Junior consultant - Research and engagement agenda support

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UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

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Application deadline 1 year ago: Monday 8 Aug 2022 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

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

Background

The UNDP Oslo Governance Centre (OGC) is UNDPs dedicated Global Policy Centre for Governance issues, which advances global dialogue and knowledge on inclusive and transformative governance for peaceful, just and inclusive societies. The Centre builds knowledge, insight and data through drawing on the experience of practitioners, policymakers and researchers as well as stimulating global discourse and dialogue on key governance questions in the world today.

OGC focuses on generating lessons from applied research and strengthening the evidence base on governance themes to inform policy development. The Centre will leverage strong partnerships with key knowledge and research institutions to create and disseminate knowledge and insights. As an insight and knowledge generator that focusses on applied research, the Centre will connect practitioners and policymakers to researchers, and act as an arena for testing theory against practice.

As part of this work it has been supporting the development and finalization of the follow on reesearch from the Journey to Extremism in Africa study published in 2017. Journey II examines the root causes of violent extremism in eight countriesin in sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. As the world increasingly confronts multiple crisis including the pandemic, extreme wealth concentration, corrosive levels of inequality, technological revolution, mass urbanization, rising authoritarian governance and increasing conflict, it is important to understand how violent extremist dynamics are evolving, and what this means for global peace and security. This work will be launched in Oslo in November/December 2022.

OGC is also relaunching as a Centre of Excellence, providing a framework through which the governance challenges driving critical issues can be more comprehensively addressed. It aims to bring together policy makers, academics and practitioners to make sense of the complexities of the governance challenges of the 21st Century, to find pathways forward for inclusive, resilient and democratic societies.

It will do this through a Research and Engagement Agenda (REA) that will address gaps in global understanding of current challenges and anticipate and pre-empt horizonal issues. The REA will have a strong research and partnerships focus, a data and statistics dimension, adopt innovative and experimental approaches, strengthened knowledge sharing and leverage strategic policy engagement opportunities. The Centre’s Research and Engagement Agenda is being currently defined and will be put into implementation in 2023. It is being shaped by internal and external consultations and horizon scanning exercises.

To test the hypotheses that have emerged, and to identify new ones, in October 2022 OGC will hold a two-day workshop, exploring a series of interconnected governance challenges under the chapeau of five broad themes. To support the organising of this workshop and to overall shepherd the REA process a Junior IC is required.

Institutional arrangements

The junior consultant will report directly to the Director of OGC.

Schedule of Payments

The consultancy is lump sum based and the consultant will be paid as per deliverables under para III.

Travel No travel is foreseen for this consultancy.

Application Procedure

The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications.

Step 1: Submission of technical proposal.

Step 1: Interested individual consultants must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP job shop. Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded, therefore, please include all documents in one file:

  • Personal History Form (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, www.sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc).
  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment. Please indicate available start date.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposals:

Applicants are required to submit their all-inclusive lump sum offer in US Dollars for this consultancy, using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780 Please fill in section A I on page 4. The sum of AI will be the “all-inclusive lump sum” to be filled in on page 1, e).

The financial proposal should be sent via email to oslo.governance.centre@undp.org with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal – Junior Consultant – REA Support” by the application deadline. Proposals received after the deadline may be rejected. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive lump sum fee, however must include a detailed breakdown of the cost (section AI). The term ‘all-inclusive’ implies that all costs (professional fees, assignment related travel expenses to join the duty station, communications, tax, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal.

Criteria for selection:

Only those candidates who meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the consultancy. The shortlisted candidates will be scored based on a review of their functional competencies and other criteria as described above. The candidates with the highest scores may also be invited for interviews.

Combined scoring method: where the qualifications and competencies will be weighted a max of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%.

Method: cumulative analysis method will be used to evaluate proposals.

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:

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.

Technical criteria weight: 70 (70% of total obtainable scores):

Only those candidates who meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review and may include interviews with shortlisted candidates.

The technical evaluation of shortlisted candidates will be done on the basis of a review of the following:

  • Excellent communication skills in English (15%);
  • Proven experience of organising various events (workshops, conferences) (25%);
  • Proven experience of finalising issue briefs and other knowledge products (20%);
  • Competence on using design and graphics (10%).

Financial criteria weight: 30 (30% of total obtainable scores).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the technical part will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):

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:

The award of contract will be made to the individual consultant who receives the highest combined score out of the weighted technical and financial criteria as specified above.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

The consultant will shepherd the REA and workshop process as well as related areas for a six-month scope of work to meet the following objectives:

  • Provide overall support to the REA process – defining it and supporting its implementation.
  • Support the clustering of REA candidates in buckets that can provide the basis for the sessions at the workshop.
  • Lead the logistical and coordination support in organising the REA workshop at the end of October / November 2022 which would involve:
    • Supporting the finalisation of the workshop concept note, including establishing goals and objectives, putting together a budget, choosing a format and theme, and researching speakers.
    • Finalise and be the custodian of a timeline leading up to the workshop.
    • Organise weekly prep meetings leading up to the workshop which helps update each other on progress being made; helps in plugging gaps and connecting the dots; and also helps coordinate functions where necessary.
    • Ensure that the workshop agenda is regularly updated. Maintain two versions of the same (for external dissemination and internal annotated).
    • Finalise the invitation list and assist in disseminating the invite to the target audience.
    • Work with OGC staff in the sourcing of a suitable venue and act as focal point in communications with the chosen venue.
    • Serve as focal point for audience, speakers, and external contributors.
    • Work with the OGC communications team to support outreach (social media and mainstream) internal and external information channels, visualisation, and branding. Ensure that information about the workshop is uploaded on the OGC website.
    • Manage technical production of workshop, including A/V equipment and digital interaction tools, in liaison with appropriate technical team.
    • Assist OGC staff in ad-hoc tasks relating to the workshop.
  • Provide support to the development and launch of the background papers emerging from the REA process and related activities including the organisation of webinars and/or other events, etc.

The consultant will also support the launch of Journey to Extremism II (J2E2) and be responsible for:

  • Lead the logistical and coordination support in organising the J2E2 launch in November / December 2022 which would involve:
    • Work with OGC staff in the sourcing of a suitable venue and act as focal point in communications with the chosen venue, including the technical production of the workshop.
    • Finalise the invitation list and assist in disseminating the invite to the target audience.
    • Serve as focal point for audience, speakers, and external contributors.
    • Work with the OGC communications team to support outreach (social media and mainstream) internal and external information channels, visualisation, and branding.

III. Expected Outputs and Deliverables

  • Ensure that the REA clustering is completed, and the workshop concept note is finalised. Prepare the timeline indicating important deadlines leading up to the workshop. Ensure that new content about the workshop is uploaded on the OGC’s website. Send out invitations to the event. Finalise the workshop communications plan and help initiate the social media outreach. Deadline: 30 September 2022 (25%)

  • Work with OGC staff to source venue(s) for the REA and J2E2 events. Liaise with venue(s) on technical requirements. Deadline: 31 October 2022 (15%)

  • Prepare and finalise the workshop report and ensure that all thank you letters are sent out after the event. Any follow-up post event activity needs to finalised and completed. Deadline: 30 November 2022 (10%)

  • Prepare and send invitations and organise logistics for J2E2 launch. Deadline: 15 December 2022 (10%)

  • Ensure that the draft REA background papers are finalised internally and sent for peer review and then professionally editing. Deadline: 31 December 2022 (15%)

  • Finalise and launch the background papers emerging from the REA process. The same need to be disseminated to all the key OGC stakeholders and uploaded to the OGC website. Deadline: 31 January 2023 (15%)

  • Ensure that the REA’s are adopted internally and set the research agenda for the Centre**. Deadline: 15 February 2023 (10%)**

Competencies

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Takes responsibility for quality of own work.

• Uses resources, methods, partners, and information effectively.

• Identifies opportunities and challenges and recommends options.

• Meets goals and timelines for team deliverables.

• Understands responsibilities and meets expectations.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent communication skills in English.

• Proven experience of organising various events (workshops, conferences).

• Proven experience of finalising issue briefs and other knowledge products.

• Competence on using design and graphics.

Language:

  • Fluency in English is required.
  • Working knowledge of a Scandinavian language is an advantage.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Experience:

  • Bachelor`s degree or equivalent in Public Policy, Politics or International Relations – or relevant work experience.
  • Experience in organising events / workshops / conferences.
  • Previous working experience in the United Nations / UNDP and knowledge about the work of the Oslo Governance Centre will be a distinct advantage.
  • Proven writing skills.

Desirable:

  • Strong verbal communications skills;
  • Ability to complete tasks independently and take initiative, but also work well as part of a team;
  • Ability to perform tasks in a timely manner, under pressure, and to tight deadlines;
  • Previous relevant experience with UNDP would be an asset.
Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org