Procurement Notices

Consultancy Title

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Specialist(s) (2 positions)

Project Name

Governance for Resilient Development in the Pacific Project

Duty Station

Based in Suva (Fiji) with travel

Type of Contract- Individual Consultant Long Term Agreement (IC - LTA)

Duration of the Contract

• Contract period: 3 years
• Number of working days: up to a maximum of 426 days within a 3-year period
• Start date:  May 2020
• End date: May 2023

Consultancy Proposal (CV & Financial proposal Template) should be uploaded on UNDP e-tendering Portal (https://etendering.partneragencies.org) ID Ref: 0000005731 no later than, 21st April 2020 (New York Time). Any proposals received after the due date/time will not be accepted. Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to procurement.fj@undp.org. UNDP will respond in writing or by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants. Incomplete, late and joint proposals will not be considered and only offers for which there is further interest will be contacted. Failure to submit your application as stated as per the application submission guide (Procurement Notice) on the above link will be considered incomplete and therefore application will not be considered.

NOTE:

Proposals must be sent/uploaded through UNDP e-tendering Portal. Candidates need to upload their CV and financial proposal -using UNDP template.

If the selected/successful Candidate is over 65 years of age and required to travel outside his home country; He/She will be required provide a full medical report at their expense prior to issuance to contract. Contract will only be issued when Proposed candidate is deemed medically fit to undertake the assignment.

Objectives

The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Specialist will directly contribute to the achievement of overall outcomes and outputs of the project through mainstreaming GESI as an integral part of all project activities.

Background

The Governance for Resilient Development in the Pacific (Governance for Resilience) project works with Pacific governments to ensure that countries adapt their decision making and governance systems towards more resilient development. The projects theory of change rests on a core assumption that Pacific Island people will be more resilient to the impacts of climate change and disasters if countries manage all development through a risk informed approach. This is consistent with the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific which calls for the ‘mainstreaming’ of climate and disaster risk treating risk management as fundamental to all development decisions.

The Governance for Resilience project has three outcomes areas: 1) government planning and financing systems enable gender and socially inclusive risk-informed development; 2) country oversight and accountability systems require gender and socially inclusive risk-informed development; and 3) regional organisations, policies and practices are actively supporting gender and socially inclusive risk-informed development.

The project is being delivered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Office, in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). It is a 5 year project working across all Pacific countries. It is the second phase of the DFAT funded, UNDP implemented Pacific Risk Resilience Programme (PRRP).

LTA CONTRACTING MODALITY AND CALL-OFF MECHANISM

• An LTA is a mutual arrangement between UNDP and the individual to provide the required services at established fee or provisions. The LTA will be established for one year and renewable for up to three years linked to satisfactory performance of the individual consultant(s). UNDP reserves the right to rescind the agreement during that period should performance of the consultant not meet its requirements.
• It is expected the consultant(s) to be engaged for maximum 142 working days per year up to 3 years starting from May 2020 to May 2023
• UNDP does not warrant that any quantity of services shall be contracted during the term of this Agreement. A specific Term of Reference (TOR) outlining the deliverables shall be provided, and an Individual Contract would be issued to the consultant(s), detailing the time frame.
• Once the LTA is signed, if there is a specific service required, the focal person in the UNDP hiring unit would contact the Consultant(s) and upon positive confirmation in the availability for the assignment, acceptance of the Term of reference, cost and travel arrangement, UNDP will issue an Individual Contract. Price in the order will be based on daily fee included in the LTA.  After contract has been agreed between the two parties, no further costs would be reimbursed by UNDP unless there is prior written authorization by UNDP.
• Once the services are completed and have been approved by the hiring unit, the Consultant will provide the following for payment purposes:
  • a) complete invoice indicating the completed deliverables;
  • b) supporting documentation (bills/vouchers) for reimbursements of travel costs if applicable;
  • c) copy of the UNDP contract for the consultancy.

Payments will be made upon satisfactory achieved deliverables under each assignment and submission of time sheet in accordance with number of days worked. Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant

Scope of work/Expected Output

The overall responsibilities of the assignment are to: 

Provide strategic advice to government and lead the project initiatives and activities on GESI

• Identify critical project areas for GESI interventions
• Contribute to planning, monitoring and reporting of the project and integrate GESI into all of these processes
• Provide high-level technical assistance and advice to national counterparts and their institutions on GESI in relation to strategic planning, legal and regulatory framework, gender responsive planning and budgeting, public financial management and sectoral activities to support realisation of GESI informed development
• Analyse and conduct research on the GESI dimensions in development and provide strategic guidance in the preparation of the annual work plan, annual report and other documents of the project
• Ensure that all tools, checklists knowledge products and guidance notes developed by the project are cognisant of GESI
• Directly contribute the achievement of project outputs and outcomes by mainstreaming GESI.

