Legal Consultant

The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Malaysia (UN RCO) coordinates the work of 21 UN agencies, funds, and programmes, who are members of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT). Under UN Reform, the role of the UN RCO has been further empowered to ensure that the UN development system at country level are fit for purpose to support countries deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its implementation framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It has been five-years since Malaysia and the other 192 United Nations (UN) member states adopted the highly ambitious and transformative Agenda 2030. However, progress on SDGs has been uneven globally, and severely affected by the devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the state of progress, the UN Secretary-General launched a Decade of Action in 2020 to accelerate action on the goals. In this regard, dedicated SDG financing and investments are critical to driving SDG achievements as declared in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, Annual Financing for Sustainable Development Reports and the UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 2019-2021.

The UN in Malaysia is in the process of finalising its United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for the period 2021-2025, which is currently being reviewed by Government, including from a legal perspective. Efforts are also ongoing to establish a Malaysia SDG Trust Fund (MySDG Trust Fund) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, as announced in the National Budget 2021 in November 2020, with fiduciary management undertaken by UNDP’s Multipurpose Trust Fund Office (MPTFO).

The UN in Malaysia, via the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator (RCO), is, therefore, seeking to hire a Legal Consultant to advise and provide legal opinion on applicable Malaysian Laws, namely of the Trustees Act 258, for the establishment of said Trust Fund, and to assist in the revision of any terms of reference of the engagement and/or other necessary documents in relation to its establishment. The legal expert is also expected to assist in providing legal comments or opinions to the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF)[1].

The Legal Consultant (LC) will be under the overall guidance of the UN Resident Coordinator and working closely with members of the RCO project team i.e. the Head of RCO, UN Senior Economist and Partnerships and Development Finance Officer.

The LC will be   required to make revisions to certain documents and provide recommendations further to the review of relevant legal Acts, documents and approval processes, based on the objectives of the above-mentioned.  The LC may also be requested to participate in and contribute to discussions, and meetings of the project team, including with Government stakeholders.

[1] The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework  is the most important instrument for planning and implementation of the UN development activities at country level. The CF guides the entire programme cycle, driving planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of collective UN support for achieving the 2030 Agenda.

Scope of Work:

• To review relevant terms of reference (TORs), briefs and papers related to MySDG Trust Fund;
• To advise and provide legal opinion and options to the UN RCO on applicable laws e.g. the Trustee Act 258 (1952) for the establishment of the MySDG Trust Fund, based on UN rules, objectives and positions, including with the MPTFO as Administrative Agent;
• To revise relevant TORs and/or other papers as requested;
• To advise and provide comments on any legal feedback from Government on the UNSDCF document; and
• Participate and contribute to discussions and meetings as requested.

Deliverables & Reporting Arrangements  

Deliverables conform to the four key functions of the Consultant as described in Section III above, albeit with different payment milestones as follows:

Estimated Maximum Total Number of days:   up to 15 days per/month for duration of 4 months period

Individual Consultant needs to have below competencies:

• Ability to design and develop time plans and resource schedules for complex tasks and task groups,
• Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams,
• Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines,
• Ability to think out-of-the-box,
• Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply,
• Ability to contextualize global trends in accordance with the dynamics of the operating (working) environment,
• Ability to collaborate,
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Ensure use of gender responsive language in written and oral presentations, reports, handouts, etc.,
• Ensuring human rights cultural, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity  standards are applied, and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Bahasa Malaysia.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Document 1 : Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability at  http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Letter%20of%20Interest%20_Annex%201.docx?download;
2. Document 2: Technical Proposal: A cover page (maximum 2 pages) how candidate’s qualification and experience makes them suitable for the work and can lead towards the successful deliverable of this consultancy within the required timeframe; and 
3. Document 3: Financial Proposal at https://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Financial Proposal Template (Daily Fee) – MYR.doc .All inclusive and takes into account various expenses the candidate expects to incur during the contract, including:
   • The daily professional fee;
   • The cost of travel from the home base to the duty station (UNDP Office, Putrajaya) and vice versa;
   • Communications, utilities and consumables; and
   • Life, health and any other insurance.
4. Document 4: Personal CV or P11 including areas of expertise and past experiences in similar projects and at least three (3) references at http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/P11%20for%20SC%20&%20IC.doc?download
5. Please submit this information in one file as Document 1, 2, 3, and 4.The system will only accept one attachment, please merge all documents and submit as one file.
6. Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application.
7. Candidates who fail to submit all the information requested above will be disqualified.

How to Apply:

• Kindly download the Letter of Confirmation of interest and availability, Financial Proposal Template?and General Terms & Conditions mentioned below;
• Read and agree to the General Terms & Conditions (refer to below link);
• Click the ‘apply’ icon and complete what is required;
• Scan all documents into 1 pdf file and then upload;
• For clarification question, please email to [email protected]. The clarification question deadline is three (3) days before the closing. When emailing for clarification questions, please put “MyIC/2021/014″as the subject matter.

General terms & conditions to be downloaded:

• The General Terms & Conditions?for Individual contract is available at: http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/General%20Conditions%20of%20Contract%20for%20IC.pdf?download

Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA): A legal instrument between UNDP and a Company/institution, according to which, the latter makes available the services of an individual delivering time-bound and quantifiable outputs that are directly linked to payments

• The General Terms & Conditions for Reimbursement Loan Agreement is available at:http://www.my.undp.org/content/dam/malaysia/docs/Procurement/Reimbursable%20Loan%20Agreement%20_%20Terms%20&%20Conditions.pdf?download? 

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Only short-listed candidates may be contacted, and successful candidates will be notified.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should 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 a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates meeting the pre-determined minimum points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Evaluation Criteria