Background

The Crisis Response and Resilience Programme (ICRRP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aims to build the resilience of the communities that are most affected by displacement of refugees and internally displaced Iraqis. 

Component one of the ICRRP is focused on supporting the Government of Iraq (GoI) and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in enhancing their institutional and technical capacities in crisis response coordination and progressively build national systems and frameworks for effective disaster and crisis management. UNDP’s support to the GoI and KRG constitutes an investment in the important national and regional agendas to solidify the regulatory, institutional and administrative arrangements for holistic and effective disaster risk reduction, effective societal preparedness, timely and efficient response to emergencies and rapid recovery in the aftermath of a disaster/crisis. UNDP’s support to the KRG is channeled primarily through the Ministry of Interior’s Joint Crisis Coordination Centre (JCC) and its offices in the three governorates of Erbil, Duhok and Slemani (Suleymanieh).

The JCC was established in September 2014 and officially launched in May 2015. It is established through order #5719, – September 2014 and the mandate (No 1, of 2015) of the KRG Council of Ministers. The head office is a directorate general within the Ministry of Interior and headed by a Director General under the direct supervision of the Minister of Interior. The governorate offices are directorates within the offices of their respective Governors. These offices have an administrative line of reporting to the governors and a dotted technical reporting line to the JCC head office. The network of JCC offices are formally mandated to coordinate all matters related to crisis management and response in the Kurdistan Region. The head office focuses on strategic matters while the governorate offices are mandated to coordinate and support operational management and response to crises.

Responding to a request from the KRG, UNDP is seeking to commission a Crisis Management Specialist to support the KRG in solidifying the work of the JCC network of offices and complete critical steps towards the creation of a full-scale disaster and crisis management system through a “whole of government approach”.   The Specialist will act as an advisor to the Prime Minister of the KRG and undertake the duties outline below under “scope of work.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

The Specialist will act as an advisor to the Director General of the JCC and under the overall guidance of the Head of the Service Centre of UNDP’s Erbil Office, and ICRRP Program Manager and under the direct supervision of the UNDP Crisis Response Specialist. Technically, the Specialist will report to the JCC Director General.  The scope of work of the specialist is divided into the below two sections:

Section I: Provide advice and mentoring for capacity development of the Mid-level managers of JCC:

• Follow-up with directors in implementation of their annual plans and provide guidance to achieve results against the annual plans. Review the quarterly reports of all directorates;
• Prepare training program and deliver one training module during each of the visits to Erbil, in total 4 modules will be conducted;
• Develop management guidelines and check-lists for the directors to follow
• Remotely mentor the JCC thematic focal points for gender, GIS, operations room, RBM, Coordination, and so on. These focal points are responsible for ensuring that technical support provided in these areas is well coordinated and synchronized with the strategic plan
• Give hands-on mentorship to the directors based on specific weaknesses and needs of each director
• Assess directors’ performance against their annual plans and trainings

Section II: Provide advisory support with regards to implementation of the JCC Strategic Plan:

• Advise the JCC Director General on implementation of strategic plan and advise and mentor the directors to help them in achieving specific results against the strategic plan;
• Maintain dialogue with the JCC technical partners in order to streamline multi-stakeholder support and adjust it to the JCC strategic plan;
• Review proposals and work plans developed between JCC and its technical partners;
• Advise and support the GIZ EBM expert in preparing and delivering training and mentorship measures to the JCC management
• Support the directorate of resource mobilization in preparing mid-year and annual progress reports against the strategic plan;
• Undertake advocacy with regards to approval of the KR-I disaster and crisis management law and model;

Section III: Provide general advisory and technical support for development of JCC systems;

• Review and revise various documents and reports prepared by the JCC;
• Prepare concept notes, technical frameworks and guidelines on pertinent topics as they emerge;
• Develop guidelines, tools and templates for resource mobilization, proposal writing and grants management for the directorate of resource mobilization and provide remote advisory and guidance;

Section IV: Integrate concepts of gender equality and sensitivity in all the advisory, management and training support provided;

• Integrate gender sensitivity and equality in the training, advisory, and mentoring services in general;
• Introduce gender sensitive approaches in the policies, procedures and routine work of the JCC;

Advise the JCC management to set up a complaint registration mechanism for the JCC staff and partners about cases of sexual harassment

Expected Outputs and Delivery Timeframe

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

Institutional Arrangements:

1. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UNDP Programme Manager – ICRRP and in close coordination with the Component Leads;
2. The consultant will be supported by and subject to UN security measures as prescribed by UNDSS.

Duration of the Work:

142 working days over a period of 8 months

Duty Station:

The consultant will be based in JCC Central Office in Erbil. Out of a total of 142 workdays the consultant must spend 87 workdays at the JCC in Erbil and 55 days could be spent for homebased deliverables. 

 (Note for any official travel outside of duty station UNDP facilitate the travel)

Competencies

• Fully abide by the policies, laws and regulations of UNDP and KRG; 
• Demonstrates a strong work ethic and professional integrity;
• Promotes the aim and objectives of UNDP in general and the project in particular;
• Is respectful of the mandates and roles of different UN and KRG partners and is able to build and sustain productive and mutually beneficial partnerships;
• Displays gender, religion, ethnic, age and cultural sensitivity and adaptability;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude; 
• Is a team player with strong sense of initiative and responsibility;
• Safeguards and serves the principles of accountability and transparency;
• Is able to navigate and produce results within a complex and challenging environment.

Skills: 

• Fluency in English with Kurdish being a strong asset;
• Strong analytical skills and capacities;
• Strong information technology skills;
• Strong verbal and written communication skills;
• Strong skills in developing and delivering trainings and presentations;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Has the ability to independently plan and execute assigned tasks and duties.
• Excellent writing and speaking in English. Kurdish proficiency is a very strong asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• An advanced university degree (Master) in a relevant field of study such as international relations, development collaboration, disaster and crisis management, public administration and other similar fields of study.

Years of experience:

Minimum seven (7) years of professional experience in a relevant field with an emphasis on international collaboration, humanitarian affairs and development, conflict resolution and human security, institutional development and system building and other similar fields of work;

• Past experience in government system building and institutional development; Previous work experience with Iraqi government is a strong asset.
• Past experience from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region is a strong asset;
• Past experience in advocacy and policy formulation;
• Past experience working within or with government institutions with a focus on enhancing organizational effectiveness and efficiency;
• Experience in training and capacity building for the government institution in the areas of crisis management and coordination;

PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS  

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

Interested professionals are invited to submit their Application consisting of a financial and technical proposal for completion of this assignment.  The technical proposal shall include:

1. CV of the applicant;
2. A description of approach and methodology for completion of the assignment;
3. An indicative work plan placing the planned activities of point (b) above along a time-line;
4. Any other information that the applicant finds relevant.

The financial proposal shall indicate the total amount required for covering all aspects of the assignment broken down into the following categories:

• Professional fees presented as daily, weekly or monthly units, as relevant.
• Expenses including local living cost; insurance, communication; transportation; other.

The full contracted amount will be disbursed as per the below payment plan unless otherwise agreed between UNDP and the consultant, upon completion of the Deliverables and approval and endorsement of same by UNDP.

And Payment will be made against deliverables upon approval of the Crisis Response Specialist and the ICRRP Programme Manager

Payment Schedule

EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall 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 and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria: weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

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

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points

Technical Proposal (35 marks)

• Technical Approach & Methodology (20 marks) – Explain the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach.
• Understanding the ToR  (15 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (35 marks) [evaluation of CV]:

• Academic qualifications (5 marks);
• Past Experience (20 marks);
• UN Experience  (5 Marks);
• Languages  (5 Marks)

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

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested international  individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); http://www.iq.undp.org/content/iraq/en/home/operations/jobs.html
• 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:

• An indicative work plan placing the planned activities of point (b) above along a time-line;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment
• Any other information that the applicant finds relevant.

Financial proposal, as per template provided in UNDP jobsite (Annex II);

Incomplete proposals may not be considered