Consultant - Policy Aspects of Global Fund Grant Implementation, New York

Closing date: Friday, 13 February 2015

CONSULTANT - POLICY ASPECTS OF GLOBAL FUND GRANT IMPLEMENTATION

Location : New York City, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Application Deadline : 13-Feb-15

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

23-Feb-2015

Duration of Initial Contract : 80 working days

Expected Duration of Assignment : 23 February to 31 July 2015

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 170 countries and territories, working with governments and people on their own solutions to global and national development challenges to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP's Strategic Plan. BPPS's staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS works closely with UNDP's Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to support emergency and crisis response. BPPS ensures that issues of risk are fully integrated into UNDP's development programmes. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.

BPPS supports UNDP's 2014-2017 Strategic Plan, focusing on 7 outcomes including strengthening institutions to progressively deliver universal access to basic services (outcome 3). The HIV Health and Sustainable development team, within BPPS, is helping to contribute towards this outcome.

HIV, Health and Development Approach

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP's work on HIV, health and development leverages the organization's core strengths and mandates in human development, governance and capacity development to complement the efforts of specialist health-focused UN agencies. UNDP delivers three types of support to countries in HIV, health and development.

First, UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Millennium Development Goals. For example, UNDP works with countries to understand the social and economic factors that play a crucial role in driving health and disease, and to respond to such dynamics with appropriate policies and programmes outside the health sector. UNDP also promotes specific action on the needs and rights of women and girls as they relate to HIV.

Second, UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights and health responses. Sometimes this is done through focused or specialized programmes, such as promoting attention to the role of legal environments (law and access to justice) in facilitating stronger HIV responses, including the use of flexibilities in intellectual property and human rights law to lower the cost of drugs and diagnostics and to increase access to HIV-related treatment. UNDP also works to empower and include people living with HIV and marginalized populations who are disproportionately affected by HIV - also known as key populations - such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people. Beyond these focused efforts, UNDP plays a key role in ensuring attention to HIV and health within broader governance and rights initiatives, including support to district and municipal action on MDGs, strengthening of national human rights institutions and increasing access to justice for marginalized populations.

Third, as a trusted, long-term partner with extensive operational experience, UNDP supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on MDG 6 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding. UNDP partners with countries in crisis/post-crisis situations, those with weak institutional capacity or governance challenges, and countries under sanctions. When requested, UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient in these settings, working with national partners and the Global Fund to improve management, implementation and oversight of Global Fund grants, while simultaneously developing national capacity for governments or local entities to be able to assume the Principal Recipient role over time.

UNDP's Partnership with the Global Fund

As of July 2014, UNDP served as the Principal Recipient (PR) for 50 grants, covering 25 countries and 1 Regional Programme, funded by the Global Fund. UNDP also provides capacity support to a number of national entities managing Global Fund grants directly and Country Coordinating Mechanisms. In its role as interim PR, UNDP is responsible for the financial and programmatic management of grants, as well as the procurement of health and non-health products. In all cases, the implementation of grants must be done in accordance with UNDP policies and procedures, as well as the policies and guidelines of the Global Fund. Given the importance of the partnership with the Global Fund, UNDP continues to strive towards providing high value-added services to governments and the Global Fund, both in its role as interim PR, and increasingly as a significant technical partner to governments implementing Global Fund grants.

A dedicated BPPS team, housed within the HHD Group, supports the partnership with the Global Fund. This UNDP Global Fund Partnership Team's primary function is to provide quality and timely support to Country Offices to implement high performing Global Fund grants - in close coordination with Regional Bureaux - and to manage UNDP's partnership with the Global Fund at the corporate level.

The team's key goals are to: (i) enhance results and performance of Global Fund grants managed by UNDP; (ii) further strengthen UNDP's risk management of its Global Fund portfolio; (iii) scale-up and systematize UNDP's work to develop the capacity of national entities to take over as PR; (iv) enhance the value of UNDP as a policy and programme partner; and (v) manage corporate-level agreements to streamline operational and oversight procedures and requirements. UNDP is currently PR in 25 countries and 1 Regional Programme (covering 7 countries in South Asia) and was recently nominated as PR for the Global Fund programmes in Afghanistan and Western Pacific. The portfolio is constantly evolving with the potential to be nominated as PR for ongoing GF programmes both country and regional programmes.

Objective

In 2013, the Global Fund introduced a 'New Funding Model' (NFM), which is a significant departure from how the Global Fund previously administered funding. During 2014, the UNDP Global Fund Partnership supported the Global Fund in its pilot year of the New Funding Model. In 2015, UNDP will be supporting an unprecedented volume of grant applications to the NFM; with 20 UNDP-supported countries submitting 29 applications covering HIV, TB, Malaria and Health System Strengthening programmes.

