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Team of 2 National consultants to develop and pilot the self-employment program to complement the entrepreneurship component in the Innovative Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Employment Project.

Vacancy Number: Pr15/00902

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	13 Apr 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	20 Apr 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	20 Apr 2015
Reference to the project:	Innovative Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Employment
Expected Duration of Assignment:	up to 20 w/d for the trainer and 40 w/d for the business coacher
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted by by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than April 13 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: dumitru.vasilescu@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

Mr. Dumitru Vasilescu.

Background

The development of human capital is viewed as a prerequisite for an inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Moreover, it is increasingly seen at the cornerstone for both advanced and emerging economies seeking to speed up economic development and address the challenges posed by the global economic crisis.

From the development perspective, the labor plays critical role for Moldova’s socio-economic modernization, as it is one of the few resources available in the country. However, long hailed as a country with abundant labor resources, Moldova has increasingly found that labor (mostly as quality, but also quantity) has become its major development constraint[1], with Moldova’s labor endowment suffering considerably in the last two decades. The prospects for the quantity of labor force available in the future are not necessarily brighter given continuous outward migration and dire demographic outlook.

This loss in the labor force was only partly offset by the improvements in the labor productivity, which remained the lowest in the CEE and Western CIS region[2]. Capital and skill endowments are amongst chief determinants of the labor productivity[3]. In their turn, the skill endowment is largely dependent not only on the quality of the country’s education system, but also on training programs provided by various institutions.

The Innovative Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Employment Project was designed to establish career centers in five most important regions of Moldova with the goal to train and assist qualified unemployed and graduates in obtaining relevant employment in Moldova, preventing brain-waste, as well as brain-drain, and supporting economic growth of the country. At present four SYSLAB Centers are already operational, i.e. Chisinau, Cahul, Balti and Rezina and the fifth center shall become operational in Comrat by April-2015.

FOCUS OF THE SYSLAB PROJECT

The Project is designed to establish career centers in five most important regions of Moldova with the goal to train and assist qualified unemployed, graduates and returning migrants in obtaining relevant employment in Moldova, preventing brain-waste, as well as brain-drain, and supporting economic growth.

The Project will achieve the following objectives:

1. Provide new technologies to labor market authorities;
2. Provide motivated labor force to private and public sectors;
3. Give graduates a better chance for relevant employment in Moldova;
4. Give unemployed improved employability.

Overall, the project shall contribute to the development, adaptation and implementation of new tools, technology and methods, for career development, job search and entrepreneurship in Moldova. A specific component of the Project, to be further developed as a result of the current assignment, is particularly related to business start-up promotion and business development. Such component shall enhance the knowledge and skills of SYSLAB direct beneficiaries in starting-up news SMEs, independently of the sector, and ideate specific strategies for business development.

The Career Centers are focusing on the below target groups:

-        new graduates, in order to prevent them from unemployment and to create job opportunities, and hence reduce/prevent brain-drain;

-        unemployed irrespective of age, gender, ethnic background or education or work experience;

-        returning migrants.

In achieving the project goals, the gender balance aspect will be taken into consideration, offering equal opportunities to both women and men to benefit from the Centers’ services.

Scope of work

The team of national consultants shall consist of one experienced trainer and one business coacher/mentor. Such consultants will have distinct responsibilities in the team and would complement each other.

The trainer shall:

• Assess the knowledge of SYSLAB centers’ staff in conducting trainings on entrepreneurship and self-employment;
• Assess the key characteristics of the end-users/direct beneficiaries in full time groups in Comrat SYSLAB Center and consult these with Project management for fine-tuning the criteria for selection of potential beneficiaries in search for self-employment;
• Develop a robust self-employment program tailored to the needs of end-users and provide all needed materials to conduct trainings (to include reading materials pre- and post- training, presentations and narratives to presentations, business cases and teamwork exercises with needed supporting materials, tailored examples of business plans developed or adapted, other); the program shall not exceed 12 weeks in length (IMPORTANT NOTE: minimum requirements to the self-employment program are listed below); the programme shall be modular and replicable in other SYSLAB centers;
• Pilot/Transfer all training and support materials to staff in Comrat SYSLAB center via tailored trainings (via ToTs) with a follow-up evaluation of acquired knowledge and skills to further be transferred to end-users/direct beneficiaries in SYSLAB centers;
• Revise and amend the provisions of the self-employment program after it’s piloting phase and provide the final version of the program and coaching action plan.

The business coacher/mentor shall:

• Develop a set of SMART indicators/criteria to assess a business plan for a start-up in the region, taking into consideration the existing best practices and practical conditions in the area;
• Provide a standard template for a business plan and a completed model of it as guidance for the end-users;
• Develop a list of up to 10 potential business ideas implementable in Comrat or closely located areas;
• Assess the business ideas presented by direct beneficiaries; up to 10 business ideas to be assessed in the pilot phase of 12 weeks in length;
• Provide consistent support to the finalization of the up to 10 business plans by ensuring that all relevant sections of a business plan are consistently completed; provide support to end-users to apply to the seed-fund run by the Project;
• Provide regular business coaching/mentorship for up to 10 direct beneficiaries and ensure that consistent coaching skills are transferred to staff of SYSLAB centers;
• Provide weekly narrative reports on the implementation of the self-employment programme. 

Requirements for experience

Education:

• University Degree in business administration, economics, public administration, social sciences, law or related areas. Additional training and certification in conducting ToT activities in business planning and administration is mandatory.

Experience:

• At least four (4) years of progressively responsible experience is required at the national or regional levels in developing training materials for trainers in business planning and administration;
• At least three (3) years of progressively responsible experience in consulting or facilitating business start-ups and business development, including at the level of business incubators and/or start-up consultancy companies;
• At least three (3) years of progressively responsible experience in business coaching and mentorship in Moldova for start-ups and/or SMEs; experience in conducting business coaching in Comrat or surrounding areas is an advantage (for the Coacher only);
• 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;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc).

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in both oral and written Romanian and Russian is a must; knowledge of English is a strong advantage.

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.

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.