Governance Consultant (IC LTA) x 5

Working with 10 Pacific Island Countries, the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji Effective Governance Team assist pacific governments in strengthening their public institutions, to help countries fight corruption and support inclusive participation to ensure that no one is left behind.

Some of our key engagements include:

• Supporting countries across a variety of context to enhance Inclusive political processes and institutions. This includes civic engagement focused on both strengthening civil society capacities and expanding and protecting spaces for citizen participation in political and public life, with a special focus on groups experiencing discrimination and marginalization, including persons with disabilities, LGBTI and indigenous peoples; Constitutional reform processes, with a focus on supporting dialogue and mediation, outreach, public education, and institutional development of constitution-making bodies; Electoral cycle, to enhance the credibility, transparency, effectiveness and sustainability of electoral institutions and processes, in close cooperation with the Department of Political Affairs; Parliamentary development, with a focus on building the capacities of members of Parliament and parliamentary secretariats, to discharge their constitutional, law-making, oversight and representation mandates in support of SDG achievement; The advancement of women’s equal participation and decision-making in political processes and institutions.

• Rule of law and access to justice: UNDP has been strengthening key justice institutions to carry out improved service delivery and empowering improvised and vulnerable groups to access legal rights and services through the relevant key justice institutions. UNDP has also been strengthening key NGOs to deliver accompaniment access to justice services, particularly for impoverished and vulnerable groups.

• Anti-Corruption: UNDP and partnership with UNODC has been supporting Pacific Island Countries strengthen national integrity systems. This is to promote ‘clean’ governments and create an enabling environment to increase trade, business, investment and sustainable development in the Pacific which in turn will enhance the delivery of equitable and high-quality services to all Pacific Islander.

• Core Government Function: UNDP support countries to strengthen the center of government to have the capacity for effective coordination, structured decision making and has the capacity to communicate to the administration and its people.

• Development Minerals: In Fiji, UNDP has been supporting the Government to provide capacity development support to ASMEs, sector associations, public institutions and the social stakeholders that operate along the Development Minerals value chain.

To support UNDP, explore new opportunities of engagement in the governance space in the Pacific, UNDP is seeking to recruit a highly qualified Governance Consultant to assist UNDP in its visioning and the positioning of its ongoing and future work taking into account the changing political context in the pacific, geo politics of the region and evolving priorities of development partners and pacific government.

OBJECTIVES AND OUTPUTS

Under the guidance of the Team Leader Effective Governance and working closely with the Deputy Team Leader Effective Governance, the UNDP Pacific Office is seeking the services of a Consultant to support the Effective Governance Team in visioning and the positioning UNDP’s Governance work in the Pacific.

The outputs expected from this consultancy are as follows:

1. Advisory services provided to the Governance team on visioning and positioning of its ongoing and future governance work in the pacific,

2. Necessary research and literature review undertaken of the governance landscape in the pacific.

3. Funding proposal drafted under the guidance of the Governance Team.

4. Knowledge products drafted.

5. Knowledge events organized.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Scope of Work

Working under the supervision of the Effective Governance (EG) Team Leader and working closely with the EG Deputy Team Leader, the Governance Consultant shall be responsible for the following:

1. Undertaking the necessary research, literature review to assist UNDP articulate a new position, thinking in a new area of work under its governance portfolio.

2. When a funding opportunity arises, to support UNDP EG Team in writing its funding proposals.

3. Development of knowledge products for the Effective Governance Team.

4. Support the organizing of knowledge events (national and regional).

5. Participate in expert panels when required.

6. Based on analysis, provide technical advisory services on possible actions and entry points in response to emerging needs/trends.

    

Key deliverables:

• Knowledge products.

• Draft Funding Proposals.

• National and Regional knowledge events organised.

• Participated in expert panels.

• Analysis/Position papers produced.

• Report after each assignment.

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will be reporting to the UNDP Effective Governance Team and will be required to work closely with the Deputy Team Leader (EG). The Consultant is obliged to submit a final report after the finalization of the assignment, containing reflections on the performed tasks, deliverables, observations and recommendations for future steps. 

Duration of the Work

• The consultant will be required to work for 200 days spread over 19 months (09 May 2021 to 30 December 2022) under a Long-Term Arrangement (LTA).

• The call-off for the LTA will be via issuance of new TOR for each assignment.

Contract Arrangement

The successful individual will sign the UNDP Individual Consultant Long Term Agreement.  The engagement will be on an intermittent basis with the stated duration based on the required services. UNDP will issue separate terms of reference and purchase order for each specific assignment as a call-off from this IC LTA. The TOR will outline the expected outputs, and the number of days to be engaged. The outputs of the assignments will be reviewed by EG Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader.

Duty Station

The Consultant will be home based with required travel to selected PICs depending on the needs and requests of the specific PICs; Since travel will be requested on Ad-hoc basis, UNDP will purchase air tickets for the Consultant based on the most direct route and cost-effective route as per UNDP Travel Guideline.

UNDP will also provide Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) to the Consultant for the duration of his/her stay at the respective duty station at UN approved DSA rates.

The Consultant will be expected to provide reports after every detailed assignment, as well as mission reports when performing missions in the field.

Corporate

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’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

Functional

• Background knowledge about the SDGs, United Nations and UNDP;

• Proven intellectual and practical capacity to understand and interpret regional, national and local development issues;

• Ability to analyse socio-economic and political dynamics in the region;

• Ability to plan and organize work programme and flow;

• Good teamwork and interpersonal skills;

• Flexibility and ability to handle multiple tasks and work under pressure;

• Excellent drafting and formulation skills;

• Excellent computer skills especially Word, Excel and PowerPoint;

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Ability to strongly promote and build knowledge products;

• Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from within and outside of UNDP;

• Demonstrates a strong capacity for innovation and creativity in providing strategic policy advice and direction.

• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills

Judgment/Decision-Making

• Mature judgment and initiative;

• Proven ability to provide strategic direction to the project implementation process.

Educational Qualifications

• Minimum Master degree in political science, governance, peace and conflict, law, or relevant social sciences.

Experience & skills

• Minimum 7 years of previous working experience in research, statistics and report-writing on governance issues, with at least 5 articles in academic journals and/or research papers with international or regional organizations;

• 5 years of relevant professional working experience on the Pacific in the area of Governance.

• Knowledge of wider governance issues;

• 2 years of previous working experience on relevant topics in connection to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; in particular on the measurement and monitoring of governance-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);

• Excellent analytical, working and drafting skills and experience of providing policy advice at the international, regional or national levels;

• Cultural and political awareness, diplomatic skills, ability to adapt and ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering results.

• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work and to work under pressure and tight deadlines.

   

  Language requirements

• Fluency of English language is required.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Daily Fee. Consultant shall quote an all-inclusive Daily Fee for the contract period. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, etc.) that could be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. If applicable, travel or daily allowance cost (if any work is to be done outside the IC’s duty station) should be identified separately. Payments shall be done on a monthly basis based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a Time Sheet indicating the days worked in the period

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.

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 (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria A: Possess a master’s degree in political science, governance, peace and conflict, law, or relevant social sciences – 5%.

• Criteria B: At least 7 years of previous working experience in research, statistics and report-writing on governance issues, with at least 5 articles in academic journals and/or research papers with international or regional organizations – 20%

• Criteria C: At least 5 years of relevant professional working experience on the Pacific in the area of Governance and knowledge of wider governance issues – 15%

• Criteria D: Proven experience of providing policy advice at the international, regional or national levels – 10%

• Criteria E: At least 2 years of previous working experience on relevant topics in connection to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; in particular on the measurement and monitoring of governance-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – 10%

• Criteria F: proven experience in planning, organizing, implementing and reporting under pressure and tight deadlines – 10%

   

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

   

Interviews maybe be conducted for the technically qualified consultants as part of the validation process.

DOCUMENT SUBMISSION

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal using the template provided in Annex II. Financial Proposal to be submitted in United State Dollars (USD)

• 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.

• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;

   

Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of the assignment.

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity.

Annexes

• Annex I– Individual IC General Terms and Conditions

• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

• Annex III – UNDP eTendering User Guide for Bidders

   

All required templates are available on the UNDP Procurement website: www.pacific.undp.org

Proposal Submission

• All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy (Governance Consultant (IC LTA) x 5) with reference (PN/FJ/090/20) and submitted via e-tendering under Event ID 0000009125.

• Note that proposals submitted via any other mode than E-tendering will not be accepted.

• For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact UNDP Pacific Office by email: [email protected].

   

Women applicants are encouraged to apply