UNDP Jobs - 82438- International Consultant

International Consultant – Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Expert

Location :

Tbilisi, GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

15-Feb-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

January 2019 – April 2019 (up to 20 working days, up to 2 missions to Georgia, at least five working

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

Social Impact Bonds (hereafter SIB) is an innovative financial instrument designed to bring together the public, private and voluntary sectors to solve the prevailing challenges by having a clear focus upon delivering the outcomes we want to see. A SIB is a new result-based financial instrument, where outcome payers agree to pay and reward investors only if agreed-upon outcomes are achieved. The idea is to engage private capital in funding social/environmental/development projects with a possibility for a financial return. The public-sector institutions agree that if the bond succeeds in achieving the agreed outcomes, the investors will get their capital back and a possible financial return. The financial return is dependent on the degree to which outcomes improve the initial situation.

Social Impact Bond, in its nature, supports governments to solve specific social problems with support of multi-stakeholder engagement. The SIB topics are defined by public institutions and they drive the agenda.

Currently, UNDP is developing a pilot SIB to tackle the youth (13–18-year-old) physical inactivity in Rustavi in cooperation with the Rustavi Mayor’s Office and Public Service Development Agency (PSDA). More specifically, the overall goal of the initiative is to decrease the prevalence of chronic diseases caused by the physical inactivity among youth. The specific objectives envisage increasing free time physical activity among youth, promoting public premises as active lifestyle fostering platform and enabling youth and their families to have a voice in active-lifestyle policy planning and implementation.

Social Impact Bond, as a multi-stakeholder mechanism, includes numerous parties, like commissioners, investors, outcome payers, service providers and beneficiaries. In this particular SIB in Rustavi, the Mayor’s Office is a commissioner and outcome payer, while investors and service providers need to be identified. Moreover, Rustavi Mayor’s Office is heavily engaged in designing the pilot initiative and exploring potential stakeholders in the SIB process.
The initiative has sectoral focus on Good Governance and Rule of Law (SDG 16) and the activities would contribute to the achievement of the following priority areas of the Czech-UNDP Partnership for SDGs and Development Cooperation Programme with Georgia for the years 2018–2023 of the Czech ODA and their respective SDGs:

SDG 3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
SDG 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
SDG 16 – Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to “test” perceptions and awareness of Private Sector, Civil Society Sector, Government (on national and local level), international and donor organizations on Social Impact Bond phenomena and measure their readiness to be engaged in SIB pilot initiatives. The international expert will be home-based with up to two missions to Georgia. The incumbent will lead the consultancy in close cooperation with local consult, who will be assisting him/her in completing this particular assignment.

More specifically, the international expert will be tasked to:

Conduct desk research to study and analyse Social Impact Bond concept;
Elaborate Stakeholder Readiness Assessment matrix with assessment criteria, the related evaluation questions (and, where needed, sub-questions), the data sources required to answer the questions, the data collection and data analysis methods;
Conduct meetings/interviews with current team members, along with the counterparts at Government of Georgia and the UNDP Country Office;
Develop survey-instruments tailored for specific Social Impact Bond concept;
Conduct Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, On-surveys to collect survey data;
Elaborate Draft Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Report;
Finalize the Report based on solicited feedback from UNDP team and key stakeholders.

As a result of submitted deliverables, UNDP Georgia will ensure the visibility of the outcomes and tasks by the local and international stakeholders, i.e. at least one (1) article or other media outcome will be prepared and at least 10 photos of high quality will be delivered to CUP.
All of the documents stated above should have in total approx. 30 standard pages and has to be prepared in English language.
The expert will work closely with the CO and UNDP CUP managers, all their recommendations and suggestion have to be incorporated into the report within five (5) working days.

Note: The date of the missions as well as other activities (like interviews etc.) will be proposed by Consultant as part of his technical offer and consulted with the GRF/PAR Capacity Assessment, Evaluation and Monitoring Specialist/Social Impact Bond focal point in coordination with UNDP Georgia Innovations Specialist prior to contract signature.

Deliverables:

Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Design and Instrument (January 2019);
Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Draft Report (March 2019);
Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Final Report (approx. 30 standard pages in English languages) (April 2019);
Consultancy report (April 2019).

The international expert’s work will be directly supervised by GRF/PAR Capacity Assessment, Evaluation and Monitoring Specialist/Social Impact Bond focal point in coordination with UNDP Georgia Innovations Specialist. The service provider will be directly responsible to, reporting to, seeking approval from, and obtaining certificate of acceptance of outputs from the above-mentioned persons.
Expert will inform and other relevant stakeholders about the activities, CUP project specialist will be informed and provided with all the necessary information. The Czech Embassy in Tbilisi will be informed about all the activities and the meeting at the beginning of the fist mission and at the end of the second mission will be arranged from the expert´s side.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;
Understands the mandate and the role of UNDP;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

Strong communication, strategic planning, and analytical skills;
Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to stakeholder assessment, including drafting reports, data evaluation, and sustainability reporting;
Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
Actively generates creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
A proactive approach to problem-solving;
Computer literacy.

Leadership and Self-Management Skills:

Builds strong relationships with the project partners;
Focuses on impact and results for the project partners and responds positively to feedback;
Cooperates with project partners effectively and demonstrates strong conflict resolution skills;
Consistently approaches work with energy, positivity and a constructive attitude;
Demonstrates strong influencing and facilitation skills;
Remains calm, in control and good humoured under pressure;
Demonstrates openness to change, new ideas and ability to manage ambiguity;
Demonstrates ability to transfer knowledge and competencies;
Is able to work independently and balance competing priorities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree or equivalent in economics; social sciences; international development; business administration, impact evaluation or another related field (minimum requirement).

Experience:

At least five (5) years of relevant working experience in designing, planning, administering and implementing research on a related issue, preferably in social sector or related discipline (minimum requirement);
At least five (5) years of relevant working experience in conducting stakeholder assessments in similar settings is required, preferably in social sector or related discipline (minimum requirement);
Knowledge and/or practical experience of innovative financial instruments (including) Social Impact Bonds and impact investing is an asset;
Experience from Czech Republic with social systems or related field to SIB is an asset;
Previous experience working with the United Nations system is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English (minimum requirement).

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis method:
Offerors will be evaluated against combination of technical and financial criteria. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 and for financial criteria – to 30.
Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. The offerors who obtain minimum 35 points as a result of the desk review will be invited for the interview.
Offerors who pass 70% threshold, i.e. obtain minimum 14 points, as a result of the interview will be requested the financial proposal.

Financial Proposal:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the ToR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount. Maximum 30 points will be assigned to the lowest price offer. All other price offers will be scored using the formula (inverse proportion): Financial score X = 30* the lowest price offer/suggested price offer. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal as well.

Payment modality and deliverables:
The payment schedule is given below and will be made upon satisfactory completion/submission and approval of the deliverables by the supervisor:

Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Design and Instrument (January 2019);
Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Draft Report (March 2019);
Stakeholder Readiness Assessment Final Report (approx. 30 standard pages in English languages) (April 2019)
Consultancy Report (April 2019)

Payment Schedule:

Deliverable 1 – 30% of the consultancy
Deliverable 2 - 50 % of the consultancy
Deliverables 3-4- 20 % of the consultancy