Republic of Moldova

National Consultant on communications to support the “Strengthening Parliamentary Governance in Moldova” Project (SPGMP) in the communication, outreach and visibility activities

Vacancy Number: Pr17/01495

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	22 Mar 2017, 10:00 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	28 Mar 2017, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	27 Mar 2017
Reference to the project:	Strengthening Parliamentary Governance/Parliament II
Expected Duration of Assignment:	March 2017 – April 2018
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than 22 March 2017 Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: sergiu.galitchi@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:

Ms. Elena Birau.

Mr. Sergiu Galitchi.

sergiu.galitchi@undp.org

Background

The UNDP project “Strengthening Parliamentary Governance in Moldova” (SPGM) is a multi-year institutional development project designed to address the main needs of the Parliament of Moldova in the areas of legislation making, oversight and representation during the on-going process of domestic reform spurred by closer relations with the EU. The project is also assisting in making the Parliament’s legislative activity more open, transparent and participatory through establishing tools and mechanisms for the engagement with the Civil Society, professional associations and general public. Project interventions will offer and encourage equal opportunity for male and female participation.

This project is designed to address the main needs of the Parliament of Moldova in the areas previously supported by the “Improving the Quality of Moldovan Democracy through Electoral and Parliamentary Support” (Democracy Programme) June 2012 – June 2016. In addition, it addresses some new areas considering the Parliament’s role to advance country’s European agenda and oversight over proper implementation by the Executive of RM-EU Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) and the recently approved “Moldova’s Priority Reform Action Roadmap”.

In this context, taking into account previous experience, the communication will not be merely a way to “message” the activities of the Parliament with the Project support, but will represent a way of conceptualizing and conducting core parliamentary roles.

The current confidence in Parliament and Government (Opinion Barometer April 2016) is around 6-7% which is in substantial decline. Therefore, the SPGMP will promote open dialogue, citizen engagement, and government responsiveness, basic requirements of good governance. The communication of a parliament’s oversight activity is an important aspect of its claim to legitimacy. Legitimacy demands transparency and requires decision-making practices to demonstrate engagement with and responsiveness to the public.

Effective and legitimate institutions are an integral part of development progress and the successful implementation of Goal SDG 16 will be essential in ensuring the progress on all other goals. The Project communication will be focused on the Project effort to assist the Parliament to improve its transparency and outreach, and increase the participation of civil society and citizens, and focus on continued gender and human rights mainstreaming.

Scope of work

To ensure visibility of the Project and manage all aspects of awareness raising and communication, in full compliance with the applicable visibility guidelines and rules, including via implementation of the Project’s communication strategy, development and dissemination of information, promotion materials and handouts, working with project’s beneficiaries to ensure synergy in communication about the achieved results of the Project.

Additionally, the consultant is expected to significantly contribute to developing the capacity of both the project team and beneficiary relevant staff, applying innovative communication approaches via social media platforms.

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• University degree in Public Relations, Communication, Journalism or other relevant field.

Experience and knowledge:

• At least 3 years of experience in media and online communications, active use of social media, publication and report writing, including research or data collection (proven by a portfolio of promotional and visibility materials/content prepared by the Consultant – please submit links in the Motivation section);
• At least 2 years of work experience in developing and implementing media/communications, visibility and awareness raising campaigns, drafting communication and awareness raising materials, writing articles, press releases, interviews and other communication products;
• Experience in similar positions in an UNDP and/or EU-funded project or other international organisation is an advantage;
• Experience in communication with different categories of people, including public officials, mass media and NGO representatives is an asset;

Competencies:

• Knowledge of the government institutions, NGOs and donors working in the area, mass-media outlets and PR agencies;
• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of analytical documents;
• Capacity to build strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and to respond positively to feedback;
• Fluency in Romanian, Russian and English languages.

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.

The UNDP Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

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 the work including past experience in similar assignments;
• Providing a brief information on each of the above qualifications, item by item and a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work (if applicable);

2. Financial proposal (in USD), specifying a fee per day and total requested amount including all related costs, e.g. fees, per diems, travel costs, phone calls etc.;

3. Duly filled in and signed Personal History Form (P11) and at least 3 names for a reference check.

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.

 

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.