United Nations Volunteer 375- Consultancy: UNV Programme Review Job Vacancy in Liberia

Location : Bonn and field based, GERMANY
Application Deadline :11-Nov-11
Type of Contract :Individual Contract
Post Level :International Consultant
Languages Required :English
Starting Date :(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)21-Nov-2011
Duration of Initial Contract :Up to 30 working days
Expected Duration of Assignment :Up to 30 working days

Background
The United Nations Volunteer programme promotes global volunteer contributions and mobilizes volunteers in support of the UN operations and activities of UN missions, agencies, governments, NGOs etc., in development, emergency, peace-keeping or other situations where these contributions could make a difference. Typically, UN Volunteers bring dedication, commitment and engagement combined with skills and experience to bear on the situations wherein they are deployed.

UNV engaged 7,545 UNV volunteers in 2009, on a total of 7,716 assignments. With an average age of 37 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UNV volunteers served in 128 countries in 2009 and came themselves from 158. The majority – 80 per cent – come from developing countries. One third of UNV volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The majority are supported in-country by the UNV Field Units (UNV FU) in UNDP Country Offices and the UN Missions. At headquarters level, a Portfolio Team (PT) supports the UNV FU.

The UNV organization:
UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and has approximately 150 staff positions – with the majority in Bonn and some positions with different UN peacekeeping and political missions, and in other Headquarters locations (e.g. New York and Tokyo). The major organizational groups within UNV are:
• The Office of the Executive Coordinator (OEC);
• The Evaluation Unit (EU);
• The Corporate Planning and Performance Unit (CPPU);
• The Volunteer Programme and Management Group (VPMG) comprising the Peace Division (PD) and the Development Division (DD), Volunteer Recruitment Resources Section (VRRS), Quality Assurance Unit (QAU) and Volunteer Knowledge and Innovation Section (VKIS);
• The Partnerships and Communications Division (PCD) comprising the Partnerships Section (PS) and the Communications Unit (CU);
• The Management Services Division (MSD) comprising the Information and Communication Technology Section (ICTS), Finance Section (FS), Human Resources Section (HRS) and the Administration Unit (AU). Additionally the Common Services Unit (CSU) provides support to the UN presence in Bonn.
Reviews play a particularly important role in the attainment of the organisation’s corporate goals and Division work plans. As indicated in the UNV Business Plan, there are currently seven key goals for UNV on: policy, IYV2001, partnership, people, performance, external resources and internal resources.

The overall purpose of the review is to assess the contributions of UN Volunteers within both the programme, focus areas of UNV interventions and initiatives from early 2010 to 2011, and provide recommendations for UNV’s future role and direction in Liberia. The country review offers the opportunity to assess the contribution that the UNV programme provides to the promotion of volunteering in the country. Together with investigating the impact of the activities of the UN Volunteers, the review will provide a useful insight on issues related to the strategic positioning of the UNV programme in the national development plans, the UN Development Assistance Framework, Integrated Strategic Framework and others strategic planning frameworks in Liberia.

Liberia is a post-conflict country consolidating the gains achieved through a civilian government and the presence of UNMIL and UNCT. In this context, the review would be a stock taking exercise to objectively analyse the work of UN Volunteers and better position the UNV programme in Liberia. This would be based on the added value UN Volunteers contribute to the mandate of the UN system and within the context of the UNV Programme Strategy.

Backgound to Country Reviews in UNV:
UNV launched its Programme Strategy in early 2011 with five key programme areas: Delivery of Basic Services, Environment and Climate Change, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Humanitarian Assistance and Operational and Capacity Support to UN Missions. In addition, social inclusion pillars, (youth, gender and marginalised people) cross cut these programme areas. The justification of undertaking the review within the Peace Division (PD) of the Volunteer Programme Management and Operations Group of UNV (VPMG) is in line with the Division’s 2010-2012, two year work plan to track the contribution and added value of UN Volunteers in a post-conflict context, such as Liberia. The review should enable the PD to map out the contribution of UN Volunteers in Liberia and build on it to enhance strategic reporting on the work of UN Volunteers and their contribution to peace and development in a comprehensive analysed approach. The plan is to undertake four reviews in PD. This will enable PD to provide substantive inputs into key UNV and other UN affiliated reports, such as UNV and UNDP Annual Reports, the UN Secretary General’s reports on peacekeeping operations and global meetings such as the Rio+20 conference by UNDP within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

Background of the UNV Programme in Liberia:
Since the late 1990s, Liberia has evolved as one of UNV’s largest programmes in West Africa as a result of the creation of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to consolidate peace and reconciliation in the country. Since 2010, there have been about 300 serving UN Volunteers in Liberia. In 2008, UNDP and UNV launched a two-year National Youth Volunteer Scheme (NYVS) to support the Government of Liberia in providing opportunity for young graduates to contribute to the consolidation of peace and enhance development.
The majority of UN Volunteers are working with UNMIL, which has 239 Volunteers and UN country Team that boast of 36 Volunteers.

