New Job United Nations at UNDP Tanzania – Researcher Zanzibar: Youth Upskilling Strategy

💥Researcher Zanzibar: Youth Upskilling Strategy
Advertised on behalf of :  UNCDF
Location : TANZANIA
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : International Consultant
Languages Required : English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 15-Mar-2023
Duration of Initial Contract : 4 months

Background
The
UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance
work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its
capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models
that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic
level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s
financing models work through two channels: financial
inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households,
and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them
with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their
financial lives; and by showing how localized investments—through fiscal
decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project
finance—can drive public and private funding that underpins local
economic expansion and sustainable development.
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By
strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small
enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1
on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By
identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can
have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and
address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a
number of different SDGs.

Digital economies:
UNCDF
manages initiatives to develop inclusive digital finance ecosystems
which offer a wide range of financial services especially for low-income
vulnerable communities. Specifically, UNCDF provides a mix of policy,
technical and financial support to a range of government and private
sector actors in each country, as well as invests in research and other
public goods to benefit all market actors. By supporting the development
of digital finance ecosystems in these countries, UNCDF aims to
increase the financial security of low income and rural households
through access to appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive,
manage and save money.

Recently, UNCDF has formulated its
strategy ‘Leaving no one behind in the digital era’ based on over a
decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
UNCDF recognizes that reaching the full potential of digital financial
inclusion aligns with the vision of promoting digital economies that
leave no one behind. The vision of UNCDF is to empower millions of
people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and
technology and contribute to the SDGs. UNCDF will apply a market
development approach and continuously seek to address underlying market
dysfunctions. For more information, please see: https://www.uncdf.org/article/4567/uncdf-launches-digital-economy-strategy-leaving-no-one-behind-in-the-digital-era

Silicon Zanzibar:
The
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has been operating in
Tanzania for the past 40 years contributing to different financial
inclusion initiatives, enhancing local government alternative sources of
funds to finance local infrastructure, and expanding its scope to
support inclusive economic digital transformation. Recently, UNCDF has
been engaging with stakeholders on the Silicon Zanzibar initiative in
line with UNCDF’s strategy to ensure “No one is left behind in the digital era.”

Silicon Zanzibar
is a public-private initiative to attract tech companies and workers
from across Africa and beyond to Zanzibar. This initiative is being led
by the Zanzibar Ministry of Investment & Economic Development and
the Ministry of Tourism alongside Wasoko, a leading African tech company
and CPS, a real estate developer (Fumba Town). Silicon Zanzibar aims to
transform Zanzibar into a leading hub for Pan-African tech companies.

Zanzibar
has a unique opportunity to work with the tech companies, understand
the type of skills required and upgrade its current training facilities
and curricula to meet these demands. In return, the tech companies will
be a source of employment for youth and a source of world-class
training for IT-skilled youth that would allow them to be employable in
Zanzibar and beyond. This type of program truly prepares youth for
employment in the digital age which will result in a spillover positive
economic effect on both the Island and the country accelerating
Tanzania’s digital transformation.

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Duties and Responsibilities
UNCDF
seeks to engage a researcher/consultant to draft and design a strategy
for a future program to equip IT-skilled youth in Zanzibar to meet the
talent demands of national and international technology firms. The
program will aim to leverage off and strengthen existing training and
skilling programs/resources in order to build pathways through which
Zanzibari youth can attain employable digital skills that are industry
driven and marketable.

Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following:
Supply side:

• Conduct
  a mapping and analysis of the Zanzibar digital innovation ecosystem,
  its stakeholders and training/educational resources available in Unguja.
• Identify
  existing higher educational institutions and/or programs both private
  and public offering technical IT training (segmented according to
  foundational and advanced level training)
• Segment IT trainings received at higher educational institutions according to topics and content.
• Map
  and assess quality and availability of human and physical IT training
  resources (trainers, experts and IT equipped training centers)
• Based
  on a sample of IT graduates, assess IT skill competencies, skills and
  knowledge of graduates of Zanzibari technical trainings; identify skill
  gaps; identify constraints faced by youth (cost, access, language
  etc..).
• Identify existing IT learning platforms targeting African youth and map according to content, cost and length of training.
• Identify
  private and public stakeholders relevant to higher level IT skill
  development, any ongoing, complementary initiatives, potential
  opportunities; map relationships among the stakeholders and key
  decision-makers.
• Highlight enabling attributes or potentially constraining regulations that could hinder program implementation
• Identify
  opportunities and challenges to bring regional and international
  skill-building agencies, organizations and companies to the Zanzibar
  market to support digital upskilling

Demand side:

• Identify and map potential public and private sector employers of IT-skilled graduates
• Identify and map digital core competencies required by potential employers; demand and salary range of IT-related competencies.
• Identify apprenticeship/fellowship/internship opportunities that could be provided by employers.
• Identify
  opportunities at the regional and global levels for skills outsourcing
  (exporting skills to mainland and internationally)

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Expected Outputs and Deliverables

SN	Activities		Outputs/Deliverables	Percentage	Target Due Dates
		Draft an inception report to finalize the workplan and methodology. This report would outline the scope of research, tools/guiding questions to be used for research and stakeholders to be interviewed.	Inception report with final activity work plan and methodology reviewed and approved.	10%	Month 1
2.		Hold at least 4 stakeholder consultation workshops to elicit information relevant to research activities.	Summary of workshop minutes/notes as well as attendance list, with conclusions and next steps.	30%	Month 2
3.		For each research activity listed in the Scope of work, draft findings and relevance to program strategy.  Highlight synergies across different research areas.	Draft research report  with clear findings against listed activities; reviewed and approved by UNCDF IDE Country Lead	25%	Month 3
4.		Hold a final validation workshop with relevant stakeholders to present program proposal.	Workshop report which includes feedback and deliberations around the program proposal.
5.		Design a strategy for a program to equip IT-skilled youth in Zanzibar to meet the talent demands of national and international technology firms.	Full and final program strategy design reviewed and approved.	35%	Month 4

Institutional Arrangement
The
consultant/firm will work with UNCDF’s Inclusive Digital Economies Team
in Tanzania. The consultant will be managed by UNCDF Tanzania IDE’s
Country Lead.

