Background

The 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an ambitious framework for progress across the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainable development. Achieving it requires systemic change in the mechanisms that govern and channel financing, and unlocking a scale and diversity of investments commensurate in magnitude with the ambition articulated in the 2030 Agenda.

A range of estimates exist for the scale of the resources needed to achieve the SDGs. UNCTAD estimate that global SDG financing needs are in the region of US$ 5-7 trillion a year, with a financing gap in developing countries of around $2.5 trillion. The IMF estimate that low income and emerging market economies will need to mobilise additional spending of $2.6 trillion a year in five sectors by 2030. SDSN estimate that low and lower middle income countries need to mobilise an additional $1.4 trillion a year between now and 2030 in eight sectors, while ODI estimate a financing gap of around $150 billion for 48 under-resourced countries in three sectors. UNESCAP estimate that countries across the Asia-Pacific region will need to mobilise $1.5 trillion in additional investment by 2030, equivalent to around 4% of GDP.

National governments will play a key role in mobilising the investments to meet these financing needs. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda calls for countries to establish integrated national financing frameworks to support cohesive nationally owned sustainable development strategies. At the heart of these frameworks lie financing strategies which guide the way that governments raise and invest their own resources, and use policy and partnerships to influence the way that other actors invest their resources. Understanding the scale and types of investment needed to achieve the SDGs are a key foundation on which governments can build effective SDG financing strategies. There is a simple logic behind this: every vision needs a plan, every plan needs a budget and every budget needs an estimate of costs. To achieve the vision of realising the SDGs, governments and their partners need a plan supported by an effective financing strategy based on a reasonable understanding of the scale of public and private investments needed.

While many SDG costings estimates exist at the international and national level, these have been created for a range of purposes and do not necessarily serve the needs of policymakers in designing national financing strategies. A range of international methodologies have been developed, often for monitoring purposes, which estimate the cost of achieving some SDGs based on cross-country data and assumptions. Other approaches allow authorities to estimate the costs of achieving specific SDGs, in areas such as education or health, based on national data and circumstances. While these approaches to costing offer value for monitoring purposes or for planning in relation to specific sectors, there is often a gap at the national level in terms of understanding the scale of investments needed across the 2030 Agenda as a whole and understanding how this breaks down across public and private finance. Furthermore, if understanding the cost of achieving the SDGs is viewed not as a periodic or once-off exercise, but as a fundamental part of the planning and financing policy cycle, there is a need for approaches that can be tailored and built into national planning and financing processes. Designing approaches which are appropriate to the individual contexts of national governments, considering their capacity, policy processes and the availability of data, is therefore a priority.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment

This assignment will help UNDP country offices in the Asia-Pacific region to support governments to understand the costs associated with achieving the SDGs, and to incorporate this within planning and policy cycles for more effective SDGs financing policies. There are two closely related tasks within the assignment.

A guidance note will present the approaches that governments across the Asia-Pacific region can take to estimate the costs of achieving the SDGs and build this into national policy cycles. The guidance note will outline the added-value and rationale for policymakers to develop SDG costing estimates and provide an overview of various methodologies and approaches that can be applied. It will consider the relevance of different approaches given varying capacity in different contexts, varying levels of data availability, varying landscapes of public and private finance, and varying demands from policymakers in relation to the scope, depth, technical complexity and replicability of SDG costings over time. It will use case studies throughout to highlight the different approaches that countries have taken toward costings, the way these have been incorporated into national policy cycles and the impact they have had in terms of supporting more effective finance policymaking. The aim of this note is not to produce a detailed technical methodology for undertaking a costing exercise but to provide policymakers with an overview of the strengths, weaknesses and potential relevance of existing methodologies. It also aims to offer guidance on considerations for establishing appropriate costings procedures in a variety of country contexts, including to support efforts to integrate SDGs into national (and sub-national) budgeting processes. The note will be designed primarily for government officials in relevant ministries, particularly ministries of planning and finance, as well as relevant line ministries with responsibility for mobilising commercial investment or financial sector development, and relevant sectoral ministries.

Alongside the guidance note a concept note for a UNDP service line on SDG costings will also be produced. The concept note will frame a future service line to be offered by UNDP to governments in the region. It will outline the support that UNDP can offer to governments in estimating and establishing processes to estimate the public and private costs of the SDGs and the expertise and capacity requirements needed to offer these services. In doing so the Consultant will develop various models for costing approach that can be tailored to specific needs of recipient countries. The models will present critical factors such as the institutional, policy and capacity frameworks for SDGs, that can help COs in determining the most suitable option for the country. It will discuss common entry points for country offices to engage with their government counterparts in providing support for SDG costing and provide an overview of a typical process for undertaking a costings exercise. It will also propose a series of KPIs for monitoring the delivery of such a service line in terms of supporting more effective financing policymaking, and will identify a subset of countries in the region for which this kind of service may be relevant.

Scope of Work

The scope of work for this assignment includes:

1.         Develop a guidance note for countries in the region to adopt SDG costing practices within national planning and financing policy cycles (estimated at 40 working days)

2.         Develop a concept note for a UNDP service line on SDG costings (estimated at 5 working days)

The consultant will report to the SDG finance advisor in UNDP BRH and engage closely with a ‘sounding board’ of ~5 colleagues from UNDP BRH and country offices in the Asia-Pacific region who will guide the substantive elements within the process.

Expected Output and Deliverables

Institutional Arrangement

The SDG Costing Consultant will work under the supervision of the BRH’s SDG Finance Advisor and Senior Economic Advisor with guidance of the Financing SDGs Team in UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, and work in close collaboration with the UNDP Country offices and other key members of the costing task force.

Duration of the Work

October 2019 – 31 December 2019 (up to 45 days)

Duty Station

Home- based with no Travel.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• 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 favoritism.

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

• Advanced degree in public administration, public finance, public policy, or related areas.

Experience

• Minimum 7 years of professional experience in public finance management.
• Proven experience in policy analysis and public financial management, and previous advisory role to government stakeholders
• Experience with Ministries of Finance in Asia-Pacific countries is an asset.
• Experience on researching, reporting, writing and editing manuscripts of UN and other international development partners.

Language

• Excellent English communication skills, both written and oral.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The contract will be based on Lump Sum Amount

The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

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 set of weighted technical criteria (70%) *and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced qualified proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.             

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

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

In general, UNDP shall 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 event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV 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.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultant must quote price in U.S. Dollar that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
• Brief description of the candidate’s suitability to the position and approach to the assignment. The brief description should not be longer than 2 pages.

** Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified.**

To download related documents and templates, please click the link below:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=59771