Long Term Agreement (Individual Consultancy) Social and Environmental Safeguard Experts, Effectiveness Group/BPPS

UNDP’s Bureau of Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) provides leadership and technical support to deliver on the UNDP’s Strategic Plan priorities on Sustainable Development Pathways and Resilience and Governance.  UNDP offers countries highly specialized technical services and continually prepares projects for submission to external donors that need to meet the minimum requirements as per the UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards (SES).

UNDP’s SES underpin UNDP’s commitment to mainstream social and environmental sustainability in its Programmes and Projects to support sustainable development. The objectives of the standards are to:

     • Strengthen the social and environmental outcomes of Programmes and Projects

     • Avoid adverse impacts to people and the environment

     • Minimize, mitigate, and manage adverse impacts where avoidance is not possible

     • Strengthen UNDP and partner capacities for managing social and environmental risks

     • Ensure full and effective stakeholder engagement, including through a mechanism to respond to complaints from project-affected people

UNDP is seeking to enter into a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with up to ten (10) Social and Environmental Experts to provide technical assistance to ensure that projects are designed and implemented to meet the objectives laid out by the UNDP SES. Support may include oversight, quality assurance, capacity development, and direct implementation support.

An LTA is a mutual arrangement between UNDP and the individual to provide the required services at established fee for provisions.  The LTA will be established for one year and renewable for up to three years linked to satisfactory performance of the individual consultant. UNDP reserves the right to rescind the LTA during that period should performance of the consultant not meet its requirements.

Under an LTA, UNDP does not warrant that any quantity of services shall be purchased during the term of this Agreement. Where a request for services arises, UNDP shall directly contract the consultant based on its need to carry out those activities. A specific Statement of Work (SOW) outlining the outputs for each specific assignment shall be agreed and signed prior to the initiation of work.

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

The consultant(s) will be responsible for the following activities:

 • Become fully familiar with the UNDP’s SES and those of relevant funding bodies and support corporate learning including trainings, documentation of case studies and lessons learned, webinars, guidance materials, etc.

• Review draft project concepts and document/identify potential environmental and social risks.

• As necessary, recommend issues for further discussion during stakeholder consultations undertaken during project development.

• Ensure that identified social and environmental risks at the concept stage are effectively described in the final project proposals, addressing how the projects will avoid or mitigate negative impacts and incorporate appropriate environmental and social management plans as necessary.

• Identify any potential social and environmental risks that will require further assessment and management planning during implementation, identify the level of risk and probability, and incorporate these requirements into the project proposal.

• Prepare any other documentation – including additional management plans/frameworks – as may be required to ensure full compliance with UNDP’s SES.

• Review and provide technical input to safeguards related documents and materials during the design and implementation of projects, e.g. related to the ESIA, ToRs, other impact assessments and studies, grievance redress mechanisms, management plans, safeguards information systems, safeguards monitoring frameworks, etc.

The tasks associated with this Terms of Reference are expected to be completed through a combination of (a) home-based preparatory work; (b) leading or participating in country level missions (together with UNDP staff) in selected countries; (c) remote technical assistance to client countries and UNDP staff.

Contract duration: The LTA shall be signed for an initial period of one year with extension on yearly basis up to a maximum of three years based on satisfactory performance.

Number of working days: up to 220 days/year per engaged LTA Holder.

Duty station: Home-based, with possible travel to countries including but not limited to Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname to name a few. Destinations shall be identified according to government request for UNDP assistance in project formulation.

Travel: The schedule of travel will be negotiated with the consultant according to the requirements of the programme. Mission travels shall be arranged by UNDP Office in accordance with UNDP travel rules and regulations. It is expected that regular meetings be facilitated between the consultant and UNDP colleagues to ensure output quality and targets.

A separate ToR with clear deliverables and timelines will be prepared and agreed prior to each assignment within this ToRs.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

The consultant(s) support will contribute to any of the following Outputs, as relevant and agreed to in a Statement of Work, prior to commencement of any task:

•Output 1: Support to oversight and quality assurance by completing technical review of one or more of the safeguards products listed above (e.g. SESP, SESA, ESMF, ESMP, ESIA, SOI, SIS, etc.).

•Output 2: Support completion of one or more of the safeguards products listed above (e.g. SESP, SESA, ESMF, ESMP, ESIA, SOI, SIS, etc.) depending on the need and request from Country Offices or other relevant project or program.

•Output 3: Prepare associated materials to support the comprehension and capacity of targeted stakeholders on safeguards related matters (ppt, case studies, brochures, guidance, templates, etc).

