Consultant: Digital Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) & Household Building Damage Assessment (HBDA) Information Management Support-LAC region/UNDP/CB

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the support of IMPACT Initiatives has developed the Household and Building Damage Assessment (HBDA) toolkit to facilitate the assessment of buildings and infrastructure affected by crises, as well as assess a series of basic socio-economic indicators in Health, Food Security, Education, and WASH at the household level. The HBDA allows prompt collection of digital and georeferenced data on damages in order to inform government prioritization for recovery planning.

Based on the past experiences of UNDP implementing the HBDA in disasters contexts in the Caribbean and in Albania, UNDP and Impact developed a digital needs assessment toolbox to serve in diverse contexts. The rapid geographic and demographic spread of the COVID 19 worldwide is causing a ripple effect on health and economic systems that include trade restrictions, limited mobility of people and goods, slowdown in production in those countries where the virus has a high incidence. Assessments of socio-economic impact of the COVID are thus important for governments to identify urgent and medium to long-term measures to mitigate the impact and support recovery.

UNDP is adapting the HBDA toolkit to be used to run digital assessments on socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on households and micro and small enterprises. The adaptation has produced a digital Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) tool. Similar to the HBDA, the SEIA tool uses KoBoToolbox, an open source for digital data collection, and Microsoft Power BI to analyze and visualize the data from the assessment. The SEIA uses also Microsoft Teams and other MS Office Products such us (MS Excel) for logistics, operations and team management.

This assessment will be implemented in several UNDP country offices in close coordination with national and international partners.  It is likely that digital SEIA will reach a regional and global coverage, giving a unique experience to the experts to work a large-scale implementation and help to understand the impact of COVID-19.

To support a rapid SEIA and HBDA roll out in many country offices at the same time, UNDP is setting up a virtual support cell with experts that can provide remote technical support to UNDP country offices and partners in setting up and implementing digital SEIA. The cell will include experts on information management, digital data collection tools (e.g. Kobo toolbox), data analysis and visualization, assessment design, GIS, among others. The virtual support cell will be coordinated by the Crisis Bureau and will provide online support with its team members working from home. In this relation the Crisis Bureau is seeking to engage information management consultants to support the rollout of the SEIA and HBDA at country level.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Information Management consultant will provide remote (online) technical support required to the design and implementation of the SEIA and HBDA at country level in the RBLAC region. This includes creation and management of data collection tools in Kobo, data cleaning and management techniques, and lead data visualization and GIS tasks. The experts will work under the overall guidance of the UNDP Crisis Bureau and get hands on presentation and training onboarding and take over the already developed tools and documents.

The consultants will be integrated in the Remote Support Unit (RSU) under the overall supervision of the Programme Specialist in the Country Support Management Team (CSMT) of the Crisis Bureau and will be coordinated by the digital assessment specialist in the CSMT. The virtual support cell will also collaborate with relevant units within UNDP, for example the experts from the Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT).

Expected outputs and deliverables:

• The consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs in collaboration with the Crisis Bureau digital assessment specialist and UNDP country offices in the RBLAC region:
• Operate on data export, conversion, cleaning and export in different formats from CSV, excel based data;
• Ensure technical standardization (e.g. promotion of CODs and data standards), including evaluation of UID logic and any potential linkages to pre-existing infrastructure data;
• Support design of data collection tools, especially for mobile data collection, sampling frameworks, data storage systems, and analytical products;
• Monitor quality of data collected, perform data cleaning activities, log any changes to the dataset on the cleaning log, ensure regular updates on data quality in collaboration with the Assessment Officer;
• Support analysis/ generating data visualization products, including dashboards, infographics, and maps, especially using Power BI;
• Perform GIS/ Satellite imagery analysis, identify map information needs, ensure accurate linkages between spatial databases and assessment data; production of GIS-based information products;
• Assist on preparing the data reports to handover data, methodology, logistics arrangement to the government and any other national or international partner involved in the assessment.
• Provide quick turnaround information management assistance to clients from UNDP country offices concerning the design and implementation of digital assessments;
• Coordinate technical support on digital assessments for UNDP country offices in Latin America and the Caribbean;
• Support training development and delivery on Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) and Household and Building Damage Assessment (HBDA) toolkits;
• Promote the use of digital assessment tools at the national, regional, and global level;
• Provide assistance to the Partnerships team in identifying, scoping, and facilitating partnerships;
• Support country offices in designing and implementing HBDAs in close collaboration with UNDP thematic leads at the regional and global level.
• Any other tasks as required by the CSMT at Crisis Bureau.

Competencies

Professional Competencies

Professionalism:

Ability to plan own work and manage conflicting priorities.  Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.

Communication:

Speaks and writes clearly and effectively and demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Teamwork: 

Works collaboratively with UN colleagues and partners to achieve deliverables for assessment.

Planning& Organizing: 

Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed work deliverables for the assignment; identifies priority activities and allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; uses time efficiently.

Accountability:

Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honours commitments; delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules.

Technical Competencies

Proven experience of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis for research and applied work necessary, experience in international development projects an asset;

Excellent command on data analysis and visualization software and other digital tools, with a focus on socio-economic analysis, strong command of innovative analytical tools, for example of big data and other digital data sources an asset;

Sound knowledge of socio-economic policy measures in developing countries context required, knowledge of specific measures for crisis recovery an asset;

Working with multiple partners:

Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment and cultivate productive relationships with Government and other partners.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) on Information Technology, Geography/GIS or related disciplines is required.

Experience:

• A minimum of three years of on information management for assessment design, implementation, data analysis and visualization is required;
• Experience in the use of Kobo toolbox or similar digital data collection/assessment tools required;
• Experience GIS applied to in humanitarian and development contexts is an advantage;
• Experience in post-disaster/conflict contexts an asset;

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken is required;
• Proficiency in Spanish is an advantage

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.

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); 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.
• This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel.
• 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. Relevance of experience in information management for assessment design, implementation, data analysis and visualization Weight = 25 %; Maximum Points: 25;
• Criteria 2. Relevance of experience in the use of Kobo toolbox or similar digital data collection/assessment tools Weight = 25 %; Maximum Points: 25;
• Criteria 3. Relevant work experience with GIS applied to humanitarian and development context and experience in post-disaster and conflict contexts. Weight = 20 %; Maximum Points: 20; and

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 Programme Specialist in the Country Support Management Team (CSMT), Crisis Bureau UNDP and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

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.
• 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