Procurement Notices

I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The World Humanitarian Summit was organized in May 2016 to address the scale of human suffering greater than at any time since the Second World War. The Summit generated more than 3,000 commitments to action and launched more than a dozen new partnerships and initiatives to turn the Agenda for Humanity into meaningful change for the world's most vulnerable people.

Leading up to the Summit, consultations with more than 900 companies called for more strategic private sector engagement across disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery. They also called for networks and a mechanism to be created to facilitate coordinated private sector engagement. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a number of partners launched the Connecting Business initiative (CBi) as a response to this demand. CBi is a multi-stakeholder initiative that provides a mechanism for the private sector to engage with the United Nations system, national governments and civil society in a coordinated manner across all stages of disaster risk reduction and management, and humanitarian programming.

CBi is supported by OCHA’s Emergency Response Section in Geneva and the UNDP’s Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD). These units collaborate with multiple other global units, with the regional and country offices of OCHA and UNDP, as well as private sector organizations, other UN entities, national governments and non-government organisations.  

Since the launch of the Connecting Business initative (CBi), 11 private sector networks around the world have been formally launched as CBi Member Networks. Currently, CBi Member Networks are found in Côte d’Ivoire, Fiji, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Pacific, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vanuatu. These CBi Member Networks have acquired extensive knowledge, experience and good practices on private sector engagement in disaster risk management and humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery. CBi aims to continue supporting private sector networks around the world to become operational and sustainable, and to explore launching new networks particularly in Latin America and Africa.

More information about CBi is available at www.connectingbusiness.org, on CBi Twitter @Connecting_biz, on CBi’s LinkedIn profile and through the CBi YouTube channel.

II. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF WORK

Landscape assessments enable prospective private sector networks to gain a better understanding of the context in which they operate – including among other things environmental, political, socio-economic and cultural factors that can influence their engagement in disaster risk management and humanitarian action. By assessing institutions, actors and existing efforts, private sector networks can determine the opportunities, benefits and limitations for engaging in disaster management and humanitarian action. A landscape assessment is therefore an essential step in the process of initiating a private sector network for disaster management and humanitarian engagement, clarifying the structure, setting goals and developing programs aimed at preparing for, responding to or recovering from disasters.

In order to achieve the targets specified by the CBi Secretariat for network expansion, the CBi Secretariat will hire a Regional CBi Private Sector Consultant for Latin America to support network scoping and expansion strategies in Latin America. The regional landscape assessment will identify entry points and opportunities for CBi expansion in Latin America and provide recommendations on where, how and with whom should CBi aim to create new networks and explore partnerships.

The Regional CBi Private Sector Consultant for Latin America will report to the CBi Local Network Coordination Specialist based in Istanbul and to the CBi Programme Coordinator in Geneva.

The expected outputs of the consultant include the following:

1. The comprehensive landscape assessment report for Latin America which will include the following (but is not limited to):
   1. Executive summary;
   2. Regional disaster risk profile for Latin America. This includes the following:
      1. Country or sub-regional snapshots of disaster risk profiles;
      2. Overview of each country’s national disaster management structures and mechanisms. The geographic scope will be determined based on the CBi risk and vulnerability criteria;
      3. Relevant regional disaster risk reduction and management as well as humanitarian coordination mechanisms (e.g., OCHA Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean)
   3. An overview of key business sectors and critical industries in the region (e.g., telecommunications, power and energy, agriculture and agribusiness, water);
   4. A mapping of existing private sector networks and initiatives (i.e., who are the actors, what are their activities and how do they implement these) related to disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness and response, and recovery in the region;
   5. A mapping of programs and good practices on private sector engagement by humanitarian and development actors (e.g., UN agencies, non-governmental organisations) in disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness and response, and recovery;
   6. Needs assessment for private sector engagement in disaster risk management in the region and sub-regions (with consideration on promoting gender programming in private sector engagement in disaster risk management). The needs assessment will include identifying both the current gaps, opportunities and challenges in private sector engagement in disaster risk management;
   7. Based on the needs assessment, recommendations on how to enhance private sector engagement in disaster risk management in the region and on how CBi can engage with the private sector networks in the region. Specifically, the recommendations will include engagement and partnership strategies, and operational arrangements for prospective CBi networks (i.e., identifying actors to engage with, which countries to include in the expansion scope, and the objective and mechanisms for engagement). These recommendations will also take into account gender programming considerations in disaster risk management for private sector networks.
   8. Annexes will include the following:
      1. Listing of relevant laws, legal frameworks and other related references to describe the disaster risk management structure and mechanism in the region;
      2. Other relevant information and databases (e.g., list of participants from key-informant interviews, virtual workshops) from the conduct of the regional landscape assessments.

1. Conduct of at least two (2) virtual awareness-promotion workshops for private sector networks, government, UN entities and other humanitarian partners in the region. This will include the following:
   1. Activity design of the virtual awareness-promotion workshops. The objective is to present the findings of the regional landscape assessment and to provide an opportunity for interested private sector networks, government, UN entities and other humanitarian partners in the region to learn from the experiences of current CBi networks.
   2. Conduct of at least two (2) virtual awareness-promotion workshop in close collaboration with the CBi secretariat.

