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.  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.

Given the challenges of the uncertainties raising in the new condition and the lack of mechanism to swiftly and agilely respond to them, a relevance gap between the strategic risks and our existing practice have been observed in UNDP and other governments. Scattered single-point solutions cannot address systemic development challenges and won’t be effective if they are planned in the linear assumptions. We need new ways of exploring and intervening in the world that are coherent with the size and scale of the problems faced by governments. Having a portfolio logic of conducting parallel experiments targeting at complex issues across sectors are important to manage the systemic impacts at scale.

The Royal Thai Government and UNDP RBAP decided to establish the Regional Innovation Centre (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 the Royal Thai Government, UNDP, other governments in the region, and other partners be on the front-foot in terms of spotting, understanding and integrating new development approaches into its work.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Scope of work:

The consultant is expected to assist the following activities in completing the assignment for Regional Innovation Centre:

• Data exploration

1. Identify the demand of harnessing data for development in the country offices and support them to develop data strategies and connect capacity in data for experimental projects;
2. Explore innovative methodologies of using data for development and impact evaluation as well as their implications for practices in the development field;
3. Map out the key players in the “data for development” ecosystem and connect them with relevant projects/initiatives in RIC and UNDP.
4. Keep abreast of the latest trends in data innovation for development
5. Organize “work-out-loud” activities such as webinar and brownbag lunches to engage with programme teams in UNDP who have interest in harnessing data for social good or have connection to data and data experts in the field.

• Policy R&D

1. Conduct preliminary research on policy priorities in response to the demand of governments and country offices
2. Design a framework to use data to monitor and evaluate RIC’s portfolio of experiments , enabling a quick feedback loop to generate intelligence/insights for action;
3. Support the implementation of the broader research and innovation agenda.

• RIC team support

1. Support work related to programme design, implementation and operation across the core functions in Regional Innovation Centre;
2. Collaborate with innovation community within and outside of the Regional Innovation Centre network to support UNDP country offices to integrate innovative thinking and approaches into their work;
3. Collaborate with the team to organize knowledge sharing and capacity building workshops and events;
4. Assist the communication and dissemination of the knowledge sharing and insights.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The expected outputs and deliverables are closely linked to the project work plan and the scope of work of the Regional Innovation Centre. They will be reviewed and approved upon the delivered quality by the Head of Regional Innovation Centre and Innovation and Knowledge Management Specialist. The expected areas of prioritized deliverables are:

• Engage with programme teams at UNDP BRH and country offices to identify the data demands and respond to them;
• Explore and review the innovative methodologies of using data for development and impact evaluation and share them with RIC team and innovation community;
• Design a framework to monitor and evaluate the initiatives/experiments on the progress and impact;
• Connect with key players in the ‘data for development’ ecosystem;
• Organize webinars/brown bag lunches on harnessing data for social good;
• Support RIC team with the project coordination and management;
• Support to organize and coordinate knowledge sharing workshops and events.

Institutional Arrangement:

The consultant will be directly supervised by the Head of Regional Innovation Centre and Innovation and Knowledge Management Specialist. S/he is expected to work closely with the programme team and operation team in UNDP related to the initiatives in RIC and support to advance the broader innovation agenda in UNDP.

Working space, facilities, personnel, project information related to UNDP and RIC, as well as logistical support will be provided as needed throughout the assignment of the contract.

Duration of the Assignment:

1 May 2019–30 April 2020, with a maximum of 240 days worked (maximum 20 days/month for 12 months)

Duty Station:

Bangkok, Thailand with possible travel for missions in Asia and the Pacific

The consultant is expected to work at UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and/or Regional Innovation Centre (if different). If there is any travel, the mission would be agreed with supervisor in advance. Travel will be arranged by UNDP or the consultant based on UNDP’s travel rules and regulations.

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

The following minimum qualifications are required:

Education:

• Master’s degree or higher in Public Administration, Public Policy, Data Science, Economics, Social Science, Econometrics, or related fields

Experience:

• Proven professional experience in development programming or policy and social innovation;
• Demonstrated knowledge of impact assessment with statistical and econometric techniques and social innovation methodologies;
• Demonstrated data analysis and proficiency in data analytics software applications, e.g. R, Stata, SAS, etc.;
• Good awareness of emerging methodologies and applications in data for development;
• Working experience in Asia and the Pacific.

Language:

• Written and spoken proficiency in English is required;
• Written and spoken proficiency of other UN official languages is an asset.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated commitment to UN’s mission, vision and values;
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Open mind and eager to learn;
• Innovative forward thinking, good coordination, organizational skills, and teamwork;
• Respect for individuals, gender, and cultural differences.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must submit a financial proposal based on daily fee. Consultant shall quote an “all-inclusive[1]” daily fee for the contract period. IC Time Sheets must be submitted by the Contractor, duly approved by the Individual Contractor’s supervisor, which shall serve as the basis for the payment of fees.

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 cumulative analysis.

The award of the contract shall be made 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%).

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria A: Education (max 5 points)
• Criteria B: Proven professional experience in development programming or policy and social innovation (max 20 points)
• Criteria C: Demonstrated knowledge of impact assessment with statistical and econometric techniques and social innovation methodologies (max 20 points)
• Criteria D: Demonstrated data analysis and proficiency in data analytics software applications, e.g. R, Stata, SAS, etc. and  good awareness of emerging methodologies and applications in data for development (max 20 points);
• Criteria E:  Relevant experience in Asia and Pacific and UN (max 5 points)

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

Financial Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 30 points)

Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced

proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested candidates must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualification. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document/ or one ZIP File as follows:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
• Personal CV, 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;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided;

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Proposals that fail to meet the required information as described above will not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ Data and Impact Management Consultant

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at :http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=54197

[1] The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consummables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal