Background

UNDP Global Mission Statement:

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with national counterparts on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:

UNDP supports stabilization, State-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA), the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the State, Ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and sub-national levels. UNDP has played a role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN system to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational context:

UNDP is committed to augmenting the capacity of the GIROA to administer Rule of Law and improve security and justice service-delivery for all Afghan citizens. As the lead Rule of Law institution in the country, improving the ability of the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MOIA) to fulfill its mandate remains critical to the overall stability of Afghanistan and its people. As the UN’s primary development agency, and a longstanding development partner to GIROA’s Rule of Law and Security sector, UNDP Afghanistan plays a leading role in facilitating institutional reform and development of MOIA.

UNDP has operated the LOTFA since 2002. LOTFA was created to support the establishment, payment, equipment and training of the police force in Afghanistan. The central goal is to support the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA) in achieving a paid, professional Afghan National Police (ANP) and staff of the General Directorate for Prison and Detention Centres (GDPDC) that deliver essential services to the Afghan people for improved public trust, safety and security and to support improved rule of law enforcement.

Based on consultations conducted between UNDP, the GIROA and donors during 2017, a growing view emerged that the scope of LOTFA should be expanded to include the entire justice chain (police, courts and prisons) and cover all institutions across the entire Rule of Law sector, with an increased focus on anti-corruption. Simultaneously, the LOTFA structure has been revised to bring it more in line with international standards and best practices on Trust Fund management and administration.

The new Trust Fund Terms of Reference (TOR) and Strategic Framework are set to be approved by the LOTFA Steering Committee in the latter half of 2018. As the revised LOTFA TOR will become effective, further Trust Fund management arrangements will need to be finalized such as the establishment of a robust M&E system for LOTFA to measure progress and impact over-time of Trust Fund interventions and so inform LOTFA stakeholders based on empirical quantitative and qualitative data on the direction of future Trust Fund planning and programming.

Organizational context of the position:

Under the direct supervision of the International M&E Advisor and the Chief, ROLHS Unit, the individual Consultant (Evaluation and Research Expert) will provide technical assistance and advise on establishing a robust M&E system for LOTFA.

The individual Consultant (Evaluation and Research Expert) will work closely with a wide range of actors including the LOTFA project teams, implementing partners and other Afghan institutions, UNDP Country Office and international community in the country and expert networks outside of the country. The consultant will ensure close collaboration and consultation with the Country Office’s Programme Strategy and Results Team (PSRT) during the assignment. S/he will advise the International M&E Advisor and the Chief, ROLHS Unit and the Trust Fund Programme Coordinator on further measures to strengthen M&E at the Fund-level.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work and Deliverables

Objective of the assignment:

The Individual Consultant (Evaluation and Research Expert) will support Senior M&E Advisor and LOTFA M&E Unit in designing a robust M&E system for LOTFA, at both the Fund and project-levels. The Individual Consultant (Evaluation and Research Expert) will provide technical assistance focusing on the following areas:

• Support LOTFA in implementing a new adaptive approach to data collection and analysis;

• Support LOTFA at Fund level and at project level to integrated where possible cutting-edge baseline to end-line surveys bringing in the empirical evidence for better decision making;

• Support LOTFA in applying demand driven data analysis; 

• Support LOTFA in introducing new innovative tools (e.g. outcome harvesting, SenseMaker, etc.); 

• Coordinate all surveys across the Fund level windows;

• Coordinate with other research and data collection institutions in Afghanistan; and

• Support the strengthening of local data collection and analysis institutions in the country and in the partner line ministries (Ministry of Interior Affairs A, MoJ etc.).

Expected Outputs and Deliverables; Estimated duration to complete and Payment percentage:

First Deliverable: 10 working days; 20%

• Inception report, outlining: preliminary observations, findings and recommendations on how to support the dash board design for the different LOTFA window areas subject to technical assistance.

Second Deliverable: 28 Working days; 50%

• Progress/status report on Evaluation and Research progress in the Fund including recommendations to address capacity gaps at project level.

Third Deliverable: 28 Working Days; 30%

• Submission and acceptance of end of assignment report.

Payment Modality: 

Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and be made on receipt of the specific milestone reports indicated above, including a timesheet per UNDP procurement formats for individual contractors. These shall be as indicated above, and shall be deemed delivered upon the approval of the Chief, ROLHS Unit.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Promotes ethics and integrity and creates organizational precedents;

• Builds support and political acumen;

• Builds staff competence and creates an environment of creativity and innovation;

• Builds and promotes effective teams;

• Creates and promotes environment for open communications;

• Leverages conflict in the interest of UNDP and sets standards;

• Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Functional Competencies:

Job knowledge/technical expertise:

• Possesses expert knowledge of advance concepts in primary discipline, a broad knowledge of related disciplines and in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures;

• Applies knowledge to support the Project´s objectives and to further the mandate of UNDP;

• Keeps abreast of new developments in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself;

• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;

• Demonstrates expert knowledge of the current programme guidelines and project management tools and manages the use of these regularly in work assignments.

Conceptual innovation in the provision of technical expertise:

• Conducts programme assessment to improve development of models and methodologies;

• Designs policy models to support comprehensive interventions linking UNDP´s policy objectives to programme delivery and capacity development objectives;

• Ensures that the design of policies is appropriate to country social and development context;

• Demonstrates the ability to engage development partners at all levels in conceptual and methodological innovation that is pertinent to the context.

Advancing a policy-oriented agenda:

• Advocates for inclusion of UNDP´s focus areas in the public policy agenda;

• Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues;

• Builds consensus concerning UNDP´s strategic agenda with partners on joint initiatives;

• Leverage UNDP´s multidisciplinary expertise to influence policies and programmes;

• Demonstrates political/cultural acumen in proposing technical sound, fact-based solutions/approaches;

• Dialogues with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global perspectives;

• Demonstrates cultural sensitivity, political savvy and intellectual capacity in handling; disagreements in order to promote and position UNDP in complex environments.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master´s Degree in Social Sciences, Economics or public-sector management.

Required experience:   

• 7 years of relevant work experiences;

• Extensive experiences in the design of survey methodologies, baseline to end-line surveys is required;

• Experiences with Sense-maker and other cutting-edge technologies to collect demand driven data collection/analysis;

• Experience with behavioral change analysis is a requirement;

• Evaluation and research experiences across different sectors and with Capacity development initiatives is an asset;

• Familiarity with different data collection tools and platforms (e.g. ODK, Enketo, XLS-form, SPSS) is a requirement;

• Strong survey design experiences across the Law and Order sector, but also about infrastructure assessments; and

• Very strong analytical capacities.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English skills a necessary requirement.

Working Arrangements

Institutional Arrangements:

• The International Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the international LOTFA M&E Advisor. The consultant shall work in close collaboration with the UNDP ROLHS Unit, SPM and MPD staff, as well as other units within the UNDP Country Office;

• The ROLHS Unit will provide office space and internet facility, logistical and other support service including transport and security applicable to UNDP international personnel. The consultant however is expected to bring his/her own laptop and mobile phone and meet local communications costs (ROLHS Unit will provide a local pre-paid SIM card). Costs to arrange meetings, workshops, travel costs to and DSA during field visits (if any), etc. shall be covered by the ROLHS Unit.

Duration of the Work:

• The performance under the contract shall take place over total contract duration of 3 months (66 working days), excluding joining and repatriation travel days. The target date for the start of work will be the beginning of August 2018 depending on the availability of the selected consultant.

Duty Station

• The duty station for the contractor is Kabul, Afghanistan for the entire duration of the contract. Some field visits outside Kabul are envisioned under the contract. The Contractor will be required to report regularly and be present at ROLHS Unit (UNOCA) while in-country during the working hours, security conditions permitting. The contractor will follow the working hours and weekends as applicable to UNDP CO staff. Contractor’s movement for meetings and consultations shall be coordinated by the ROLHS Unit. The contractor is at all times required to observe UNDP security rules and regulations.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:

• Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health and medical evacuation and etc.). The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 66 working days;

• The contractor shall propose a Living allowance at the Kabul applicable rate of USD 162 per night for their stay at the duty station. The number of nights for which the Living allowance shall be payable under the contract is 92 nights. The contractor is NOT allowed to stay in a place of their choice other than the UNDSS approved places. UNDP will provide MORSS compliant accommodation in UNOCA Complex to the consultants. The payment of accommodation shall be made directly by the consultants;

• Travel & Visa – The consultants shall propose an estimated lump-sum for home-Kabul-home travel (economy most direct route) and Afghanistan visa expenses.

The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the abovementioned schedule of payment.

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:

• 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 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Proposal (55 marks)

• Technical Approach & Methodology (10 marks) – This 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;
• Work Plan (5 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;
• Interview (40 marks).

Qualification and Experience (15 marks) [evaluation of CVs for shortlisting]

• General Qualification (5 marks);

• Experience relevant to the assignment (10 marks).

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested 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);
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all 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:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.