Republic of Moldova

National consultant to provide analytical support for the establishment of a Youth-centered Skills Observatory and Experimentation Lab

Vacancy Number: Pr16/01460

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	16 Dec 2016, 14:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	23 Dec 2016
Reference to the project:	Innovative Business for Local Development
Expected Duration of Assignment:	December 2016 – March 2017
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than December 16, 2016. 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.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Contacts:

Mr. Dumitru Vasilescu.

Background

Unemployment is one of the most pressing socio-economic issues in the Republic of Moldova. The national labor market is a complex system that is witnessing dramatic challenges, related to a low number of vacancies compared to the existing demand in jobs on the market, significant skills mismatch, low labor productivity, regional disparities, discriminatory practices faced by many vulnerable groups etc. Public employment service modernization is slow and available public resources are too scarce and often spent inefficiently. Against such a background, the Government of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of UNDP Moldova and other development partners, is drafting the new Employment Strategy that is trying to put employment on top of the national development agenda. At the same time, pilot projects and policy experiments could support incremental progress in implementing this new strategy, by helping to identify cost-efficient solutions through a rigorous impact assessment, and upscaling/replicating the most successful ones.

In such context, UNDP is continuing the collection of the micronarratives on unemployment to gather small data on the perceptions of unemployed in order to better analyze the current situation on the labor market and propose low-cost and safe-to-fail experiments and solutions to reverse the current trend. Micronarratives are essentially a new method of collecting and analyzing small data and perceptions of individuals of different demographic backgrounds. Collected data is then analyzed with an open source application to identify patterns, trends and non-statistical correlations.

The Observatory is intended to be more than the traditional research and projections unit. It will include the data collection and analysis functionality, coupled with an experimentation component. The main challenges that arise from the research efforts will be consulted with key stakeholders and solutions generated and transformed into policy experiments. If an experiment proves efficient and brings positive effects on the employability of youth, UNDP and main stakeholders will further mobilize resources for up-scale.

The piloting of a skills observatory focused on youth can help local and central authorities to improve the quality of the services, streamline youth employability, learn how to experiment and achieve better requests with the austere current and projected budget. It will analyse available evidence and data, as well as identify new ways of collecting information about current needs on the job market, to inform and support a policy dialogue between authorities, the private sector and civil society, and deliver innovative solutions to the skills mismatch and youth unemployment problems. Located initially within the UNDP premises and being subject to relocation to the most suitable local counterpart, it will rely on regional best practices and become a participatory analytic and experimentation facility that would draw a real, gender-disaggregated picture of skills mismatch and underutilization.

The Observatory will serve as an entry point for social innovation through low cost experimentation: a venue for experimenting with innovative safe-to-fail solutions to tackle mismatch and misalignment and connecting the private sector to solving the issue. The effort is scalable both in terms of extension to other target groups (e.g. elderly, etc.), and serving as a model for sustained, evidence-based dialogue involving state bodies, public, private sector and academia in other areas. The observatory fits in the targets set in the National Employment Strategy of Moldova (2016-2020), National Development Strategy Moldova 2020 and is a direct contribution to the achievement of the SDGs, in particular 8 and 10, UNDP Strategic Plan, Youth Strategy, etc.

 

Scope of work

UNDP is looking for a local consultant with solid experience in policy analysis and development in the field of labor market and employment of various vulnerable groups of population, in particular youth. The scope of the assignment is to support the Skills Observatory and Experimentation Lab with the analysis of the available dataset created by the project through collection of the micronarratives, analysis of the micronarratives, development of the list of possible experiments and solutions for youth employment and consultation of the proposed solutions with key stakeholders. The analysis of the small data, coupled with analysis of the available statistical data and recent studies, will permit to frame the analytical context in which the Observatory will operate and coordinate the experimentation.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualification

• Advanced degree (PhD or Master Degree) in Development/Labor Economics, Statistics, Sociology, Social Assistance or other relevant fields;

Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant policy analysis and research experience in the field of labor market, youth employment, proved by relevant research paper and other analytical products

Competencies

• In-depth knowledge of the national labor market in the Republic of Moldova or EU systems is a strong advantage;
• Knowledge of the regional conditions on the labor markets, dynamics of unemployment, employment promotion measures is a strong advantage;

• Strong analytical, drafting and training skills.
• Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills;
• 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 English is mandatory. Knowledge of Russian and/or Romanian is an advantage.

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 if other than foreseen).
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.

 

 

 

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