Duties and Responsibilities
Based on the above purpose, this exercise aims to provide:
• A review of the assignments and impact of UN Volunteers in a post-conflict country from 2010 to 2011 with a focus on results;
• A critical review of the UNV Programme Strategy, specifically the programme and focus areas and the contribution of UN Volunteers in achieving results for future strategic programming, including how to programme through the UN Volunteers;
• A synthesis of strategic and concrete lessons learned from UN Volunteers from 2010-2011 and how to build on the results to better position the UNV programme in Liberia and replication in other post-conflict environments;
• An identification of the particular value added of the volunteerism aspect of the contributions of the United Nations Volunteers programme in the recent years and transition periods between war, peace, reconstruction and development and in relation to events such as the IYV 2001 and IYV+10;
• Identify strategic programmatic options and opportunities within the context of the UNV Programme Strategy, UNDAF, Integrated Strategic Framework and others in view of the imminent downsizing of UNMIL by end of 2013.

The review will have two inter-related components, a desk study and an in-depth interactive field review via interviews with partners and beneficiary communities and organisations.

The desk study will be a documentation review of materials in preparation for the full-fledged review. It will provide background information on UNV’s contributions to Liberia covering the period 2010 to 2011. It will cover data on UN Volunteers and their assignments, the UNV Programme Strategy, national development plans, the UNDAF, the Integrated Strategic Framework and other policy documents and frameworks for Liberia.

The product will be a report highlighting key issues as follows:
• Number and composition of UN Volunteers fielded during the period, based on gender, national, geographical distribution, field of expertise etc.;
• The substantive fields of UN Volunteers involvement and added value;
• An analysis of the measurable impact and results related to the assignments of UN Volunteers; based on data obtained from beneficiary agencies, institutions and communities;
• The funding sources of UNV activities;
• Which partners UN Volunteers worked with;
• The issues/sectors UN Volunteers worked based on the UNV programme strategy focus areas and pillars;
• An outline of potential projects and programmes in the UNCT and Divisions/Units in UNMIL engaging UN Volunteers from 2010-2011;
• Challenges of the UNV programme, the UN Volunteers and the volunteer constituency in Liberia and suggested way forward.

The Final Report (not exceeding 25 pages excluding executive summary and annexes): The review team will prepare a report in English, including an executive summary, which records significant findings, draws conclusions, and highlights the benefit, impact and lessons learned from UN Volunteers’ efforts and strategic programmatic direction for the UNV Programme in Liberia. The executive summary (of approximately 4-5 pages) should be a stand-alone type of section that UNV can use in advocacy activities with partners.

The report should identify the areas and activities where challenges and successes were experienced through the efforts of the UN Volunteers and make recommendation in how better to position UNV and implement projects associated with the UNV Programme focus areas in Liberia. In addition, recommendations should include how to enhance incorporation of emerging national development priorities. In this context, the review mandate is to elaborate, to the extent possible, on the future downsizing of UNMIL and strategic entry points for the UNV Programme Strategy, the UNDAF and other peace and development frameworks. The final report should be analytical and structured around the key issues and related findings, conclusions, learnings, recommendations and/or scenarios.

The recommendations should offer not only advice on UNV’s involvement in Liberia, but also provide guidance to other partners and beneficiary institutions for partnership and collaboration with the UNV programme as well as strategic
utilization of UN Volunteers to achieve their mandates within the context of exploring programming through UN Volunteers.

The review team will be composed of one international consultant specialised in peace keeping and development evaluation and familiar with volunteering and related issues, a UNV representative either from UNV HQ or both the UNV Programme Officer and Programme Manager from the UNV Field unit and a national consultant. The international consultant will be the team leader. They will assume overall responsibility for the review (including the finalisation of the desk review to meet the mission team’s needs) and the work plan report and will establish the terms for division of labour amongst the team members.
The overall responsibility for managing the review will be with the Anglophone West Africa Portfolio – which also covers South Sudan and Timor-Leste within the PD and the UNV Field Unit in Liberia. The continuous involvement of major partners (UNMIL, UNCT, Government and UN Volunteers) should be ensured and maintained throughout the entire review process. More specifically, responsibilities will entail the following:
• Evaluation Unit: Assist the Program in preparing the terms of reference (TOR) and designing overall framework for the review, identifying and contracting the members of the review team from outside the country, preparing briefing and debriefing sessions at UNV HQ level, supervising the desk study in conjunction with the Peace Division;
• Peace Division (Anglophone West Africa, South Sudan, Timor-Leste Portfolio): Manage the overall review process including drafting the TOR, providing background information on Liberia to the consultant, identifying and collecting, the relevant documentation and information on Liberia and the UNV programme for the desk review and the full review. Facilitate consultant’s contact with UNV and ensuring the participation of other partners, participating in the briefing and debriefing;
• UNV Field Unit: Identify a national consultant to prepare relevant documentation to be reviewed by the team, prepare in-country field visit programme, make necessary internal travel arrangements for the review team and participate in the review as a full team members. The UNV Programme Officer and Programme Manager are also responsible for ensuring necessary buy-in to the review by national partners and stakeholders and for finalising the in-country programme of the mission;
• Reference Team: A reference team chaired by the Portfolio Manager will be established to provide comments on the detailed work plan and TOR for in-country visits and on the draft report. The reference team will further advise on issues, review key documents (draft reports) which may emerge during the review process. The reference team will be chaired by the PM and its members will include representatives (one each) of PD, DD, VKIS and EU.

