Advisor, Sustainable and Digital Agriculture

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Application deadline 3 years ago: Monday 26 Oct 2020 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

The UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development (the ‘Global Centre’) aims to identify, co-design and share innovative and technological solutions for sustainable development through catalysing new insights, partnerships and action on the ground in the countries where UNDP works. Our initial areas of focus are: Sustainable and Digital Agriculture, Sustainable Finance, and Smart Cities and Digitalisation. We aim to leverage expertise in Singapore, as well as across the network of 60+ new UNDP Accelerator Labs, and from experts and partners around the globe.

The Global Centre is a joint initiative of the Singapore Government and UNDP, currently being led by a small team that is focused on programme and partnership development – both with the public and private sector in Singapore and international partners, including the above UNDP network. Singapore Government partners include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Public Service Division (PSD).

The Sustainable and Digital Agriculture team is focusing on supporting Singapore’s 30 by 30 agenda, and supporting developing countries all around the world to adopt cutting edge technologies aiming at improving productivity, efficiency, resilience and sustainability of the agriculture and food sector, resulting in improving food security.

In November 2019, the Cultiv@te programme was launched, a global innovation initiative that aims to find bright minds and creative entrepreneurs, startups and R&D teams from around the world to solve challenges in agriculture. After a call for applications over 15 weeks, we selected 31 teams to work with 11 countries to pilot these technologies and innovations on the ground.

Other than Cultiv@te, the Global Centre aims to promote the adoption of digital farming technologies in developing countries and explore opportunities in the areas of food traceability, food loss and waste management and urban farming. The team is thus focused on designing and implementing initiatives that drive these objectives and fostering partnerships that can support them.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will be responsible for the following:

Lead the Centre’s workstream in Sustainable and Digital Agriculture

  • Continuously scan for and map existing and new innovations in the agricultural system at the pre-production, production, post-production and consumer stage, that are relevant to developing countries;
  • Lead the designing and implementation of existing and promising initiatives that are relevant to this worksteam;
  • Finalise the workstream’s strategy for 2021 and beyond, building off the Centre’s achievements and plans
  • Ensure continued funding for this workstream, including from non-Singapore government sources;
  • Provide advisory services to UNDP Country Offices, regional hubs and headquarters;
  • Liaise with relevant agencies in the Government of Singapore and other partner governments;
  • Drive partnership development in the agri-food tech space through identifying partnership opportunities and establishing partnerships with public and private institutions within and outside of the UN network, including the FAO and UNDP Country Offices;
  • Further integrate the work of this workstream together with the Smart Cities and Sustainable Finance agenda.
  • Provide overall support to the Director in furtherance of the aims of the Centre.

Implementation and closure of Cultiv@te initiative

  • Ensure continuation and smooth implementation of the Cultiv@te initiative;
  • Manage implementation of pilots to the top Cultiv@te startups;
  • Shape any follow-up activities building off the work of Cultiv@te into 2021;
  • Oversee the Monitoring and Evaluation of Cultiv@te upon its finalisation;
  • Ensure visibility of results within UNDP system.

Implementation of precision agriculture pilots

  • Promote application of precision agriculture and other digital farming solutions in developing countries;
  • Oversee the development and finalisation of a knowledge product on precision agriculture with consultant;
  • Connect with relevant UNDP Country Offices to support pilots related to precision agriculture, using the guidance shared in the above knowledge product.

Design and promote food loss and waste management project

  • Identify key stakeholders in government and private sector;
  • Design food loss and waste management initiatives in close cooperation with UNDP Country Offices;
  • Work closely with Resource Mobilisation Advisor to raise funds for the implementation of selected initiatives.

Implementation of blockchain traceability pilots

  • Introduce and pilot food traceability project with relevant UNDP Country Offices;
  • Promote the recently developed knowledge product on the use of blockchain for food traceability;
  • Provide advisory services to Country Offices in the area of blockchain for traceability.

Oversee all outreach and awareness raising activities for the workstream

  • Lead thematic activities and partnership engagements (as assigned by the Director);
  • Draft think pieces, articles, news items, speeches, blogs and other knowledge products;
  • Represent the GCTISD as a participant/speaker in relevant events;
  • Finalise the development and lead promotional activities for the Digital Feed series;
  • Design and management of thematic events (incl. speaker identification, outreach, agenda design, facilitation, etc.) involving researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, non- governmental representatives, government and other relevant stakeholders;
  • Prepare updates, progress and financial reports for internal and external use.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

  • Deliverable 1 – Successful implementation of forward-looking strategy and agenda
  • Deliverable 2 – Successful implementation and closure of Cultiv@te initiative

  • Deliverable 3 – Successful implementation of precision agriculture pilots

  • Deliverable 4 – Design of food loss and waste management initiatives
  • Deliverable 5 – Successful implementation of blockchain traceability pilots
  • Deliverable 6 – Successful implementation of outreach and awareness raising activities

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGMENT/ REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

The Consultant will report to the Director, UNDP GCTISD.

DURATION OF THE WORK

The Consultant will deliver the outputs within the period from 16 November 2020 to 15 November 2021.

DUTY STATION

This consultancy will be based in Singapore, with possible travel to field locations (field travel to be covered by UNDP). The Consultant will be required to use her/ his own computer.

Competencies

CORE COMPETENCIES

Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrates commitment to the UN’s values and ethical standards
  • Demonstrates and promotes the highest standard of integrity, impartiality, fairness and incorruptibility in all matters affecting his/her work and status.

    Organisational Awareness:

  • Promotes the mission, vision and strategic goals of UNDP;

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment understands the structure and hierarchy of UN/UNDP, process flows throughout the organization, products and services, their measures of effectiveness, and perceptions of clients;
  • Excellent knowledge of development issues and internationally agreed development goals;

    Working in Teams:

  • Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork;

  • Works collaboratively with colleagues inside UN/UNDP as well as its partners and other stakeholders to pursue common goals.
  • Ability to work at ease in a multicultural setting.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
  • Delivers verbal/written information in a timely, clear, organized and easily understood manner;
  • Strong communication skills and the ability to listen and take direction and leadership from others.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Master’s Degree of Bachelos’s Degree in economics, environmental studies, agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, or related fields.

Experience

  • At least 7 years’ experience (with Master’s Degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor’s Degree) in project management for international development related initiatives (required);
  • At least 5 years of experience in managing agriculture or food related projects (required);
  • Demonstrated progressively responsible professional experience in designing and managing programmes as well as demonstrated substance knowledge on the following (required):
    • sustainable agriculture practices and their nexus with energy, food, poverty and water issues;
    • agriculture technology and innovation;
    • challenges and opportunities for agriculture in developing country contexts (globally).
  • Experience leading on strategy development and team management (required);
  • Professional experience in consulting/advisory, product development, solution design, technology innovation, start-up finance or business development function (desirable);
  • Research/publication/writing expertise on technology/innovation and relevant megatrends (desired);
  • Knowledge of the UN system (desired);
  • Knowledge and practical application of the following relevant themes and concepts is an added advantage: circular economy, climate change adaptation, ecosystem services, green economy, urban agriculture, innovative farming/aquaculture methods, value-chains, nutrition, food systems, inclusive growth and needs of small holder farmers, etc. (desired);

Language

  • Excellent English writing and presentation skills are required; Working knowledge of another UN language is considered an asset.

Important Note:

The Contractor is required to have the aforementioned professional and technical qualifications**. Only the applicants who hold these qualifications** will be shortlisted and contacted.

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 weigh 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

The technical evaluation will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Experience managing agriculture or food related projects (20 pts)
  • Demonstrated progressively responsible professional experience in designing and managing programmes as well as demonstrated substance knowledge i) sustainable agriculture/aquaculture practices and their nexus with energy, food, poverty and water issues; ii) agriculture/aquaculture technology and innovation; and iii) challenges and opportunities for agriculture/aquaculture in developing country contexts (20 pts)
  • Experience leading on strategy development and team management (5 pts)
  • Professional experience in consulting/advisory, product development, solution design, technology innovation, start-up finance or business development function (5 pts)
  • Interview (20 pts)

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 a contract with UNDP.

Payment Modality

Payment to the Contractor will be made according to number of days worked and successful implementation of deliverables.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Proposal:

1. Financial proposal and availability form: Offeror's Letter to UNDP

2. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).

Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org