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National consultant to support Moldova Social Innovation Hub (MiLab) in organising the EduSoft Hackathon

Vacancy Number: Pr15/01076

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	21 Aug 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	28 Aug 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	N/A
Starting date:	26 Aug 2015
Reference to the project:	Moldova Social Innovation Hub
Expected Duration of Assignment:	up to 45 working days during August – October 2015
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than August 21, 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: cristina.lisii@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

Background

UNDP Moldova, through MiLab - joint project with the E – Government Center, has supported national counterparts in embarking on several innovative projects that seek to apply new approaches to engage with citizens and enable people to contribute stronger to the country’s development. Some previous examples include: gaming for youth employment; applying behavioral insights for TB treatment; Modern School Open Challenge, etc.

MiLab acts as a multilateral platform serving to engage actors from different sectors (public, private, non-profit, etc.) to seek and experiment with innovative approaches to the society’s problems. Its work is structured around three interlinked components, i.e. public services redesign, applying people’s solutions, and mainstreaming social innovations. The public participation component includes creating the channels or outlets for engagement, setting the rules, specifying the issues that would engage people to participate in solving them. Also screening the horizon, and subsequently connecting social innovation initiatives with government and private sector counterparts that could enable the implementation of those initiatives.

Under this component falls the EduSoft hackathon initiative, which aims to involve university students in developing applications for a more effective and motivating study of mathematics in school.

According to the Ministry of Education, in 2014 only 50.74% of high school students have passed the baccalaureate in mathematics. At the same time, during the past three years the Ministry has advanced in computerizing the science classrooms in about 100 schools with the support of private sector partners such as Intel, Microsoft, StarNet, Soros, and others. However, the production of educational software aligned with Moldovan curricula is still lagging behind. The implementation of localized and engaging IT applications for the study of mathematics could be a solution to increase both the quality of education as well as the students’ performance.

EduSoft is planned as a month-long contest that will take place between September and October 2015. University students from IT specialties, but not limited to, will form teams with school teachers of mathematics and with the assistance of experienced mentors will develop educational apps. The Hackathon will be organised as follows:

1. Will be launched with the presence of partners from the Ministry of Education, E-Government and IT companies, followed by kick-off training sessions. Participating teams will receive training that will enhance their capacity to work as teams, manage their time and produce qualitative products. Each team will be provided with instructions for building their apps and 5 TORs for scoping them, from which they will be able to pick one.
2. During the first two weeks’ time, the teams will meet each Saturday for a Working Day, and will develop an Alfa version of their apps. During Saturday working day they will have the chance to meet and get feedback or instructions from their mentors and math teachers.
3. The first part of the hackathon will end with a reality check (user acceptance testing) by the potential users (teachers, pupils).
4. The next two weeks, teams will continue developing their apps and will incorporate the feedback from users. The working schedule will be flexible, but students will continue meeting for Saturday working days, during which they will interact with their mentors and math teachers.
5. Finally the teams will present their products to an Evaluation Jury that will decide on the winning apps. The winning teams will be invited to finish up the work and prepare their final products at a two-day Hack camp.

Scope of work

The national consultant is expected to provide support to MiLab in organising the EduSoft hackathon through:

• Ensuring the development of the hackathon’s agenda in collaboration with a mathematics teacher and finding the qualified trainers to provide capacity building for the participating teams
• Ensuring the successful implementation of the EduSoft hackathon in collaboration with the team of project volunteers
• Communicating with project mentors, partners, participants and key stakeholders
• Monitoring the progress  and evaluation of the results achieved and provision of brief narrative reports to MiLab team
• Strictly observing UNDP standards and practices related to procurement under the specific requests from the Project team.

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

Requirements for experience

I. Education:

• University degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Information Technology, social sciences, or related areas.

II. Years of experience:

• At least two (2) years of experience is required at the national or regional levels in organizing or facilitating similar hackathons or training courses.
• Proven experience in agenda or conference management.
• Working experience in the field of education would be an advantage.
• Previous experience in development assistance or related work for a donor organization, governmental institutions, NGO/think-tank or private sector / business consulting firm is a strong advantage.
• Previous experience in working within UNDP or other international organizations will be an asset.

III. Competencies:

• Fluency in both oral and written Romanian and Russian is a must; knowledge of English is a strong advantage.
• Working knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset;
• Good knowledge of IT applications development process.

IV. Personal qualities:

• 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;
• Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills, as well as the ability to communicate effectively with all stakeholders and to present ideas clearly and effectively;
• Excellent organizational and administrative skills;
• Problem solving skills and result orientation;
• Responsibility;
• Creativity;
• Flexibility.

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.