Republic of Moldova

International consultant(s) to organize and conduct workshops on innovations into SMEs

Vacancy Number: Pr15/01070

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	20 Aug 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	10 Sep 2015
Reference to the project:	Innovative Business for Local Development
Expected Duration of Assignment:	September - November 2015, up to 4 w/d per specific LOT
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than August 20, 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: dumitru.vasilescu@undp.org. UNDP will respond 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 applicants. This Vacancy Announcement is also placed on http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=58934.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Contacts:

Mr. Dumitru Vasilescu.

Background

Human development in Moldova: snapshot

According to 2014 GHDR, Moldova’s HDI value for 2013 was 0.663 - - positioning the country in the medium human development category at 114 out of 187 countries and territories. Between 1990 and 2013, Moldova’s HDI value increased from 0.645 to 0.663, an increase of 2.8 percent or an average annual increase of about 0.12 percent. The country may have achieved higher HDI, but mainly due to the income component of the HDI, the progress made is insufficient, particularly compared to other CIS countries. When discounting Moldova HDI for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.582, a loss of 12.2 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices. Poverty, decent jobs, rural vs. urban divide in terms of development, uneven access to some social services, social exclusion of certain groups of population and their structural vulnerability, all negatively affect some positive MDG-related achievements. Although poverty decreased steadily in the recent years, around 84% of all poor reside in rural areas and the situation has in fact been worsening. Rural households are still much dependent on remittances and incomes from traditional agriculture, thus extremely vulnerable to external factors and climate shocks. The recent economic growth was largely jobless, as shown by the rather stagnating number of new jobs available on the local labour market in Chisinau and almost inexistent new jobs in the regions. The development of the labour market is to a large extent slow, vast majority of available jobs being concentrated in Chisinau, while the offer in the regions is poor or inexistent.

Strategic setting and links to UNPF, Moldova 2020 and other sector strategies

People’s resilience in face of multiple vulnerabilities can be improved through pro-active public policies as well as by investing in capabilities of the people and enlarging their choices. In Moldova, as the post-2015 national consultations showed, many people see high energy and food prices, climate-related threats, emigration and ageing of populations, as major challenges in the future. Taken into account all of the above, the current UNPF rightly points three pillars for joint UN interventions to support the democratic governance and justice, human development and social inclusion and environment, climate change and disaster risk management. Under Pillar 2, sustained interventions should aim at more access to people to sustainable regional development, economic opportunities, including through innovation and in agriculture, and decent work. Such interventions shall tackle in a comprehensive way the reasons for such high concentration of poverty in rural areas, while at same time take into consideration the existing urban poverty and key constraints for sustainable job creation and innovation in broader sense in both areas. As identified in UNPF, key reasons for rural poverty are low employment opportunities, high job insecurity, limited access and opportunities for inclusive economic development at local level, poor management of migration flows, savings and remittances, low-productivity agriculture sector with outdated technologies and knowledge, but also very limited capacities of the LPAs to promote entrepreneurship, deliver high-quality services to citizens, including some basis public services, among others. Urban poverty represents an under-researched domain and UNDP will conduct a thorough analysis to identify key drivers and solutions to overcome the current negative trend. The current Project will be connected to such analytical endeavors, so that to maximize positive effects of the activities to be implemented.

The Moldova 2020 Strategy clearly defines seven complex areas of intervention that would permit for a more sustainable development of the country up until 2020 and beyond and better lives for the Moldovans. These include: education, roads system, finance, business, energy sector, pensions system and justice sector reform. The Strategy underlines that an improved business environment will have a positive impact on trade, investment and motivation of companies to implement innovations and create new decent jobs. The National Strategy on Innovations (2013-2020) perfectly connects the realities and desired results of the innovation processes to the selective overarching national strategic areas of intervention. Improvements in education, road infrastructure, business environment, energy sector, etc., cannot be achieved without some degree on innovations and knowledge transfer. In this sense, the current Project is aligned to both Moldova 2020 and respective sector strategy.