Support mainstreaming of GESI into demonstration projects

• Support and coordinate with GESI experts at the national level to contextualise GESI initiatives through all demonstration projects
• Support GESI experts to monitor and analyse demonstration projects to ensure they are achieving outputs from a GESI perspective
• Identify any capacity development needs with regard to GESI staff and design and facilitate capacity development initiatives to mainstream GESI.

Foster communities of practice and peer-to-peer learning

• Plan and manage peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and where there is value and interest development and operation of regional communities of practice (COP), with the aim of facilitating knowledge and experience sharing, coordination and advancement, on relevant issues in line with SDG principle of Leaving No One Behind.
• Facilitate peer-to-peer and COP interactions though organisation of e-discussions and using network as means for dissemination of new research and opportunities.
• Facilitate joint learning, advocacy and ultimately resource mobilisation opportunities between country partners with common goals.
• Prepare knowledge products from peer-to-peer exchanges including policy briefs, position statements, guidance and training material, toolkits etc.

Provide training and capacity building for project staff and partners

• Identify, design and lead capacity building initiatives and training packages on GESI for project stakeholders, particularly core project staff
• Identify or create training materials and training manuals that are contextualised and appropriate for project team and partners
• Review training plans, materials and methodologies for all project outcome areas and propose recommendations to GESI is integral.

Provide training and capacity building for project staff and partners

• As required, provide CCDRM advice to the UNDP Resilience and Sustainable Development team more broadly.

Resources Provided

The consultant is expected to provide their own laptop and communications equipment. UNDP will provide desk space in Suva and will make arrangements for travel to Suva and other countries as required.

Supervision/Reporting

The consultant will report directly to the Programme Manager for the UNDP Governance for Resilience Project under the overall guidance of the Resilience and Sustainable Development Team Leader and will work in collaboration with other members of the Resilience and Sustainable Development team including Gov4Res team and key partners.

Requirement for Qualifications & Experience

• At least 7 years of progressive experience in gender equality, social inclusion and public outreach;
• Minimum Masters degree in gender studies, social science, law, political science, sociology or other related discipline;
• Additional training and certification in gender and social inclusion would be an advantage;
• Familiarity working with governance, or development planning particularly national, sectoral and/or sub-national planning;
• Experience of project management, implementation and monitoring in line with human rights-based approaches;
• Demonstrated social skills coordinating with a variety of stakeholders and facilitating discussions;
• Excellent writing and drafting skills and experience of providing policy advice at the international, regional or national level;
• Knowledge of the Pacific region; and
• Fluency in English (written and oral) is essential.

Functional Competencies

• Excellent communication and advocacy skills;
• Proven ability to conceptualise, develop, plan and manage human rights interventions as well as transfer knowledge and skills;
• Experienced in delivering training and other needed capacity/ institutional building support to a wide range of stakeholders;
• Ability to coach, mentor, motivate and develop staff and encourage good performance;
• Promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, and actively works towards continued learning and development;
• Good interpersonal skills with experience of networking with partners at all levels;
• Good understanding of national and international human rights mechanisms, and excellent inter-personal skills;
• Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor work of others, ability to make timely decisions; and
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, and age sensitivity and adaptability and capacity to work effectively in a multicultural environment.

Proposal Requirements

Daily Fee

The IC shall quote an all-inclusive daily fee for this consultancy work. 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

Payments shall be done on a monthly basis and based on actual days worked, and upon verification of completion of deliverables and approval by the IC’s supervisor of a time sheet indicating the days worked in the period.

General Notes on Financial Offer

• UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Consultant wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using his/her 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 UNDP and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Payment Schedule (if required)

Fees to be paid based on monthly invoice submitted by consultant with progress report of outputs certified by UNDP.

Consultancy fee and living allowance to be paid based on satisfactory completion of outputs and certification by UNDP.

Evaluation

Cumulative analysis

The proposals will be evaluated using the cumulative analysis method with a split 70% technical and 30% financial scoring. The proposal with the highest cumulative scoring will be awarded the contract. Applications will be evaluated technically, and points are attributed based on how well the proposal meets the requirements of the Terms of Reference using the guidelines detailed in the table below:

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract may be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where:
  • Technical criteria are valued at 70%
  • Financial criteria are valued at 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Interviews may be conducted as part of technical assessment.

Top two (2) ranked candidates will be selected for this LTA consultancy

Technical Criteria for Evaluation

Proposal Submission

Proposal Submission

Shortlisted candidates may be contacted for an interview.

Offerors must send the following documents.

• CV including names/contacts of at least 3 referees.
• A cover letter indicating why the candidate considers himself/herself suitable for the required consultancy
• Completed template for confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal.

Individuals applying for this consultancy will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on a 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.

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.

Bid Submission Address

https://etendering.partneragencies.org

BU Code: FJI10

Event ID: 0000005731

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Please use the bidder’s guide for submission of proposal

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.fj@undp.org

Women candidates are encouraged to apply.

*The Fiji Office covers Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu