Antecedentes

Integrative Modelling Approach for Afghanistan SDGs

Building on the progress made and institutional setup in place for achievement of SDGs in Afghanistan with the government on the forefront, including nationalization of SDGs, their alignment with the national priorities and prioritization of targets, it becomes important to recognize the link between sustainable development and other relevant on-going processes in the economic, social and environmental fields in Afghanistan. To this end, UNDP started to explore the introduction of an “integrative modeling” approach that could serve as a foundation for an SDG macroeconomic framework and a policy coherence among the key ministries of of Economy, Finance, and other sectoral Ministries on synergies and trade-offs, fiscal/monetary implications, in support of ongoing GIROA efforts to prioritize, cluster, and sequence the SDGs from 2021-2030;

Policy coherence begins with the recognition that the 17 SDGs are interdependent. The SDGs can create synergies (that can be exploited) or foster trade-offs  (that require strategic choices) because of country/local context, governance arrangements, and time horizon (i.e. short, medium, and long-term). Two SDGs that are synergistic today could evolve into trade-offs over time.

The Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE)

Understanding these interdependencies, synergies, and trade-offs, requires economy-wide simulation models for country-level analysis of strategies for realization of the 2030 agenda and for analyzing medium- and long-run development policies. As in other UNDP programme countries, this could entail the development of an economy-wide dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model that links specific SDG-related policy interventions to SDG achievements.;

Fostering policy coherence might also call for models that explore the synergies and trade-offs involved for clusters of SDGs. For example, models have been used to guide prioritization in women’s economic empowerment and agricultural productivity. Or exploring agricultural investments and their consequences for the alleviation of hunger and improving nutritional status. Models have been used in food, energy, and water, in the context of climate change;

But whether economy-wide or specific SDG cluster models, if synergies and trade-offs are to be identified, these models would necessarily have to consider and factor the political economy, culture and history, environmental constraints, and the reality of climate change that underlie Afghanistan’s war economy;

UNDP Afghanistan organized a roundtable discussion to present and validate introduction of the CGE model to its key government partners. For this purpose, the UNDP invited a group of international experts for a preliminary round of consultations and stocktaking of what exists in terms of minimum required resources and wherewithal for development of the CGE aimed at simulating economy-wide elasticities to and impact of different counter-factual or “what if” scenarios for national investment planning, policy responses and programming, based on and integrated with an SDG macroeconomic framework;

The regional iteration of the CGE model and the single-country macroeconomic model based on IMF scenarios are complete. The last version of the latter based on the latest Afghanistan Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is set to be completed before the end of 2020. The SDG simulator model is under development.

Deberes y responsabilidades

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

Objective of the assignment:

The consultant will develop the interface for the SDG simulator model inclusive of all databases, portal, graphic designs, development, testing, and commissioning. Third-party software is excluded from this assignment; the consultant shall deliver full source code upon completion. Hosting costs and charges are the responsibility of the Beneficiary.

In more detail, the consultant will be required to provide the following services:

Component 1: A beta version of the SDG Simulator Interface for Afghanistan (SDG-SIA);

Component 2: A final version of SDG Simulator Interface for Afghanistan (SDG-SIA) after collecting feedback on the beta version;

The systems developed shall be scalable to allow for future enhancements that permit user management (log-in, access rights, etc.) and that allow future development of user dashboards.

Key Deliverables

The Consultant is co-responsible for producing the following deliverables:

• Output 1: SDG-SIA Beta Version;
• Output 2: SDG-SIA final Version and User Manual;
• Output 3: Technical manuals are developed; training sessions are conducted to the beneficiaries.

Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be delivery based and be made on receipt of the specific deliverables indicated above. These shall be made upon approval by Senior Deputy Resident Representative (Programms);

UNDP reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Institutional Arrangements:

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UNDP Afghanistan Senior Deputy Resident Representative (Programme) 

Duration of the Work

Duration of the consultancy is four months   with maximum 55 working days.

Duty Station

This is home based assignment; the consultant shall be required to work from home.

Competencias

Core competencies:

• Promotes ethics and integrity and creates organizational precedents;
• Builds and promotes effective teams;
• Creates and promotes environment for open communications;
• Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Academic Qualifications:

• Advanced university degree in computer science, information systems, or a relevant field (master’s preferred).

Required experience: 

• Minimum 6 - 10 years of progressive experience focusing systems and software development;
• Experience translating business needs to system specifications;
• Familiarity with one or more types of quantitative data analysis;
• Experience designing, building, and deploying BI solutions;
• Experience conducting unit testing and troubleshooting;
• Extensive knowledge and experience in Interface/windows and web development (.Net, C#, MVC, SQL Database, HTML5, jQuery, JavaScript, etc.);
• Strong layout development and designing skills;
• Experience providing training and creating technical documentation for diverse audiences.

The following qualifications are strongly preferred:

• Experience with database creation, management, and integration;
• Experience working in developing countries.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English skills a necessary requirement.

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.  The consultant shall then submit a price proposal when requested by UNDP, in accordance with the below:

• Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance ). The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract of four months with maximum 55 working days.
• The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment linked with deliverables and at the end of assignment.

UNDP reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and;
• Offering the lowest price/ cast and having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%)

Qualification, Experience and Technical Proposal (70 marks):

• Educational requirement  (25  marks);
• Experience relevant to the assignment  (30 marks);
• Technical Proposal:  Brief methodology and workplan on how the consultant will approach and complete the work (15 marks)

Financial Evaluation (30%):

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.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested international Consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• 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.
• Technical Proposal (can be attached with CV or response can be provided to mandatory question on jobs site):
  1. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  2. A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.

All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNDP Afghanistan.  UNDP Afghanistan will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);
• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed by consultant at application stage);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).

Note: Incomplete application will result in automatic disqualification of candidate.