International Consultant - Economic Advisor

International Consultant - Economic Advisor

Location :
Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA

Application Deadline :
‎13-Jan-‎23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Time left :
16d 8h 53m

Type of Contract :
Individual Contract

Post Level :
International Consultant

Languages Required :
Arabic English

Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
‎01-Feb-‎2023

Duration of Initial Contract :
‎12 months

Expected Duration of Assignment :
‎12 months

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.

Background

For the last four decades, Saudi Arabia has realized and sustained remarkable
progress along the socioeconomic development path. As a result of this, the
Kingdom has been able to move to a high-income country. The GDP, for instance,
increased from SR156 billion in ‎1969 to SR ‎2,631 billion in ‎2018, putting the
economy among the top ‎20 global economies in terms of size. Based on the
annual ranking of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Human Development
Report, Saudi Arabia has steadily moved from the medium human development
category in the 1990s to the very high human development category in ‎2018 at
‎0.857 value of HDI.The Saudi Vision ‎2030 represents an ambitious resolve with
long-term goals and expectations founded on the strengths and capabilities of
the Kingdom. It covers the three themes of a vibrant society, a thriving
economy, and an ambitious nation. A thorough review of the three themes and
their underlying issues of national concern would reveal a holistic approach
to development that encompasses the three dimensions of Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs): the social, the economic and the environmental.

The Umbrella Program for Socio-Economic Development is a partnership between
the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), and UNDP aims at mainstreaming
social and economic development the national policies, and sectoral and
regional plans. It focuses on mobilizing technical assistance and capacity
development to MEP to facilitate economic and social transformation, including
economic diversification, inclusive and accelerated economic growth.
Specifically, the program framework covers the following main areas:
* SDGs monitoring and reporting.
* Policymaking, policy analysis and regional development planning.
* Producing the National Human Development Report
Within this context, the project seeks to recruit a Senior Territorial
Development Expert to support the "Sectoral and Regional Development Affairs"
Deputyship at the Ministry of Economy and Planning (Regional Development
Affairs Department) at MEP to improve and maintain the Territorial development
toolkit of the Department. The Expert will also focus on capacity building and
transfer of knowledge to the Regional Development Affairs Department.

A Consultant, or Analyst, is responsible for providing industry expertise to
corporations and individuals. Their duties include researching their client
and their client's position within an industry, meeting with company
executives or professionals to make suggestions and develop improvement plans
based on their needs and maintaining a professional relationship with their
clients over time

Duties and Responsibilities

The Economic Insights and Research unit is responsible for developing high-
level summaries and economic reports on all major global economic
developments, events, and topics of interest and relevance to policy makers.

These reports are designed to inform top official within the Saudi government
and require the input of highly qualified economists with expertise in writing
insightful and impactful reports, summaries, and recommendations.

Tasks:
*
Writing short economic studies, reports, and analysis pieces.
* The workload will depend on requests from top management. On average, we require ‎4 such pieces per month of length from ‎5 to ‎10 pages, and with the proper economic data and analysis.
* To continuously contribute to periodic short economic reports, studies, and summaries.
* To continuously contribute to the annual State of the Economy flagship publication of MEP.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

Deliverable

Expected number of working days

Target Due Dates

Review and Approvals Required

Deliverable ‎1 - Economics and public policy paper Chapter ‎1

‎60

‎2 months from signing the contract

Approved by the project Chief Technical Advisor and UNDP Programme Analyst

Deliverable ‎2 - Economics and public policy paper Chapter ‎2

‎60

‎4 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎3 - Economics and public policy paper Chapter ‎3

‎60

‎6 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎4 - Economics and public policy paper Chapter ‎4

‎60

‎8 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎5 - Python scripts and notebooks

‎30

‎9 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎6 - SQL queries utilized

‎30

‎10 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎7 - Excel workbooks with raw data

‎30

‎11 months from signing the contract

Deliverable ‎8 - Macro enabled excel workbooks or dashboard on similar BI tool
such as Power BI/Tableau/Looker/Apache Superset

‎30

‎12 months from signing the contract

B. Institutional Arrangement
The expert will be reporting to the Chief Technical Advsior/ Head of the
Strategic Economic Insights and Research Unit at MEP, while keeping UNDP focal
person informed about the progress reports. A detailed work plan for the
expert 's duties and responsibilities will be formulated by MEP. She/he will
be supervised by the head of the Strategic Economic Insights and Research Unit
and will work in collaboration with other consultants and the relevant MEP
technical staff as deemed needful.

Duration of the Work

• The expected duration of the assignment is ‎12 Months, with the possibility of an extension, based on performance and availability of funds.