Innovations’ state of play in Moldova

SMEs in Moldova have rather limited access to innovations, including finance to innovate, knowledge-sharing networks, among others. This stems from underdeveloped legislative framework, inefficient usage of available resources, lack of coordination among various actors, wide spread of responsibilities between different entities, lack of comprehensive M&E framework to monitor and evaluate progress in promotion of innovations. Above all, the concept of “innovations” is yet not fully understood and interpreted in a very narrow sense, merely only in terms of patented technological improvements or scientific discoveries. The new Strategy on innovations, elaborated by the Government and supported by UNDP, brings important changes to the current set-up and the proposed policy measures are fully aligned and will support the implementation of the Moldova 2020 Strategy.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/MDA

http://www.md.undp.org/content/dam/moldova/docs/Publications/UNDP_MD_Post2015Report_Eng.pdf

Scope of work

The main objective of the assignment is to organize and conduct three thematic workshops for innovative Moldovan SMEs on the LOT(s) specified below:

1. LOT 1 -  Practical steps for innovation in SME (the ABC on how to innovate)
2. LOT 2 – Innovative marketing for SME(s)
3. LOT 3 – Funding innovation for/in SME(s)

Interested international candidates shall apply with a detailed technical proposal and description of the specific topics to be covered during the workshop by taking into consideration and underligning the regional and international best-practices to justify the training agenda.

Potential candidates shall, to the possible extent, conduct practical workshops, offerring to the participant SMEs all available and relevant toolkit and knowledge to implement such toolkit in their business conduct.

All materials of such workshops will be made publicly available on the www.inobiz.md platform of the Project to ensure wide access for all other interested SMEs. 

Requirements for experience

Education:

• University degree in Economics, Social Science or other relevant fields;

Years of experience:

• At least 5 years of proven experience in delivering trainings and organizing/leading workshops on broad aspects of innovation for SMEs development;
• At least 3 years of proven experience in training SMEs on the specific topic of interest, as per the provided list;
• Familiarity with the situation in the national innovations systems in the CEE region and Moldova is a strong asset;
• Knowledge of the EU regulations, including institutional, legal and policy frameworks, in the area of innovation and technological transfer is a strong advantage;

Competencies

• Strong analytical, drafting and training skills.
• Ability to analyse, plan, communicate effectively with stakeholders and present ideas clearly and effectively.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
• Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills.
• Ability to enter new environments, adapt quickly and produce immediate results.
• Computer literacy - competent user of the main Microsoft Office programs.
• Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.

Language requirements

•  Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Romanian or Russian would be an asset.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for this position;
2. Financial proposal: in (USD, specifying a total lump sum amount and the number of anticipated working days).
3. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and the contact details of at least 3 reference persons;

  

Financial proposal

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. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fee, taxes, travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. 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.

In the case of 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.

Recommended Structure of the Financial Offer:

• Consultancy fee for the development, delivery and revision of the training;
• Consultancy fee for the participation at the event;
• Travel costs: roundtrip to Chisinau (economy class);
• Lodging expenses;     
• Visa costs (if required);
• Other (please specify if relevant).

 

Disclaimer In case of discrepancies between the text published on the website and the contents of the supporting documents, the provisions, instructions and conditions included in the supporting documents (published as Adobe Portable Document Format files) shall prevail. In case of discrepancies between the English version and the Romanian and/or Russian versions of text, documents or other content published on this webpage, the English version shall prevail.

Notice UNDP, as a matter of practice, does not charge any application, processing or training fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions as to vacancy announcements you may have received, please refer to this website. UNDP is currently aware of fictitious vacancy announcements that are being circulated through the internet, the purpose of which is to get people to register for a training and send in a fee. If you believe that you have received such a notice, please forward it, and any other related information you have received, to scamalert@undp.org. Since logos, emblems, names and addresses can be easily copied or reproduced, you are advised to take particular care in applying for vacancies, including undertaking all appropriate measures to protect against the unauthorised use of any personal information you may have provided as a result of the scam.