Antecedentes
The Covid 19 pandemic has posed severe challenges especially for the urban poor and migrant workers. Physical distancing has become a new normal and one must learn to live with it. Unemployment is set to rise and conditions of the poor and marginalized are bound to deteriorate further with a slowdown in the economy.
According to the latest India 2020 publication, the unorganized sector in India accounts for 97 per cent of the workforce and most of them are inter / intrastate migrants. Migrant workers, who are anchors of a slum population, have started returning to their native places due to fear, anxiety and hunger. Most of them were daily wagers and did not maintain cash liquidity for this kind of uncertain situation. The country-wide lockdown since 24 March that became necessary to contain the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic seems to be erupting into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis due to reverse migration this massive population group. States like Uttar Pradesh which are the native places of most migrants may witness a sudden flood of people, creating an unusual burden on the economic and social infrastructure.
Relief measures such as GOI’s Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) of Rs 34,800 crore provided relief to around 39 crore poor people by early May. But such measures seem to have bypassed migrants on account of their highly informal existence in urban areas, including the absence of suitable identity devices such as ration cards or bank accounts in their work locations. The state governments are distributing dry rations and running programmes such as community kitchens. But clearly, these have inadequate outreach given the scale of the problem. Unpaid wages, lack of clear prospects on the resumption of income-earning activities, shortages of food rations etc. seem to have created a high level of despondency in urban slums.
Such a scenario calls for adopting innovative measures and collaboration among public institutions for combating the new challenges while adapting ways to cope
To address the above challenges, UNDP has identified the following strategic approaches:
Deberes y responsabilidades
Establishing Urban Poor Support Centres
It is clear, that given the scale of the problem, deep initiatives by the local population will be required to ensure access for the urban poor to suitable support measures. Critical to such local initiatives will be empathy, social connectedness/social capital and psychosocial support.
UNDP proposes a design for urban poor support built on the social framework of empathy, social connectedness/social capital and psychosocial support, with UNICEF, Department of Urban Local Bodies and Lucknow Municipal Corporation. The Urban poor support center will be closely connected with the District Administration/Municipal corporations to leverage support from governmental programmes for food, health and social security as well as logistics.
Reviving the Community Development Societies (CDS) structure
UNDP proposes to revive/strengthen the women Self Help Groups (SHG) and Area Level Federation (ALF) promoted under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM) in the selected slum areas. The SHG and ALF institutional structure supports the livelihood concerns of urban poor by facilitating access to suitable spaces, institutional credit, and social security
Social Protection
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have pointed out that social protection will play a critical role in curtailing this situation. The State Governments have enacted proactive measures in the same light but there are human resource constraints along with the limited reaching capacity to remote areas. For the immediate support for better preparedness for COVID 19, the partnership with the CSOs shall focus on the uptake of social protection schemes and programmes (BOCW, MGNREGA, PM schemes for Financial Inclusion and Health Insurance), strengthening awareness and building capacities of PRIs and frontline workers in the rural ecosystem.
UNDP along with UNICEF intents to address some of the challenges outlined above including the proposed ways of focused targeting, coordination and communication to urban poor’s living in slums of Lucknow. The two UN agencies will be working based on their existing programme of work in the State in collaboration with the State Urban Development Agency. Efforts to coordinate with other agencies like DUDA, Dept. of Medical and Family Welfare, Dept. of Social Welfare, Women and Children as well as civil society organizations will be facilitated. In this UNDP is proposing to hire a consultant to coordinate the implementation of the project, provide technical support to the implementation agency and Directorate of Urban Local Bodies.
Objective:
The Consultant will support the UNDP and other stakeholders in the implementation of the project work plan, by providing technical, management and coordination support to project activities. He/she will be working closely with the technical support agency and government departments to support and monitor the above outlined strategic approaches and programme implementation
Scope of Work:
The scope of work to be carried out by the Consultant is as follows:
- Supporting UNDP and State implementing agencies in the establishment of Urban Poor Support Centres (UPSc)
- Provide technical support to Department of Urban Local Bodies during implementation of the project
- Provide technical support to the implementation agencies on livelihoods, skill development, institution development etc.
- Monitoring the progress of activities by implementing agencies on continuous basis and preparation of MIS reports, Dashboards for wider stakeholders
- Supporting UNDP in effective communications and management of both internal and external stakeholders
- Supporting UNDP and implementing agencies on capacity building, knowledge management, and assessment of trained staff/ volunteers
Competencias
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrates/safeguards ethics and integrity
- Works as a team member
Functional Competencies:
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise
- Overall understanding of COVID 19 strategy and challenges across India and abroad
- Experience of working with the Central and/or State Government will be an added advantage
- Nuanced functional research skills with attention to detail and academic vigour, with competency in management and tools (like SPSS, R, Python etc.)
- Excellent demonstrated documentation skills vis-a-vis MS Office Suite and prior experience in developing concept notes/reports/project plans will be essential
- Self-motivated and ability to work with minimal supervision
Habilidades y experiencia requeridas
Communication skills
- Good communication, interpersonal skills, with an ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
Activities:
The activities to be performed by the Consultant for development of the deliverable include, but are not limited to the following:
- Support the delivery of quality project outputs through quality preparation of weekly and monthly and quarterly work plans
- Undertake project monitoring and assist in the preparation implementation reports against work plan
- Conduct meetings with various stakeholders and related departments and officers to map stakeholder expectation
- Coordinate with UNDP and UNICEF for prioritizing stakeholder expectations
- Supporting UNDP and State implementing agencies in the establishment of Urban Poor Support Centres (UPSc)
- Monitoring the progress of State Implementing Agencies continuously and sharing MIS reports on the current status with State Head
- Support UNDP in drafting effective communications to both internal and external stakeholders
- Ensuring that all paperwork and approvals are in place before implementation of the strategy
- Prepare meeting notes and meeting minutes; draft articles, speeches, briefings, presentations, reports; compile documents and collate information as and when required
- Prepare knowledge reports documenting the progress of project
Duration of the Project
9 months from the signing of the contract
Deliverables and Schedule of Payment:
Monthly payment on submission of monthly reports of work done
Time Frame:
9 Month
Project Location:
The assignment will be home as well as field-based or may be based at the office of the ULB Department. It might include travel to districts in Uttar Pradesh if required as well as to the UNDP Country Office in New Delhi to meet with project team members.
Recruitment Qualifications:
Educational Qualifications: Postgraduate in Rural Management/Development Studies/Social Work etc. qualification is essential
Experience:
- Three years of experience in programme design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation or research in the public policy domain
- Good management and coordination skills, with experience in implementation of programmes at the state level, documentation of project reports, development of dashboards, and stakeholder management
- Knowledge in the use of computer software packages for word-processing, excel, PowerPoint, databases and spreadsheets, and the internet. Excellent communications and documentation (MS Word, Excel) skills in English
- Experience of Livelihood Sector in Urban/Rural is desirable
- Previous experience of working with UNDP and/or Government is preferred
Language Requirements:
Fluency in English is essential. Knowledge of Hindi would be an asset.
Evaluation Criteria
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as Responsive to the requirement. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation;
• Technical Criteria weight - 70%;
• Financial Criteria weight – 30 %
Technical Criteria (70% of the total evaluation)
- At least three years of experience of working in urban/rural management/social development space- 20%
- Experience working with the Central and/or State Government will be an added advantage - 20 %
- Nuanced functional research skills with attention to detail and academic vigour, with competency in management and tools (like SPSS, R, etc.) - 20%
- Excellent demonstrated documentation skills vis-a-vis MS Office Suite and prior experience in developing concept notes/reports/project plans will be essential - 10%
Financial Criteria: (30% of the total evaluation) based on the total all-inclusive lump sum amount for the professional fee for tasks specified in this announcement
Financial Proposal:
Technically qualified consultants will be requested to submit their daily fee rate i.e. consultants who score more than 70% i.e. 49 marks with respect to the above-mentioned evaluation criteria. Consultant should not specify their consultancy fee on their CV or with the submission. The CV will not be evaluated further in case the consultant submits the same.
Documents to be submitted by Consultants
- Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual Contractor Assignment
- Updated and signed P-11 form for ICs
- No Financials ( Daily Fee) to be submitted at this stage
Note:
- Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone, relocation charges etc. would not be reimbursed.
- Travel, lodging and boarding as per UNDP rules subject to prior approval
- Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual