Background

A fundamental government responsibility is providing information and services aimed at improving the social and economic welfare of its citizens. During the first phase of the Access to Information (a2i) Programme, fundamental progress was made in improving access to public services through electronic means. However, it is critical to expand the breadth and width of such simplified services and improve the service delivery model to counter the impact of empower the concentrated RMG workers by establishing One-Stop Digital Service Centres’ which will create access to necessary public and private services, including financial services.

The objective of the 2nd phase of the project is to increase transparency, improve governance, and reduce the time, difficulty and costs of obtaining government services for under-served communities of Bangladesh. This is to be achieved by the following 5 components of the project:

Component 1: Strengthening existing e-services and launching a second generation of integrated, interoperable e-government applications; (e-Service)

Component 2: Sensitizing government officials, training for service providers and expanding digital literacy among the general public; (Capacity and Awareness)

Component 3: Forging strong policy and strategy links to ensure implementation of needed legal and regulatory changes in support of the project; (Enabling Environment) and

Component 4: Promoting innovation in the delivery of e-services. (Innovation)

Component 5: Establishing linkage with public and private sectors and creating awareness among the citizens.

Access to Information (a2i) Programme - II is looking to recruit 02 (Two) National Consultant (Project Monitoring & Research) who will be responsible to monitor the selected digital centres under the piloting project on “Basic Nutrition Message Dissemination through UDC”. Further evaluation and develop project’s reports based on the indicators of selected UDCs; conducted by the Digital Access team of a2i. The incumbent will contribute to the better visualization of the findings and disseminating the results and findings to the wider stakeholders.

The project is funded by GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition”) and is implemented by the a2i.

Objectives:

The overall objective of the assignment will be the following:

• Develop the research framework and methodology for conducting TCV and Outcome studies;
• Analyse study data collected from the field;
• Develop reports based on the findings of different studies;
• Visualize the study findings and disseminate to the wider stakeholders;
• To support the UDCs as knowledge platform of awareness building on Infant Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices including home fortification with Maternal, Infant and Young Child (MNP) and inform people on IYCF and its benefits for the children of the selected areas aged 6-23 months;
• To support the UDCs entrepreneurs as to provide consistent messaging on IYCF including home fortification;
• To develop linkages between UDCs entrepreneurs with Family Welfare Assistant (FWA) and Family Welfare Visitor (FWV) of MoH&FW, BRAC Shasthy Shebika (SS) and Shasthya Kormi (SK), as well as Community Sales Agents (CSA) of SMC;
• To support on engaging the local elected representatives and other opinion leaders about the current nutrition scenario of the selected areas with special emphasis on importance of maternal nutrition, infant and young child nutrition, breastfeeding and promotion of home fortification;
• To support in motivating  the local elected representatives and other opinion leaders to become the change agent in their own communities with regards to maternal, infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN);
• To engage the local government authorities for strengthening the campaign with UDCs in union levels
• To support in capacity development of the selected entrepreneurs for the specific program;

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support formulation of programme documents and implementation strategies of Programme Action Plans. Support to management of the assigned programme.
• Provide administrative support and inputs to the assigned Programme Units and support to resource mobilization tasks.
• Facilitation of knowledge management products and knowledge sharing inputs.
• Work in close cooperation with operational, technical and administrative support to ensure the efficient and effective implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of Quarterly/Annual Work Plans by performing the following overall tasks and duties.
• Providing project cycle management and financial reporting support and support to the selected UDCs
• Monitoring support of assigned Programme components, projects and activities of the selected UDCs programme including the organization of the quarterly review meetings, coordinating the participation of the stakeholder.
• Presentation of background information for formulation of the Basic Nutrition Message Dissemination through UDC programme, draft project documents, work plans, budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements.
• Provision of guidance to the executing agencies on routine implementation of projects.
• Maintain administrative/financial files and programme documentation, as well as draft business correspondence from oral instructions, previous correspondence and other available information sources; Keep track, initiate and oversee procurement needs and procurement; Support annual budgets formulation; Prepare and follow up on contract and agreements; Coordinate monitoring operational, local staff support and travel budgets.
• Maintenance of the internal expenditures control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed.
• Timely corrective actions on no posted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers. Making budget check for requisitions and vouchers.
• Maintain appropriate filing systems for the assigned Programme Units. Maintain and update inventory records for expendable and non-expendable equipment;
• Assist in organization of required workshops, seminars, visiting missions, field trips; Coordinate and monitor daily support activities such as: Coordinating meeting calendars and arranging appointments and meetings; Drafting correspondence and meeting notes as well as follow up note to files.
• Support logistical arrangements for visiting missions and undertake any other tasks required for the successful implementation of GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition”) supported programme which may include service and information inputs on nutritional messages.
• Supports Resource mobilization focusing on achievement of the results: track and reporting on mobilized resources, review of contributions agreement, managing contributions in the selected UDC’s performance.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The National Consultant (Project Monitoring & Research) will be working with the Head of Digital Access team of Access to Information (a2i) Programme – II. The Local Development Specialist will be responsible for reviewing the performance and approve the deliverables.

Timeframe and deadlines:

The assignment will be for 220 working days within 11 months.

Reporting authority:

The National Consultant (Project Monitoring & Research) will closely work with the Local Development Specialist of Access to Information (a2i) Programme – II. Therefore, the activities of the incumbent will be regularly monitored by the Head of Digital Access team of Access to Information (a2i) Programme – II.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Knowledge in working with governance issues will be get advantages;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Familiar with and shares the vision of human development as laid out in the flagship HDR series.

 Functional Competencies:

• Encourages Knowledge Sharing and Learning;
• Disseminates specialized knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

 Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems;
• Ability to perform work of a confidential nature and handle a large volume of work;
• Has good knowledge of financial rules and regulations;
• Ability to provide input to business process re-engineering, implementation of the new system.

 Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client;
• Has demonstrable leadership skill;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change;
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view.

 Language Required: Fluency in speaking and writing in English

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

University degree in Human Nutrition/Public Health/Development Studies/Social Welfare/Social Work/Sociology/Anthropology/ Statistics/ Economics/Public Administration or any other relevant discipline of the Social Sciences.

Years of experience:

• At least 02 years’ experience in working in the development sector, in research design, sample surveys, research Methodology, etc.
• Minimum 1-year experience in qualitative and quantitative research at UN/GoB Projects.
• At least one Article/publication in national/international journal

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation 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 marks.Only candidates obtaining a minimum 49% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Work experience in relevant sector (25 marks)
• Educational Qualification (10 Marks)
• Experience in conducting qualitative project management, implementation (10 marks)
• Experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research study, Sample designing & Statistical Analysis (10 marks)
• Experience in Monitoring & Evaluation (15 marks)

 Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

 Financial Milestone:

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. 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; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/ 
3. Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:

 http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.