Background

The Enhanced Public Sector Transparency and Integrity Project (2015-2018), implemented by UNDP in Ukraine with the financial support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was launched to respond to the national demand for transparency and integrity and to support the on-going anti-corruption reform and emerging anti-corruption architecture.

The Project aims at bringing the regulatory and institutional arrangements for corruption prevention within Ukraine closer to international standards for transparency and accountability in the public sector and thus help ensure more responsiveness and efficacy from state bodies at national and subnational levels. The project (1) renders assistance to establishing regulations on issues related to conflict of interest, assets declarations, and corruption risk assessment, which spell out mandates and operational procedures for the duty-bearers, (2) contributes to duty-bearers’ capacity development to operationalize adopted frameworks in everyday operations, and (3) encourages local oversight of the anti-corruption reform implementation.

Within the scope of the Project, several initiatives include various communications activities. In this respect, the Project is planning to mobilize a communications expert as a short-term consultant to support the implementation of the Project’s communications strategy and action plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this assignment is to ensure coherent communications and awareness raising on the project’s various activities and products for a wide audience, including public officials, civil society, the private sector, and the media.

SCOPE OF WORK

Under the supervision of the Transparency and Integrity Team Lead and the Knowledge Management Associate, the Consultant will be responsible for the following key tasks:

• Assist in development and implementation of the Project’s communications and visibility strategies and plans;
• Develop and disseminate communications materials for various target audiences, including news articles, press releases, media advisories, leaflets, posters, and other products, in line with UNDP’s and donors’ editorial and visual guidelines;
• Shape the project’s success stories into an effective communications product and marketing tool;
• Facilitate and assist if needed the production of multimedia content (videos, graphic design, GIFs, other visuals);
• Liaise with the project’s technical support vendors (designers, printers, editors, videographers, photographers);
• Boost the project’s presence and visibility on different communications channels, including UNDP’s website, e-newsletter, social media, and other platforms;
• Maintain and update content of the democratic governance web-portal;
• Curate, edit, and catalogue the project’s photograph library or other related repositories;
• Provide communications support to key events and outreach activities, such as information campaigns, workshops, conferences, meetings, and discussions;
• Organize media events such as press conferences, media briefings, interviews, campaigns;
• Strengthen partnerships with the media, update media/partnership/information databases;
• Conduct regular media monitoring on corruption prevention related topics, including e-declaration;
• Maintain cooperation with the project’s partners and team members;
• Provide high quality editing and formatting for all communications related documents;
• Perform other related tasks as may be assigned by the supervisor.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

Consultant will be responsible to deliver the following outputs:

REQUIREMENTS FOR MONITORING/REPORTING:

ETI Integrity and Transparency Project Lead will supervise the work of the Consultant through regular in person and e-mail or telephone / Skype communication. Upon completion of the task, the deliverables will be checked by the ETI project team. The final report, in English, shall be submitted electronically in addition to documents within deliverables. UNDP will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the work. No reports, documents, communications should be published or distributed to third parties without prior approval of UNDP. Should any travel be needed for the assignment which is not envisaged at this stage, the related costs will be covered additionally, therefore, the incumbent should not include this cost in his/her financial proposal.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree in communications, journalism, public relations, social sciences, political science or related field.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of progressive experience in communications and outreach;
• At least 1 year of previous working experience with mass-media outlets, NGOs, international organizations, or authorities;
• At least 1 year of proven experience in developing and conducting online campaigns, building social media presence, designing and coordinating outreach campaigns;
• Demonstrated awareness of anti-corruption issues as elicited from previous professional experience is a great asset.

Competencies:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to present information logically, clearly, and concisely;
• Ability to think creatively, to develop and implement innovative solutions in a challenging environment;
• Ability to achieve results and meet strict deadlines in an effective manner, maintaining a high-quality standard throughout;
• Very good knowledge of office software packages, ability of handling web-based and social media platforms;
• Excellent organizational, inter-personal skills.
• Language: Fluency in English, Ukrainian, and Russian is required.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS 

Applicants shall submit the following documents: 

Required 

• Letter of interest, explaining why they are the most suitable for the work including relevant past experience
• Samples of communications products (in English) developed by the incumbent in the past: news articles, press releases, success stories, media materials, etc (accessible via links to online materials). A sample should not exceed 3 pages in length and should be authored by the incumbent. In case the sample was co-authored, respective sections of authorship should be marked to clearly assess the writing style of the specialist; 
• Personal CV / Personal History Form P11, including information about past experience in similar projects and contact details of at least 3 referees; 
• Financial proposal.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL 

The financial proposal shall specify the cost of professional services of UNDP Anti-Corruption Legal Framework Expert. Payments are made in three tranches: each made upon completion and UNDP’s acceptance of the respective deliverable. 

Lump sum contract 

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount. 

EVALUATION OF APPLICANTS

Advanced degree – 10 points max

10 pts – Master’s degree

8 pts – Specialist degree

Progressive experience in communications and outreach – 20 points max

20 pts – 3 or more years of experience with relevance to anti-corruption

15 pts – 3 or more years of experience

Previous working experience with mass-media outlets, NGOs, international organizations, or authorities – 5 points max

5 pts – 2 or more years of experience

4 pts – 1 year of experience

Proven experience in developing and conducting online campaigns, building social media presence, designing and coordinating outreach campaigns – 10 points

10 pts – 3 or more years of experience

8 pts – 2 years of experience

7 pts – 1 year of experience

Fluency in English, Ukrainian, Russian – 10 points max

10 pts – Fluency in English, Ukrainian, Russian

Samples of communications products (in English) produced by the incumbent – 15 points max

15 pts – Outstanding: the materials present cogent, well-articulated messages and convey meaning skilfully;

10 pts – Strong: generally thoughtful, well-developed messages and convey meaning clearly but with minor errors;

5 pts – Adequate: competent messages and convey meaning with acceptable clarity and generally demonstrates control of the conventions of standard written English;

Maximum available technical score – 70 points.

EVALUATION METHOD

Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

having received the cumulative 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 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the interview.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer.