Head of Experimentation

Contract

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

Background

The UNDP Strategic Plan embraces the complexity of development and commits the organization to helping countries find faster, more durable solutions to achieve Agenda 2030. Important development trends like urbanization, climate change, and rising inequalities pose significant challenges on our path to achieve the 2030 agenda of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNDP has begun incubating several strategic initiatives aimed at ensuring UNDP is ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver a new generation of solutions in line with the challenges the world faces. One such key strategic initiatives is the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network which operates as part of UNDP’s sustainable development offering. The UNDP has already set up 91 labs supporting 115 countries, embedded within UNDP’s global architecture and country platforms.

Labs use the power of the crowd, machine learning and distributed decision making to support partners to understand problems, develop new solutions, promote more inclusive decision making, and provide better oversight of what is done. It identifies grassroots solutions and stretch their potential to accelerate development. The labs apply experimentation closely with government partners to grow this as a mode of operating to reduce costs of large-scale public sector reforms. Experimentation helps the UNDP learn whether particular assumptions are accurate before deploying solutions at scale, especially in the rapidly evolving contexts that often dominate development progress.

For 2022, the UNDP Accelerator Lab Pacific is focusing on five key experiments: (i) Plastics, (ii) Satellite Internet, (iii) Development Live Platform, (iv) Climate Finance and (v) Anticipatory Governance, among other innovation work taking place in the UNDP Pacific Multi Country Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The following tasks are required to be performed by the IC:

• Experiment portfolio design
• Management of tests and experiments for sustainable development challenges
• Organizational learning and interface with the core business of UNDP
• Working out loud- writing and publish learnings using blogs, articles, Op-eds, videos, visuals, reports

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The main products to be delivered are:

Deliverables (distributed over 260 days)

No. of Days

1

Experiment portfolio design

20

• Works with UNDP and partners in mapping the context and nature of development challenges, with a particular focus on understanding systemic issues beyond traditional silos and classifications and identifying drivers of change, and levers for intervention
• Mapping systems and assets, identifying levers and logic for intervention, building hypotheses of change that are a fit to the system level challenges identified
• Identify logic against which to asses fit and coherence of the individual portfolios with the frontier challenges on which they are meant to generate learning
• Together with UNDP and development partners, coordinate portfolios of experiments to target multiple domains of complex problems.

2

Management of tests and experiments for sustainable development challenges

20

• Collaborate with UNDP colleagues and stakeholders on the design of experiments across to validate the hypotheses and test the effectiveness of identified prototypes, including (but not limit to) defining variables, formulating hypotheses, and coordinating experimental protocols
• Develop a framework to capture the learning from the experiments in such a way that it favours critical reflection and rapid adaptation over static reporting
• Provide technical guidance for experiment design, roll-out and validation based on the experiment conditions, resources available, and requirements
• Proactively manage risks within experiments including those related to ethics and privacy
• Examine the results from the testing of prototypes and translate them into proposals informing programmatic decisions on next steps and implications for improvement, spin offs and scaling-up, where warranted.

3

Organizational learning and interface with the core business of UNDP

20

• Help embed a portfolio logic in clients’ work including the existing UNDP Country Programme (as determined and agreed with the senior management)
• Working with clients to encourage reflection and capturing of insights from individual experiments, as they relate to the overall portfolio logic
• Work together with your Accelerator Lab colleagues and experts to codify and advance the Accelerator Lab practice and portfolio design in particular.
• Provide technical consultation and training for national partners and the CO through various phases including asset mapping, developing a strategic portfolio logic, experiment design, prototype testing, and evaluation
• Design and deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from experiments
• Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab

4

Working out loud

20

• Proactively use blog and social media to share findings from the experiments and portfolio implementation
• Help UNDP and partners disseminate insights from Accelerator lab experiments via social media platforms as a way to regularly reflect and engage with external audiences.
• Liaise with UNDP’s global Accelerator Lab network and share learnings and insights from the country-specific experience
• Jointly with the CO, support lab partners to develop an emerging pipeline of new initiatives, support other activities related to the design and operation of the Lab
• Design and deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from experiments
• Proactively use blog posts and social media to share insights, attract partners and help position Accelerator Lab at the forefront of the exploration of new trends.
• Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab

Institutional Arrangement

Under the overall guidance by UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative, Ms. Yemesrach Workie, the consultant will work closely with Head of Community Research and Ethnographic Solutions Mapping, Mohseen Dean, the Head of Exploration, the UNDP Pacific Office Innovation Specialist, and across programmatic teams.

Duration of the Work

80 days

Duty Station

Suva, Fiji

Competencies

• Excellent verbal and written skills in English
• Excellent inter-personal and communication skills
• Demonstrates integrity and commitment to UN principles and values and ethical standards
• Ability to work well as part of a multi-cultural team and displays gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Adept with complex concepts and challenges convention purposefully
• Generates commitment, excitement, and excellence in others
• Models independent thinking and action
• Synthesizes information to communicate independent analysis
• Meets goals and quality criteria for delivery of products or services
• Catalyzes new ideas, methods, and applications to pave a path for innovation and continuous improvement in professional area of expertise

Required Skills and Experience

Educational Qualifications

Master’s degree in Social Science, Humanities, International Development, Environmental Science/Management, Transition or Complexity Science, Engineering, Design (e.g. industrial or service design, architecture, urban planning), Psychology, International Relations/Affairs, Governance, Economics, Accounting, Sociology, Law, Natural Sciences, Geographic Information Systems, Data Science, Business Management, Climate Change, Oceans, Marine Science, Arts, Gender studies or a related area and minimum of 2 years of professional experience in two-three of the following projects; research; data management; community empowerment; development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; social work; engagement (community, public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization.

OR

Bachelor’s degree with a Post Graduate Certificate/Diploma in Social Science, Humanities, International Development, Environmental Science/Management, Transition or Complexity Science, Engineering, Design (e.g. industrial or service design, architecture, urban planning), Psychology, International Relations/Affairs, Governance, Economics, Accounting, Sociology, Law, Natural Sciences, Geographical Information System, Data Science, Business Management, Climate Change, Oceans, Marine Science, Arts, Gender studies or a related area and minimum of 3 years of professional experience in three-four of the following: projects; research; data management; community empowerment; development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; social work; engagement (community, public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization.

Experience

• Demonstrated ability to conduct research, design experiments, validate hypotheses and test prototypes.
• Professional experience in projects, development programming or policy and social innovation.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English.

Experience in following areas is desirable but not necessary:

• Proven professional knowledge and experience in social/community innovation approaches such as Systems Thinking, Behavioral Insights, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Co-creation of solutions/ideas, Prototyping, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, Data/ Statistics Analyses and Empowerment, and Collective Intelligence
• Demonstrated ability to work with different clients, stakeholders, collaborators, partners to help surface unarticulated needs
• Demonstrated ability to apply a portfolio logic to experiments
• Demonstrated ability in running co-design sessions and capacity-building in experimental design, lean iteration, and impact evaluation
• Experience in basic programming language, for example: C++, java SQL, PHP, HTML, Python, CSS, and other programming applications

Language requirements

• Fluency of English language is required. Knowledge of iTaukei and/or Fiji Hindi is an added advantage.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below:

Report outlining all the tasks assigned has been completed for each month ending. Payment is based on the number of days worked and submission and approval by UNDP of monthly report through all tasks assigned by the Accelerator Lab.

In general, UNDP shall 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

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on Cumulative analysis. The award of the contract shall 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 set of weighted technical criteria (70%) and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

• Criteria 1: Relevance of Education: Social Science, Humanities, International Development, Environmental Science/Management, Transition or Complexity Science, Engineering, Design (e.g. industrial or service design, architecture, urban planning), Psychology, International Relations/Affairs, Governance, Economics, Accounting, Sociology, Law, Natural Sciences, Data Science, Business Management, Climate Change, Oceans, Marine Science, Arts, Gender studies or a related area - Max 20 points

• Criteria 2: professional knowledge and experience in social innovation approaches such as Systems Thinking, Behavioral Insights, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Co-creation, Prototyping, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, Data/ Statistics Analyses and Empowerment, and Collective Intelligence - Max 10 points

• Criteria 3: Professional experience for development of experiment portfolio designs; and demonstrated experience working in Fiji and/or in the Pacific- Max 20 points
• Criteria 4: Professional knowledge and experience in social innovation approaches; instituting rapid learning about emerging challenges through design and running of a portfolio of experiments that is coherent with the type of challenges that are part of UNDP’s strategic plan - Max 10 points
• Criteria 5: Capacity to use various data sets for informing policy making, strategic planning, or programme design; professional knowledge and experience in Future thinking, Foresight, Design Research, or Systems Mapping; Key awareness of key global and regional trends; access to networks of edge innovators- Max 10 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• 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.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Fijian Dollars (FJD).

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. Only applications for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Annexes

• Annex I - Individual IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to Mr. Dale Kacivi at dale.kacivi@undp.org

All applications must be clearly marked with the title of consultancy and submitted by 26th December 2022, 5:00pm, (Fiji Time) online via UN Jobs website https://jobs.undp.org/ or etenderbox.pacific@undp.org