Roster for National Consultants - Communications (Multiple Position), Home Based and Field Works In Dhaka/Project, Bangladesh

 
ROSTER FOR NATIONAL CONSULTANTS - COMMUNICATIONS (MULTIPLE POSITION)
Location : Home based and field works in Dhaka/project, BANGLADESH
Application Deadline : 14-May-15
Additional Category
Millennium Development Goals
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : National Consultant
Languages Required : English
Expected Duration of Assignment : Roster will remain valid for 3 years
Background
UNDP Bangladesh is supporting the Government of Bangladesh through four broad programme areas: Democratic Governance, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Poverty Reduction, and Energy, Environment & Climate Change. It administrates around 30 projects of varying sizes, with a combined annual delivery of approximately USD 80 million. UNDP has been working with its development partners and the Government of Bangladesh in these areas to support in achieving the country's development objectives.

The importance of communicating the results of UNDP's programmes and projects in the lives of beneficiaries, as well as to our partners and the general public, should be highly professional and up to the mark. Quality communication materials can play vital roles in effective communication and terms of positive image building they are the must. Well-developed communication materials can also feed into future evaluations and impact assessments. Reporting on and communicating the results of development programmes and projects are much richer if the communication approach taken by the organization holds its standards high.
In this context, UNDP Bangladesh is going to hire multiple specialists who have professional lineage to provide dedicated communication support to UNDP Bangladesh's programmes and projects.
Under the understanding of registering for the Individual Consultant Roster, the selected candidates will be contacted to see if they are available to work when needed under supervision of the Assistant Country Director, Policy, Innovation and Communication Cluster in close collaboration with the programme clusters and projects.
General Conditions of the Recruitment to the Individual Consultant Roster are provided as Annex 1 to this Terms of Reference.

Objective: The overall objective of this assignment, is to place qualified Individual Consultants in a Roster, for the next 3 years in order to expedite hiring processes for, high standard communication materials to reach the government, policy makers, donors, partners and general public as when needed.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of work
The applicant may look into all areas of expertise indicated below and then choose their relevant field as appropriate to submit the application. Individuals may apply for more than one area if they have the required qualifications and professional skills. The applicants will be considered for the Roster based on their relevant expertise after the completion of the evaluation process: For Photographer:

• Capture high resolution images of individuals, families, groups, events at field locations related to the implementation of the UNDP Bangladesh activities and programmes;
• Caption each photograph with specific details such as geographical location, name of the person (for portraits), activity and any other relevant information, for easy identification and location. Captions should be embedded in the jpeg images and also provided in a separate text document.

For Filmmaker:

• Ensure pre-production filming and post production at the highest quality
• Contact the characters on location and ensure their availability and willingness for filming
• Ensure permission from persons for filming
• Coordinate the filming and interviews
• Ensure that the correct video formats are used as requested by UNDP country office or projects.
• Work with the highest professional ethical standards
• Ensure that the correct technical requirements are followed
• It is expected that interviews in Bangla will be subtitled to English
• Ensure delivery of all footage obtained for production. UNDP retains full Copy right of all footage filmed.
• Ensure highest broadcast quality production and filming

For Publication Designer

• Providing smart, innovative and creative design ideas to create high quality printing materials
• Creating visually attractive, conveying the essence of the message that UNDP CO or projects wants to disseminate
• Designing printable material with conventional Publication Design Software like Adobe In Design, Adobe Illustrator

For Writer/Editor

• Support programme clusters and projects in capturing and communicating evidence based results as strongly and accurately as possible;
• Support the programme clusters and projects to communicate results focused stories by analyzing/reviewing available information and/or collecting required information from direct sources including stakeholders/beneficiaries etc.
• Support the programme clusters and projects to by providing smart, innovative and creative ideas to create high quality communication materials

Expected outputs / deliverables: It is expected that the consultant will produce: For Photographer:

• Photographs - both colour and black and white, and related cut lines (photo descriptions)
• Provide all the images taken in the assignment including 15 selected best images
• Photographs shall be provided to UNDP on external storage (hard drive, flash drive or DVD)
• Photographs shall conform to UNDP ethical guidelines and appropriate visual portrayal of UNDP programme related areas
• Ensure delivery of all the end products that meet the deadlines as specified

For Filmmaker:

• A work plan and a story board based on inputs from UNDP CO communication team or project communication focal point.
• Draft 1: unedited rough version upon which UNDP CO or Project will provide initial inputs
• Draft 2: first edited version of the film upon which UNDP CO or Project will provide substantive inputs
• Draft 3: second edited version of film upon which UNDP CO or Project will provide final inputs
• Final high Res file of film
• Delivery of all footage filmed for the production on hard drives
• Final version: DVD
• Web streaming file of 1-2 minute version

