Organizational Context:

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) is responsible for positioning UNDP as the world’s leading global development agency, promoting its global authority and thought leadership on sustainable development and the interconnected issues of poverty, inequality, and climate change. BERA leads and supports UNDP in building and nurturing strategic relationships and alliances essential to achieving its mission. Creating strong political and financial backing for UNDP by providing partners and supporters with a clear understanding of what UNDP does and how our mission, capabilities and flagship services relate to them. The Bureau leads UNDP’s work on innovative and diversified partnerships and ways of financing the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It is also responsible for global campaigns on critical development issues, which aim to inform government policies and build partnerships around high-impact solutions. BERA coordinates and sets corporate standards across the functions of partnerships, marketing and communications within UNDP and leads on internal communications.

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy is positioned around three service lines; Public Partnership; Advocacy, Marketing and Communications; and Private and Finance Partners, all working in close collaboration and coordination under the guidance of the Directorate and with the support of the Management Support Unit and Strategic Analysis and Engagement team.

BERA has a robust network of Representation Offices (Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and Washington D.C) and Regional Teams in five hubs (Africa, Arab States, Asia Pacific, Europe and CIS, and Latin American and the Caribbean) co-led with Regional Bureaux, all of which play a critical role in audience centric communications and management and strengthening of relationships with Public and Private Partners to help build a strong brand for UNDP within the local ecosystem.

Job Purpose:

Realizing the vision of just and sustainable progress enshrined in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development requires a whole-of-society approach that enables people to become active participants in change. UNDP attaches critical importance to the full involvement of civil society actors in all aspects of its work.

Engagement with civil society is an essential part of UNDP’s daily work around the world at global regional and country level. To ensure a more structured engagement with civil society partners, UNDP established the Civil Society Advisory Committee (CSAC) in 2000 as a mechanism for dialogue and consultation with UNDP senior management.

UNDP is keen to deepen its engagement with civil society partners in a more dynamic way, using existing platforms to seek independent perspectives and critical analyses on different aspects of UNDP´s work.

Under the overall direction/guidance of the BERA Deputy Director and direct supervision of the Strategic Analysis and Engagement team, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Support BERA's efforts to revitalise engagement with Civil Society and relevant advocacy efforts in close collaboration with the Bureau for Policy and Program Support (BPPS). This includes specifically: 

• Provide analysis on the current status of UNDP’s engagement with civil society, including adapting the CSAC to the current context, strategic priorities of the organization.
• Support advocacy and civil society engagement efforts for UNDP priority activities and processes, such as the launch of the 2020 Human Development Report, the consultations around the next 2022-2025 UNDP Strategic Plan and UNDP communications and advocacy campaigns.
• Further analysis of UNDP’s existing and potential opportunities for collaboration with the civil society sector, identifying best practices. 
• Perform any other relevant duties as may be assigned.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:      

• Analytic Note on UNDP’s existing and potential opportunities for collaboration with the civil society with proposed engagement plan – by end 2020
• Recommendations on future of CSAC and its membership and analysis on existing platforms for engagement – by end 2020
• 2019 Human Development Report launch supported with outreach to and involvement of civil society organizations – by 15 December 2020
• Key voices from civil society systematically identified and captured in the process of the next Strategic Plan formulation – throughout the duration of the assignment

UNDP campaign launch supported with outreach to and involvement of civil society organizations – by end January 2021.

Corporate Competencies:

• Commitment to UNDP mission, vision and values; 
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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 favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in a team;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
• Excellent drafting and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience: 

Education:

• Master’s Degree in political sciences, social sciences, international relations, or a development studies related field. 

Experience 

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in the international development sector with demonstrated experience in civil society engagement, advocacy and outreach, preferably within the UN system.
• Demonstrated experience of engaging with international and local CSOs
• Experience in outreach strategy development, research & analysis, and report writing
• Excellent coordination skills

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal (70%-30%).

The award of the contract should 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 a pre-determined set of weighted technical (CV desk reviews and interviews) and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates who will get a minimum of 32 points in desk review (criteria A, B, C) will be invited for interviews. Only candidates who get a minimum of 70% of points in technical evaluation (= 49 points) (including desk review and interview- criteria A to G) will be invited for the last step: financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points:

• Criteria A (Desk review - Education) – max points: 10;
• Criteria B (Desk review - Experience in civil society engagement, advocacy and outreach in the international development sector, preferably the UN – max points: 20;
• Criteria C (Desk review - Methodology) – max. points: 15 points;
• Criteria D (Interview – Proven experience and clear best practices leveraging civil society engagement for relevant multilateral institutions) – max points: 10;
• Criteria E (Interview - Experience in strategy development, analytical work and outreach and advocacy) – max points: 10;
• Criteria G (Interview - language skills) – max 5.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Application procedures:

The application submission is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications.

Step 1: Interested candidates must include the following documents when submitting the applications (Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF attachment as the system only allows upload of one document): 

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. 
• A brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (2-3 pages)
• Filled CV form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees; 

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal - Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and requested to provide a financial offer.

Institutional Arrangement:

Specific workplan will be agreed with the certifying officer at the beginning of each month. Payments will be made once a month upon submitted timesheets and their satisfactory acceptance by the Supervisor/Certifying Officer.

The Consultant will report to the Head of the Strategic Analysis and Engagement team, and his/her performance will be assessed against the deliverables. The Consultant will also interact with relevant UNDP staff across the various bureaus on a regular basis, and meet with senior managers and key line staff, as required. 

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling 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.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we will be able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

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

Annex 1 -  UNDP P11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to bera.procurement@undp.org