Outputs and deliverables will be reviewed and
approved by Tanzania IDE Country Lead. All costs needed to achieve the
deliverables set forth in this TOR are to be included in the financial
proposals from the applicant/bidding entity (transport and travel,
professional fees, software, hardware, communication, consumables, etc.)

To ensure that content delivered can be published on the UNCDF
website, design and form of outputs and deliverables will be advised by
the Communications Analyst.

Key Performance Indicators and Service Level

• A
  kick-off meeting will be conducted at the beginning of the project to
  agree on the minimum standard of services acceptable. UNCDF must be
  informed and be part of decision-making if there are any deviations from
  the sampling protocol, tool change or any other augmentation.
• At
  least two progress meetings will be required per phase. The first
  meeting will be to discuss the planning and the second meeting will be
  to approve the deliverables.
• Monitoring of progress shall be
  measured both per the activities of the contractor as well as the
  performance of the UNCDF partners involved in the project.
• The contractor will be asked to organize progress calls with UNCDF bi-weekly.
• Payments
  will be linked to the approval of deliverables. Should a deliverable
  not meet the standard agreed, UNCDF will withhold payment and discuss
  remedial actions with the contractor.

Duration of the Work
The expected duration of the assignment is 4 months. The activities are expected to be completed by July 30, 2023.

Duty Station
This is a home-based consultancy.
Facilities to be provided by UNCDF

• No facilities will be provided by UNCDF
• All
  costs needed to achieve the deliverables set forth in this RFP are to
  be included in the financial proposals from the applicant/bidding entity
  (transport, professional fees, software, hardware, communication,
  consumables, stakeholder events, etc.)

Competencies
Requirements of the Successful Consultant

• Successfully conducted similar research previously.
• Experience drafting strategies and/or program proposals.
• Experience engaging with public and private sector and performing focused group discussions
• Previous experience working in Zanzibar
• Experience providing analyses based on findings and proposing a way forward.
• Existing relationships with various government stakeholders in Zanzibar
• Understanding of technology-based private sector in Tanzania (including Zanzibar)
• Technical understanding of IT-related competencies and their application within technology firms
• Understanding of how private and public educational institutions in Zanzibar function

Competencies

• Minimum 2 years of experience in doing qualitative research and program design
• Minimum 2 years of experience in IT-related sector or IT-related educational sector
• Fluency in spoken and written English and Kiswahili languages

Education

• Bachelor’s
  Degree in development studies, economics, communications, arts and/ or
  social sciences, education, or equivalent in work experience.

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Required Skills and Experience
(a) Personal Profile: Cover letter
Methodology and approach to assignment
A Curriculum Vitae (CV) or completed and signed P11 – Personal History Form (available at http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc),
stipulating applicant’s official name the qualifications and
professional experiences (with similar projects) relevant to the
assignment/TOR and the contact details (email address, telephone
numbers) of 3 professional references.
Example of research done previously – document or link to online document

(b) A signed financial proposal for the assignment, Completed and duly
signed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability, quoted in US
dollars, outlining the all-inclusive fee, supported by a breakdown of
reimbursable – direct and indirect – costs (if applicable ). (see click here for document)

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents.

Proposal should be submitted at the following email uncdf.procurement@uncdf.org with subject line: “Researcher Zanzibar ” no later than 27 February 2023

EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA
Cumulative analysis:
The award of the contract shall be made to the firm whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b)
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of
weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Example 70%-30%.
* Technical Criteria weight; 70%
* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only
candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical
points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points

• Bachelor’s Degree in development studies, economics, communications, arts and/ or social sciences, education (10 Points)
• Minimum 5 years of experience in research and program design. (10 points)
• Expertise and past experience in research and program design of proposed consultant (20 points)
• Methodology
  of proposed intervention, its thoroughness, appropriateness to the
  context and assignment, ability to provide timely results (20 Points)
• Outline of research work is on par with expectations, or a link of research work done (10 points)

Financial Proposal (30%)

• To be computed as a ratio of the Proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by UNCDF. (30 points)

The contract shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest combined weight: (technical scores)70% + financial 30%= 100%.

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b)
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of
weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Example 70%-30%.

Individual consultants and persons employed by a
company or institution are invited to apply. Any individual employed by
a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response
to a Procurement Notice for individual consultant must do so in their
individual capacity by providing a CV so that their qualifications may
be judged accordingly.

Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
UNCDF
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.

Any
request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard
electronic communication to the address or email
Uncdf.procurement@uncdf.org . UNCDF will respond in writing or 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 consultants.
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UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf

 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.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of
harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All
selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and
background checks.
Application Deadline : 27-Feb-23 (Midnight New York, USA)