Procurement Notices

Apply through the UNDP Job site - JOB ID 98327 - https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=98327

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life, as envisaged by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are on the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners that can bring about results.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and help countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. The HIV, Health and Development Group (HHD) is part of BPPS and supports UNDP’s 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda and making sure no one is left behind.

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development, as described in the HIV, Health and Development Strategy 2016-2021: Connecting the Dots, leverages UNDP’s core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of the law and legal environments in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics. UNDP also works to empower and include marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV, such as sex workers, men who have sex with men and people living with HIV. Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to municipal action on SDGs, sustainable responses for Health and HIV such as improving sustainability of AIDS financing, sustainable health procurement, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for key populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on SDG 3 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding.  UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as temporary Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

Finally, UNDP teams  on health, climate change, energy, water, chemicals, and ecosystems and biodiversity collaborate closely in supporting low- and middle-income countries to address social and environmental determinants of health, including impacts of pollution and climate change to health and livelihoods. UNDP for instance hosts the UN Informal Task Team for Sustainable Procurement in the Health Sector that addresses waste and emissions generated by the health sector, and supports efforts to transition towards renewable energy sources in the health sector, which simultaneously enhances access to energy and healthcare. UNDP also provides support in governance and legal space for countries to address structures that hinder environmental sustainability and limit people’s opportunities to live a healthy, productive life.

Objective of the assignment

Legal environment assessments (LEAs) have become a key UNDP signature service offering to support rights-based response to health challenges in countries. An LEA is a review or mapping of the legal, regulatory and policy framework in a country and an analysis of the extent to which it supports or hinders national and local responses to the given topic. The LEA enables stakeholders in a country to build a comprehensive picture of the strengths and areas for improvement in its legal and regulatory environment which includes analysis of laws, policies and legal practices. LEAs also assess the level of compliance with regional and international human rights and health commitments by identifying and examining all important legal and human rights issues affecting the political response in a country. LEAs often include recommendations and follow up action plan for reforms or other measures needed to promote desirable developments and support rights-based responses.

In 2020, UNDP entered into a three-year project which supports three governments to address pollution as a key environmental determinant of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and as part of broader efforts to respond to environmental degradation and the changing climate. NCDs are a health and development challenge requiring whole-of-government and whole-of-society action including effective legal, policy and regulatory approaches as in the WHO ‘best buys’ and Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The significant and rising burden of NCDs is a leading health and development challenge, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. NCDs result in early death, disease and disability on a massive scale. They drive poverty and inequality, sap economic growth and deplete government budgets. Almost one quarter of the global population is estimated to have an underlying condition that increases their vulnerability to COVID-19 – most of these conditions are NCDs. NCDs are well-represented in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes NCD-related targets in Goal 3 on health and well-being, as well as targets in other goals which support comprehensive NCD responses. Air, soil and water pollution are major contributors to NCDs in low- and middle income countries, leading  for instance to high burdens of respiratory disease, cancers and cardiovascular disease.

One of the main areas of action within the project is to advance effective laws, policies, standards and regulations through conducting a LEA for health and environment in the three project countries. The consultant will develop an overall methodology for health and environment LEA to support rights-based responses to pollution and its consequences to health, drawing from the work of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law and the experience of UNDP HIV and TB LEAs.

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

The Consultant will report to the HHD Manager: Health and Innovative Financing (Supervisor) and will work in close collaboration with the policy specialists on Innovation, Climate and Health and on Human Rights, Law and Gender.

Expected Deliverables

1. Develop an annotated work plan with clear timelines for delivery of all outputs under this assignment.
2. Develop a first draft legal environment assessment tool for health and environment, with a focus on pollution.
3. Final draft of the legal environment assessment tool incorporating feedback and comments from internal and external reviews.
4. Provide initial support to UNDP Country Office with piloting the tool.

DURATION OF THE WORK

The duration of this assignment is thirty (30) work days between 1 May and 15 July 2021.

DUTY STATION

This is a home-based assignment.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant reports to HHD Manager: Health and Innovative Financing (Supervisor).

The consultant will need to have an own computer/laptop with the Microsoft Office package (MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel). The consultant will be in touch with the HHD team by email and videoconference application (e.g. Zoom).

TRAVEL PLAN

No travel is envisaged to deliver this work. If the need arises, travel will be arranged according to the UNDP travel policy for consultants.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SUCCESSFUL INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR

1. Academic Qualification

• A degree in law is required; a Master’s degree in human rights, public health, environment, or related field is an additional advantage.

1. Years of Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in the field of law, human rights, and health. Prior experience supporting health, environment and/or human rights work within UNDP or another UN entity is highly desirable.

1. Technical Experience

• Evidence of experience undertaking global or regional legal and policy research and developing guidance document for countries. Experience in the legal dimensions of non-communicable diseases is highly desirable.

1. Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and spoken English, including the ability to write concisely and professionally.

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’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;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Planning and Organizing: allocates appropriate time and resources for completing work by foreseeing risks and developing contingency plans accordingly;
• Accountability: takes ownership of responsibilities and honours commitments;
• Communications: speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience. Keeps confidential information undisclosed;

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

All proposals must be expressed in a lump sum amount. This amount must be “all-inclusive”. Please note that the terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal.

The contractor will be paid an all-inclusive Deliverables/Outputs based lump sum amounts over the assignment period, subject to the submission of Certification of Payment (CoP) duly certified and confirmation of satisfactory performance of achieved work (deliverables/outputs) in line with the schedule of payments table hereunder. The outputs may not necessarily be delivered in the order below, provided that eight outputs are completed within the duration of the assignment.

RECOMMENDED PRESENTATION OF OFFER

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Candidates that fail to submit the required information will not be considered.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. 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;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, including references to how she/he will approach and complete the assignment.
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  The terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE BEST OFFERS

Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%; using the following evaluation criteria: