Local Consultant: Mentor for Strategic planning, financial planning, management and networking in business

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), acting as an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is supporting the Government of Montenegro, specifically the Ministry of Sustainable development and Tourism (MSDT), to implement project “Growing Green business in Montenegro”. The project is jointly financed by the GEF, MSDT, Investment Development Fund and municipalities. The objective of the project is to promote low emission business initiatives and decarbonization of Montenegrin economy.All activities and measures undertaken by the project will need to result in tangible greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions reduction and are to be considered from the perspective of climate smart planning. Project provides assistance in the establishment of “Eco Fund” and further development of Green Business incubator in Cetinje as well as performance based payment schemes with the goal to provide initial capital for relevant stakeholders (including public and private companies, municipalities, research-scientific institutions, civil society organizations, individuals) for initiation, development and testing of the most innovative project ideas, including the opportunity for further co-financing of the most successful solutions. Through the future grant and incentive program, the project seeks to actively engage with the relevant stakeholders to jointly develop, finance and implement these ideas further.Support is provided to ventures in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy access, tourism, ICT, agriculture. The services offered include proof-of-concept grants, business advisory, business mentoring, access to finance, partnership and networking, marketing, various   types   of   training   and   help   to   create   a   conducive   policy environment for green business development. Access to appropriate facilities for business incubation and relevant technical, market  and  financial  information  are  also provided. To assist with the above, the  UNDP seeks to  recruit  an  Incubation  Specialist  with qualifications and expertise in the areas of Strategic planning, financial planning, management and networking in business.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment:

The Consultant is supposed to provide support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to build profitable businesses that address climate change mitigation and adaptation needs. Focus of the assignment will be on development and delivery of Green Business incubator mentoring program.Job content:

Consultant will be engaged under Individual Contract and will work under supervision of Project Manager.

Overall, the   incumbent   will   create   and   implement   strategies   to establish   and successfully grow the business incubation program, aimed at supporting growth of entrepreneurs (individuals and  organisations). In close coordination with  UNDP team,  the Specialist  will  be  responsible  for developing a comprehensive program of business incubation services to be offered to the   supported entrepreneurs. These  services should  include, but  are  not  limited to  technical  and  professional entrepreneurial  development programmes, including needs assessment  of  each  entrepreneur,  business mentoring  and  coaching,  personal development, networking and connecting, business advisory, access to markets/trade, customized   technical   assistance,   access   to   facilities,   investment   readiness, and marketing etc.

Topics to be covered by the exercises:

• Strategic planning,
• Financial planning,
• Management practices and networking in business

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Assess the capacity and needs of existing and prospective entrepreneur;
• Develop the detailed mentorship program and work with prospective entrepreneurs to make the incubated venture successful.

The program will be divided in two components:

1. Mentoring Support Programme for basic users consisting of:

• Basic entrepreneurship training (relevant information for the topics of the ToR);
• Mentoring activities (proposed set of activities for users engagement and information exchange);
• Other support activities (any additional activity neded to address identified needs of existing and prospective entrepreneurs).

2. Mentoring support programme for advanced users:

From the pool of existing and prospective entrepreneurs select candidates for:

• Mentoring activities
• Specific expertise support (Based on collaboration between mentors and start-ups, certain specific business support needs can be identified as individual sensitive areas that require special attention and temporary involvement of different external experts which perform individual expertise services for a start-up – this is not a know-how transfer process, but just a plain service provision to resolve specific tasks (e.g. introduction of specific ICT solutions, preparation of technical documentation, website development, preparation of specific legal baselines like GDPR adjustments, etc.).
• Other support activities (Some of activities could focus on networking with successful entrepreneurs, peer-to-peer networking).

Mentoring support programme for advanced users should support advanced users and stimulate them to create new/further develop existing young innovative companies, thus contributing to the creation of new high-skilled jobs and raising of employment rate in the targeted area. SDG considerations should be mainstreaming in the mentoring program as much as possible and relevant experience of SDG accelerator should be further explored, and its experience shared, and if possible, replicated in the context of Montenegro.

Expected results/ Deliverables:

• Mentoring activities delivered as direct support;
• Program is focused on Green Jobs support;
• Progress of participants’ development is observed through regular weekly monitoring and hands-on work, which is a basis for steering of their development path according to their individually set goals, competences and specific needs;
• Transfer of relevant know-how and entrepreneurial skills from experienced experts to the users, and thus teaching them how to achieve the most efficient performance of their business activities on their own in the future;
• Minimum 2 thematic entrepreneurial workshops per month on topics related to current trends implemented in Cetinje;
• Minimum 1 thematic entrepreneurial workshops per month on topics related to current trends implemented in Niksic;
• Minimum 1 thematic entrepreneurial workshops per month on topics related to current trends implemented in Kolasin;
• Minimum 10 entities (private or legal supported with individual programs)
• Minimum 10 female entrepreneurs supported.

Time duration: The Consultant will be engaged during the period from 5 August 2019 until 30 September 2020  (100 consultancy days) and will be paid in lump sum upon the completed tasks set by the ToR for this position. Only local travel (Niksic, Kolasin, Cetinje and Podgorica) is envisaged.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN/UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Degree in relevant for the field of strategic planning, financial planning, business management practices and networking in business;
• Advanced degree would be considered as an asset

Experience;

• Minimum 5 years of working experience in the fields listed above; 
• Experience in starting up, managing of at least one business venture would be an asset;
• Experience in energy, agriculture and tourism sector;
• Experience with the usage of various systems analysis methods and techniques would be considered as advantage;
• Working experience in Montenegro, in/for public sector would be considered as an asset;
• International experience relavant for the ToR would be considered as an asset;

Language:

• Fluency in Montenegrin language; 
• English knowledge would be an asset.

Other:

• Excellent social, communication skills and writing skills;

Criteria for selection:

Combined Scoring method will be used. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: (i) responsive, compliant, acceptable, and (ii) 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% (Background and education 10%; Relevant previous experience 20%; Substantial knowledge/Required competencies 30%; Required language 10%);
• Financial criteria weight - 30%.

Only offerors obtaining a minimum 490 points for technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation. For more information on procurement methodology for Individual Contractors, please refer to Procurement Notice.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications by July 28, 2019 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at http://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/operations/jobs.html. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file.

Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted and requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work envisaged in the section "Description of Responsibilities".