Youth Policy Consultant

Background

UNDP and the State of Kuwait, represented by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council of Planning and Development (GSSCPD), strive to enhance institutional capacities at various government agencies by providing them with necessary technical support to strengthen their capacities and skills to perform their expected duties.

Under the framework of the “Youth Empowerment in Kuwait” project, UNDP and The Ministry of State for Youth Affairs (MoSYA) aim to strengthen the capacities of MoSYA and Youth Public Authority (YPA) to enable them to better harness the energy and power of youth and their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  It is aspired that the long-term impact of the project and of UNDP’s continuous support to MoSYA and YPA will pave the way towards ensuring that the State of Kuwait is well-positioned to play a leadership role in the area of youth empowerment at the regional and international levels.

The project represents a multi-level concerted effort to bolster the capabilities of MoSYA and YPA and expand their assets in order to meet the growing internal and external demand to promote and support youth empowerment. Operationally, the project will put an accent on quality, results, and sustainability to more efficiently develop national capacities to reach the targeted goals.

MoSYA is working on developing Kuwait’s first National Youth Policy (NYP) in partnership with a consultancy firm. The focus of this assignment will be in-depth youth-based evaluation of the major deliverables the consultancy firm will be providing for select work streams.

Within this context, MOSYA is seeking to recruit a Youth Consultant to ensure the national youth policy is being developed according to international best practice. The Youth Consultant is also required to help identify and outline the key areas in which youth-related concerns may come into play in formulating the final draft of the NYP.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Under the direct supervision of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Youth and in close coordination with the UNDP Project Manager, the Youth Policy Consultant is expected to achieve the following outputs through assuming the below tasks associated with each output:

1. Support the development of the National Youth Policy

• Review other counties’ National Youth Policies and international best practices including UN guidelines.
• Furnish inputs and recommendations to align the policy with international standards and best practice resulting from the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY). Ensure that youth policy covering all different youth segments/ characteristics.
• Map out different stakeholders, including youth organizations and NGOs to ensure inclusion in the youth policy.
• Hold consultations with ministry teams, other ministries, youth organizations and Louis Berger Kuwait to ensure policy is inclusive of all relevant stakeholders and concepts set for developing youth skills to meet national aspirations
• Support the establishment of international partnerships with other youth ministries/organizations to enable a knowledge sharing relationship.
• Conduct youth segmentation assessment report based on youth segmentation Survey.
• Support the development of the youth segment strategy and include support to outreach activities.
• Review youth service report to ensure the mapping of different services and programs as well as initiatives provided by government, private sector and NGOs to ensure services cater to all youth segments.
• Identify gaps within existing youth services in Kuwait and propose services to fill these gaps
• Support cross-sectoral cooperation between ministries to support youth services.
• Identify opportunities and challenges facing existing youth organizations, including youth centers.
• Prepare a quality assurance report based on the youth service report.
• Review final recommendations for government ministries’ budgeting and regulations workstreams and link them to services document, to ensure a coherent, cross sectoral and holistic approach.
• Review government expenditure on youth related activities, and recommend the prioritization of expenditures based on efficiency.
• Provide approved recommendations/ findings of segmentation, youth services and budgeting to youth policy developing firm.
• Produce midway policy compliance report during development phase on the progression of the youth policy including youth segmentation, youth services and budgeting, which would include findings, gaps and recommendations.
• Prepare final report ensuring the youth policy is in lined with recommendations and ensure its alignment with the ministry’s strategic goals.
• Any other task as requested by the ministry

2. Capacity building, training and ongoing support for Ministry of Youth

• Conduct thorough capacity assessment to identify the coaching and training needs of ministry staff related to defined youth segmentation, youth services, budget and develop a training plan to address them;
• Provide coaching and on-the-job-training for staff to enable them to implement their role in relation to youth empowerment in Kuwait;
• Conduct at least two focus group meetings, two thematic meetings, and one policy conference to help to support effective policy implementation.

 Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

Deliverables/ Outputs	Target Due Dates	Payment schedule in percentage	Review and Approvals Required (Indicate designation of person who will review output and confirm acceptance)
Deliverable 1 - Submit Inception report and action plan for the implementation of the assignment, the plan to include a capacity assessment report identifying the training needs of MoSYA staff, additionally to a training plan to be implemented by the consultant throughout the assignment.	2 weeks from the start date of the contract.	10%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 2- Segmentation and Youth Engagement Quality Control report of the survey-based approach provided by the consultancy firm, including gap analysis of survey reports and providing recommendations	1 months after the start of the contract	10%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 3 - Youth Services Quality Control report highlighting any issues or overlaps that need to be addressed, and provide recommendations	1.5 months after the start of the contract	10%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 4 -  Government Budgets and Regulation Quality Control report that includes recommendations for aligning the findings submitted with MoSYA’s strategy for the next 5 years	1.5 months after the start of the contract	10%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 5 -  Midway Policy compliance report is in-lined with international best practices and is inclusive of segmentation, youth services and government expenditure recommendation.	3 months from the start of the contract	10%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 6-  Conduct 4 focus group meetings/ thematic meeting and 1 policy conference. (including but not limited training sessions for MoSYA as per the training plan) and submit technical guidelines to the MoSYA	4 months from the start of the contract.	20%	MoSYA and Project Management
Deliverable 7 - Final Recommendation report on any amendments that might need to be made to the initial draft of the national youth policy	At the end of the assignment	30%	MoSYA and Project Management

Institutional Arrangement

• The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Youth. The latter will be responsible to provide the existing information and the access to any related information that is essential to complete the assignment.
• The consultant will closely coordinate with the Project Management team of the UNDP Youth project.
• All submitted deliverables, reports, developed papers (reports, TOR, technical guidelines, etc…) are subject to MoSYA/GSSCPD and UNDP Programme Analyst approval. These documents will serve as justification of payments.
• The consultant will be based in MoSYA, MoSYA will provide access to printing machine, and internet.

Duration of the Work

The duration of this consultancy is expected to be 5 months.  Expected start date of the assignment is December 2017.

Duty Station

The consultant is expected to be in Kuwait for the duration of the assignment and will be based at Ministry of Youth

Competencies

The youth policy consultant should be able to demonstrate the following competencies:

Functional competencies:

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms;
• Develops and/or participates in the development of tools and mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies.

Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda

• Contributes to the elaboration of advocacy strategies by identifying and prioritizing audiences and communication means;

• Performs analysis of political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of institutional responses;
• Uses the opportunity to bring forward and disseminate materials for advocacy work

Client Orientation

• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Core Competencies:

• Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
• Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Masters’ Degree in Social Sciences, Public Administration, Economics, Law or any other related fields.

Experience:

• 10 years of proven experience in youth development.
• 5 years of experience in Strategy and Policy Development
• Experience working with Kuwaiti public administration is an advantage
• Experience working on youth programme development in Arab countries is an advantage
• Previous experience working with international organizations is an advantage

1. Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

? Lump Sum Amount

The financial proposal submitted shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. The financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, living allowance, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel: All envisaged travel and other related costs must be included in the financial proposal.

EVALUATION

Cumulative Analysis

Total score=Technical Score + Financial Score.

Technical Criteria weight - 70%, 700 scores maximum 

Financial Criteria weight - 30%. 300 scores maximum

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 490 from 700 point in the Technical part of evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The selection of candidates will be done in 3 stages:

1st stage: Prior to detailed evaluation, all applications will be thoroughly screened against eligibility criteria (minimum qualification requirements) as set in the TOR in order to determine whether they are compliant/non-compliant.

Shortlisting criteria
1	Masters’ Degree in Social Sciences, Public Administration, Economics, Law or any other related fields.
3	Experience in Youth Development
4	Fluency in English and Arabic

2nd stage: Evaluation of technical proposals

Short-listed candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 490 points (70%) at the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Desk review and Interview based)	Maximum obtainable points – 700;   Threshold – 490 points
10 years of proven experience in youth development	100
5 years of experience in Strategy and Policy Development	60
Experience with  Kuwaiti public administrations	50
Experience on youth program development in Arab countries is an advantage	50
Experience working with international organizations is an advantage	40
Methodology and technical proposal submitted. Good understanding of the assignment with all specific components proposed within TOR have been identified clearly and in a logical order to address ToR requirements: Excellent           100% from the score Good                  90% from the score Satisfactory      70% from the score Poor                   40% from the score               Very poor          10% from the score	400
Financial Evaluation Criteria	Maximum obtainable points – 300 (30%)

3rd stage: Financial evaluation

Cumulative analysis will be used based on the following methodology: All the offers of individual consultants who scored 490 (70% from 700) and more points during the desk review are acceptable for financial evaluation. The lowest financial qualified proposal receives 300 points and all the other technically qualified proposals receive points in inverse proportion per the formula:

Formula applied	P=y(µ/z)
P=points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y=maximum number of points for the financial proposal equal to 300
µ=the lowest priced proposal
z=price of the proposal being evaluated

The candidate achieving the highest cumulative score for both Technical and Financial evaluations will be recommended by the Evaluation Committee for contracting.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS.

Applicants are requested to compile and submit as one PDF file the below requested documents

1. Duly accomplished and signed Offeror’s letter/filled-in template to UNDP confirming interest and Breakdown of Costs Supporting the Final All-Inclusive Price as per Template. 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;
2. Complete and signed P11 form/CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate;
3. At least three (3) professional references;
4. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
5. Technical Proposal of how the consultant will carry out the required assignment, with a clear Methodology.
6. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  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. 
7. Copy of diploma/s
8. Copy of ID card (passport)

Links for the documents to be submitted:

• P11  http://www.kw.undp.org/content/dam/kuwait/documents/Procurmenet/P11%20modified%20for%20SCs%20and%20ICs.doc
• Template for Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal; http://www.kw.undp.org/content/dam/kuwait/documents/Procurmenet/Template%20for%20Confirmation%20of%20Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal.docx