Individual Consultant - Data Acquisition/ Registers

Background

Saudi Arabia has made remarkable progress along the socio-economic development path. As a result of this, the Kingdom has been able to move to a high-income country. The ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabia beneath the Vision 2030 plan is unlocking new possibilities at an extraordinary pace. The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) is the statistical reference for Saudi Arabia's socio-economic development. GASTAT provides comprehensive, reliable, up-to-date statistics and value-added services in line with international standards and takes the lead in developing a modern statistical sector in order to support decision-making. GASTAT is working on building an economic database platform, which aims to provide and develop a unified national economic database at the kingdom level. Showing through it the statistical data in the fields of commerce and industry, and that is through linking the data sources relevant to these fields, either from governmental entities or statistical products which are issued by GASTAT.

Population and housing census and Establishment Census play a significant role in any statistical office. However, there are different ways to conduct them, one is through a traditional way, by sending a huge number of field researchers to interview respondents, and the other is through the administrative register. Keeping in mind the fast development in the e-governance sector, Saudi Arabia has planned its 2030 Census to be register-based. Therefore, a new Register department was established with a focus on building three registers (1) Population register (2) Housing Register and (3) Business register

The first two registers are currently in their very early stages. However, the business register is getting close to being mature and in fact been used to draw a sample for some business surveys.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Registers Development Specialist will provide technical assistance related to building the three registers. The Registers Development Specialist will also implement capacity strengthening activities, including training and mentoring, He/ She will work under the supervision of the Manager for Register. Specifically, the responsibilities under this assignment include the following:      

1. Technical support:

1. Review and present the status of all registers and define the scope of work to bring each of the registers to the internationally accepted standards.
2. Review the high-level conceptual data model for the registers and propose changes if necessary and review the variables and define a suitable definition per variable of each register.
3. Support in transforming administrative registers into statistical registers and develop a maintenance plan per each register 
4. Review the methodology of linking data, proposes changes if necessary, and support in filling Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the relevant counterparts.
5. Develop conceptual Quality assessments methodology and support GSTAT on the implementation of the Quality assessments for all registers.

1. Capacity Development

In addition to delivering the abovementioned technical support, the Registers Development Specialist will advise on principles and best practices in relation to the registers’ methodologies and frameworks through:

1. Delivering training to the registers department staff in building and maintaining Registers databases
2. Providing coaching and on-the-job-training as needed

Institutional Arrangement

1. The duty station for the Registers Development Specialist is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
2. Reporting and follow-up Mechanism:

The Registers Development Specialist will be supervised by the Director of the Register department in GSTAT and the UNDP’s Chief Technical Advisor. The Registers Development Specialist will submit monthly reports to his/her supervisor including activities, outputs, performance indicators, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

1. The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

1. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
2. A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
3. Completed financial proposal form,  the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall consider various expenses incurred by the consultant while fulfilling its mission (e.g. transportation cost…).
4. The Professional Certificates mentioned above.

1. EVALUATION

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Technical Criteria (CV review and Desk Review/Interview optional) – maximum 70 points. Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the CV desk review (who will score at least 49 points) will be considered for the next stage of evaluation, i.e. financial evaluation.

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Advanced degree, preferably PhD level in statistics, or data management with an emphasis on official statistics
• A proven 7 years of direct experience registers/related statistics at national statistics offices, international organisations, or governments in applying statistical theories and techniques.
• Ability to provide statistical technical advice on different sectors/theme.
•  Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team and to work under pressure.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to establish strong cooperative relationships with senior government officials.
• Ability to work on any of the statistical packages to analyze data.
• Good understanding and practice of capacity development.
• Knowledge and experience in localizing and mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate the 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

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described. 

Given the volume of applications that UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.

UNDP reserves the right to reject any incomplete applications.

Please be informed that we don’t accept applications submitted via email.

Interested Offerors are required to submit an application via UNDP Jobsite system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP Jobsite system. Please note that UNDP Jobsite system allows only one uploading of application documents, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your online application submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an email acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload a maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email mohammed.abbas@undp.org with a copy to  and Nora Alzahid nora.alzahid@undp.org  While the Procurement Unit would endeavour to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 3 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice

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.

In view of the volume of applications UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.

1. Approval

This TOR is approved by: [indicate name of Approving Manager]

Signature                                                                                    

Name and Designation                                                               

Date of Signing                                                                            

The interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at 

https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=95193   

Min. Academic Education

• Advanced degree, preferably PhD level in statistics, or data management with an emphasis on official statistics

Min. years of relevant Work experience

• A proven 7 years of direct experience registers/related statistics at national statistics offices, international organisations, or governments in applying statistical theories and techniques.
• At least participated in one register-based census. Or developed at least one statistical register.
• Professional experience in Data management/ data processing
• Working experience in Registers Development with  National Statistics Authority (s).

Weight Per Technical Competence

5 (outstanding): 96% - 100%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated an OUTSTANDING capacity for the analyzed competence.

4 (Very good): 86% - 95%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a VERY GOOD capacity for the analyzed competence.

3 (Good): 76% - 85%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a GOOD capacity for the analyzed competence.

2 (Satisfactory): 70% - 75%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a SATISFACTORY capacity for the analyzed competence.

1 (Weak): Below 70%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a WEAK capacity for the analyzed competence.