•Output 4: Support or lead UNDP, national and/or sub-national workshops for consultation, validation or capacity building on safeguards.

Corporate Competencies:

 • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;

• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

 • Knowledge about the UNDP programmes would be an advantage;

• Strong analytical and writing skills and track record in producing relevant reports and other material.

• Ability to deliver high quality documents by set deadlines (requiring minimal editing);

•  Strong presentation and communication skills;

• Strong planning and coordination skills;

Academic qualifications:

At least Master’s degree or equivalent in international development, environmental or international law or relevant field, with specific academic and practical background related to social and environmental sustainability or other closely related field; required.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience related social and environmental standards and impact assessment in an international development context; required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of climate change – and REDD+, land-use, land-use change and forestry in particular inter-governmental climate change processes; and/or sustainable development environmental management issues and other related sustainable human development issues; desired
• Demonstrated experience in project development, implementation and/or management, asset, required.
• Social and environmental data collection and analysis, desired.
• Excellent facilitation skills, capacity-building and multi-stakeholder engagement expertise, especially with indigenous peoples and local communities, required.

Language:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English, required.
• Proficiency in French, Portuguese and/or Spanish is an added advantage

 Application Procedure

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

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; REQUIRED
• 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; REQUIRED
• ·Submission of sample(s) of the applicant’s work on social and environmental management framework and/or environmental and social management plan is considered to be the best and most relevant examples to this ToR, (not to exceed 2 examples). REQUIRED

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document. Applications that do not contain the above mentioned documents may be disqualified.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7-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.
• If the Long-Term Agreement results in an Individual Contract, the consultancy will be a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel. 
• 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 and will be reimbursed. 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.

·        Only technically qualified candidates will be invited to submit a financial proposal via E-tendering. Instructions will be provided further in the process.

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%.

Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria will be further evaluated through a desk review.

Technical evaluation – Total 70% (70 points):

Desk Review

• Criteria 1. Relevance of knowledge in social and environmental safeguards, particularly in the following (candidates will be given advantage based on their knowledge of the following areas):  1) climate change and related inter-governmental processes; 2) land-use and forestry, REDD+ safeguards, 3) sustainable development and environmental management issues and/or,  4) sustainable human development and social impact issues. Weight = 30 %; Maximum Points: 210.
• Criteria 2.  Relevance of the capacity-building and multi-stakeholder engagement expertise, especially with indigenous peoples and local communities Weight = 20 %; Maximum Points: 140.
• Criteria 3. Quality of samples provided: the applicant’s work on social and environmental management framework and/or environmental and social management plan is considered to be the best and most relevant examples to this ToR. Weight = 20 %; Maximum Points: 140.

Interview

• Criteria 4. Interview: Weight = 30 %; Maximum Points: 210 points.

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will technically qualify Candidates (who obtain at least 70% of the maximum of points obtainable during the desk review) for an interview. Only candidates obtaining at least 50% of the total of points obtainable during the interview will be shortlisted. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points through the desk review and interview for the technical criteria (70 points) 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

Framework Agreement

UNDP plans to enter into the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with the TOP ranked successful Individual Contractors to assure resources availability at the required time fame and/or increased demand for services requested. The service of who will be used on an intermittent and repetitive basis when needed and based on the fixed unit price.  Other prospective applicants that are not contracted, at the UNDP’s discretion, may be placed in the roster of consultants to be used based on an on-call basis for similar services.

Please note that the LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive. When a specific need arises, the successful Individual Contractor/s will be approached and be provided with a specific TOR and deliverables (and time frame) but still within the scope of the responsibilities stated in the LTA. The successful Individual Contractor(s) is expected to provide Confirmation of Interest on the specific services required at the agreed LTA Daily Rate Consultancy Fee. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed.

This LTA has a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.

Contract Award

The award of the LTA will be made to up to ten (10) individual consultants whose offers have been evaluated and determined (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 including availability.

Institutional arrangement

The Long-Term Agreement and the potential secondary engagements will be managed by the Policy Specialist, Social and Environmental Standards and supervised directly by the relevant team for each assignment. 

Prior to initiation of work, each assignment will be outlined in a Statement of Work signed by the consultant, contract manager, and relevant supervisor. Payments will be made upon satisfactory achieved deliverables under each assignment and submission of time sheet in accordance with number of days worked. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor. Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the assigned consultant.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

• If the Long-Term Agreement materializes in an Individual Contract, Payments 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 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 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

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to [email protected] 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.