Operating Principles:
Participation of different stakeholders at whatever level is appropriate (participation informing, consulting, active involvement, partnership, decision-making) particularly at the design stage and in the formation of recommendations.

It is very important to provide feedback to those who contributed including the UN Volunteers on the results of the review exercise and any new inputs. The consultation will be based on participatory approach that will facilitate consensus and ownership of the results and findings.

The review will be undertaken between mid-November to mid-December 2011. The Team Leader will be contracted for a total of 30 working days during this period. The review will include the following:
• Desk Study to be undertaken by the international consultant (mid November 2011);
• Briefing sessions and preparatory work for Evaluation Team at UNV HQ Bonn (2 working days – mid November 2011, depending on the geographical location of the consultant);
• Data Gathering and Field visits (28 working days mid -November to mid –December 2011). A detailed timetable will be provided.

Before leaving Liberia, the review team should present its preliminary findings, conclusions and lessons to UNMIL, UNCT, Government and UN Volunteers

The team will undertake the following functions with ground preparation support to be provided by the national consultant and the UNV Field Unit:
• Review of relevant documentation such as, volunteer assignments, agencies and missions and area of work;
• Project documents, progress reports etc.;
• Interviews with all UN Volunteers, host agencies and divisions and supervisors;
• Hold focus group discussions with UN Volunteers working under a common unit division and field of expertise;
• Interviews and discussions with senior management, heads of units in the UN system and government counterparts;
• Field visits to selected locations where UN Volunteers are working;
• Following the debriefing session, the Team Leader, in consultation with the team, will finalise the report that will be sent to the Government of Liberia, UNMIL, UNDP Liberia, other UN agencies and other key partners as required.

Competencies
• 10 years work experience of which at least five are in a developing country;
• Proven track record and experience in development work;
• Knowledge of volunteerism;
• Competence in sample survey techniques and computerised data processing;
• Good analytical and report writing skills;
• Good people and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience
The assignment will be contracted to a company / consultant with experience in UN mission and development evaluation and knowledge of volunteerism. The company / consultant should have:

Language:
• Fluency in English; Creole would be an advantage.

Qualifications:
• University degrees at the post-graduate level in the social sciences, management or any relevant field of study.

Evaluation criteria for Award of Contract:
The contract shall be awarded to the consultant who is the most technically qualified and provides the best value for money. The consultancy will be offered to the candidate with the highest combined score (technical and financial). Only those who pass the 80% technical evaluation score will be considered. Interviews will be used to determine the technical competencies of the candidates. Only companies / consultants with relevant experience in supplying similar services will be considered qualified.

Evaluation criteria and weights for Cumulative Analysis:
• Understanding of the subject/theme – 20%;
• Prior experience in the related field or similar consultancy -15%;
• Writing skills (Articulate and concise)/ability – 30%;
• Qualifications – 10%;
• Knowledge of UNV and UN Missions – 10%;
• Interview – 15%.
• Technical – 80%
Financial – 20%
Grand Total – 100%
•
• To be included in the application:
Mandatory (under 1000 words):
• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy, including contact details including contact details, explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
• A brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work;
• At least three references from previous clients that we can contact to seek references, name, address, email, telephone;
• At least three writing samples.
Optional (under 500 words):
• Proof of any previous relevant work carried out;
• Detailed list of services and specific areas of expertise that you may provide.

How to apply
Applications should be submitted online no later than 10 November 2011 (COB Bonn time) and include an up to date CV. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

If you submit an application, UNV expects that you have read and agree with the TOR and the UNV Terms and Conditions, available online:
http://www.unv.org/fileadmin/docdb/pdf/2011/procurement/UNV-IC_Terms%20%20Conditions.pdf

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to the e-mail indicated below. UNV will respond in writing or by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount (including fees and miscellaneous costs) according to the number of anticipated working days (up to 30 working days).

The Financial proposal has to be sent in a separate email to procurement@unv.org, with the subject title ‘375 – Consultancy: UNV Programme Review in Liberia”, Att. Iris Klesing, no later than 10 November 2011 (COB Bonn time). , with the subject title ‘375 – Consultancy: UNV Programme Review in Liberia”, Att. Iris Klesing, no later than 10 November 2011 (COB Bonn time).

Requests for further information must be sent in writing to the e-mail indicated above. Please note all applications must be submitted via the UNDP Job shop, we cannot accept application solely sent by e-mail.
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.