computer literacy – Internet usage, MS office applications (i.e. MS-Word and MS-Power Point), web-based management information systems.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is essential;

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

In general, UNDP shall 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

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

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 a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1 Relevance of Education – Max 20 points
• Criteria 2 Years of relevant experience (build and maintain strategic partnerships both public and private sectors)- Max 30 Points
• Criteria 3 Understanding of innovation and its implication to development environment – Max 10 points
• Criteria 4 Experience in Asia-Pacific region, especially working experience in Singapore – Max 10 points

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

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal that indicates the Lump Sum fee of the candidate, in USD using the template provided by UNDP;
• CV, Indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ Innovation Consultant

Annex II - General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

Annex IV – Procurement notice

All documents can be downloaded at :  http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=50732