Procurement Notices

                                                                                                 Supplementary Notice No.1

Dear Bidders,

This is a re-advertisement of the above Expression of Interest - EOI-PNG-2022-002

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UNDP Papua New Guinea invites interested Consultancy Firms, Educational Institutions, NGOs/ INGOs, and CBOs/CSOs to apply for the following:

Summary of the proposal:

The trajectory of violent conflict in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands over the last 30 years is concerning. As of the end of 2017, there were anecdotally 40 separate ongoing internecine conflicts across Hela province which had led to more than 300 deaths and an estimated 100,000 people displaced without accounting for the extent of human rights abuses including gender-based violence and sorcery accusation-related violence and the entrenched marginalisation of women and youth. Exacerbated by weak local governance, these conditions pose a multi-dimensional challenge to economic and human development in both provinces. This highly fragile situation compounded by the presence of a large and highly lucrative extractive project and the proliferation of firearms places incredible pressure on the realisation of human rights, social and structural stability, and human development.

Having identified the unique drivers of conflict in the Highlands, UNDP (as lead agency), together with IOM, UNFPA and UN Women, jointly implement a PBF-funded project - Creating Conditions for Peace in PNG Highlands (“project”) within the framework of the UN’s Highlands Joint Programme (HJP). As a key pillar of the HJP, the Project focuses on implementing critical peacebuilding interventions including strengthening infrastructures for peace through establishing networks of community mobilisers as well as young women, establishing peace centres as neutral spaces for interaction and mediation, youth hubs for empowering youth complemented by capacitating youth leaders in peacebuilding, and enhancing the capacity of traditional/local leadership in the practice of effective leadership and conflict management. The Project also enhances intra- and intergroup dialogue and mediation through directly supporting community-level conflict mediation, supporting the role of women mediators, and facilitating local peace conferences. Through training of local and provincial leadership in conflict-sensitive development, local level governance and decentralisation, facilitating the development of and implementation of community peace for development plans through small community peacebuilding grant projects, facilitating access to basic services, supporting provincial-level conflict-sensitive development planning, the establishment of feedback mechanisms to enhance institutional accountability and conflict monitoring and mapping for early warning and early action, the project will strengthen local governance and post-conflict recovery efforts.

The Project builds on the evidence and growing consensus globally and borne out through the UN’s recent experiences in the Highlands that humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding efforts are complementary and need to reinforce each other, to urgently respond to the current state of volatility and fragility by engaging earlier to prevent violent conflict and reduce humanitarian need. Beyond complementing and harmonizing ongoing efforts across the peace-security-development nexus, the project aims to catalyse further investment in urgent local peacebuilding efforts from government, bilateral and multilateral donors, and the private sector.

Complementing community-level trust-building measures, the project aims to reorientate young male hired fighters in Hela Province towards positive roles and be reintegrated into their respective communities. There is an emerging trend of disengaged and disenchanted male youths being hired as paid fighters to wage armed conflicts. This is due to limited local economic and employment opportunities and evolving perception of masculine identities coupled with local powerholders exploiting this situation by hiring these youths to advance their ambitions/agenda, cementing their big-man status and physically threatening opponents. This has resulted in incentivizing local labor to move away from traditional livelihood practices and /or income streams to an economy of seeking for” handouts”, alienation of male youths from their communities and cultivating conflict as an industry; including the spawning of warlordism, increase in number of armed mercenaries and hired fighters operating with impunity while contributing to cycles of inter- and intra-group violence.

By connecting youth fighters to existing pre-identified local economic and employment opportunities, beneficiaries are provided with constructive outlets to fulfil individual aspirations which empowers their male youth to seek positive and non-destructive means to exercise their ascribed community and gender roles. Concurrently, this positive reorientation enhances their self-esteem and creates opportunities for them to be reintegrated into their respective communities and ultimately contributes to efforts as sustaining peace and strengthening local resilience within and between local communities in Hela Province.

Scope of Work:

UNDP PNG is looking for partnering with Consultancy Firms, Educational Institutions, NGOs/ INGOs, and CBOs/CSOs NGOs that can support the implementation of the project in following areas:

Develop a highly accessible Provincial Employment Counseling Service with the following minimum specifications:

• Maintain a physical and virtual presence in Hela Province including through a job counseling hotline, social media presence and regular mobile employment counseling circuit in target LLGs
• Maintain a fortnightly updated registry/database of paid work and paid/unpaid apprenticeship opportunities based on profile of potential youth applicants

Promote employment counseling support to target youth population through community outreach in Hela Province identified in close consultation with UNDP including:

• Organizing regular LLG-level job and apprenticeship expositions/fairs in target LLGs (minimum quarterly)
• Public announcements such as printed and local broadcast media and by word of mouth through local church and government networks

Support prospective job seekers with counseling services including:

• Identifying relevant job and apprenticeship openings based on individual youth’s skills and competencies
• Identifying skills and education gaps of individual youth relative to employment aspirations
• Navigating relevant administrative processes such as completing and submitting application forms and preparing for interviews with prospective employers
• Directing individual youth to educational and upskilling opportunities

In order to achieve the objective of the grant arrangement, the tasks of the contractor will include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Assessing capacities and employment aspirations of target youth population in Hela Province
• Identifying provincial and regional labor needs
• Establishing jobs and apprenticeship placement linkages with pool of credible and potential employers (i.e., local government, small and medium enterprises, large multinational companies operating locally, civil society organizations, and faith-based organizations

Eligibility criteria

Important Note:

• Firms are not required to provide any information relating to cost as this is just an expression of interest needed to adequately address the technical requirements for the consultancy.
• Applications received from this EOI will be taken into consideration for a possible short listing that might be conducted with the planned procurement exercise.

Submission details

The interested organizations need to submit the following documents:

• A letter addressed to UNDP PNG specifying the area of interest and brief description on how the applicant is qualified for the assignment.
• Company profile not exceeding fifteen (15) pages
• Relevant References
• Documents specifying 3 years of work experience in relevant area
• Two (2) experience certificate (client certificate) on implementation of components
• Demonstrated evidence of financial stability (average annual turnover of minimum USD 100,000)
• Details about management structure of the NGO and specify the National and international staff composition with their CVs
• Legal evidence of Firm/Consortium/Joint Venture
• Tax compliance certificate
• Audited financial statements of last 3 years
• Environmental sustainability/ Quality certificates

NGOs will be selected in accordance with the procedure set out in the UNDP Procurement Guidelines and UNDP Financial Rules and Regulations.

Applicants should send the set of documents by 24th August 2022, 12:00 PM PNG Standard Time via email to procurement.png@undp.org with the following subject: “Expression of Interest for Connecting Youth Fighters to Local Labor Opportunities in Hela Province [EOI-PNG-2022-002]”

Or

The full dossier can also be delivered by hand with an envelope bearing the following mention: “Expression of Interest for Connecting Youth Fighters to Local Labor Opportunities in Hela Province” at the following address:

United Nations Development Programme, Kina Bank Haus, Level 14, Port Moresby, phone: 675-321-2877

All inquiries should be addressed to procurement.pg@undp.org. Other inquiries which are not relevant to this Expression of Interest-EoI (Request for Information) will be disregarded.

This EOI does not entail any commitment on the part of UNDP, either financial or otherwise. UNDP reserve the right to accept or reject any or all EOI without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant/s of the grounds.