• The anticipated starting date of the assignment is 1st of Febuary ‎2023. And the expected date of full completion of all tasks under this assignment is 29st of February of ‎2024.
  
  Duty Station


• The duty station for the work in country will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He/
  She will be embedded within the Ministry of Economy and Planning .


• If unforeseen travel outside the consultant 's home-based city is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. In such cases, the consultant shall receive living allowances not exceeding the United Nations (UN) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rate for such other location(s).

Note : A written approval from UNDP and relevant authorities will be
required to facilitate the consultant's travel to any locations than stated on
this TOR on official missions where necessary.

Working Arrangements:**
*
All mission travels must be approved in advance and in writing by the
Supervisor.
* United Nations Development of Safe and Security - BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to the commencement of travel.
* The Consultant is responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when traveling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director.
* The consultant is also required to comply with the UN security directives.
* The consultant is responsible for obtaining any visas needed in connection with travel with the necessary support from UNDP.
* The consultant will be responsible for submitting his/her own mission travel arrangements in line with UNDP travel policies.
* The consultant is responsible for required health and life insurance related to work or travel.
* The consultant is expected to have his/her own Laptop/Computer.

Competencies

• Knowledge & Experience of working with constituents in the Arab States, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).


• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards.


• Demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.


• Display cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability.


• Excellent communication, organizational and management skills


• Focuses on the impact and results of the client


• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive-constructive attitude


• Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors
  
  Corporate Competencies:


• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN 's values and ethical standards


• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP


• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, and nationality sensitivity and adaptability
  
  Functional Competencies:


• Ability to handle effectively multiple tasks without compromising quality, team spirit, and positive working relationships


• Highly level in program economic reporting and implementation with strong knowledge- base in excessive experience in this field.


• Demonstrated ability to conceptualize, develop and oversee complex program implementation.

Required Skills and Experience

Min. Academic Education

Master 's in Quantitative Finance or Economics or other related fields

Min. years of relevant Work experience

At least ‎10 years of Experience working in the field of developing high-level
summaries and economic reports/ all major global economic developments/events,
and topics of interest and relevance to economic policymakers.

Required skills and competencies
*
Solid economic knowledge and background, strong writing and data analysis
skills.
* Experience in statistical software and econometric packages is a plus.

Desired additional skills and competencies
*
EProven Experience in handling high-level Economical reports among
professionals and senior management.
* Background in the GCC and especially in Saudi context will be an asset.
* Experiences in programming and project management related to the ecnmic field.

Required Language(s) (at working level)

Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills in English
and Arabic language.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:**

All proposals must be expressed in a lump sum amount. This amount must be
"all-inclusive". Please note that the terms "all-inclusive" implies that all
costs (professional fees, living allowances, communications, consumables,
etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final
amounts submitted in the proposal.
Payments shall be made to the individual contractor upon successful completion
and certification by UNDP that services have been satisfactorily performed,
based upon the actual number of working days and accomplishments of each
deliverable.
Payment shall be made as a deliverables-based lump upon the receipt of the
deliverables and certification of satisfactory performance by UNDP.

The Expert will share a Certificate of Payment (CoP) where he/he needs to
indicate achieved outputs. Then the certificate of payment must be verified by
the UNDP Team and certified by UNDP top management. The Expert is advised to
keep a detailed timesheet of the days worked and tasks performed throughout
the consultancy assignment. A bi-weekly update of the timesheet will be
requested, and such documentation will support the payment process as deemed
needful.

Payment

Phases

Estimated Duration to Complete

Payment Percentage

1st payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎1 - Economics and public
policy paper Chapter ‎1

‎22

‎8 %

2nd payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎1 - Economics and public
policy paper Chapter ‎1

‎22

‎8 %

3rd payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎2 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎2

‎22

‎8 %

4th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎2 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎2

‎22

‎8 %

5rd payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎3 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎3

‎22

‎15 %

6th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎3 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎3

‎22

‎8 %

7th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎4 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎4

‎22

‎8 %

8th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of ‎50% of Deliverable ‎4 - Economics and public
policy paper Quarter ‎4

‎22

‎8 %

9th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of Deliverable ‎5 - Python scripts and notebooks

‎22

‎8 %

10th payment

Upon accomplish of Deliverable ‎6 - SQL queries utilized

‎22

‎8 %

11th payment

Upon submission and acceptance of Deliverable ‎7 - Excel workbooks with raw
data

‎22

‎8 %

Last Payment

Upon submission and acceptance of Deliverable ‎8 - Macro enabled excel
workbooks or dashboard on similar BI tool such as Power
BI/Tableau/Looker/Apache Superset

‎30

‎12 %

Recommended Presentation of Offer
For purposes of generating Offers whose contents are uniformly presented and
to facilitate their comparative analysis, it is best to recommend the
preferred contents and presentation of the Offer to be submitted, as well as
the format/sequencing of their presentation. The following documents may be
requested:
*
Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability
using the template provided by UNDP;
* Personal CV or P11 , indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (‎3) professional references;
* Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment. A methodology is recommended for intellectual services, but maybe omitted for support services [Note: this is optional for support services ];
* Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per the template provided. The terms "all-inclusive" implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the Proposal. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under the Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial Proposal submitted to UNDP.
*
Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer**
Applicants are shortlisted based on the Required Skills and Experience stated
in the TOR.

The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based
on a Combined Scoring method - where the qualifications and methodology will
be weighted a max. of ‎70% and combined with the price offer, which will be
weighted a max of ‎30%.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:
Step I: Screening and desk review/(Interview optional):
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.
Technical Criteria (CV review and Desk Review/Interview optional) - maximum
‎70 points. Only candidates who obtained at least ‎70% of points from the CV
desk review (who will score at least ‎49 points) will be considered for the
next evaluation stage, i.e., financial evaluation.
Applications will be first screened, and only candidates meeting the following
minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:
Requirements

Criteria

Max ‎10 points

Education

Master 's in Quantitative Finance or Economics or other related field

‎15

Relevant professional Experience
*
At least ‎10 years of Experience working in the field of developing high-level
summaries and economic reports/major global economic developments/events, and
topics of interest and relevance to economic policy makers.

‎30

Work experience in similar contexts
*
Proven Experience in handling high-level Economical reports among
professionals and senior management.
* Experiences in programming and project management related to the economic field.
* Proven working experience with constituents in the Arab States, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
* Proven Experience in statistical software and econometric packages is a plus.

‎25

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

‎5 (outstanding): ‎96% - ‎100%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated an OUTSTANDING capacity
for the analyzed competence.

‎4 (Very good): ‎86% - ‎95%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a VERY GOOD capacity for
the analyzed competence.

‎3 (Good): ‎76% - ‎85%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a GOOD capacity for the
analyzed competence.

‎2 (Satisfactory): ‎70% - ‎75%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a SATISFACTORY capacity
for the analyzed competence.

‎1 (Weak): Below ‎70%

The individual consultant/contractor has demonstrated a WEAK capacity for the
analyzed competence.

Step II: Financial Assessment:
Financial Proposal - Maximum ‎30 points
* Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II)
PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:
The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and
payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of
deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment
linked with deliverables. The financial Proposal should include all relevant
costs (consultancy fees, all envisaged travel costs, living allowances, etc.).

UNDP applies the " Best value for money approach" - the final selection
will be based on the combination of the applicants' qualification and
financial proposal.
Financial proposal - Maximum ‎30 points
* Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II)
PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:
The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and
payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of
deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment
linked with deliverables. Financial proposal should include all relevant cost
(consultancy fees, all envisaged travel costs, living allowances, etc.).

Financial evaluation - Total ‎30% (‎30 points)
The following formula will be used to evaluate the financial proposal:
p = y ( µ/z), where
p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest-priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Instructions for on-line submissions
Step ‎1: Please prepare all required documents electronically.
Step ‎2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF
however, Word format can also be accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs links
Step ‎3: After that, you will receive an auto-reply from the UNDP jobs if your
offer is received successfully.

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and
ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.
Given the volume of applications that UNDP receives, only shortlisted
offerors will be notified.
UNDP reserves the right to reject any incomplete applications.
Please be informed that we don 't accept applications submitted via
email.
Interested Offerors are required to submit an application via UNDP Jobsite
system as the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP
Jobsite system. Please note that UNDP Jobsite system allows only one uploading
of application documents, so please make sure that you merge all your
documents into a single file. Your online application submission will be
acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive
an email acknowledgement within ‎24 hours of submission, your application may
not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application if
necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (‎1) single PDF document
as the system only allows you to upload a maximum of one document.
Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement
notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email
[email protected] with a copy to [email protected] the Procurement
Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests
receiving at least ‎3 working days prior to the submission deadline will be
entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as
a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including
an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry)
will be posted on the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as
provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the
page regularly to make obtain updates related to this Individual Consultant
(IC) Procurement Notice.
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.

Interested applicants are advised to carefully review this advertisement and
ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described.

The interested offeror must read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement
Notice, which can be viewed at https://procurement-
notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=‎97368 for more detailed information
about terms of references, instructions for the offeror, and to download the
documents to be submitted in the offer online.
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.

APPROVAL
This ToR is certified by :
Signature:
Name:
Designation:
Date of Signing:

This ToR is approved by :
Signature:
Name:
Designation:
Date of Signing: