Antecedentes

About UNCDF

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments — through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance and structured project finance — can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development. By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 1 on eradicating poverty and Goal 17 on the means of implementation. UNCDF also contributes to other SDGs by identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access.  To achieve these goals, UNCDF is providing financial support and technical expertise to the public and the private sector. It provides capital financing – in the form of grants, soft loans and credit enhancement products – and the technical expertise to unleash sustainable financing at the local level.  

About CleanStart

The CleanStart Programme supports low-income consumers to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy through microfinance. CleanStart is a global UNCDF programme helping to lift at least 2.5 million people out of energy poverty by 2017. This will help contribute to achieving development goals on poverty and hunger, education, gender, health, and environmental sustainability. To achieve this vision, the programme provides risk capital and technical assistance to competitively selected financial service providers and energy enterprises.

The program aims to catalyze digital energy finance (or Pay-Go energy systems) as a promising solution to reduce energy poverty and has offered products to data for over 221.000 consumers, in particular women and poor people in rural areas. The programme is currently active in both Asia and Africa. CleanStart partners with microfinance institutions and energy enterprises in various Asian and African countries including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Nepal, Myanmar and Cambodia– offering seed capital and technical support – to test scalable financing solutions in varying market conditions. At the heart of the CleanStart approach is brokering risk-sharing partnerships between downstream as well as upstream value chain actors, and de- risking some investment opportunities. Of particular value to CleanStart is developing partnership and financing models that can be replicated and scaled-up by other public and private actors working towards a common vision of expanding energy access for the poor.

About SHIFT

SHIFT ASEAN has been established in 2014 with initial funding from the Australian Government and focuses on ASEAN’s frontier economies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) aiming to promote digital finance and fintech solutions for women’s economic empowerment and MSME growth.

SHIFT SAARC has been established in mid-2016 with initial funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union. The program aims to support digital finance and fintech solutions for women’s economic empowerment and MSME growth.

About Digital@UNCDF

UNCDF Financial Inclusion Practice Area is focusing on Digital Financial Services and how they can improve financial inclusion for the vulnerable groups. For this reason, all the ongoing projects will focus more and more on promoting DFS as the main tool to promote financial inclusion.

Information on the Contract Modality

This solicitation is for a Framework agreement, also known in UNCDF as the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for one year and renewable for two (2) more years based on continued project need, funding availability and satisfactory performance assessment of an individual consultant. An “LTA” refers to a mutual agreement whereby the Consultant will provide services as required, over a specific period. It specifies the unit price (daily rate) allowing for an LTA to be used when the Consultant’s services are needed.

Where a request for services arises, UNCDF can engage the individual(s) holding an LTA through a “call-off” of the LTA.   Every call-off shall have specific tasks, scope of services and outputs to be delivered within a specific period of time.   For this particular work, the call-off shall be formalized through the issuance of a Purchase Order, attaching thereto the TOR, and any other document relevant to the call-off.  Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is issued.

The LTA shall have a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.  It is important to note that, under an LTA, UNCDF does not guarantee that any specific quantity of services shall be made during the term of this agreement.  The LTA does not form a financial obligation nor commitment from UNCDF at the time the LTA contract is signed.

Objectives of the Assignment

UNCDF’s CleanStart and Shift programs in Bangkok  as well as UNCDF Myanmar Office require the design of publications, leaflets, infographics and other communication material to reach out to a broad range of stakeholders. The consultant will produce a variety of communications designer outputs. The consultant will work primarily under the Regional Data and Analysis Hub to design studies, blogs, infographics and related outputs thereby strengthening the availability and use of data analytics and sector thematic research to help drive financial inclusion policy and practice.

Specific areas of work include:

• Theme 1: Designing publications, including cover pages, layout, infographics, tables and typesetting using approved templates.
• Theme 2: Designing infographics and leaflets.
• Theme 3: Designing digital blogs.
• Theme 4: Designing other communications materials including PowerPoint presentations and videos.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The Publication Designer Consultant will be responsible for undertaking and delivering the following actions and outputs, respectively:

Duration, Duty Station and Travel

Contract duration: The Framework Agreement shall be signed for 12 months, from 15 July 2019 –  14 June 2020 with possible extension for two (2) more additional years, based on continued project need, funding availability and satisfactory performance assessment.

