Individual Consultant – Project Coordinator

Background

UNDP strives to have a workforce, which reflects diversity and gender balance, and applies an equal opportunities approach. UNDP does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS status. All selections are on merit.

Background:

The DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission) is the flagship program of Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India relaunched in 2016 for promoting poverty reduction by building strong institutions of the poor, particularly women. The programme creates and enables community owned institutions of women to empower and make them economically self-reliant by improving their agency to access a range of livelihood and financial services and maximize their resources for creating sustainable livelihood opportunities. 

The state governments are mandated to set up dedicated Mission Management Units at the state, district and village/community level for the effective implementation of the NRLM scheme.  The mission provides regular hand-holding support to SHG/federations for a period of 5-7 years.  At the end of a fully implementation cycle the SHGs/federations are well prepared to become resource institutions at the community level for providing evidence and support to other social initiatives. 

Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (KSRLPS)

The State Government is implementing DAY-NRLM scheme in phases through Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society in the name of “Sanjeevini”. The mission statement of KSRLPS is: “To reduce rural poverty by providing gainful wage and self-employment opportunities through community institutions resulting in sustainable improvement in their livelihoods”.

Sanjeevini is a community driven and process-oriented programme. The processes include different activities such as awareness building, social mobilization, development of Community Resource persons (CRPs). Formation of CBOs, strengthening SHGs/ CBOs/federations/Livelihood Collectives, establishment of linkages and promotion of livelihoods. The conventional methods of monitoring focuses on physical, financial and logistic aspects of projects, but do not capture the processes of community perception, satisfaction with project services, inclusion and institutional dynamics. As the community processes do not conform to pre-set rules, deadlines, targets or blue print approaches, a responsive and adaptive implementation is necessary.

It is in this context that the State government of Karnataka has partnered with UNDP to implement The National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) in Karnataka. NRETP proposes to implement higher order economic activities which are cross cutting in nature, for instance, the project design envisages that there will be an organic link between the model Cluster Level Federation (CLFs) and financial inclusion strategies, insurance and pension schemes, producer groups and organisations, product marketing and enterprise development. The financial inclusion strategy will also have a key role in financing of farm and non-farm enterprises.  UNDP will be uniquely positioned to quickly transfer the technical know-how gained at the national and state level working across the country.  The state SMMU will be fully synchronized with the National level team working at the centre, important for better alignment of state priorities with those of the national programme while formulating the State specific poverty reduction action plans.

Under the scheme, UNDP is looking for an Individual Consultant - Project Coordinator to undertake the activities as provided below. The incumbent will be based at UNDP office and will perform duties under the direct supervision of UNDP state project head and State Outreach / Inclusive Growth Unit in Country Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support in facilitation of the project activities of NRETP Project 
• Support in liaising with NRETP State, district and block management unit at KSRLPS
• Assist in shortlisting, Interview and selection process of the Individual Consultants for the project.
• Assist in on boarding the consultants at the state, districts, and block level.
• Assist in developing adequate induction, orientation and training for the New Joiners.  
• Processing monthly consultant’s fees/salaries, leave and personnel management.
• Assist in periodical progress review and update the supervisor and KSRLPS.

• Assist in preparing monthly and progress reports
• Assist in the planning of activities as per the Annual Work Plan for the project.
• Provide concurrent research, coordination and documentation support for development of knowledge products, communication collaterals, progress report etc,
• Preparing knowledge management materials including best practices, case studies, process documents etc.,
• Assist in conducting workshops / conference, stakeholder meeting etc,
• Support in preparation of ToRs for different tasks to be undertaken in the project, including team evaluation reports
• Provides complete support to secretarial work through management of project documents, concept notes and other correspondence notes.
• Preparation of various compliance reports for the UNDP ERP System.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the State Project Head, UNDP.
• Operate ERP based Financial Accounting System for preparation of vouchers for the project (including the processing of vendor creation and settling of travel claims),maintenance of the internal expenditure control system, creation of requisitions in the system, making budget checks in the system
• Responsible for processing payments including the salary of consultants hired under the project.
• Ensure strategic resource management, including planning and tracking of available resources and monitoring of expenditure as per approved project work plan and budget.
• Collate and process financial reports into project wise quarterly financial reports against project advances.
• Perform financial duties as requested by the project manager.

Competencies

• Manage project files, documents, concept notes, correspondence and various communications as required by the authorities
• Excellent written and oral Communication skills in English and Kannada.
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Knowledge of Computer skills including Internet and Office.
• Promotes and enforces ethics and integrity and creates precedence in good practice.
• Demonstrates Central, State and corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Self-development, ability to take initiative, adopts a corporate approach to complex situations.
• Creates and promotes an enabling environment for open communication

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:

A Master’s degree in Human Resource/ Public Policy /Social Work / Public Administration/ Statistics /Finance/ Economics/Business Economics/ Commerce/ Accounts/Business Administration.

Experience:

• Minimum 3+ years of experience in the social development sector
• Experience in handling youth/women livelihood projects with good reporting skills
• Experience of working on the government funded projects is highly desirable.
• Experience in the field of HR/administration/procurement/communication are preferable.

Duration of The Work:

The contract will be awarded for one year initially.

Languages Required: Fluency in English and Kannada– spoken, read and write for all official communication is essential.

Official Travel

In case of official journey within/outside the state, candidates will be entitled to get reimbursement.   

SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Consolidated annual consultancy fees (Remuneration) of INR 8,40,000/-payable in equal monthly instalments of INR 70,000/- upon submission of monthly progress report certified by the reporting officer.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

• Contract will be administered by UNDP.
• The consultant will be report to the UNDP focal point,
• Consultant will be entitled for 2 days leave per month (non encashable). The accumulated leaves will be forfeited on the termination/further extension of the contract period

Documentation Required

Personal CV indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and atleast 3 professional references.

Evaluation Method and criteria

Preliminary shortlisting would be done based on the following criteria:

• Educational Qualification 30 marks.
• Relevant Experience 40 marks.
• Interview for 30 marks

Those who obtain a minimum 70% of total 70 marks (Educational Qualification & Relevant Experience) will be eligible to appear for the interview. 

Interview for the shortlisted candidates would be either conducted face to face in Bangalore or by telephone/over skype.

The contract shall be awarded on the merit basis.

Note: Please ensure that all the documents to be uploaded should be combined in a single PDF file before uploading as the system has provision of uploading only one document.

General Conditions for Individual Contract-http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/procurement/UNDP%20General%20Conditions%20for%20Individual%20Contracts.pdf 

For any clarifications, please write to: ic.india@undp.org 

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.