Background
The current generation of youth in the Arab States is the largest the region has seen in the past 50 years, where more than 60% of the population is under 30 years of age, according to UNDP’s “Arab Human Development Report 2016: Youth and the Prospects for Human Development in a Changing Reality” (AHDR). The challenges faced by this diverse group of young women and men include legal and social discrimination, violence, inadequate livelihoods, and social, political, and economic exclusion. In many Arab countries, women and young girls are particularly affected by multiple ways of discrimination and violence, which often leave them in a repetitive cycle of vulnerability.
Besides widespread discrimination, youth in the Arab region face great barriers to accessing suitable livelihoods. According to the AHDR, unemployment among youth is the highest in the world. In 2014, unemployment for Arab youth aged 15-24 years old was more than twice the global average, reaching 29.7%. The rate for Arab women was twice that of young men. These numbers continue to increase; and by 2020, it is expected that the region will need over 60 million new jobs to absorb the number of workforce entrants.
All these challenges present an opportunity to tap into the creativity, energy, passion, and commitment of Arab youth, especially young women, so that they can realize their potential and contribute to the economic growth and social stability of the region. Empowering youth in this way requires providing them with the skills, platforms and access they need to succeed in the current environment. There is also opportunity to broaden their horizons to debate, discuss and explore larger issues that hinder their progress and that of their communities.
In response to the growing need of creating alternative paths to action and social change, Mosharaka, UNDP’s regional project on gender equality and women’s empowerment, launched the Youth Leadership Programme (YLP) in 2015. The mission of YLP is to invest in young women and men across the region, unleashing their potential to become social innovators, leaders and a powerful force for change in their communities, countries and the region at large. After three years of successful implementation, the UNDP Regional Bureau of Arab States (RBAS) is launching YLP4 to expand its reach and positive impact on youth, and to foster a system in which they can flourish as civil actors.
In past editions of YLP, participating youth received direct support and targeted mentoring over the course of the year, to develop skills in various social innovation approaches and methodologies. The programme encouraged and prepared them to become engaged citizens, innovative problem-solvers, effective leaders and successful agents of change, ready to effectively implement their projects and support the development of their countries. In order to scale up the impact of YLP, and ultimately reach a greater number of young women and men across the region, YLP4 will target organizations that work with youth at the national level, bringing a gender lens to their initiatives, infusing social innovation into their programmes, and building their capacity for implementation of activities that contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Through these organizations, the programme will continue strengthening the youth’s competencies and skills in the areas of leadership, political participation and civic engagement, social innovation, social entrepreneurship, digital technologies, and the SDGs, and provide a regional platform for gaining experience and sharing knowledge.
Objectives of YLP4:
Promote and support innovative thinking and leadership among youth in the Arab region;
Promote the production and diffusion of knowledge on youth-led social innovation and SDGs in English, Arabic and French;
Facilitate youth access to local, regional and global value chains and networks;
Support organizations fostering youth-led innovative solutions;
Promote multi-stakeholder collaborations on youth-led innovations for development;
Complement country-level efforts to promote an enabling policy environment for youth and youth-led initiatives.
Duties and Responsibilities
The objective of this consultancy is to develop a ground-breaking knowledge product to help guide UNDP Country Offices and YLP4 national partners in assessing the impact of their YLP4 activities at the national level. The guidance is to be developed under the direction of UNDP’s Youth Leadership Programme (YLP) Technical Team based in UNDP’s Regional Hub for the Arab States. The guidance should offer practical guidance and tools; be relevant to the context of the Arab region; and include good examples of how impact assessments can be/have been successfully done for similar activities in similar contexts. Ensuring the product’s usability, as well as its innovative content and form, will guarantee that it becomes a valuable source of information to help evaluate the impact of the Youth Leadership Programme, benefiting young innovators and changemakers in the Arab region.
The consultant will be responsible for the tasks listed hereunder:
Develop an outline of the impact assessment guidance, including options for both content and form;
Produce a draft knowledge product for early testing;
Test the draft knowledge product in order to generate timely feedback from UNDP colleagues and partners;
Revise and finalize the impact assessment guide as well as additional tools and resources as needed;
- Conduct a session during the YLP4 Regional Forum in December to launch and present the knowledge product to UNDP Country Offices and national partners.
Expected Outputs and Deliverables Target Due Dates Review and Approvals Required
Output 1: Draft outline of impact assessment guide,
including options for both content and form. by 28 June Project Manager
Output 2: Produce a draft knowledge product for
early testing. by 30 September Project Manager
Output 3: Test the knowledge product in order
to generate timely feedback from UNDP colleagues
and partners. by 31 October Project Manager
Output 4: Revise the work based on testing feedback,
finalize the knowledge product by 25 November Project Manager
Output 5: Launch the impact assessment guidance
during YLP Regional Forum. by 05 December Project Manager
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT
The individual is required to exhibit his or her full-time commitment with UNDP-RBAS;
S/He shall perform tasks under the general guidance of the Regional Programme Coordinator and the direct supervision of the Gender (Mosharaka) regional project CTA. The supervision of the Gender (Mosharaka) regional project manager will include approvals/acceptance of the outputs as identified in the previous section;
The individual is expected to liaise and collaborate in the course of performing the work with other consultants, suppliers and UN colleagues;
- The individual is required to provide periodical progress reports on regular and needed basis throughout the assignment in order to monitor progress;
The individual is required to maintain close communication with UNDP-RBAS on regular and needed basis at any period throughout the assignment in order to monitor progress. In the event of any delay, S/he will inform UNDP promptly so that decisions and remedial action may be taken accordingly;
Should UNDP deem it necessary, it reserves the right to commission additional inputs, reviews or revisions, as needed to ensure the quality and relevance of the work.
