UNDP Jobs - 79950- International Public-Private Partnership Expert

International Public-Private Partnership Expert

Location :

Baku, AZERBAIJAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Aug-2018

Application Deadline :

20-Jul-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 (one) year

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

80 consultancy days in total, including in total 15 days in the field within expected 2 trips

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The overall objective of the EU funded “Modernizing Vocational Education and Training (VET) Centers in Azerbaijan” project is to contribute to the modernization of the vocational education and training system in Azerbaijan, enhancing quality, equality, relevance and access in line with European standards and practices. The project outputs are to improve quality of education for establishing labor market oriented VET system in Lankaran Economic Region.

Currently, the vocational education and training (VET) system of Azerbaijan has many challenges in terms of management, financial support, staff and content of education, material and technical base and infrastructure. In the last decade, the Government has implemented a wide range of activities, State programs, strategies and concepts. In addition, a VET Agency under the Ministry of Education was established in 2016 for developing the VET sector. The main objective of the Agency is to increase the efficiency and relevance of vocational education and training system in Azerbaijan and to produce qualified workforce for the labor market. Nevertheless, certain problems remain. The infrastructures of the majority of VET centers have not been modernized for decades while educational resources, educational programs, teaching and learning materials used by VET centers are out of date or do not respond to the requirements of a modern VET system. Financial resources are not at the required level and VET centers are not currently able to generate income due to the challenges they face. Social partnership is also very weak. The rate of involvement of professional, administrative and management staff of VET centers in training courses on capacity building are low and quality of training courses are not satisfactory. Legal and regulatory framework on VET is out of date.

It should be noted that overall and specific objectives of this action align to recent policy of the Government of Azerbaijan on diversification of economy through the development of non-oil sector, reduction of disparity between regions and Baku, development of human capital.

The general objective of assignment is development of Public-Private Partnership Framework that defines and identifies procedures, rules and institutional responsibilities.

The work planned under this TOR will be conducted under the supervision of the Programme Adviser of UNDP Azerbaijan, and in line with EU guidelines in consultation with both the Project Manager and Lead VET Coordinator. The planning process has to be performed on the basis of participatory approach.

Duties and Responsibilities

The International Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Expert under the direct guidance and coordination with UNDP Project Manager and Programme Management will be responsible for the oversight of the development of the effective mechanisms for the collaboration between VE Centre and Private Companies, but not necessarily be limited to:

Present initial work plan to VET project and continue the consultation at stages of the assignment
Review of legal documents that are relevant to PPP system to ensure an enabling environment for PPP system
Review the existing institutional arrangement that has been established to manage PPP system, if any
Conduct policy dialogue with relevant Governments partners to identify and address challenges in introducing PPP system
Advise on determining modalities of forming the PPP task teams to further explore relevant areas within the VE schools
Establishing a mechanism for engaging public, private sector and VE centre to PPP
Work closely with the project’s public-private partnership local expert team to identify and develop potential PPPs to support improved literacy
Conducting series of dialogues and round tables allows both VE Center and business representatives to better understand their needs and requirements, share information and knowledge, and develop integrated short to long term strategies for cooperation in coordination with Ministry of Education, State Vocational Education Agency and respective VE schools, and other stakeholders
Establishment and guidance of Regional Working Group (RWG). The RWG will serve as a permanent platform for sustained dialogue between VE Center, State VE Agency, employers’ and workers’ workers’ representatives of Jalilabad, including Lankaran Economic Region. This will strength and improve school management system, quality of teaching process and cooperation between VE Center and public, private as well as relevant stakeholders. The role of RWG:

Promote active support of all the relevant stakeholders, particularly local labor and employment office and private companies, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SME), for the development, implementation and continuous improvement of high quality of VET programmes
Encourage participation of private sector in the definition of training programs.

Proposals for the creation, design and update of programmes
Identification of needs of particular sector to facilitate targeted programmes via meetings or workshop
Raise awareness among all parties regarding the advantages of cooperation between VE schools and business as important as developing strategy for PPP. Within this activity the following actions will be taken into account:

Conduct awareness-raising campaigns to highlight the benefits for each of the parties – society in general, businesses, schools and learners in particular.
Conduct proper consultations with stakeholders from the industry sectors, incentives for businesses and education to cooperate with each other.
Improve the capacities of employers, policy makers in education sector and managers for participating and making contributions to expert discussions on skills and training needs analysis, qualifications, curricula, teaching and learning methods
Train key actors from the VE lyceum (school principals, mainly managing units) based on the needs of employers) in skills for negotiating, agreeing, developing and managing partnerships, incorporating international best practices for using PPPs to deliver enhanced, sustainable public-private education services

The aforementioned activities aim to increase the awareness of PPP among the VET provider and potential employers, targeting its willingness of employers to employ VET graduates.

Monitoring and progress control will be conducted by the Project Manager in consultation with the UNDP Programme Advisor and the Project Director appointed by the Ministry of Education. Reporting, its frequency, format and deadlines will be done in accordance with the phases and deliverables shown in the respective section below.

Deliverables:

1. Substantive desk review before and during country mission. Consultation with ministries, agencies and UNDP to identify expected results. Conducting institutional structure and capacity assessment;

2. First draft of PPP Framework that defines and identifies procedures, rules and institutional responsibilities that determine how the agencies, VE schools selects and implement the PPP mechanisms and development of Training programme and conducting of training to Agency and respective VE schools staffs on the implementation of PPP Framework and prioritization and management;

3. Collecting of feedback from the respective organizations and Final PPP Framework that defines and identifies procedures, rules and institutional responsibilities;

4. Final report with all works carried out and final recommendations.

Duration of the contract, 1 year, 80 working days in total, 15 days in the field for the entire project time frame. At least 2 missions to Azerbaijan within the contract time frame.

The authorization for each respective payment will be made by UNDP Programme Officer after the acceptance of each deliverable by the Project Manager.

Competencies

• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;

• High analytical skills oriented towards problem-solve;

• Leadership and self-management;

• Focus on results and respond positively to feedback;

• Consistently approach work with energy and a positive attitude;

• Demonstrate openness for approaches to manage complexity;

• Team spirit and excellent interpersonal skills;

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;

• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP and the UN; and

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Required Skills and Experience

At least Master’s degree in education, law, economy or other related field;
A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in public private partnerships of which at least 4 years are at international level;
Experience in conducting assessment and PPP Framework development;
Experience in providing capacity building on PPP and knowledge transfer;
Experience in preparing potential PPP projects for different sectors that were successfully implemented;
Experience in PPP Project Prioritization based on set of criteria.

Language:

Excellent written and spoken English is a must.
Knowledge of Russian will be an asset.

Evaluation criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative evaluation that takes into account both financial offer and the technical expertise of the potential candidates

A two-stage procedure will be utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical component being completed prior to any price component being reviewed and compared. The Price Component will be reviewed only for those individuals whose Technical Component meets the requirements for the assignment. The total number of points which individual may obtain for both components is 100.

The technical component, which has a total possible value of 70 points, will be evaluated using the following criteria:

At least Master’s degree in education, law, economy or other related field; (10 points)

A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in public private partnerships of which at least 4 years are at international level, as well as experience in conducting assessment and PPP Framework development (25 points)

Results of interview (all short-listed candidates will be invited for skype interview with Evaluation Committee Members and Project Director; (25 points)

Work approach; (10 points)

If the substantive presentation of a technical proposal achieves the minimum of 49 points, the competitiveness of the offered consultancy expenses will be taken into account in the following manner:

The total amount of points for the fees component is 30. The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest fees proposed that is compared among those invited individuals which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical proposal. All other proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest fees; e.g;

[30 Points] x [US$ lowest]/[US$ other] = points for other proposer’s fees

Terms and Conditions for provision of services:

The assignment will be a combination of field and home-based works.

The Expert should undertake at least 2 missions to Baku within assignment. He/She will report to the Project management unit and UNDP CO Azerbaijan. The payment will be a lump-sum payment inclusive of consultancy fee, DSAs for in-country full consultancy days, round-trip tickets and concomitant terminal expenses.

The consultant should take into consideration the DSA rates in the country based on UNDP rules (maximum 176 USD in Baku).

The individuals are requested to submit theirs financial proposals based on the deliverables and detailed cost breakdown