Under the NFM the Global Fund also introduced a regional window of funding for regional programmes with submissions in May 2014 and April 2015, and UNDP is also expected to be supporting a number of regional applications in all regions for the April 2015 window. In addition, with the lessons learned from 2014, support is needed to the Regional Centers for the second wave of the Regional Expression of Interests in April 2015.

The UNDP HIV/AIDS Group is looking to hire a consultant to support the Global Fund Partnership Team in response to these needs for a period of up to 80 working days over a four month period 23 February to 31 July 2015. The consultant will be office-based in New York UNDP HQ. S/he will work under the supervision of the Senior Programme Advisor in the UNDP Global Fund Programme Team, within the HIV Health and Development (HHD), Bureau of Programme and Policy Support (BPPS).

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Senior Programme Advisor, the Consultant will be responsible for: Support the new UNDP Country Offices taking on the Global Fund Principal Recipient Role: (40%)

• Support one country office in its Expression of Interest to take on the Global Fund Principal Recipient Role;
• Provide technical support on the Concept Note development, Technical Review Panel Review Grants Approval Committee Review and grant making process;
• Recommend start up implementation strategy for the Programmes;
• Support two Country Offices in grant making and signing of its NFM grants, and support the COs in taking on the PR role, including development of its Programme Management Unit and transition to the PR role;
• Provide technical support on the Concept Note development, Technical Review Panel Review Grants Approval Committee Review and grant making process; and
• Recommend start up implementation strategy for the Programmes.

Support existing UNDP Country Offices acting as Global Fund Principal Recipient Role: (40%)

• Support one Country Office grant making and signing of its HIV/TB NFM Grant;
• Support one Country Office in negotiating its Costed Extension and support in development of the Malaria Concept Note, including Provide technical support on the Concept Note development, Technical Review Panel Review Grants Approval Committee Review and grant making process; and
• Support two Country Offices in hand-over of programme to national entity and corresponding grant closure activities, with preparation of summary report of hand-over.

Support the development of Expressions of Interest under the Global Fund's Regional Funding Window: (20%)

• Support regional centers prepare Expressions of Interest and Concept Notes through the grant making process reviewing, grant budgets, work plans and other grant documentation; and
• Act as a focal point for the gathering, recording and reporting of information related to EOIs and Concept Notes for regional programmes.

As required, work with the Senior Programme Advisor in New York, to assist in the coordination and management of UNDP Headquarters' response and support to Country Offices in negotiations and implementation.

Expected Outputs:

• Timely and quality support to the COs on one EOI, three Concept Notes, one grant agreement and one costed extension;Hand-over report on details and next steps for each Country Process;
• Timely and quality support to the COs on transition and grant closure. Hand-over report on details and next steps for both closures.

Reporting: The consultant shall report to Senior Programme Advisor, Global Fund Partnership team, HHD/BPPS. All deliverables will be submitted to Senior Programme Advisor for final approval.

Travel: In the case of additional unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Timeframe: The 80-day project will be conducted over a 4 month period from 23 February to 31 July 2015. The assignment will be office-based in the New York Office.

Evaluation: Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review or an interview process. Applicants will be evaluated based on: Cumulative analysis method that combines the results of technical and financial evaluation results.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (maximum 70 points):

• Criteria 1: At least 7 years of experience in public health, law or finance - 20 points;
• Criteria 2: Familiarity with Global Fund procedures, grant applications (New Funding Model) and program implementation - 25 points;
• Criteria 3: Familiarity with UNDP (or UN agencies) policies and procedures - 15 points;
• Criteria 4: Master's Degree in Social Science, Public Health, Law, Economic, International Development, Business Administration, Accounting or other related field - 10 points.

Financial Evaluation Criteria (maximum 30 points): p y (�/z), where

p points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y maximum number of points for the financial proposal

� price of the lowest priced proposal

z price of the proposal being evaluated

Payment: The consultant will be paid based on the all inclusive daily rate submitted, and payment will be subject to satisfactory progress made on the above deliverables as determined by Senior Programme Advisor in the Global Fund Partnership Team, BPPS. Payments shall be linked to deliverables and processed on a monthly basis.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products; and
• Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Development or knowledge management field.

Project and Resource Management:

• Strong organizational skills; and
• Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.

Communications and Advocacy:

• Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly;
• Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;
• Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly; and
• Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's Degree in Social Science, Public Health, Law, Economic, International Development, Business Administration, Accounting or other related field.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in public health, law or finance;
• Familiarity with Global Fund procedures (New Funding Model), grant applications and program implementation; and
• Familiarity with UNDP (or UN agencies) policies and procedures highly desirable.

Language Requirement:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English.

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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.