For Publication Designer

• High quality printing designs as per UNDP CO or project's requirement
• Ensuring the message in clearly conveyed through the design
• Drafts to get the inputs from UNDP CO or project to finalize the design
• Ensuring the design to be handed over with in due time

For Writer/Editor

• High quality communication materials with credible evidences of UNDP's development interventions finalized targeting wide range of audience including donors, partners and general public.
• Creating and producing exclusive communication materials (subjected to his/her skills and expertise) for the programme clusters, projects, implementing partners;
• The programme clusters, projects will get writing/editing related services as per their requirement and convenience and within their given time frame.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation
Under the day to day supervision of the Assistant Country Director, Policy, Innovation and Communications Cluster, when a request for services arises, the UNDP Bangladesh Policy, Innovation and Communications Cluster shall directly engage the consultants without the need for further selection process. A specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs and detailed arrangement for each assignment shall be provided and an Individual Contract (IC) or Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), whichever is applicable, will be issued to the consultant, detailing the time frame.
Copyrights
The works produced under this agreement will be copyrighted to UNDP Bangladesh and any violation of copyright law will be pursued appropriately.
Timeframe and deadlines
The Individual Consultant Roster, is expected to be maintained for a period of 3 years and will be reviewed and updated yearly based on performance & UNDP needs.
Travel
The consultant may be required to travel for specific tasks and UNDP will arrange and cover the cost of the official travels in accordance to UN rules and procedures. This may include travel inside of Dhaka and any other project sites in Bangladesh.
The fare will always be 'most direct, most economical' and any different with the preferred route will be paid for by the consultant.
Competencies
Competencies:

• Excellent communication skills
• Plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time and produces quality results to meet established goals
• Creative and innovative in producing the desired outputs
• Ability to work with a multicultural environment and a multidisciplinary team
• Willingness to travel to project sites
• Flexible to adaptable circumstances while in the field

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English is required

Other desired qualities

• Corporate Competencies
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standard;
• 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
• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;

Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
Required Skills and Experience
Education

• Minimum graduation degree from a reputed educational institution
• Any professional degree on the relevant field will be gold

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience in photography/filmmaking/writing-editing/ Publication Designing as a communication professional
• Proven record of photography/filmmaking/writing-editing/ Publication Designing
• Proven record of development field related work
• Extensive knowledge of respective field
• Knowledge of current trends, principles and methodology of the respective field
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of any of the current or previous UNDP internal/external communication related job.

Evaluation of the Candidates
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Cumulative analysis
The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for Financial Evaluation.
Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks)

• Years of Experience of working with an international organization/UN Agencies/Donor Agencies - 15 Marks
• At least 5 years proven work experience in photography/filmmaking/writing-editing/ Publication Design in social/development area with an international organization/UN Agencies/Donor Agencies - 15 Marks
• Proven record of professional portfolio - 20 marks
• Excellent Spoken English skills - 10 Marks
• Educational Qualification from a recognized university in a relevant field - 10 Marks

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)
All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula: p y (x/z)
where: p points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y maximum number of points for the financial proposal
x price of the lowest priced proposal
z price of the proposal being evaluated
How to Apply
Interested candidates should follow UNDP Standard online application procedure and send in a single document

• An updated detailed CV
• A portfolio of last three works with UN or any other development organization
• A Daily fee for the services provided by the candidate

Short-listed candidates may be requested to participate in an interview with a selection panel.
N.B: Interested candidates should follow UNDP standard online application procedure. Currently the system allows to upload a single document. Hence, all applicants are requested to scan and convert all relevant papers in a single document and then upload the same while applying for the Roster.
The applicant may look into all areas of expertise indicated in the TOR and then choose their relevant field as appropriate to submit the application. Individuals may apply for more than one area if they have the required qualifications and professional skills. The applicants will be considered for the Roster based on their relevant expertise after the completion of the evaluation process
Contracts based on daily fee
Payments will be made to the Individual Consultants based on the actual number of days worked as evidenced by the time sheet.
Annex 1. General Conditions of the Services provided by Candidates on the Individual Consultant Roster:

• Being on the Individual (IC) Roster does not necessarily mean that a contract with the UNDP Bangladesh is guaranteed. This will depend on forthcoming needs as specified in this ToR. Where a request for services arises, the UNDP shall directly contact the consultant from the roster to ask for their interest and availability inputting them through an expedited selection process. A specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs for each assignment shall be provided and an Individual Contract (IC) or Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), whichever is applicable, will be issued to the consultant, detailing the time frame. Conditions of a particular assignment may be negotiable.
• UNDP does not warrant that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of this Individual Consultant Roster.
• IMPORTANT: If you are a former staff member of the United Nations recently separated, pls. add this section to your letter: I hereby confirm that I have complied with the minimum break in service required before I can be eligible for an Individual Contract. I also fully understand that, if I am engaged as an Individual Consultant, I have no expectations or entitlements whatsoever to be re-instated or re-employed as a staff member.

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.