Reference No.

PN/FJI/050/21

Consultancy Title

Diagnostic Review – Social Protection Assessment in Fiji and Kiribati

Location

Fiji and Kiribati (Virtually)

Application deadline

26th July 2021

Type of Contract

Individual Contractor/Firm

Post Level

International

Languages required:

English

Duration of Initial Contract:

100 working days

Governments in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) are increasingly realizing the need for formal social protection systems in the face of the crisis, including natural disasters and even pandemics, to help prevent deprivation, foster inclusive economic growth, create decent work and build resilience among their most vulnerable citizens. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the economic conditions, bringing high rate of unemployment, gender inequality and a decline in remittances. Young people and women among others in the informal sector are the most vulnerable to job losses resulted from the crisis. With school closure, children challenged with limited access to education, particularly amongst those from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, which tend to have no access to online learning.  The growing number of initiatives launched in PICTs over the past decade suggests that social protection has taken a prominent place in the centre of the policy agenda in the Pacific region. However, since the PICTs have limited experience carrying out formal social protection activities, their capacity to design, implement, and monitor comprehensive social protection systems understandably is weak. In creating an inventory of non-contributory social protection programmes, UNICEF Pacific found that the scale and scope of social protection initiatives, which include cash grants, subsidies, free access to education and health services among others, vary widely across the Pacific region.

Social cash transfer activities are limited in coverage in the PICTs. Universal child allowance systems are in place in Cook Islands and Nauru while larger Pacific nations such as Fiji provide more complex proxy-means targeted programmes. An estimated 35 per cent of children in Fiji live in poverty; however, only about 2 per cent of Fiji’s children are benefiting from the country’s care and protection allowance and much of the budget for the programme is untouched. Coverage is poor due, in part, to limited capacity and weak delivery systems. The population is geographically dispersed in the Pacific, which makes service delivery challenging, particularly to rural and remote islands. However, technological developments provide opportunities to overcome some of these difficulties.

While governments in the Pacific have organized interventions to address vulnerability, ad hoc and fragmented social protection programmes are being implemented without an explicit and comprehensive social protection framework, leading to a lack of coverage and resulting in an increased burden on livelihoods.

Coordination of social protection policies is lacking with multiple agencies (Provident Funds, Ministries, Agencies and Departments) being involved in the implementation of social protection.

Social insurance spending is inadequate to support the majority of intended beneficiaries in countries with a large share of workers in informal employment. The existing social insurance schemes have only partial coverage and mostly support a small subsection of the population. These are mainly formally employed or salaried workers holding public sector jobs or working for particular industries or sizable private firms.

The key challenge to extending social insurance to workers in the informal economy consists of the difficulty to raise individual contributions toward social insurance schemes. Many informal workers have too low and/or unstable income to pay contributions; they may also be reluctant to pay due to the perceived cost of application and a lack of incentives. Other reasons for the lack of social insurance coverage include non-declaration of jobs, casual and temporary jobs, and jobs with hours of work or wages that fall below a required threshold.

Objectives:

The objective of the research is to assist social dialogue by building evidence and engaging with constituents, in order to make recommendations to the Governments and social partners of Fiji and Kiribati regarding:

• Improvements in the effectiveness (coverage and adequacy), efficiency and sustainability of the social protection system, including options to extend coverage to the most vulnerable

(Including herders and those affected by climate change)

• Support the governments developing a social protection intervention including financing strategy.

The outcome is to conduct assessment and rapid costing of national social protection system, and to develop a project proposal for the development of national social protection strategies and action plans for the selected Pacific Islands countries.  The project proposal will be key document to advance evidence-based advocacy for universal social protection system, advantage partnership and resources.

To help achieve that, the service provider’s diagnostic reviews, to be undertaken for each of the countries specified above, will include at least the following components:

1. Finalize workplan and conduct national dialogue on social protection floor
2. A comprehensive review of each countries social protection system
3. A gap analysis in the coverage (existing social protection programmes) of vulnerable groups, including children, working age population, herders, elderly, domestic workers, and migrants. This will include an assessment of demographic and poverty data to look at trends in relation to population ageing and poverty incidence by age. It should also look at income sources for different socio-economic groupings.
4. The countries current and future challenges, including social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. The level/gaps in coverage to the extent to which they respond to the country’s present and future needs and international social security standards.
6. The adequacy of current benefits and appropriateness in relation to informal employment, gender equality and right to income security across the lifecycle (as per Social Protection Floors Recommendation); assess exclusion errors and impact of cash benefit schemes on poverty reduction.
7. The management and delivery system at place as well as coordination, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms;
8. Policy recommendations for a more inclusive, integrated, coherent, and sustainable system (short- and long-term recommendations). This should also look at coverage, adequacy and financial sustainability, and include options for a transition plan to move from the current range of different approaches towards a more coherent approach.
9. Rapid costing of the introduction of the national social protection floor (unemployment, maternity protection, child and family benefits, sickness, occupational injury and survivorship, old age benefit);
10. Propose fiscal space options for prioritisation to be discussed with the Government and social partners; UNCT and other development partners
11. Contribute to two workshops for every country to the Government and social partners raising awareness about Social Protection Floor Initiative and international social security standards and present the findings of the assessment and rapid costing
12. Develop a project proposal for the development of national social protection strategies and action plans for the selected Pacific Islands countries.  The project proposal will be key document to advance evidence advocacy for universal social protection system, advantage partnership and resources.

Institutional arrangements:

The Consultancy will work under the close guidance of the Inclusive Growth Deputy Team Leader throughout the assignment period.

Duty Station:

The select will be home based.

Duration of work: The expected duration of this assignment is 80 days with a start date of 26th July and planned to be completed by 31 December 2021 November.  The timeframe and expected deliverables are shown in the table below:

The methodology and tasks will include the following

1. Desk review of existing studies of social protection systems and further analysis of national administrative data and information in the countries covered. 
2. Consultation including Key Informant Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with Ministries, institutions, and key stakeholders (including face-to-face and virtual consultations considering the traveling limitations due to the COVID-19 situation). 
3. Gap analysis comparing existing systems with the expected needs.
4. Develop options for future comprehensive social protection systems in the countries covered, especially to effectively cover vulnerable groups, such as children, formal and informal workers, women, herders, and the elderly.
5. Identify options for a transition plan to move from the current range of different approaches towards a more coherent approach.
6. Budget costing for selected policy options.
7. Validation workshops

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity. 
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Self-development, initiative-taking.
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.
• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively
• Creating synergies through self-control.
• Managing conflict.
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
• Informed and transparent decision making.

The Service Provider should propose a team that combines at least an experienced lead international expert with the technical requirements needed to deliver the products according to the general parameters proposed under the ToR. The team should include at least:

The International Lead Expert, meeting the following qualifications:

1. Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science or related disciplines.
2. At least 10 years of experience and technical knowledge in social protection with significant experience in upper and middle-income countries 
3. Familiarity with the national contexts of the countries covered is considered as an asset.
4. Proven experience in conducting research and technical consultancy on social protection issues. 
5. Excellent understanding of universal social protection policy in developing countries.
6. Excellent report drafting ability and fluency in English is required.
7. Outstanding knowledge of and experience with field research and both quantitative and qualitative data collection principles, methods and analysis.
8. Strong ability to engage with policy makers and government officials and to develop options and scenarios for reforms and implementation processes.
9. Previous experience in carrying out similar assignments for UN agencies and/or other development organisations.
10. Knowledge of challenges and issues on development including gender equality and human rights, poverty and vulnerability in Pacific Island Countries and/or Small Island Developing States will be an asset.
11. The National Experts for each country covered should have:
12. Advanced university degrees in Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science or related disciplines.
13. At least 3 years of experience and technical knowledge in social protection issues.      
14. Sound knowledge of government machinery, stakeholders and national context.
15. Strong ability to engage with policy makers and government officials.
16. Excellent report drafting ability 
17. Fluency in English and the respective national language of the country he covers is required.

Language requirement:

• Proficiency in English (written and spoken) required.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultancy must send a financial proposal based on 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 fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

1. First payment of 20% will be made upon submission of the inception report.
2. Second payment of 30% will be made upon submission of the first draft of the SPDR.
3. Third payment of 30% will be made upon submission of the final SPDR, with high-quality translation in the respective countries covered, to the satisfaction of the UN team.
4. Final payment of 20% will be made upon submission of project prodoc for with high-quality translation in the respective countries covered, to the satisfaction of the UN team.

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 Consultancy, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultancy will be evaluated based on the following methodology Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the consultancy 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 1: Relevance of Education – Max 5 points
• Criteria 2: Relevance of language and Key competencies - Max 5 Points
• Criteria 3: Relevance of expertise to requirements of ToR- Max 25 points
• Criteria 4: Relevance of experience, in particular Pacific experience, to requirements of ToR – Max 25 points
• Criteria 5: Quality of Assessment of approach/methodology to assignment – Max 10 Points

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

Shortlisted candidates shall be called for an interview which will be used to confirm and/or adjust the technical scores awarded based on documentation submitted.

Documentation required

Interested consultancies must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• 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;
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: Consultancies must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).

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

Incomplete and joint proposals may not be considered. Consultancies with whom there is further interest will be contacted. The successful consultancy shall opt to sign an Individual Contract or a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) through its company/employer with UNDP.

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

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to Mr. Dale Kacivi - procurement.fj@undp.org/dale.kacivi@undp.org

All applications must be clearly marked with the title of consultancy and submitted by 5:00pm, 26th  July 2021 (Fiji Time) online via UN Jobs website https://jobs.undp.org/ or etenderbox.pacific@undp.org