COVID Initiative Coordinator

Consultant Crisis & Emergency Response

Overview

Drive forward initiatives for COVID-19 response in insurance and risk finance.

You have:

• Advanced university degree (Master's Degree or above) in insurance and development, international development, public finance, economics, risk management or other relevant disciplines is required.
• At least 3 years of relevant professional experience in insurance and development, development finance, investment, climate change, disaster risk management, and/or relevant fields is required.
• Demonstrable work experience with the insurance industry, particularly related to healthcare insurance and pandemic response is highly desirable.
• Project development experience from conception through to delivery, including an understanding of related key areas such as financing, communications, partnership development is preferable.
• Experience with Multilateral Development Banks, Financial Institutions, Foundations, UN agencies is an advantage.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset.

Contract

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

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a global organization with 17,000 staff working in approximately 170 offices globally towards supporting governments in developing strong policies, institutions and partnerships to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

UNDP's policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan. Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan.

In order to streamline its financial and investment engagement, UNDP launched the Finance Sector Hub, a finance and innovation platform, that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to support the mobilization and leveraging of resources for the SDGs and lead the implementation of the new UNDP private sector strategy and other initiatives. The Hub is an integral part of both the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), as well as part of the GPN.

The Finance Sector Hub team in Geneva works across a range of work relevant to financing and investment for the SDGs, with strong links to financial, private and institutional sectors across Europe. In particular, it leads on UNDP’s work in insurance and risk financing as well as delivers initiatives that target the ecosystems of investment actors across Europe.

UNDP’s Work on Insurance and Risk Financing

The collaboration between the insurance industry and the development sector has grown significantly over the last five years. Key initiatives, such as the Insurance Development Forum, InsuResilience Global Partnership and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, have evolved into significant policy and standard setting partnerships, bringing together countries, the development sector, and the private and mutual/cooperative sectors of industry. Increasingly, these partnerships are moving beyond policy to programming, with a strong focus on not only delivering insurance and risk financing solutions to countries and communities, but also on long-term transformational change of insurance markets.

UNDP’s growing work in this space has led to the creation of a flagship initiative on insurance and risk finance, and the creation of a dedicated facility for supporting UNDP Country Offices and country partners worldwide, within the newly created Finance Sector Hub. This work covers a range of critical areas where insurance and risk transfer solutions and collaboration with the industry can add significantly to achieving and delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) Covering inclusive insurance, sovereign risk financing, insurance investments, natural capital, health, SME development and more, UNDP will work towards developing and delivering insurance solutions together with countries and communities, as well as collaborating with partners to transform insurance markets through enhancing legislation, regulation and institutional capacity.

UNDP’s dedicated team working on insurance, risk and resilience financing, is now being enhanced with additional capacity to deliver on the promise and commitment at the core of this flagship initiative.

The COVID Importance

COVID-19 Represents a massive challenge for developing countries. The outbreak continues to manifest itself like a disaster, which, like a disaster, not only directly impacts particular geographies, sectors and people, but does so by exploiting state vulnerabilities and individual vulnerabilities. In many countries the subsequent impact on livelihoods, governance, and economic stability is still being understood; what we know is that the impact in developing countries will be lengthy and deep. Clearly, COVID-19 will be a critical context of development, now and well into the future.

Insurance and Risk Finance offer much in the face of such cascading impact, not only through specific risk finance and insurance products but also the tools and services that are available alongside those products. UNDP is working with its partners to develop a range of short-term measures and long-term product development, integration of pandemic risk into development, and building/applying the evidence to make change. There is an urgent need for someone to help the team with coordinating and driving forward these initiatives in development, making connections, developing initiatives further, seeking partnerships, sourcing financing.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP seeks to engage an Individual Contractor (IC) who can help its Insurance and Risk Finance team drive forward a number of ambitious pitches for turning the challenge of a world turned upside by COVID-19, into new ways of thinking and working through issues of risk, finance, insurance and development. Five ambitious ideas are being developed by the team, and the successful consultant will be asked to, over a period of six months, to support the team in developing the following activities related to COVID-19 response:

• Inclusive Digital-Based Health Insurance for Sub-Saharan Africa
• SME Business Continuity Insurance.
• Local Insurance Provider (Credit Union and MFI) Liquidity
• Pandemic risk analysis and secondary impact modelling
• Insurance industry investment into critical health infrastructure

The IC will, working with the UNDP Insurance and Risk Finance team, assist in developing these initiatives through a set of five interconnected activities, some of which have already been completed or are in development.

The contractor will be under the overall supervision and guidance of the Special Advisor: SDG Finance Sector Hub, Geneva Office and work closely with the rest of the UNDP Insurance and Risk Finance Facility. They will also interact with other members of the UNDP SDG Finance Sector Hub team and others across UNDP and beyond UNDP as required.

Expected Outputs/Deliverables:

The IC will be responsible for the following deliverables for each of the 5 initiatives through the same standardized 5 activities:

• A roadmap for developing the COVID-19 response initiative.
• Concept notes to articulate the background, rationale and working parts of the COVID-19 response initiative.
• A supporting blog/article to raise awareness about the COVID-19 response initiative
• Convening a group of experts in the area of work to further refine and stress test the COVID-19 initiative
• Setting up a public webinar to discuss, critique and advance the COVID-19 response initiative

The IC is expected to liaise directly with UNDP’s partners across the insurance and risk finance space, not only bilaterally through both the private sector and mutual sector, but also key partnership groups such as the Insurance Development Forum, InsuResilience etc. They will also be expected to work closely with other parts of the Finance Sector Hub, as well as key UNDP teams across health, DRR etc. The IC is also expected to convene meetings, bring partners together, and broadly advocacy for wider engagement with UNDP’s work.

Competencies

Corporate:

• 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.

Organizational Awareness:

• Promotes the mission, vision and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Demonstrates 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 on financing the 2030 Agenda and internationally-agreed development goals.

Teamwork:

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

Communication:

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

Self-Management & Emotional Intelligence:

• Creates synergies through self-control, tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively;
• Proven ability to work under pressure with tight deadlines, and to deliver in a timely manner within cost and quality standards.

Knowledge Sharing & Continuous Learning:

Able to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• Advanced university degree (Master Degree or above) in insurance and development, international development, public finance, economics, risk management or other relevant disciplines, is required;
• At least 3 years of relevant professional experience in insurance and development, development finance, investment, insurance, climate change, disaster risk management, and/or relevant fields is required;
• Demonstrable work experience with the insurance industry, particularly related to healthcare insurance and pandemic response is highly desirable;
• Project development experience from conception through to delivery, including an understanding of related key areas such as financing, communications, partnership development is preferable;
• Experience with Multilateral Development Banks, Financial Institutions, Foundations, UN agencies is an advantage.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset.

Application Procedure:

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using UNDP provided template;
• Methodology and workplan to complete this assignment articulated above, over no more than two pages;
• 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 an 8-hour working day - lunch time is not included)
• 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.
• 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. 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.

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 points):

• Criterion 1: Advanced university degree (Master Degree or above) in insurance and development, international development, public finance, economics, risk management or other relevant disciplines (Desk Review: min Master’s Degree – 8 points; above Master’s Degree – 10 points) - Max. 10 points;

• Criterion 2: At least 3 years of relevant professional experience in insurance and development, development finance, investment, insurance, climate change, disaster risk management, and/or relevant fields (Desk Review: 5 years and above – 10 points; 4 years 8 points; 3 years – 7 points) - Max. 10 points;

• Criterion 3: Demonstrable work experience with the insurance industry, particularly related to healthcare insurance and pandemic response is highly desirable; (Desk Review: healthcare/pandemic response insurance experience – 10 points; other insurance experience – 7 points; no insurance experience – 0 points) - Max. 10 points;

• Criterion 4: Project development experience from conception through to delivery, including an understanding of related key areas such as financing, communications, partnership development; (Desk Review: Y/N, up to 5 points) - Max. 5 points;

• Criterion 5: Experience with Multilateral Development Banks, Financial Institutions, Foundations, UN agencies (Desk Review: Y/N, up to 5 points) - Max. 5 points;

• Criterion 6: Fluency in English (Desk Review: Y/N, up to 5 points) - Max 5 points;

• Criterion 7: Working knowledge of another UN language (Desk Review: max 1 point for each additional language) - Max. 5 points;

• Criterion 8: Methodology and workplan for the completion of the assignment (Desk Review) - Max. 20 points.

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education (Master’s Degree), language (fluency in English) and relevant years of experience (at least 3 years) requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review and evaluation of methodology/workplan to select the shortlisted candidates.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points, criteria 1-8) 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 score 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 Arrangements:

• The consultant will work under the guidance of the Special Advisor SDG Finance Sector Hub and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above;
• The consultant will engage with other relevant UNDP staff as needed. Detailed work plans, including timeline, external organizations and individuals to engage and consult with will be developed at the beginning of the assignment;
• The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop;
• 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 40 hours, i.e. on an 8-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

*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.*

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org