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Consultant for Sustainable Urbanization, Inclusive growth/BPPS

New York City

  • Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Operations and Administrations
    • Development Cooperation and Sustainable Development Goals
    • Environment
    • Poverty Reduction
    • Infrastructure and Urban-Rural development
    • Urban Development, planning and design
    • Project and Programme Management
    • Disability Rights
    • Sustainable Growth and Growth hacking
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a continuous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the latest Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, 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.  BPPS staff provide technical advice to Country Offices; advocate for UNDP corporate messages, represent UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, and engage in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.  BPPS works closely with UNDP’s Crisis Bureau (CB) to support emergency and crisis response and recovery, including the return to sustainable development pathways.  BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP’s development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working.  BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

Through its Sustainable Urbanization Strategy and following the guidance of the new Strategic Plan, UNDP outlined its focus on sustainable, inclusive and resilient urban development. With its established capacity on global, regional and local levels, UNDP recognizes the crucial importance of development imperative to “leave no one behind” and stands ready to address multi-dimensional challenges connected with rapid urbanisation: urban poverty, spatial inequality, peace and security, urban climate resilience and disaster risks.

In view to this, UNDP is seeking to recruit a consultant to support its work on sustainable, inclusive, resilient and peaceful urbanization. Reporting to the Policy Advisor on Cities and Urbanization, the consultant will support the development of integrated tools, programming approaches and methods to support cities and urban areas around the world to achieve priorities for sustainable, resilient and inclusive urbanization in the most effective means possible.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant is expected to focus on the deliverables below:

Deliverables

Timeframe

(1) Support the consolidation of UNDP’s integrated offer on urbanization through scoping all/major UNDP initiatives on the subject matter, particularly to:

1.1 Identify and analyze relevant country cases where UNDP has an active portfolio, detailing programmatic approach, resources mobilized, partners involved, and results delivered/expected.

1.2 Identify the ecosystem of partners and how they are acting on sustainable urbanization (specifically on inclusive smart cities) globally and regionally, indicating how UNDP could (within its mandate, expertise, and ability to provide value) engage with these partners.

1.3 Identify and analyze efforts leveraging innovative approaches or technologies to generate resources for financing for development for sustainable urbanization, reviewing approaches and methodologies, partners, impact, and the requisites for getting them off the ground.

1.4 Scope the emerging trends in sustainable urbanization in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and help assess their opportunities and challenges.

Aug-November 2020

(2) Review UNDP’s mapping of its footprint on urbanization projects across regions; and analyze emerging entry points on areas for programmatic support to UNDP country offices.

Jul-Sept 2020

(3) Identify and prepare the consolidated profiles of best practices adopted by city leaders and local governments through the research of policy recommendations that enable the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a special focus on Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, in urban environments.

Nov-January 2020

(4) Support the enhancement of the City2City.Network platform by providing peer review support and sourcing information to the platform based on:

4.1 Feed with research on the key areas of sustainable urbanization to post relevant content (such as news articles, research publications, scheduled events and programming, and video content) on the platform

4.2   Preparing an outreach strategy to promote the platform, working with the Communications team

4.3   Preparing a monthly newsletter for the stakeholders, providing key updates, stories, resources, and opportunities among others

Aug-October 2020

(5) Support the development of a tracker of policy interventions of cities and Covid-19

5.1   Help to liaise with research partners

5.2   Help with the development of the framework of indicators

5.3   Consolidate policy responses

Dec2020 – 31 Mar 21

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

  • Strategic vision, sound judgment, strong technical skills and analytical capacities.
  • Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies

  • Strong research, analytical, writing and editing skills, with track record in producing development research, articles and other material in English, particularly on urbanization.
  • Demonstrated understanding of international development issues, especially in the areas of New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
  • Excellent organizational and time management skills, attention to detail and proven ability to work independently under tight deadlines.
  • Proficiency in the usage of computers and office software packages
  • Strong verbal and writing communications skills in English.

Leadership and Self-Management

  • Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
  • Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling ethical standards;
  • Excellent inter-personal skills

Knowledge Management and Learning

  • Shares knowledge and experience

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

  • At least an advanced university degree in public policy, international development, economics, natural sciences, international relations, public administration or relevant field is required.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 3 years of experience on international development, preferably working on SDGs, cities and urbanization issues; required
  • Analytical and qualitative work experience to collect, monitor and analyze data and trends, with demonstrated experience in conducting research; desired.
  • Knowledge of and experience working on the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development required;
  • Demonstrated competence in managing online knowledge platforms and producing newsletters required;
  • Experience in organizing high-level events; desired and

Language:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

  •  A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
  • Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
  • As part of the application package, applicants are asked to provide response to the following three questions below:
  1. What’s your experience working with the 2030 Agenda? What do you think would be the biggest challenges for cities and urban areas to meet the 2030 Agenda? (Max. 500 words)
  2. Among the megatrends disrupting international development, which one is the most important in your opinion and why? (Max. 500 words)
  3. Tell us about your experience that you are most proud of professionally or academically and why? (Max. 500 words)

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

  • The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7-hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
  • The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; (excluding mission travel); travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel, living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
  • In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should 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.
  •  If the 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 a 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.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

  •  Criteria 1. Criteria No. 1 Relevance of the demonstrated experience in analytical and qualitative work to collect, monitor and analyze data and trends, with evidence of independently authored published / unpublished reports, articles or paper (Maximum Points 20 points)
  • Criteria 2. Experience in organizing high-level events; (Maximum Points 10 points) – this could include conferences, workshops, meetings, webinars, and trainings. 
  • Criteria 3. Understanding of sustainable urbanization issues as demonstrated by the answers to three application questions (Maximum Points 25 points)
  • Criteria 4. Experience working in developing country context (Maximum Points 15 points)

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Policy Advisor on Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development, UNDP BPPS and will be responsible for the fulfillment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

  •  Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
  • Payments will be made upon satisfactory achieved deliverables and submission of time sheet in accordance with number of days worked and certification of payment. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor. The contract price is fixed regardless of changes in the cost of components.
  • The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily

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

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.

Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Deliverables

Timeframe

(1) Support the consolidation of UNDP’s integrated offer on urbanization through scoping all/major UNDP initiatives on the subject matter, particularly to:

1.1 Identify and analyze relevant country cases where UNDP has an active portfolio, detailing programmatic approach, resources mobilized, partners involved, and results delivered/expected.

1.2 Identify the ecosystem of partners and how they are acting on sustainable urbanization (specifically on inclusive smart cities) globally and regionally, indicating how UNDP could (within its mandate, expertise, and ability to provide value) engage with these partners.

1.3 Identify and analyze efforts leveraging innovative approaches or technologies to generate resources for financing for development for sustainable urbanization, reviewing approaches and methodologies, partners, impact, and the requisites for getting them off the ground.

1.4 Scope the emerging trends in sustainable urbanization in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and help assess their opportunities and challenges.

Aug-November 2020

(2) Review UNDP’s mapping of its footprint on urbanization projects across regions; and analyze emerging entry points on areas for programmatic support to UNDP country offices.

Jul-Sept 2020

(3) Identify and prepare the consolidated profiles of best practices adopted by city leaders and local governments through the research of policy recommendations that enable the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a special focus on Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, in urban environments.

Nov-January 2020

(4) Support the enhancement of the City2City.Network platform by providing peer review support and sourcing information to the platform based on:

4.1 Feed with research on the key areas of sustainable urbanization to post relevant content (such as news articles, research publications, scheduled events and programming, and video content) on the platform

4.2   Preparing an outreach strategy to promote the platform, working with the Communications team

4.3   Preparing a monthly newsletter for the stakeholders, providing key updates, stories, resources, and opportunities among others

Aug-October 2020

(5) Support the development of a tracker of policy interventions of cities and Covid-19

5.1   Help to liaise with research partners

5.2   Help with the development of the framework of indicators

5.3   Consolidate policy responses

Dec2020 – 31 Mar 21

This vacancy is now closed.
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