DURATION OF THE WORK
The duration of the work is expected to be 30 working days from contract signature date, over a period of 7 months.
DUTY STATION
This is a home-based assignment.
TRAVEL PLAN
If unforeseen travel outside the consultant home based city is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. In such cases, the consultant shall receive living allowances not exceeding the United Nations (UN) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rate for such other location(s).
Competencies
Corporate
Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’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.
Functional
Background knowledge about the SDGs, United Nations and UNDP;
Proven intellectual and practical capacity to understand and interpret regional, national and local development issues;
Good teamwork and interpersonal skills;
Flexibility and ability to handle multiple tasks and work under pressure;
Excellent drafting and formulation skills;
Excellent computer skills especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
Knowledge Management and Learning
Ability to strongly promote and build knowledge products;
Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from within and outside of UNDP;
Demonstrates a strong capacity for innovation and creativity in providing strategic policy advice and direction.
Judgment/Decision-Making
Mature judgment and initiative;
Proven ability to provide strategic direction to the project implementation process;
Required Skills and Experience
Academic Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in International Development, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Sciences, Business Administration or other relevant fields.
Years of experience:
Minimum 10 years of experience required related to working in international development, setting up evidence based M&E systems,surveys/assessments, designing indicator frameworks, innovative data collection and analysis; or other relevant work experience.
10 years of working experience in developing manuals, how-to guides, or other relevant knowledge products.
- 5 years of previous UN working experience.
Language Requirements:
Language proficiency in both written and oral English is required. Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.
FINANCIAL PROPOSAL
Interested candidates should provide lump sum fees for requested services with detailed breakdown. This amount must be “all-inclusive”. Please note that the terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. Also, please note that the contract price will be Deliverables/Outputs based - not fixed - subject to change in the cost components.
The contractor will be paid an all-inclusive Deliverables/Outputs based lump sum amounts over the assignment period, subject to the submission of Certification of Payment (CoP) duly certified and confirmation of satisfactory performance of achieved work (deliverables/outputs) in line with the schedule of payments, noting that the maximum number of working days for this assignment shouldn’t exceed 30 working days.
SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL & DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS
All necessary information including: Complete Procurement Notice, the Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement http://procurement-notices.undp.org/
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications to Job advertisement website, and should submit their proposal by e-mail t the following email address: proc.contract.rscjo@undp.org not later than 24 MAY 2018. Candidates that fail to submit the required information on or before the set deadline (24 May 2018) will not be considered.
Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
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;
Technical Proposal (A half page technical proposal detailing how they will approach the assignment, prioritizing activities to meet the deliverables as set above in the most efficient and effective manner);
Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive Deliverables/Outputs based total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided for 30 working days over period of 7 months. The terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. If there is any travel during the contract period, it will be covered by unforeseen travel. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE BEST OFFERS
All necessary information including: Complete Procurement Notice, the Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement http://procurement-notices.undp.org/
This selection criteria will follow the Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%; using the following evaluation criteria
Step I: Screening and desk review:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.
Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum requirements will progress to the pool for shortlisting:
Criteria A: Master’s Degree in International Development, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Sciences, Business Administration or other relevant fields;
Criteria B: Minimum 7 years of experience required related to working in international development, setting up evidence based M&E systems, surveys/assessments, designing indicator frameworks, innovative data collection and analysis; or other relevant work experience;
Criteria E: Language proficiency in both written and oral English;
Shortlisted Candidates will be then assessed and scored against the following evaluation criteria:
Technical evaluation Criteria max 100 points (Weighted 70):
Criteria A: Master’s Degree in International Development, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Sciences, Business Administration or other relevant fields (30 points);
Criteria B: Minimum 7 years of experience required related to working in international development, setting up evidence based M&E systems, surveys/assessments, designing indicator frameworks, innovative data collection and analysis; or other relevant work experience (25 points);
Criteria C: 5 years of working experience developing manuals, how-to guides, or other relevant knowledge products (20 points);
Criteria D: 5 years of working experience working in UN (15 points);
- Criteria E: Language proficiency in both written and oral English (10 points);
Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation
For those offers considered in the financial evaluation, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points.
The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula:
(PI / Pn)* 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.
Step II: Final evaluation
The final evaluation will combine the scores of the desk review and the financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will 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 technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Technical Criteria weight: [70%]
Financial Criteria weight: [30%]