National Consultant - Senior Strategic Advisor

Background

The Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme builds on the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts to introduce a citizen-centric culture of innovation in the civil service to improve public service delivery and make services more inclusive, accessible, affordable and reliable. This project is aligned with the government and a2i’s recent commendable efforts in creating digitally assisted prototype solutions to improve public services for supporting the development momentum of the country and addressing emerging development needs and challenges. This project aims to support the government in instilling those innovations and building up necessary institutional mechanisms so that efforts already made would be incentivized and scaled up to bring sustainable impact. In addition, this project intends to engage with the private sector in this journey to foster broader partnership to attune the country with changes taking place in the contemporary world.

This project will have three components:

1.         Institutionalizing Public Service Innovation and Improving Accountability

2.         Catalysing stronger e-governance mechanism

3.         Incubating inter-agency co-ordination hub for e-services.

Background of the assignment:

Over the years a2i has developed digital solutions to accelerate and strengthen protocols of public services and created many digital platforms to cater to the needs of citizens in a rapidly evolving development context. It is believed that these efforts would support the government in instilling innovation and building up the necessary institutional mechanisms so that efforts already made would be incentivized and scaled up to bring sustainable impact.

a2i has developed digital solutions to strengthen and widen the protocols of public services to cater to the pressing and emerging needs of citizens in evolving context. ekShop, Muktopaath,, HDMedia, DSDL Consultancy, ekPay are some notable solutions which have been providing some demand driven and citizen centric public services that have high potential to address society’s pressing challenges and create entrepreneurial opportunity in the context of emerging technological changes and newer business avenues. Moreover, the Covid pandemic has shown some of them are highly desirable as country’s development needs and priorities have been shifted considerably.

These interventions have developed considerable footprint in developing strategies, partnership, implementation modalities etc. As these innovations have been under the ambit of project modalities, their future visibility, sustainability and scalability remain uncertain. In this context, in order to determine the extent and smooth operation of these interventions and for establishing a2i's mission of making public services more accessible for the community while being closely connected with the private sectors, a2i going forward will be in need of a changed organizational structure, certain rational and implementable policy-oriented business models, strengthened partnerships and networking with private sector organizations so that an innovative institutional and infrastructural framework can be developed for the future and increased level of resources can be mobilized yet keeping the ethos of public services intact and elevated.

In this context, ‘Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme’ is going to recruit a National Consultant -Senior Strategic Advisor in order to support the project to conduct organizational development, propose policy-oriented business solutions for the scalability and sustainability of a2i innovations, implement impact evaluations and/or assessment on certain project interventions.

Objectives: 

The overall objectives of the assignment will be:

1. Realign and repurpose existing implementation strategies, processes and resources for making innovations scalable and sustainable.
2. Develop organisational design principles and implementation of the design interventions including change management, brand management, performance management, design and restructuring processes etc.
3. Identify avenues for resource mobilization and reduce dependence on public sector support; yet keeping public services accessible and affordable;
4. Scale up success stories nationally and internationally.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:

• Provide strategic guidance to a2i teams for identifying areas of focus and developing analytical framework and tools to examine existing practices. Besides, providing guidelines and strategic support to develop an aligned organizational structure keeping the organizational mission under consideration;
• Provide advisory support and advance level guidance to generate necessary analysis on the market potentials; structural, organization and financial dimensions for developing business models of a2i innovations;
• Analysis of institutional and administrative framework, cost structures, market potentials, revenue models, brand valuation, return on investment; and propose necessary solutions for a2i platforms/components considering their unique context and operational modalities yet, ensuring that public services are accessible and affordable to the ordinary citizens; 
• Strategic advice through which the government, its agencies and private sector can be incentivised and build partnership while reaching a consensus to share resources, identify new areas of partnerships and corporate social responsibilities; using experiences and expertise with the spirit of social responsibility;  
• Provide advisory support to senior managers and recommending efficient and cost-effective solutions for identified challenges;
• Conducting individual or group sessions for personnel and providing mentorship support to individuals;
• Strategic guidance for stakeholder engagement- both government and private sector and networking at a national and international level.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Should have very competent/outstanding writing skill in Bangla and English

Functional Competencies:

• Encourages Knowledge Sharing and Learning.
• Disseminates specialized knowledge and experience.
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client;
• Has demonstrable leadership skill;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change;
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view.

Communications and Networking:

• Has excellent communication skills in English, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of quality project reports.
• Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior and high-ranking members of national and international institutions, government and non-government.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Minimum Master’s degree in Public Administration/ International relation/ Political Science/ Social Science/ Public Policy/ Development Studies/ Business Administration or any other relevant discipline.

Experience/other qualifications:

• Minimum 15 years of work experience in the field of marketing/social enterprise/and or business strategy for various sectors.
• Prior experience of working with organizational development and corporate social responsibility.
• Prior experience of conducting training programs/mentoring individuals.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The National Consultant - Senior Strategic Advisor will be working under the supervision of the Programme Advisor of the a2i Programme. The Programme Advisor will be responsible for reviewing the performance and approve the deliverables.

Timeframe and deadlines:

The assignment will be for 18 working days over 6 months(Tentative).

Reporting authority:

The National Consultant - Senior Strategic Advisor will closely work with the Programme Advisor, Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme. Therefore, the activities of the incumbent will be regularly monitored by the Programme Advisor, Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme.

Duty Station and expected places of travel:

Dhaka with travel to any district if required for the assignment.

Tentative Payment Schedule: The incumbent will be paid on deliverable basis.

Financial Proposal:

Total lump sum:

The financial proposal 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.  To assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Payment of the Consultant as per deliverables

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel to a higher class, he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs, including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Evaluation of the Candidates: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis: The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks)

• Educational qualification. (15 Marks)
• Prior work experience of working in the field of social enterprise and business strategy development. (20 marks)
• Undertook consulting assignments and conducted training/mentoring programs. (15 marks)
• Prior Experience in a senior level position or policy level experience in organization. (10 marks)
• Publications in international and national journals (10 marks)

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

                                            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

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

• http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment and a methodology on how she/she will approach and complete the assignment.

Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided

• http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx
• Publications in international and national journals

Suppose an organization/company/institution employs an Offeror 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). In this case, the Offeror must indicate this at this point and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated into the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 

Note: The individual consultant who does not submit the above documents/requirements(Which applicable) shall not be considered for further evaluation.