Number of working days: up to 140 person days per year

Duty station: Home-based with occasional travel to countries in Asia and Africa, where UNCDF and CleanStart are active. 

Travel:  Travel costs associated with the assignment will be paid on reimbursable basis and following the UNDP/UNCDF rules and regulations which states that consultants shall only be paid the most direct and most economical ticket, as will be quoted by the official UN travel agency.  Any amount in excess of the said quotation, such as class and airline preference of the consultant, shall be borne by the consultant. Daily living allowance will be paid in amounts that will not exceed UN DSA Rates.  

Monitoring and Progress Control

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Data Management Specialist based in Bangkok, under the overall guidance of Regional Technical Advisor (RTA) based in Bangkok and in close collaboration with other relevant colleagues, experts and/or institutions designated by the RTA.

The consultant  will have regular communication with the Regional Office in Bangkok via email and skype, for coordination and guidance purposes, ensuring consultants’ output quality and targets.

The consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during the course of his/her engagement with UNCDF.

This contract is under a Framework Agreement that will work on a call-off mechanism. The consultant will be ‘called’ upon to deliver a specific set of deliverables under a TOR and a purchasing order, indicating the total number of days required to complete the services. The contractor shall submit the invoices specifying the outputs delivered and the Certificate of Payment form for the approval of UNCDF.

Payment terms shall be defined in the specific POs that will be issued when calling off the services of the individual.  Payment of financial obligations on the PO issued shall l be made upon satisfactory accepted deliverables by Data Management Specialist under each assignment and submission of time sheet in accordance with number of days worked to deliver the required outputs. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor. Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Competencias

Functional Competencies

• Ability to design for print and digital.
• Ability to respond to tight deadlines.
• Ability to incorporate feedback and work with UNCDF to develop high quality final products.
• Must be willing to follow established brand guidelines.
• Any artwork and fonts must comply with PCs.
• Ability to work with printers and ensure success of final product.
• All work will be property of UNCDF and designers will be asked to submit raw files.

Corporate Competencies

• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNCDF.
• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, communications or related fields.

Experience

• At least 5 years in graphic design across a variety of mediums.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience of relevant software for production of high-quality publications, ready-to-print files and electronic versions for web-posting.
• Experience with UN or non-profits.

Languages

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required to ensure proper high-quality content.

Evaluation

Applications will be rated on both technical and financial submissions. The following selection method will be used: Highest rated proposal using the combined scoring method, which assigns the weight distribution between the technical and financial proposals. The overall combined score will be 100 points, where weight distribution shall be 70% technical ( Desk Review of CV + sample of past work) and 30% financial.

 Step I: Screening/Longlisting
Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, communications or related fields
• At least 5 years in graphic design across a variety of mediums

Step II: Shortlisting by Desk Review (CV review and sample of past work)
UNCDF will conduct a desk review to produce a shortlist of candidates by evaluating the following criteria with the corresponding points (100 points)

• At least 5 years in graphic design across a variety of mediums (30 Points).
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience of relevant software for production of high-quality publications, ready-to-print files and electronic versions for web-posting (30 Points).
• Experience with UN or non-profits (10 points)
• Analysis of sample of 3 previous graphic design (30 points)

Only the top 3 ranked applicants obtaining a minimum 70% of the points in technical evaluation will be considered as technically compliant and will be reviewed further for financial evaluation.

Step III: Financial Evaluation
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:
Lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated (30%)
The top candidate that achieves the highest cumulative score (technical + financial) will be recommended for a contract award.

Application

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.
Failure to submit all the below mentioned documents may result in rejection of the application.

• When applying for this consultancy position, please apply with your official name as shown in the government issued identification document (e.g. passport and/or driver license). Contract award is subject to this verification;
• 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; link to P11: http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc;
• Sample of 3 previous graphic designs
• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position as well as stating the earliest availability. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
• Confirmation of Interest and Financial proposal: https://popp.undp.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/PSU_%20Individual%20Contract_Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx&action=default

Signed Financial proposals must be part of the application submitted before the stipulated deadline of the consultancy announcement.  

• State the earliest availability

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

Both individual consultants and individuals employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply. Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly).

Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply. UNCDF is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

Please include all documents into one file while submitting your application.

References

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf