Research Consultant

Project Title:                                                                                                                                        

Regional Youth Project on Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Youth Co:Lab)

Project Description:        

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the important role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and calls for action against the challenges faced by young people that limits their economic, social and political inclusion. Today, young people are more connected, more creative, more informed and more persuasive than any previous generation. Young people are responding to the challenges of today with innovative approaches, contributing fresh ideas, creating the world they want, and driving human development for themselves, their communities and their societies. But at the same time, approximately 300 million young people are either unemployed or underemployed. In other words, nearly half of the 700 million young people in the region face economic insecurity. In addition, many young people are left out of decision-making processes, which further contributes to their marginalization and exclusion.

Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific countries to invest in and empower youth to accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship. By developing 21st century skills, catalyzing and sustaining youth-led startups and social enterprises across the region, Youth Co:Lab is positioning young people front and center in order to solve the region’s most pressing challenges. In addition to supporting youth entrepreneurship, Youth Co:Lab also works closely with multiple stakeholders across the region, including governments, civil society and the private sector, to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem and policy support to better enable young people to take the lead on new solutions that will help meet the SDGs.

Scope of Work:

Youth Co:Lab’s research and thought leadership component seeks to generate knowledge regarding means to strengthen the ecosystem for youth social entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership in Asia-Pacific, and to disseminate knowledge in order to influence ecosystem change. It aims to enhance the visibility of Youth Co:Lab’s mission to position young people front and center in order to solve the region’s most pressing challenges and to contribute to building a movement to advance this vision. Research and thought leadership are cross-cutting to Youth Co:Lab and are closely integrated with programming as well as with communications and impact measurement functions. In particular, action-oriented research is designed to contribute to specific ecosystem-strengthening objectives at the national level under Youth Co:Lab ‘upstream’ workplans.

The Research Consultant will provide support in the conceptualization, delivery and dissemination of Youth Co:Lab knowledge products, in close collaboration with the UNDP BRH Regional Youth Team and UNDP country offices. This will include supporting national Youth Co:Lab programmes to use action-oriented research to support policy influencing and ecosystem strengthening in line with programme objectives. The Consultant will:

• Refine the scope, design and methodology of individual research and thought leadership products in order to deliver on Youth Co:Lab’s research and thought leadership objectives.
• Support engagement and management of research partners for primary and secondary research, including supporting the development of Terms of Reference where required.
• Support the coordination of the development of research products, including reviewing intermediary outputs and providing regular feedback to research partners.
• Support UNDP country offices under the Youth Co:Lab programme in the development, delivery and review of knowledge products at the national level.
• Support UNDP country offices under the Youth Co:Lab programme in progressing “upstream” activities related to strengthening the ecosystem for social innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Support the UNDP review and approval process for knowledge products.
• Support the development of communications materials and other outputs synthesizing the findings of research.
• Support the roll-out and dissemination of knowledge products and related communications outputs to reach key target audiences at regional and national levels.
• Manage Youth Co:Lab partnerships with third party research and thought leadership collaborators.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to achieve the following deliverables:

1. Finalize and disseminate the knowledge product Incubators and Accelerators.
2. Finalize the design of Youth Co:Lab national-level knowledge products for 2021.
3. Finalize the design of Youth Co:Lab regional-level knowledge products for 2021 and the engagement of research partners.
4. Develop and implement dissemination plans for 2021 Youth Co:Lab knowledge products.
5. Deliver research validation and dissemination activities for the Youth Co:Lab Summit 2021.
6. Deliver support to UNDP country offices against Youth Co:Lab “upstream” workplans.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Research Consultant will report to the Regional Youth Project Manager and Coordinator at UNDP BRH and will work in close collaboration with the UNDP BRH Youth team as well as UNDP Country offices and other key parties as required.

The success of the project depends on the timely delivery of each component.  The Consultant should ensure timely identification of potential risks and signal any delays in deliverables. The contract will be effective immediately upon signature by UNDP.

UNDP BRH will have the following responsibilities: (i) Provide relevant documents; (ii) Discuss and agree on the methodologies of the assignment; and (iii) Monitor and evaluate the progress of the assignment. The contract and payments will be performance-based and regularly assessed by the UNDP BRH. Payments will be approved by the Regional Youth Project Manager and Coordinator at UNDP BRH.

The present ToR may be subject to modification, without changing the overall objective and the scope of work, on the basis of mutual consultations. UNDP will hold the copyright of the assignment deliverables.

Duration of Work:

In accordance with the requirements above, The Consultant is expected to commit to a maximum of 120 working days for a period of 15 November 2020 – 15 July 2021.

Duty Station:

The consultancy will be managed by the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub. The consultancy is home-based with no travel required.

• Demonstrates commitment to the UN’s mission, vision and values;
• Demonstrates sound judgment, diplomacy and sensitivity to confidential matters;
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Innovative forward thinking, good coordination and organizational skills, teamwork;
• Participate effectively in team-based, information sharing environment, collaborating and cooperating with others.

The consultant should possess the following expertise and qualifications:

Education:

• Master’s Degree in social sciences, development studies, international relations, public policy or other fields related to the scope of the assignment.

Experience:

• Minimum five years of relevant experience conducting and coordinating research related to entrepreneurship and social; innovation, youth economic empowerment, or economic development;
• Experience coordinating the design and delivery of high-quality research reports;
• Quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills and experience;
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with others;
• Expertise and knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region.

Language:

• Excellent report writing, presentation and communication skills in the English language.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

Consultant must send a financial proposal 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:

• First instalment (20%): upon satisfactory completion of the 1st deliverable;
• Second instalment (30%): upon satisfactory completion of the 2nd and 3rd deliverables;
• Third instalment (30%): upon satisfactory completion of the 4th and 5th deliverables;
• Fourth instalment (20%): upon satisfactory completion of the 6th deliverable.

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. Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

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 proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (70 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevant Education; (15 points)
• Criteria 2: Five years of relevant experience conducting and coordinating research related to entrepreneurship and social innovation, youth economic empowerment, or economic development (15 points)
• Criteria 3: Experience coordinating the design and delivery of high-quality research reports (15 points)
• Criteria 4: Quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills and experience (10 points)
• Criteria 5: Excellent English, report writing, presentation and communication skills (10 points)
• Criteria 6: Expertise and knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region (5 points)

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

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:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (in USD currency) using the template provided by UNDP;
• 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;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (in USD currency)
• Sample of previous written work e.g. research output / report.

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

ANNEXES:

Annex I – ToR_Research Consultant
Annex II – General_Terms_and_Conditions_for_Contracts_Individual_Consultants
Annex III – Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and financial proposal
Annex IV – P11 Form_for_ICs_optional
Annex V – Procurement Notice

***All documents can be downloaded at: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=71568

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to [email protected] under subject: JobAds 94733- Reserach Consultant.