III. METHODOLOGY

The Regional CBi Private Sector Consultant for Latin America is expected to follow a qualitative method of doing landscape assessment—doing both primary data collection and using secondary data, coupled with a systematic mapping of available resources. Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, field visits and on-site activities (e.g., workshops, meetings) are highly discouraged and primary data collection and all other proposed activities will be done remotely until further notice (i.e. until COVID-19 restriction measures allow).

The regional landscape assessment activities should be implemented in consultation and coordination with the OCHA and UNDP Country and Regional Offices.

The consultant is expected to propose a methodology with a clear intent to provide credible information to the assessment areas. The proposed methodology will need to ensure that the information collected is valid, reliable and sufficient to meet the assessment objective and that the analyses are logical, coherent and complete. Triangulation (utilizing multiple sources of data and methods) should be applied in order to validate findings. The proposed methodology should also show collection, use and analysis of gender-disaggregated data where relevant.

In the proposed methodology, the consultant will need to provide the following: 1) what information should be collected; 2) from which sources / or stakeholders it should be collected; 3) for what purpose it should be collected; 4) how the collected data will be analyzed in order to answer the assessment questions; 5) how the collected data will be analyzed and processed to help develop recommendations for regional engagement; and, 6) draft timeline. The consultant is expected to submit this as part of the inception report.

IV. DELIVERABLES

The Regional CBi Private Sector Consultant for Latin America is expected to provide the following deliverables:

V. QUALIFICATIONS

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• Master's degree in Business Administration, International Relations, Economic Development, Development Studies, Social Science, International Development, Political Science, International Relations or other relevant field is required.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of experience in humanitarian or development work, out of which at least 2 years are related to private sector partnerships is required;
• Experience in disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery particularly in the context of Latin America is desirable;
• Experience in developing and implementing knowledge management activities (research and analysis, report writing, workshop delivery, making presentation in public, etc.) in the context of disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery is desirable;
• Experience in partnership development and management as well as experience in working with international organizations and donors, and the UN system related to disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery is desirable; and,
• Experience in working in or supporting a developing country in humanitarian or development programming and knowledge of national and international disaster management issues and institutional arrangements is desirable.
•  

Language skills:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish is required.

VI. PAYMENT TERMS

Payment will be made  upon submission and acceptance of the contract deliverables by the CBi Programme Coordinator and UNDP IICPSD Director in accordance with the payment schedule set out below:

The Consultant must send a financial proposal based on 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 Consultant in completing the assignment are already factored into the daily fee submitted in the proposal. In case COVID-19 restrictions will allow for on-site activities, travel costs and daily subsistence allowance will be provided separately by UNDP.

1. EVALUATION OF APPLICANTS

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical (P.11 desk reviews and interviews) and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education, language and relevant years of experience will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates.

Only candidates who will get min. 70% of points in desk review will be invited for interviews. Only candidates who get min. 70% of points in technical evaluation (includes desk review and interview) will be scored in financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation (includes desk review and interview) – max. 70 points:

• Criteria A – Experience  in disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery (Desk Review; Up to 2 years: 4 points, 3-4 years: 7 points, 5-7 years: 10 points, 8-10 years: 12 points, 11-14 years: 15 points; 14 years+: 20 points) - Max points 20;
• Criteria B – Experience in developing and implementing knowledge management activities (research and analysis, report writing, workshop delivery, making presentation in public, etc.) in the context of  disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery  (Desk Review and Interview; Up to 2 years: 4 points, 3-4 years: 7 points, 5+ years: 10 points) Max points 10;
• Criteria C – Experience in partnership development and management as well as experience in working with international organizations and donors, and the UN system related to disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response and recovery; (Desk Review; Up to 2 years: 4 points, 3-4 years: 7 points, 5+ years: 10 points) - Max points 10;
• Criteria D – Experience in working in or supporting a developing country in humanitarian or development programming and knowledge of national and international disaster management issues and institutional arrangements is desirable(Desk Review; Up to 2 years: 4 points, 3-4 years: 7 points, 5+ years: 10 points)  - Max points 10;
• Criteria E – Competency-based interview (Interview) - Max points 20

Please ensure that your experience related to criteria A-E and aforementioned competencies is well documented in your P11 and cover letter.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation (max points 30).

1. APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc ); please upload the P11 instead of your CV.
• Financial Proposal* - Specifying a) total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement (Please provide a daily fee and a total amount for 120 workdays within 6 months. The daily fee should cover all expenses for your consultancy services.).
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination, personal security needs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). Mission related costs which could not be foreseen at the time of the recruitment will be covered separately as per UNDP rules. Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

Please click on this link to apply: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=97615

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP template for Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability & Financial Proposal

Annex 2 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 3 – IC Contract Template

Annex 4 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 5 - RLA Template