By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Read our privacy policy

International Technical Development Fund Expert

home-based and skopje

  • Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Location: home-based and skopje
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Governance and Peacebuilding
    • Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with offices in 180 countries. Globally the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion each year.

The UNDP office in Skopje employs a team of 65 and currently manages a portfolio of projects in environmental protection, good governance and social inclusion worth USD 15 million per year.

Local government institutions continue to struggle to improve the quality of life enjoyed by their citizens. To extract tangible benefits from funds available for municipalities from the central government, the European Union (EU) and international financial institutions and other donors, municipalities need to strengthen their capacity to prioritize, formulate and implement development projects.

As part of the efforts to address these challenges, UNDP is currently seeking an experienced International Technical Development Fund Expert to provide consulting services for designing and setting-up the Technical development Fund (TDF). The TDF is foreseen to provide financial resources that less-developed municipalities need to undertake necessary preparatory work for development projects that are eligible for EU, state or donor funding, either through direct grants or low-interest loans. 

The project Building Municipal Capacity for Project Implementation aims to address the main challenges of local development and to support municipal capacity to design and implement local development projects. Establishment of the TDF for local development projects is one of the key components of this project. Ideally, the newly created fund would channel support specifically to those municipalities that are struggling the most in terms of local development. For this purpose, specially developed Municipal development index has been created (MDI) as part of the project to serve the main objective of the project.

Municipalities are the key point of delivery and development and, as such, they are central to the success of sustainable development. However, at the moment there is no reliable body to systematically channel the prioritized projects from local authorities as they often require complex preparation in order to obtain financing, especially those projects that bring long-term benefits and impact. The TDF is here to alleviate this problem.

The incumbent will work under the supervision of the Project Manager and under the guidance and close coordination with the Head of Democratic Governance Unit.

The incumbent will ensure that the provided consultancy services are in line with the overall objectives of the decentralisation process and sustainable development principles, as well as other relevant projects within the Governance Unit and relevant initiatives in other units in UNDP.

Objective of the assignment

The objective of this assignment is to design and establish the TDF based on available information on municipal capacities for project implementation and donor assistance in the country and formulate a set of objective criteria for the application process.

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Provide expert advice and actively work with project team to design the structure of the TDF including institutional model, budget, basic functional requirements etc., all as necessary to support the implementation of the policy to reduce disparities in development opportunities between regions and municipalities;
  • Develop the TDF action plan and set up a detailed description of appropriate management and control systems in collaboration with the project team and drawing on knowledge of international standards and practices on similar development funds and the existing donor community priorities in the country;
  • Offer snapshot review of the existing local development strategies, programmes and priority lists, to identify priority development projects and classify them according to maturity, and eligibility for donor, government and other sources of funding;
  • Provide advice on and actively participate in design and approval of Fund’s statute, documents and forms: eligibility of applicants and types of documentation to be co-financed, evaluation criteria, potential co-financing rates, calls for applications and application forms, methods of communication, grant agreements, reporting procedures and forms, and other documents;
  • Establish measures to prevent, detect and report on suspected or actual cases of irregularities;
  • Provide administrative support to the project team in the first call for proposals and handling of applications;
  • Identify appropriate methods of mobilisation of future resources to ensure sustainability of the Fund;
  • Provide recommendations and assist the selected service provider in visualising and presenting the TDF and application/selection processes.

Deliverables

The international consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

  1. Provide methodology and work plan for the assessment, latest by 01 August 2019;
  2. Provide the draft design and structure of the TDF with all supporting documents, latest by 19 August 2019;
  3. Provide evaluation criteria for the funds disbursement and draft the call for application and application form, latest by 2 September 2019;
  4. Provide comments on and participate in the evaluation of the applications from the first call, latest by 30 September 2019;
  5. Submit draft report with clear instructions for achieving sustainability of the Fund, latest by 15 October 2019.
  6. Submit final report (after incorporating UNDP comments), latest by 30 October 2019.

Duration of assignment

Tentatively, the assignment should be completed in the period from August 2019 to October 2019. The overall duration of the tasks covered by this ToR has been estimated not to exceed 30 days, including desk work, field work and presentation delivery.

Travel

The consultant is expected to work from home and is expected to have one in-country mission (20 days total, including weekends). Per diem is paid for overnight stay only.

Reporting

No additional formal reporting is foreseen during the assignment apart from that specified in the deliverables. However, the consultant is expected to maintain constant communication with the Project Manager and/or Head of Democratic Governance Unit and regularly provide information on the progress of the tasks.

Payment schedule

The payment of the Consultant on this project will be done in 3 (three) successive instalments upon completion of each deliverable or group of deliverables as outlined below, and based on corresponding time sheets:

  • 1st payment (10%) after submitting Deliverable 1;
  • 2nd payment (50%) after submitting Deliverable 2 & 3;
  • 3th payment (40%) after submission of Deliverable 4, 5 & 6;

Competencies

  • Strong research, analytical, reporting and writing abilities.
  • Ability to work under pressure, uses time efficiently. Identifies priority activities and adjusts them as required.
  • Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.
  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: A Master’s Degree in Management, Organisational Development, Public administration, Business, Social sciences, Public policy creation and Administration or in other relevant field. PhD would be a strong asset.

Experience: At least 8 years of progressively relevant working experience in establishing/managing development funds, regional/local development and institutional development in developing countries, preferably in the Western Balkans.

Languages: Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills in English are required.

Other required qualifications:

  • Demonstrated track record of provision of strategic guidance for financial instruments for development, providing advisory services and developing criteria for disbursement of grants, building capacity and institutional development in various sectors of governance;
  • Demonstrated experience in working with public authorities, business communities, development partners and other international financial institutions or investors at a strategic or operational level;
  • Thorough understanding/knowledge of the country’s local-self-governance system and proven expertise and experience in policy development and analysis related to service delivery and quality of life at municipal level, preferably in Western Balkans countries;
  • Excellent computer literacy (MS Office; Windows, SPSS Statistics and other quantitative-data-analysis computer tools).

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFER

Evaluation of Offers

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the combined scoring methodology. When using this method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated against below criteria and deemed the most favourable:

Technical Evaluation (70% of total evaluation – maximum 70 points):

No.

Technical criteria

Points obtainable

Max. 70

1.

A Master’s Degree in Management, Organisational Development, Public policy, Economics, Public Administration, Social Sciences or related field. Advanced university degree would be a strong asset.

Max 10 points

  • Master’s Degree

7

  • PhD degree

10

2.

At least 8 years of progressively relevant working experience in establishing/ managing development funds, regional/local development and institutional development in developing countries, preferably in the Western Balkans.

Max 20 points

  • 8 years of relevant working experience

16

  • 9-10 years of relevant working experience

18

  • >10 years of relevant working experience

20

3.

Demonstrated track record of provision of strategic guidance for financial instruments for development, providing advisory services and developing criteria for disbursement of grants, building capacity and institutional development in various sectors of governance

Max 15 points

4.

Demonstrated experience in working with public authorities, business communities, development partners and other international financial institutions or investors at a strategic or operational level.

Max 15 points

5.

Thorough understanding/knowledge of the country’s local-self-governance system and proven expertise and experience in policy development and analysis related to service delivery and quality of life at municipal level, preferably in Western Balkans countries

Max 10 points

Only candidates who will obtain at least 49 points and will score at least 70% of the maximum points obtainable for the technical criteria (1-5) will be considered for financial evaluation.

 Financial Evaluation (30% of total evaluation – maximum 30 points):

The offer with the lowest price will receive the maximum of 30 points. Other offers with higher prices will receive their respective scores according the following formula:

   Lowest Bid

               ------------------- x 30

                Proposed Bid

The contract will be awarded to the candidate that will obtain the highest aggregate score based on the technical and financial evaluation.

  1. DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED

Interested individual consultants must submit the documents/information listed below to demonstrate their qualifications. The system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file.

  1. Offerors letter - LINK;
  2. A short summary (up to 800 words maximum) of their expertise relevant to this assignment, the reasons why they consider themselves to be the best candidate for this assignment;
  3. Most updated CV with focus on required qualification as well as the contact details of at least three (3) professional references;
  4. Reference list of relevant work/projects (see above Technical Evaluation Criteria no.3-5), specifying positions held and contact details of the clients;
  5. All-inclusive* financial offer – specifying a total lump sum in USD for the deliverables specified in the TOR.

*The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, insurance, international travel and per diems, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Consultant are already factored in the financial proposal. In country travel costs will be reimbursed separately.

  1. APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Step 1

  1. Click on the "Apply now" button
  2. Input your information in the appropriate sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume, and motivation (cover letter). You can type in or paste your short Resume into the last box.
  3. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload other required documents listed in the step 2.

Step 2

Interested individual consultants must submit the documents/information listed in the “Documents to be submitted section to demonstrate their qualifications. The system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents/information.

Please note that shortlisted candidates might be interviewed.

If the deliverables are not produced and submitted by the consultant to the satisfaction of UNDP as approved by the responsible Programme Officer, no payment will be made even the consultant has invested man-days to produce such deliverables.

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.
This vacancy is now closed.