International Expert - Business Analyst.Vacancy Number: Pr19/01857
Contacts: Ms. Jana Midoni. jana.midoni@undp.orgBackground
Agenda 2030 calls for a new partnership for development involving all stakeholders. Business community plays a key role in achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions, and fulfilling the commitments outlined in Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement as well as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. As stated in the SDG declaration, private business activity, investment and innovation are major drivers of productivity, inclusive economic growth and capacity to apply creativity and innovation to solve development challenges. A prerequisite in this regard, for a well-functioning business sector that contributes to sustainable development, is respect for protection of labour rights and environmental and health standards in accordance with relevant international standards, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the labour standards of ILO (article 67, Preamble to 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). The UNGPs (endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011), set forth expectations on the private sector to execute human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, and mitigate potential negative impacts due to business operations. As such, the UNGPs should be seen as an inevitable component of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Moreover, companies willing to take advantage of the existing and upcoming opportunities of today and tomorrow might want to incorporate UNGPs into their business models and policies. The private sector should embark from a perspective of avoiding adverse human rights impact through application of the UNGPs. The SDGs should be seen as an opportunity for development of private sector led answers and technologies to address the common and global challenges. This in turn can bring corporate benefits, such as exploring new business opportunities, enhanced resilience, strengthening stakeholder relation. The Moldovan Context The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), embedded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, is not a commonly integrated strategy by Moldovan enterprises and there is even no Government strategy on sustainable business practices and human rights. Most of the time, corporate responsibility is interpreted as a charity and many companies therefore engage in onetime events and campaigns without including new practices and routines as a strategic aspects of the businesses per se. A number of introductory seminars and information sessions concerning due diligence and sustainability has been delivered across the country by a number of actors, such as the State Agency for SME’s (ODIMM), however without any lasting effects. Moldova signed a free trade agreement (DCFTA) with the EU, a market that is increasingly demanding on companies in terms of their sustainability, due diligence and fairness in their business practices. Thus, an incentive arose for Moldovan exporting companies and those who are planning to be, to include such concepts in their business strategies. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of knowledge, and a proof of concept especially, among local business owners to incorporate aspects of human rights and sustainable development in their business strategies. The business models of the small and medium sized Moldovan companies are barely, if any, aligned to the sustainable goals either. In cases when there is alignment, companies are not aware of and miss to communicate and promote the alignment practices. There is limited understanding that such alignment is conducive to higher turnover, loyalty of the customers, new customer base and improved overall competitiveness. Lack of relevant local business cases makes the promotion of the SDG alignment a very difficult endeavor. The partnership – UNDP and Sweden Over the past several years, UNDP has been actively engaging with the private sector companies for advancing the common good. During this process, the following has been observed:
The UNDP Moldova recently initiated a national Dialogue with the private sector that revealed three areas of opportunities that companies might want to explore: skills and education, energy and renewables and agriculture and ICT. UNDP had also launched a special facility to engage with the private sector around exploring new ways to accelerate achieving SDGs, mainly at the level of support for new products and services aligned to SDGs, as well as testing of alternative financing mechanisms for development. Sweden is a strong promoter of Agenda 2030 as well as the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. The Swedish Government has a policy for CSR that spans over many different areas of activity. Sweden adopted its first National Action Plan on the implementation of the UNGP in September 2015, and is also one of the main supporters of Business Call to Action, a multilateral alliance which aims to provide examples of successful, profitable and scalable models for reaching poor communities and contributing to global development. The Action plan was also a response to a call from the EU Commission that EU Member States adopt national action plans. The Action plan refers not only to how Sweden will ensure the state duty to protect human rights, how companies should act in Sweden and in other countries and the access to remedies in cases where human rights have been violated, but is also linked to and a basis for Swedish Trade policy. Enhanced economic integration with the EU and development of market economy in Moldova to fully benefit from the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with EU is one of the objectives of the Swedish reform cooperation in Moldova. Other areas of cooperation include development of a democratic society and work towards a healthier environment. One of several programs Sweden supports is the Moldova Competitiveness Project (MCP), in a partnership with USAID. It aims for the development and competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) across the following four sectors: fashion and apparel, tourism, specialized agricultural industry and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Swedish direct trade with Moldova is limited, but with a potential for a substantial increase. Swedish trade promotion in Moldova attempts to support and be in line with the Reform Cooperation programs for the best effect. Here, a targeted approach at improving the sustainability and corporate responsibility of Moldovan companies are deemed to be a suitable area of focus and as something that might improve the trade between Sweden and Moldova. A pilot program for small and medium sized Moldovan enterprises Supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Moldova, UNDP Moldova in partnership with BCtA and the UNDP’s SDG Accelerator for SMEs is initiating a pilot acceleration program to support the alignment of local small and medium sized companies to SDGs. The pilot acceleration program is built on tested methodology and instruments applied in Danish context and which proved to be of high interest to SMEs in Denmark, and those who already passed through the Accelerator are celebrating the success of this process. Though built on Danish program, the tools will be slightly adjusted to the context of Moldovan market and aligned to the needs of SMEs from Moldova. Including several stages part of the innovation journey (framing, ideation, enriching, acceleration, and integration), the program covers workshops, individual meetings and business consultancy for the period of 12 months for a small number of selected local companies. The support to the selected companies will include, but not limited to the following:
Scope of work
Main objectives for the consultant The consultant will be responsible for adaptation of the SDG Accelerator’s toolkit to the Moldovan context and its piloting with the selected local companies. More specifically, the consultant will:
Duties and Responsibilities The international consultant will support UNDP Moldova in promoting alignment to SDGs of the selected companies (and their business models and practices) and support SMEs to unpack and repack the current business models to incorporate UNGPs and making their models more inclusive, innovative and gender-balanced, as well as aligned to specific SDGs and measurement of the impact of such alignment. In particular, the consultant will be responsible of the below:
Requirements for experience
Education:
Experience:
Core competencies
Other Competencies:
Documents to be included
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
Financial proposal
Three travel missions to Moldova are envisaged to deliver the working sessions and have bilateral meetings with the selected companies. Average duration of 1 visit is anticipated to be 4 working days. Anticipated costs for the travel and stay in Moldova shall be included in the financial offer by the applicant. UNDP does not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the contractor wish to travel on a higher class, he/she should do so using their own resources. All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. 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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