Background

Bangladesh was a global leader in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in shaping the discourse for the post-2015 development, resilience, urban poverty reduction, and social protection agendas. In the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era, UNDP Bangladesh (UNDP) looks to continue to act on its portfolio of programmes to achieve the national objectives of Bangladesh and eliminate poverty. It has originated many of the most exciting and innovative solutions to development challenges. UNDP’s mission is to help create open and inclusive civic spaces, within which the government and people are empowered to realize national development goals and fully engage in global sustainable development efforts.

UNDP Bangladesh is supporting the Government to find innovative solutions to its development challenges based on the new Country Programme Document, which began in 2017. A key cross- cutting theme behind UNDP’s work in Bangladesh is institutional development, ranging from environmental resilience to urban development to improved governance.

In the area of improved governance, UNDP and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT: Australia) are partnering with the Government of Bangladesh in significant ways, particularly in improved institutional development in social protection and aid effectiveness. Specifically, Social Protection Policy Support (SPPS) Programme, through expert, evidence-based support, is working with the government to reconfigure the current social security system so that economic growth is achieved more inclusively, with economic opportunities reaching the rural and urban poor and the protection of vulnerable groups including people with disabilities (PwDs), ethnic minorities against shocks through a gender lens. The programme will help the government in two areas namely governance of social protection and strengthening of systems. This work includes enacting a national Single Registry Management Information System to improve social protection delivery, improving upon the country’s Grievance Redress System to ensure accountability and transparency, developing holistic Monitoring & Evaluation approaches to measuring social protection outcomes, strengthening Government to Person (G2P) delivery of social protection cash benefits, and identifying knowledge gaps and conducting research to fill such gaps to inform evidence-based policy decision-making. The

SPPS Programme is centered around supporting the Government to implement the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS).

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=2ahUKEwjegcWqp4biA hUHA3IKHeFlDyAQFjAFegQIBRAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bd.undp.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fb angladesh%2Fdocs%2FProjects%2FNSSS%2FNational-Social-Security-Strategy- English.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2IRifCXEHvG2G59C9ytEiQ].

Part of the ongoing work of the SPPS Programme related to this assignment includes reviewing completed research on knowledge gaps and identifying the key policy messages to be presented to NSSS-related key Government officials; gathering data and evidence for the creation of a Core Diagnostic Assessment (https://ispatools.org/core-diagnostic-instrument/), inputs into the eight five year plan, monitoring and evaluation report; and developing technical action plans for NSSS progress on urban and database objectives.

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the SPPS Project Manager for the relevant tasks and work with varying SPPS project team members on project outputs with the consultant taking a lead role in the development of the outputs.

Duties and Responsibilities

- Policy advocacy with the Poverty Wing and Perspective Plan Wing of the General Economics Division of Planning Commission on the importance of inclusion of social policies in line with NSSS in NSDS updating.

- Policy advocacy with the Poverty Wing and Perspective Plan Wing of the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission on the importance of the blue economy and its prospects of institutionalization in Bangladesh.

- Develop a consensus-basis comprehensive time frame for developing the NSDS and the National Blue Economy Strategy and Plan.

- Developing  As many as, about 10 (Five in Bangla and five in English) Op-eds on different selected topics suggested by Member GED, or SPPS Programme.

- Several numbers of One pager on selected issues related to the SPPS Programme and its contribution to national social policy development.

- Develop the content of the SPPS Programme Newsletter and at least two Newsletters informing policy about the NSSS achievements, way forward, and future of work.

- Initiate blog writing on the Social Protection Website, and SPPS Programme Facebook platform.

Competencies

      Competencies:

• Experience in reporting, and professional level English writing skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience in banking scenario of Bangladesh
• Good understanding of new and evolving technologies and digital platforms for editing and proofreading.
• Critical thinking skills and ability to provide material supported by evidenced bases research.
• Plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time and produces quality results to meet established goals.
• Knowledge of national policy objectives of Bangladesh, specifically as laid out in the NSSS.
• Ability to plan, organize, implement, and report on time.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

            Education

The incumbent should have a Bachelor's degree in the field of Business administration/Economics or any other relevant disciplines.
       
           Experience:

• At least 8 years of progressive, proven working experience with writing articles, and research reports.
• 3 years of experience in the field of policy reform/economic analysis
• 5 years of proven record of writing and publishing op-ed for Bangla and English national newspapers
  
  Language Requirements:

• Perfect fluency in English and Bangla (written, oral, and spoken).

Expected outputs/deliverables:

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The assignment will be supervised by the Project Manager of the SPPS Programme for the tasks.

Timeframe and Deliverables:

This assignment will require approximately 105 days spread over a duration of 07 months (28th November 2022 to 30th June 2023).

INPUTS:

Duration of the Work: Not more than 105 days spread over a duration of 07 month.

Duty Station: The selected candidate will be home based with several brainstorming and sharing meetings with PD, NPD, Project Manager of SPPS Programme in the Dhaka Office.

Travel and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UNDP, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UNDP's expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC's duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages-

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. Lodging, meals and transport cost for field visit related to this assignment will be paid by the project as per UN standard.

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.

Contracts based on daily fees:

Payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based on the delivery of agreed-upon deliverables, verified by the Project Manager of SPPS.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual Consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodologies: Preliminary Evaluation:

Prior to the technical evaluation all proposals will be screened based on the eligibility criteria mentioned in the table below. To be eligible for technical evaluation a proposal must meet both the criteria. Any proposal not meeting either of these criteria will be rejected from the evaluation. There is no scoring in this stage and screening will be done pass/fail basis.

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual Consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

- responsive/compliant/acceptable, 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 70% point in technical criteria would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks)

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

Financial Evaluation: (Total obtainable score – 30)

All technically qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals receive points according to the following formula:

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

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.
2. 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.
3. Technical Proposal/Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself the most suitable for the assignment and a work plan on how he/she will approach and complete the assignment.

1. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. Note: National Consultants must quote prices in BDT.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Annexes

• Annex I – General Terms and Conditions of Hiring an IC
• Annex II – Template-Confirmation of Interest and Availability with Financial Offer
• Annex III – Personal History Form or P11 for the IC Hiring

Applicants are requested to submit their financial proposal using the template from the below link;

Template-Confirmation of Interest and Availability with Financial Offer

This contract does not carry any expectation of any future engagement by UNDP.